It has been another busy week! In writing workshop, students started learning about writing engaging leads for their narratives.
The lead is an important element of the narrative. Grabbing and holding the reader’s attention
is what makes or breaks a story. Students will continue to explore a variety of
leads next week.
We also began a second list poem
and watercolor on “what we love about autumn.” Students learned that this
simple poetry form can be a list or inventory of places, items or ideas. It is usually not a random list, but a well
thought out and frequently descriptive list.
Several students have completed
the fall Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Reading Assessment this week. This district assessment provides information
on the student’s processing strategies, fluency and comprehension. Within the next couple of weeks, everyone
will have completed this.
They were introduced to
Biblionasium. This is a free, protected
social network for children. Students will use the virtual bookshelves to
help them keep track of what they’ve read, what they like, and what books they
plan to read in the future.
In fifth grade math we have been
reviewing and exploring perimeter and area of a rectangle. This is in preparation for the first unit of
study in our new math program, Ready Math.
Next week, we will begin work on volume of the rectangular prism. We have also been learning more about our
Math Menu routines. This routine provides opportunity for students to strengthen skills
and concepts through a variety of activities.
Students also have some choice and are engaged in cooperative work as
well as independent time. On Thursday, we explored the “My Path” technology
portion of I-Ready. Based on the results
of the diagnostic given a week ago, students are automatically placed at a
level customized to each student. These
online lessons and practice will be a regular part of Math Menu each week.
We continue our work with
Monarchs. In technology, students are
working in groups on either a Book Creator project (a tool to create ebooks) or
working on a Green Screen video. At the
end of the week we worked on watercolors and an acrostic poem about
Monarchs. We have tagged and released
twenty-five butterflies at this point.
Unfortunately, we have also learned about one of the most common
predators of the Monarch, the Tachinid fly.
Be sure to ask your fifth grader about our work with these amazing
butterflies.
Last week I sent home two book
order forms in the Friday folder. If you
wish to order, you can either send the form in to me or order directly
online. I will be sending home the
Scholastic book clubs most months. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!
Below is a note from Christine
about 6th grade math:
This week the sixth-graders have been finishing
up their second Math Menu. They continued to work independently and
collaboratively to strengthen skills and concepts. As students work on their
Math Menus, I meet with small groups. Over the last couple of weeks, the
focus of the small groups has been revisiting rounding numbers/place value (in
the millions) and multi-digit multiplication. We will continue to work on
skills and concepts that need to be revisited and that are prerequisites for
6th-grade learning. This week we also worked to find the volume of
various rectangular prisms (boxes!) as a whole group.
