Nov. 7th Newsletter

Last week our class met for the first time with our Buddy Class – Mrs. Giammusso’s 2^nd graders.  After selecting a partner the students played a math “money” game trading coins as they rolled to 50 cents.  The fifth graders enjoyed working with their buddies and said they can’t wait to get together again!

          In writing we continue our work with personal narratives.  One focus in mini lessons this past week has been learning about writing dialogue and how to punctuate direct quotations.  We went on a dialogue hunt in our independent reading books looking for the three forms of dialogue that use tags (tag at the beginning, tag in the middle, and tag at the end).  We have also continued work with transitions, writing successful beginnings and endings and using elaboration to help readers picture our stories.  In music class this week the children wrote “small moment” stories about an experience from music class, band, or chorus.  I will plan to share these pieces with you next week during conference time.

          Last week we also began using the Spectrum Word Study and Phonics workbook.  We learned about the hard and soft sounds of C and G.  This week’s focus was on the Sounds of S.  Be sure to ask your child what they have learned about these sounds.

          On Friday, we had a guest teacher visit us during math class.  Ellen Dorsey is a math coach that will be working this year with teachers in grades 5-8 throughout the district.  This is the second time that she has joined our classroom.

          I want to let you know about our fieldtrip plan for next spring.  Mrs. Gannon and I have decided to take the 5^th graders to Boston to the Museum of Science and the Tea Party Museum.  Both of these museums will connect with our science and social studies units of study this year.  I will provide more information on this in future newsletters.

          Students have focused on setting 2^nd quarter goals this week.  I will share some of this with you during conference time next week.

Have a wonderful weekend!  I look forward to our conference time next week.