February 10, 2012
Please be sure to ask your student about Mrs. Robinson's (our school counselor) visit this afternoon. She came to share some information about middle school. I could tell by the questions that our students are very interested in learning all they can about next year. On Friday, February 17, the sixth grade counselor from Cedar Valley Middle School will visit with all of our fifth graders during their Specials time. She will give them more information about next year. It is hard for me to believe that it really is coming soon. So much to learn before we are ready for sixth grade.
This week was spent working with measurement conversions using metric and customary measurement. Next week, after the STAAR Ready Math Test on Monday, we will begin our study of time and temperature. Our students shared with the class on Thursday during Lit Groups all about the characters and the problems they have faced in the book they are reading. I could tell how much they are enjoying their books. We began chapter thirteen, The Revolutionary War, in social studies this week. We will complete the chapter and take an open book test on it next week.
If your student forgot to tell you, ask them about the Cultural Arts program they attended on Tuesday. They had a great time!
Don't forget, Valentine's Day is next Tuesday, February 14. I sent home a list of classmates' names on Thursday with your student. They may bring Valentine cards on Tuesday. The Valentine's Day party is from 1:30-2:30.
February 3, 2012
Wow! February is already here. Valentine's Day is coming soon. We will have our Valentine's Day party on Tuesday, February 14 from 1:30-2:30. The students will have the opportunity to exchange Valentine's cards at the party. I will be sending home a list of classmate's names next week.
This past week, we continued our Lit Groups and had some good discussions about our books. Be sure to ask your student about their book. We also worked with a National Geographic and read some interesting articles about spiders and cactus. In history, we finished chapter 11, Independence or Not, and completed an open book test. We have already started chapter 12, The Declaration of Independence, and will be finishing it next week. We finished our Geometry unit and had our test today. Next week, we will begin measurement conversions. This should be fun. Some of us need to brush up on multiplication facts because we will be working with multiplication and division next week with our conversions.
Our counselor will be coming by next Friday afternoon to talk to our students about middle school. It won't be long before they have to make decisions about their elective for next year. Can you believe this year is going by so quickly?
Hope you have a great weekend!
January 27, 2012
Wow! I can't think of another word to describe the amazing Science Fair projects that were on display for Science Night. Our students did an excellent job. Thanks to all of the parents that sent cookies for the presenters and for the help we had setting up tables for the presenters. It seemed that everyone was having a great time. We really appreciate your help.
The week was busy. We continued our study of geometry. We worked with polygons, quadrilaterals, triangles, and solids this week. We also learned about nets. Next week, we will work with congruence, symmetry, and transformations. We will be taking a geometry test on Friday, if we progress as anticipated. We completed our notes on Loyalists and Patriots in history and will complete an open book test next week before beginning Chapter 12, The Declaration of Independence. We continued our Lit Groups and poetry study. The students made predictions as to the next events in their Lit Group book, so they will find out next week how close their prediction was. So much to learn!
January 20, 2012
What a beautiful day!!! What a fast week, the four days flew by. We have began our study of Geometry with lines and angles. We will continue to move forward with that study next week. We completed our Boston Tea Party projects and will move on to Chapter 11 (Patriots and Loyalists) next week. We are continuing with our Lit Groups in ELAR and our study of poetry, although we got off schedule this week because of only four days, a reading benchmark, and a visit from our counselor. Mrs. Rivera came to talk with our students about the importance of setting goals. Your students got the opportunity to begin their E-Slot class today. Be sure to ask them about it.
Don't forget that Science Fair projects are due next week. Science Night is on Thursday, January 20 from 6:00-7:15. Hope to see you there.
January 13, 2012
Isn't the sunshine beautiful? Recess today was wonderful. The students were running, playing, and soaking up the sun. What fun!
This week in math, we finished our study of probability and took a quick quiz. Next week, we will begin our study of geometry. The Boston Tea Party was our focus in history and the students will be completing their project next week. In Language Arts, we began our Lit Groups. The students are having fun reading with their groups and discussing their book. We have also been studying poetry and will begin to do some poetry writing next week. I can't wait to read some of their poems.
Please continue to check your student's assignment spiral and Wednesday folder to keep tabs on their progress. Remember that you have access to their grades through the Great Oaks website, Parent Resources, Home Access Center.
Don't forget that Monday, January 16 is a holiday, MLK Day. Enjoy your three day weekend.
January 6, 2012
What a beautiful day! Ask the students about E-Slot this morning. We had a bit of fun outside.
