Happy 11th Birthday, Janelle!

5-2 Updates ~ 02/21

Hello 5-2 Families ~

I hope you're enjoying the slightly warmer temperatures this weekend.  Keep thinking Spring, and we'll make it before too long!!

Important Dates
Monday, March 2nd ~ Due date for Six Flags Read to Succeed Reading Log.  This is the program that earns your child a free Six Flags ticket for this summer.  You simply need to complete the Reading Log, and they'll receive a free ticket at the end of the year.  Your child was given this Reading Log early in the school year.  I sent a copy of this Reading Log to your email - just print and complete!

Wednesday, March 4th ~ 5th Grade Band Concert at 7pm

PARCC Testing ~  Our schedule follows:

- Monday, March 9th, 1:30-3:00pm - Math #1
- Tuesday, March 10th, 1:30-3:00pm - Math #2
- Wednesday, March 11th, 1:30-3:00pm - ELA #1
- Thursday, March 12th, 1:30-3:00om - ELA #2
- Friday, March 13th, 1:30-3:00pm - ELA #3

Please encourage your child to get a full night's sleep prior to the test dates, and please do your best to minimize absences during these times.  It can be very challenging to schedule make-up tests since our window to do so is small.  Students often feel overwhelmed at missing instruction in order to makeup tests later in the week, resulting in additional homework.  Thank you for your support!

Friday, March 13th ~ Progress Reports will be sent home.

Thursday, March 19th & Friday, March 20th ~ As you have heard, these are now student attendance days due to the number of extreme weather days we have had to take this winter.  This means we will no longer meet for parent-teacher conferences.  Many questions during the 5th grade spring conferences are about middle school transitions, including placement into classes.  I will do my best to continue to update you via this blog about the transitions, and try to answer those questions that I am frequently asked about the transition.  Several other questions are related to the end of the year 5th grade activities.  Again, I will keep you posted about all those activities via this blog.  If you have ANY questions at all, please do not hesistate to contact me.  I fully appreciate the additional anxiety families feel during this transition, and want to make it as smooth as possible :)

If I feel it is important to still meet with you about the progress of your child, I will reach out to you individually to set up a time to meet.  If I do not reach out to you, please assume your child is making progress and I have no concerns about them.  Several parents have approached me about setting up a conference time because those days have been canceled.  If you have pressing concerns, I would be happy to meet with you.  But if you have questions that can be answered via email, please feel free to contact me this way instead.  It can get challenging trying to schedule 22 parent-teacher conferences after school :)   That being said, I would be happy to meet with all 22 of you if there is a need!

Math

We finished up unit 7 on Friday, and will prepare for the test by reviewing on Monday and Tuesday.  The Unit 7 Assessment will be Wednesday, Febrary 25th.  The review session will be on Tuesday, February 24th during lunch recess.  Please encourage your child to attend if they have been struggling with the content this unit.  I continue to try to develop a sense of ownership in their learning by giving them guidelines for deciding if they should attend.  Ultimately, however, I do leave attendance to these review sessions optional - please email me if you are concerned your child is not choosing to stay in for these sessions and you would like them to participate.

Before we begin Unit 8, we will spend several days preparing for the PARCC assessments by taking practice tests.  I will send these tests home for you to review with your child.  It might be valuable for you to review the expectations for the assessment as the expectations for these standardized tests are different than in previous years. Please let me know if you have any questions at all.

Science/Social Studies

The 5th grade students were super excited to meet Mr. Fowler and thoroughly engaged in the presentation about his work in the Amazon.  He expanded their knowledge on the water cycle, specifically as it works in a rainforest climate.  The children learned through pictures and videos about the dangers many villagers face with unclean water, and the solutions his organization bring to the Amazon by digging wells and teaching villagers how to use simple 5 gallon bucket water filtration systems.

