Monthly Archives: December 2015

Update: 5th grade math

Dear families,

this post is for families of students in my third block math class.

We have been working hard on our geometry unit for the past few weeks! Students have learned to identify different angles, triangles, and quadrilaterals, following a complex set of rules to identify various polygons and justify their thinking.

Today, they began a winter geometry art project, in which they are creating a winter scene that includes many geometric figures that are their vocabulary words. A few of them chose to bring their project home to work on over the vacation, but most people chose to leave them here to continue after break. If your child brought his or her project home, would you please encourage him or her to work on it (but please know that I am not requiring them to do this work over the vacation). We will finish them as a review of our vocabulary when we return in January.

When we come back, we will have one more week with geometry to learn the parts of circles and review all of the vocabulary that we have learned so far, then we will have our test and move on to our next unit: division!

To support your child, it would be awesome if they could spend a few minutes once or twice over break just practicing their basic facts, whether on flash cards that you make with them or on our favorite website, firstinmath.com. (They all know their logins for the website.)

I hope your holiday is restful and joyful, and that you enjoy your time with your loved ones close to you!

Update: 5th Grade Writing (4th Block)

Dear families,

this post is for families of students who I have in my 4th block, 5th grade only writing class.

We have just finished with our Real-Fantasy-Real stories! Students have published and shared their work on this new and exciting genre. They have submitted them to me for grading, so please stay tuned to receive their grades after the winter vacation, but for now I encourage you to ask your child to show you his or her writing (it is all accessible on their Google Drive accounts!). They really worked hard at being creative with their stories and their fantasy elements.

After the holiday, we will begin a new unit in persuasive essays, and we will continue with our two different groups of word study/vocabulary practice that will go on for two weeks at a time, with homework about two days each week and tests every other Friday.

In the meantime, I hope you will encourage your child to work on a creative writing endeavor over the vacation to keep those creative muscles growing (but of course, I will not require any student to do that work over the vacation).

I hope you all have a wonderful vacation, full of warmth and the joy of your loved ones and your favorite treats close to you!

 

Update: 4th/5th TAG Writing

Dear families,

this post is for families of students in my combined 4th/5th grade TAG writing block.

We have just finished (and students have received their grades for) our long endeavor of writing essays about our beliefs. Please ask your child to show you his/her essay and grades! I will print and send home paper copies in January, but for now you can see it all online!

This week, students began planning for and embarking on extended creative writing projects, beginning by experimenting with genre, form, and topic. I hope you will talk about your child’s creative writing project with him/her, and encourage him or her to work on it over the vacation to continue flexing those creative writing muscles. Of course, I am not requiring any student to work on that project over the holiday – only if they want to!

When we return in January, we will begin our next writing unit – persuasive essays! At that point, creative projects will become work that they will pick up when they finish with their assigned class work, and at home at some points if they want. I am asking that students try to spend about an hour per week on their creative writing projects, whether in spare time at school or at home.

We have been working on typing.com and the BBC’s website Dance Mat Typing to become more efficient at typing, for 2-3 days per week as a warm-up in class. Students are beginning to really see improvements in their typing speed at this point! They may want to practice once or twice at home over break as well.

We will continue with our Greek and Latin roots vocabulary in lieu of spelling for a few weeks when we return, and later on in January or at the beginning of February we will begin diving into some more explicit grammar instruction, for students to start to develop an understanding of the parts of sentences.

For now, I hope you all have a warm and restful holiday break, full of the joy of your loved ones and your favorite foods!

As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns!

Update: 5th TAG Reading

Dear families,
this post is for families of students in my first block TAG reading class.

We have just finished studying nonfiction text features and structures. Students have read some very challenging narrative nonfiction about important events in history.

For our winter vacation, the class has set a goal for themselves of reading a whopping 4,350 pages! Each student has considered his/her habits and the time that they will have during vacation to read and has set an individual goal (that is part of our whole class goal) of total pages to read over break. We have established a big reward of extra recess if everyone in the class manages to meet his/her goal over the vacation, but we need your help! Please would you initial your child’s reading log each day to acknowledge/vouch for the reading that he/she reports doing over the break, then sign the log at the end of break as an acknowledgement of the entire effort? All the students have identified books that they want to read toward this goal (but if you need more ideas, please see the previous post that includes a Padlet with book recommendations from classmates). Thank you in advance for your help!

I hope you all have a restful and joyous break full of seeing lots of loved ones and eating your favorite treats!

 

TAG Reading 5 Update

Dear families,

This post pertains to 5th graders who have me as their TAG reading teacher first block in the mornings.

We are reading nonfiction books right now. We are sharing a few *excellent* books written by Jim Murphy: Blizzard, A Young Patriot, and The Great Fire – all narrative nonfiction accounts of some major events in US history.

Students have completed one of the books and have written summaries independently and collaboratively, and just today they began their second of the three books. I have shared a document with them on Google Classroom that is a template for taking notes, although some students said they would prefer to write notes on post-its, which is also fine. I am asking them this time to succinctly state the main idea of each chapter in one sentence, as well as to find and define 5 new words in each chapter. These books are a treasure trove of amazing new vocabulary for the students, so I am sure they will find many more than 5 words! I have attached a Word document version of the note-taking template I created (meant to be filled out online) for your information.

I am asking students to read over the weekends, but only about 25 pages for the entire weekend – per the ACPS reading policy that students read every day, including over the weekend. I know your lives are busy, though, so we are working flexibly around busy travel schedules!

I encourage you to look at the book with your child and discuss the main events – these books are written at a high level and they are challenging for the students!

As always, please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions. Thank you for your continued support!

NotesonNonfictionBook

TAG Writing 4/5 Update

Dear families,

This post pertains to students who have me as their TAG Writing teacher second block in the mixed 4th and 5th grade class.

We have had a busy week back, revising and re-drafting our This I Believe Essays! Today we co-created the rubric that we (students and teacher) are going to use to evaluate students’ final products. I have attached the rubric for your perusal. Unfortunately, we had a fire drill right in the middle of our work and 4th graders had to leave just afterward for a performance, so their input into the creation of the rubric was sadly limited!

I am asking students to finish and turn in a final version of their This I Believe essays by next Wednesday, December 9, including their rubric which they will have filled out to evaluate their work.

In addition, on Monday, December 7, we will have our next vocabulary test. This time it will be a fill-in-the-blank test with a word bank. I have attached this week’s packet just in case you need an extra copy for studying over the weekend! The packet is due completed on Monday as well.

As always, please let me know if you have any questions.

Greek Latin Roots Unit 3

ThisIBelieveI-CanStatements

Math 5 Update

Dear families,

finally I am updating about my math class! Please note that this only pertains to 5th grade math students who have me as their third block math teacher.

We just had our test on decimal computation. Your child should have brought his/her graded test home to be signed. If not, please ask them for it! We are now beginning our next unit in geometry. You will find attached our study guide for the unit in English and in Spanish. We have a LOT of vocabulary this unit. I encourage you to talk to your child about which words are red, yellow, and green for them (and what the colors mean!).

Please let me know if you have any questions!

geometry study guides Eng Span