It has been a busy week trying to get refocused and back on track. We began working with probability in math and will continue next week. In history, we finished Chapter 10, Growing Tension Between the Colonies and Britain, including the open book test. We discussed the Boston Tea Party project and will be working on it next week. We completed a review of last year and made two resolutions for this year in ELAR. We also worked with commas and nonfiction reading. Next week, we will begin Lit Circles and our study of poetry. Lots to do!
December 17, 2011
Yesterday passed by so quickly that I totally ran out of time to send my weekly update. The students were so excited about the Holiday Party. It was great! A big "THANK YOU" to all of the parents that donated items for the party and to all of you that were able to attend. The students had lots of fun.
I wrote all of my thank you cards to give to the students and in all of the hysteria, I left them on the corner of my desk instead of distributing them. So, a sincere thank you for all of the goodies I received. I truly appreciate each of them.
I wish you and your family a happy holiday season. I hope you get the opportunity to spend time with your family and friends. Don't forget to take a moment to reflect on all of our blessings. Being able to work with your students is one of mine and I thank you for all of your support.
December 9, 2011
What a busy week! Our students had the opportunity to hear the Cedar Valley Middle School Choir in concert, participate in a Skype with the author of Origami Yoda, attend a presentation by Police ICE (be sure to ask for details about this, it was great), and hear the Great Oaks Choir in concert. Wow! Don’t worry; we did learn a few new things this week too. We continued with our fraction study and will take a test next Wednesday. We finished our study of chapter nine, Life in Colonial Williamsburg. We completed our comparison of an expository text and an origin story. We shared origin stories from other cultures and have begun brainstorming ideas to write our own origin stories and reviewed a bit of grammar too.
If your student has not brought an empty egg carton to school, please send one on Monday. We will need it in science class on Tuesday.
December 2, 2011
Our students got the opportunity to attend a presentation by an author, Liz Scanlon, yesterday. Please be sure to ask them about it. Next week, don't forget that Wednesday, December 7, is an early release day. The students will be dismissed at 12:45. The annual Holiday Lunch will be next Thursday, December 8. Our lunch time has changed for that one day. The time on Thursday for lunch will be 12:55-1:25.
We have been working with fractions in math this week and will continue with our study next week. Mixed numbers and improper fractions will the topic on Monday. We will be finishing chapter 9, Williamsburg, on Monday and will complete an open book test on Tuesday. We finished our expository reading selection today and will read an origin story on Monday.
Please be sure to remind your student that a Science Fair checkpoint is due on Monday, December 5. You may visit Mrs. Schermerhorn's website for all the details. It is very important to stay caught up with the science fair work.
November 22, 2011
Just a quick note today. No homework, but it would be great if you can encourage your student to open a book and read for a bit over the holiday. I am certainly looking forward to reading.
The year is flying by and I wanted you to know that I appreciate all your support. Please continue to monitor your student's assignment spiral and don't let them forget about their science fair project. Check their calendar for the next checkpoint. It does sneak up on us.
Stay safe and have a very happy Thanksgiving!
November 18, 2011
The most fun this week was the field trip. I feel sure you have heard all about it. We got off our schedule a bit since we missed most of a day. We will try to catch up next week, although we only have two days of school. I have some "turkey" problem solving that will be fun and a bit challenging. We will discuss the origin of Thanksgiving Day and spend some time with our Buddy Class working on some Thanksgiving poetry.
November 11, 2011
Please ask your students about the Veteran's Day program that they attended today. It was wonderful. It is so important that our children understand how important our freedom is and the sacrifices that have been made in order to achieve it. It was very moving. The choirs were wonderful.
We had a busy week. We are going to continue chapter eight, Facing Slavery, next week in history since we got off schedule. We will finish the chapter next week and have a test. Our colony letters were finished today during Language Arts. We continued with our reader's responses and also practiced using a table of contents. We need those research skills for our science fair projects. We worked with perimeter, area, and volume in math class this week and will continue with measurement, both metric and customary, next week. We will have a math test on Friday.
Don't forget about Book Fair next week. We will be going to the Book Fair on Monday afternoon for a preview of all the great books. We will be going on our field trip to the Birds of Prey on Tuesday, November 15. The students will be bring their tie-dye t-shirts home on Monday, so they can wear them on Tuesday on the field trip. A BIG thanks to Mrs. Hyatt and Mrs. May for getting these made for us. Please be sure to send a sack lunch with your student on Tuesday. We will not be back in time to order from the cafeteria. I am looking forward to the trip and I think the students are too.