Mr. Fowler said it was a genuine pleasure interacting with the kids!  He was very impressed with how attentive they were and the depth of the questions they asked - what a compliment!  I was so proud of them :)

The Watery Earth Final Unit Assessment is now scheduled for Monday, 02/23.  Students were given the review materials to study for the test this weekend.  Please encourage them to use the study strategies we discussed on Friday:  making vocabulary flash cards, studying the reviews (Ch 1-8 and 9-11), reviewing the chapter organizers, re-reading the chapters, or completing the Watery Earth vocabulary activities on Spelling City.

We will take a week to prepare for the PARCC tests before we move on to our Social Studies unit.   As with the math, I will be sending home these tests after we take them so that you may review the new expectations.   Again, please feel free to ask any questions you may have about these upcoming tests.  

After PARCC practice, we will return to Social Studies for the next two months.  We will pick up where we left off after the Revolutionary War, and I'm excited to bring in a new resource for the students to explore.  I will be picking up a Revolutionary War trunk from Cantigny next Sunday that is full of authentic reproductions of items the soldiers would have worn and carried with them in battle.  (Thanks Mrs. Borland for the suggestion!!)  I can't wait to see how excited the students will be as they open the trunk and explore the items inside!  We'll move on to study how our country formed a new government.  We will spend time learning about the Constituion and Bill of Rights, then move on to Westward Expansion.

Reading

Students were super-excited to learn about Personalized Learning (Genius Hour) in our classroom.  I'm including a link the students viewed this week that may help explain Genius Hour to you, as well as the type of questions they should be forming.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEQzKH7v0-Q

Students should be thinking about their questions, but with the cold day, we didn't get a chance to choose a question.  We'll be doing that on Monday after a "pre-search" activity, then students will be able to dive into their research.  Please take a moment to help them choose a couple of topics they are passionate about, and begin to form open questions.  We find students are much more successful if they have put some thought into the question prior to the time I give them to think about their question.  Choosing a question can be the most difficult part of the process for many of them, but once they are over that hurdle, we find they dive into research with excitement.

Please remind your child their Fairy Tales are due on Friday!

Writing

We didn't make much progress on our Response to Fiction Essay with the short week, but we will still be able to complete them this week.  We have a few more lessons to wrap up the essay, then the final essay will be due on Friday, February 27th.

“Intelligence plus character-that is the goal of true education.” 
― Martin Luther King Jr.

Stay Warm!

Happy 1/2 Birthday, Duncan!!

Happy 11 1/2 Birthday, Griffin!!

Happy 11th birthday, Sophia!!

5-2 Updates ~ 02/16

Hello 5-2 Parents ~

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for a wonderful Valentine's Day party put on by our dedicated room moms.  We had a blast decorating emoji masks, delivering valentine's, eating treats, and playing games....and then there was the photo booth!  Look to the end of this blog entry for more pictures (Photo Credit to Mrs. Burda - thank you for sending me all the pictures!!)  It was a delightful afternoon of laughing and socializing as we celebrated the day of "love." :)

Come on...are they not just the cutest?!

Midterms - Official Midterms were not sent home this second term as I have encouraged students to request their grades on their own.  I have been so impressed with how often they are checking in and asking for a copy of their grade report.  They are such responsible and invested learners!  Many of them frequently ask about their grades and how to improve their scores.  If you would like to see a copy of their midterm report, please encourage your child to ask me for another copy and I'll send it home.  You are always welcome to email me and request a copy as well - I would be happy to email an electronic copy.

Important Dates

Monday, February 16th ~ No School - President's Day!  Enjoy!

Tuesday, February 18th ~  Monday schedule

Wednesday, February 19th ~ Mr. Fowler will be visiting the 5th grade students to share information about digging wells in the Amazon!

Monty Fowler, Development Director for Amazon Outreach, will be presenting information on the unique challenges of digging wells in the Amazon rainforest to 5th grade students in conjunction with their Watery Earth Science Unit.  He will be speaking to students about the importance of fresh water sources in communities and the effect on health and sanitation. He will use the villages along the Amazon River in Brazil to illustrate how the water cycle provides a variety of fresh water sources, some more beneficial than others. The students will learn how a fresh water well is drilled & capped, and the importance of such clean water sources even in a place that has an abundance of fresh water.

PARCC Testing ~  Our schedule follows:

- Monday, March 9th, 1:30-3:00pm - Math #1
- Tuesday, March 10th, 1:30-3:00pm - Math #2
- Wednesday, March 11th, 1:30-3:00pm - ELA #1
- Thursday, March 12th, 1:30-3:00om - ELA #2
- Friday, March 13th, 1:30-3:00pm - ELA #3

Please encourage your child to get a full night's sleep prior to the test dates, and please do your best to minimize absences during these times.  It can be very challenging to schedule make-up tests since our window to do so is small.  Students often feel overwhelmed at missing instruction in order to makeup tests later in the week, resulting in additional homework.  Thank you for your support!

Math

We will be nearing the end of Unit 7 this week, which means we will be taking our Unit 7 Quiz on Friday.  The quizzes are good indicators of student performance on the final unit assessment.  I encourage students to take ownership of their learning by looking at these scores and determining if they need additional support in learning the concepts.  I often talk to the students about being proactive and requesting additional time with me to reinforce the concepts during class or lunch recess.  This is an important skill moving forward in their education.  The Unit 7 Assessment is currently scheduled for Tuesday, Febrary 24th, and the additional review session will be on Monday, February 25th at lunch recess.

We will be taking a short break from Everyday Mathematics after Unit 7 to review skills learned this year to prepare for the upcoming PARCC Assessment.  Please encourage your child to spend time nightly on Khan Academy to review these skills.

Science

We spent time in our Watery Earth science unit this week discussing water pollution.  Students will have an opportunity to filter pollutants from water on Monday, and will discover just how challenging this task can be.  Our discussions and experiment will develop a greater appreciation of our need to keep our water clean and conserve the clean water that we have.  This activity will tie in well to the presentation on Wednesday about drilling and cleaning water in the Amazon.

We will begin our review for the final unit assessment on Thursday.  Your child can get started on that review this weekend by logging on to Spelling City and playing the vocabulary games with the Watery Earth vocabulary list.  I've assigned the list to them early for them to begin practicing if they want to get a head start.  This unit is a vocabulary intensive unit - there are 44 words to study for the Watery Earth test.  The Watery Earth Assessment is scheduled for Friday, February 20th.

Reading

We wrapped up Treasures Unit 3 in reading this week.  Look for assessment scores to come home on Tuesday for a sign and return.  We will be taking a break from our Treasures curriculum to invest time in our Personalized Learning Experience.  Please look for the email detailing this process and experience, as well as a request to Share Your Knowledge.  I appreciate all of you who have already shared your information!  If you have any questions at all about this experience, please do not hesitate to contact me.

We will also be working on our Fairy Tale Novel unit.  Students have been assigned the fairy tale novel of their choice, and they are expected to be read by next Friday, February 27th.  These are lengthy novels, please be sure your child is reading every night.  Once they are read, we will begin work comparing and contrasting the novels with the original fairy tales, practice our persuasive skills by writing letters from the perspective of the villain, and writing fractured fairy tales ourselves.

Writing

We finished reading The Liberation of Gabriel King this week, but will continue to use the text to support our Response to Fiction unit in WEX.  This week we discussed how the author uses sensory details to show character traits in writing, and we learned how to properly cite that evidence in our writing.  We will begin finalizing our Response to Fiction essays during writing this week.

“Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” 
 ~ Aristotle ~

Stay Warm!

Happy 11th Birthday, Sam!!

Happy 11th Birthday, Lizzy!!

5-2 Updates - 02/01

5-2 Updates ~ 01/27

Hello 5-2 Parents ~

Well, this blizzard just doesn't seem to be letting up!!  I've been out there shoveling three times already today - a family that shovels together, stays together, right??  I have to say that as we've discussed the polar ice caps melting in science and reading over the past weeks, it's been difficult to convince the kids that we are experiencing global warming with all this winter weather!!  Certainly doesn't feel like it here in the Midwest :)  Hoping they will have those roads and parking lots cleared so we can be in school tomorrow, but please watch for possible closing announcement early in the morning.