November 4, 2011
This week in math, we finished our study of graphs and took a test today. Next week, we will begin our study of perimeter, area, and volume. Please save an empty box for your student to bring to school for practice in measurement. We finished the colonies, chapter seven, in history and will be moving on to chapter eight next week. We will complete our final copy (rough draft completed) of a letter written to a family member from the point of view of an early colonist and our procedural text project. Of course, we will continue with our reader's responses.
Since we seem to be having an outbreak of the sniffles, I would appreciate any donations of Kleenex and Clorox wipes. We need to try to keep the germs from spreading.
October 28, 2011
What a fast week! I hope you are ready for Halloween on Monday. The students have been overheard talking about it and all that candy. I am going to remind the students that they need to bring a healthy snack for class. Candy during the day could be detrimental to some of our students' thinking.
We began working with graphs in math this week and will continue into next week and add coordinate grids. We will be completing a test at the end of next week. We will be completing chapter seven, Colonies, next week in history also. Our procedural text is taking a bit longer than anticipated, so we will hopefully finish next week. Reader's responses will continue along with reading strategies.
Be sure to ask your students about the fun we had with our buddy class today. Spiders everywhere!
October 21, 2011
Good afternoon!
I hope you have had a great week. We had fun learning about prime and composite numbers and divisibility rules. Next week, we will continue this study and begin to learn about charts, graphs, and tables. We will move on to chapter seven in history. We will continue our work on procedural text and reader's response. Don't forget to keep planning for your science fair project. It's going to be so much fun to see all of the finished projects in January.
Don't forget that Monday is decorate your shoes day.
October 14, 2011
We had a guest reader this afternoon. One of our friends from second grade came to read us a story. The students and I enjoyed his enthusiasm while reading. We have spent the week continuing our study of division and completed a quiz today. We will begin discussing prime and composite numbers next week, divisibility rules, and factors. In history, we will begin chapter six, Early English Settlements, and discuss how to identify key concepts in expository text. We will study main idea, more about context clues, logical order in our writing, and how to improve our reader's responses during our ELAR time. Lots to accomplish!
October 7, 2011
This week, we completed chapter five in the History Alive book. This chapter is about early explorers and we will be completing an open book test next week. We continued our reader's responses, discussed the elements of drama, began our verb book, and completed a writing benchmark. Math was a study of division and more work with problem solving. We will continue division next week and problem solving is an ongoing journey. So much to learn!
Don't forget that Monday is a holiday for the students and fall conference day for many of us.
September 30, 2011
Wow! It's the last day of September. Can you believe it? Time is flying by. We had a busy week. We continued our study of multiplication and completed a test. We worked on problem solving and will begin our study of division next week. In reading, we discussed inferences this week, and continued with our reading and reader's responses. We completed our college letters and will mail them and wait anxiously for responses. Chapter 4 in History Alive has been finished and we will begin a more in-depth study of explorers next week. The most exciting experience for the students this week was the Rock Wall yesterday. They had a great time and were reminded about the important character traits: respect, responsibility, honesty, trustworthiness, caring, cooperation, courage, and my favorite, perseverance. Please ask them about their experience.
If you have not signed up for a parent conference, please go to my teacher web and select a time. Goal setting is very important. I will be sending a separate email containing a parent input form to help me in setting goals for our students.
September 23, 2011
Happy Fall, although the temperature doesn't feel much like fall yet. We had a busy week. We got the opportunity to go to the library for a Bluebonnet book presentation by Mrs. Grindle. There are lots of great books on the list this year. We are encouraging the students to read Bluebonnet books in order to be able to participate in the Battle of the Bluebonnet. We worked on multiplication in math this week and will take a test next week. We will then begin our study of division. We completed the chapter on Native Americans and will move on to early explorers next week in social studies. We finished (some are finishing this weekend) our personal narratives. Please check your student's agenda to see if they are being given the opportunity to finish their narrative this weekend. I have told them they may handwrite it or type it and email it to me. Action verbs was our grammar topic this week. We will continue to do some work with verbs next week and adverbs.
Next week's Wednesday folders will include your student's progress report. Please look for it, sign it, and return it in the Wednesday folder on Thursday.
Please help your student to remember that the Rock Wall will be here on Thursday. They need to dress appropriately for climbing and should wear athletic shoes. If you have not signed and returned the permission form please do so and send it with your student on Monday. They will not be allowed to climb the rock wall without a permission slip.
September 16, 2011
I have updated the Fall Conference page. Please check the page and reserve a time for our goal setting conference.
I sent home information regarding individual pictures with your student today. We will have pictures taken next Wednesday, September 21. Please be sure to send the completed envelope and money before or on picture day if you want to order.
In math this week, we practiced mental math, rounding, and estimation of sums and differences. We will continue with rounding using multiplication next week and then move into multiplying two digit by two digit and then three digit by two digit numbers. I encouraged the students to brush up on their math facts in order to make next week's work easier. If they are not confident with their math facts, the work will take longer. In social studies this week, we read and took notes about the Native Americans in America. I had hoped to have our personal narrative finished this week, but we had technical issues with the netbooks, so we didn't all get the opportunity to finish. Hopefully, all of the papers will be finished next week. We continued our Readers Workshop and discussed the readers response expectations. Next week, we will begin writing our readers responses and discussing genre.
September 9, 2011
Lots of work accomplished this week! The students took beginning of the year assessments in reading, math, and science. We also completed our place value study and will begin with rounding and estimating using addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division next week. We continued our work on a personal narrative and are currently finishing peer conferencing and editing. Some of us are already working on our final copy. We are continuing to read and will begin with our reader's responses next week. We reviewed four types of responses this week. We completed our geography chapter this week and will begin our study of Native Americans on Monday.
Please help your student to remember to get sheet music for their favorite song for Mrs. West's music class.
Please continue to review your student's daily agenda and Wednesday folder.
Don't forget that Wednesday, September 14 is an early release day. The students will be released at 12:45.
September 2, 2011
Good afternoon! The students had a full week of school and survived. We are beginning to get into the routine with only occasional reminders. We have been working with place value to the billions and decimals to the thousandths this week in Math. We will be taking a place value quiz next Wednesday and then beginning to work with problem solving strategies. In Language Arts, we have been reading a book of our choice. We went to the library today and Mrs. Grindle gave us a lesson on how to choose a book and showed us all of the websites that are on the library webpage to help us find a book that will be a good fit. We learned to "buzz" this week and worked with a group to share. Ask your student about buzzing. We are also dusting off our writing skills learned in fourth grade by beginning a personal narrative. The students have chosen some great topics. We worked with geography in History this week and completed a landforms map. We will finish chapter one next week. Be sure to ask your student about the Friendship Rally that Great Oaks had this morning. What fun!
Please continue to ask your student to share their agenda with you, so you know what they have been busy working on during the school day. It also lists the homework for the day. Please have your student read at least fifteen minutes a day. When you receive the Wednesday folder, please review the information inside (important papers and graded papers), remove them from the folder, sign the folder on the sheet on the cover, and return it on Thursday.
August 26, 2011
Wow, what a week! We are off to a great start. This week has flown, but I think we (the students and I) are thankful it is Friday. I can tell that getting up early every morning has been a challenge for some and others are just so excited to be back. I hope that your student has begun to feel comfortable in our classroom. We have started getting to know each other this week. We also set up our reading, math, and science notebooks this week. Setting up the notebooks takes some time, but they are a valuable part of your student's learning. Ask your student about their new buddy. Our Buddy Class is Mrs. Gregory in second grade. The students interviewed each other today during E-Slot.
Next week in math, we will work with place value to the billions and decimals to the thousandths. We will begin a personal narrative in writing and will write our first reader's response during our reading workshop time. It will be a full week.
My plan is to send an update each Friday. I also plan to update my teacherweb with pertinent dates on Friday as well as the weekly update. I like to keep my students' parents informed. If you need to contact me, please email or call (464-6944) and leave a message.
Just a reminder: Monday August 29 is Parent Night for fifth grade from 6:45-7:30 p.m.
August 19, 2011
I had so much fun on the Neighborhood Walk. I enjoyed meeting so many of my new students. I had a great turnout at supply drop off night. Thanks for delivering those supplies and making sure your student knows where the classroom is located. Tuesday, August 23 is our first day of school. Please be at our classroom, Cottage 3B, at 7:45 a.m. Don't forget your first homework assignment!
See you on Tuesday!
August 12, 2011
I am looking forward to meeting you at Welcome Walk On Wednesday, August 17. Drop off school supplies and ice cream social is on Thursday, August 18 from 5:00-6:30. Our cottage is 3B. Hope to see you there.