Important Dates
Everybody Counts ~ Tuesday, February 3rd ~ Everybody Counts is an organization dedicated to the empowerment and independence of people with disabilities.  Volunteers take the time to come into classrooms to help the students understand life with a disability in a powerful and engaging way.  THANK YOU to all the parents who volunteer in bringing this valuable program to our school  Our presentation is scheduled for Tuesday, 2/3 at 11:10.

Water Reclamation Treatment Facility ~ Friday, February 6th ~ In line with our science curriculum on Watery Earth, we have a Community Education Specialist  from the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago coming in on 2/6 at 9:00 to teach students about how water is cleaned and pumped to homes and business in the area, as well as how wastewater is treated and cleaned after it leaves our homes.  This is a free in-school field trip, so you won't need to send in anything!

Valentine's Day Celebration ~ Friday, February 13th ~ Our Room Moms are hard at work planning a fun celebration for our kiddos!!  Thank you for all their hard work!  Just in case you haven't seen the new district policy regarding Valentine's Day candy:

Due to severe and life threatening allergies, we are asking that you DO NOT INCLUDE ANY FOOD OR CANDY ITEMS with your child's individual Valentines. There are many clever and creative alternatives to food items, including pencils, tattoos, stickers, & bubbles... but the nicest way to say "Happy Valentine's Day" is to write a nice note! 

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Math

We finally reached the end of Unit 6 this week.  With all the breaks, it's taken us an exceptionally long time!  Look for the graded assessments to come home for a sign and return this week.  We will start Unit 7 this week - exponents, scientific notation, and positive/negative numbers.  The best way to help them stay up with the many new concepts taught in this unit is to have them practice on Khan Academy nightly.

Science

We finished our discussion of the Earth's Water Model this week in science, learning more about groundwater, frozen water, and water in the air.  Our discussion included the amount of fresh water available to us on this planet which launched a discussion on our need to conserve.  We will continue these discussion in the next few weeks.

Students built a model of the water cycle on Friday, and brought them home over the weekend to finish up.  We will review Lessons 1-8 on Monday in preparation for a Mid-unit Quiz on Wednesday, 02/04.  Please encourage them to use those good study skills they have learned this year by studying the review and doing the vocabulary activities on Spelling City.  After the quiz, we will engage in some common core lessons on the water cycle using complex text.  They will have the opportunity to integrate information from a couple of non-fiction texts and a poem, and synthesize their learning into a poster on the water cycle.

Reading

We finished up Unit 3 Week 4 on Friday this week where we spent time comparing and contrasting characters in a fictional story, and deserts in informational text.  Students have practiced writing Common Core aligned essays during the week, as well as on the assessments.  I've been impressed with the effort they are bringing to this challenging skill!  I try to give them a great deal of feedback their weekly assessment essays so they can improve their essays each week.  Please take the time to review the comments with them, and encourage them by reminding them how hard they are working!!  I'm so impressed with their diligence on such a difficult skill.

Writing

We were able to start reading The Liberation of Gabriel King this week, and the kids are really enjoying it!  They are engaged in the text that explores the themes of racial discrimination, and have been asking excellent questions during the discussions.  They wanted to know who was president at this time and allowed such horrible things to happen.  It's a beautiful thing to listen to the innocence in their comments and questions when this type of discrimination took place not so long ago.  

We are reading this book to produce a Response to Fiction Essay.  In these lessons, students write numerous journal entries in which they explore their responses to the reading, learn to describe their textual observations, and practice new writing skills.  We started this week by brainstorming observations we make in life of people when we first meeting them, and the impressions those observations leave us with...and we drew a correlation to meeting characters in a book.  Just like we observe people in real life and write about them, we can observe characters in a novel and write about them.  The difference is, we can only observe what the author has written down for us.

“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. 
If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” 

― Albert Einstein

Stay Warm!