Ahhh....fall temperatures make me smile. I don't know about you, but I'm ready to see those leaves changing colors :) Maybe it's because I'm a teacher, but fall is definitely my favorite time of year!
We jumped into curriculum with both feet this week in all content areas, so have a seat - this is another long blog;) You may have noticed the increase in homework expectations. If you are noticing more than an hour of homework, your child is probably not using their classroom time wisely. This is a learned skill, and something we talk about often. If they're struggling at home with the amount of homework, you may want to reinforce using their independent time in the classroom to complete homework. If they seem overwhelmed, please include me in the conversation as your child may need some additional support with organization and making choices during work times.
Important Dates and Information:
School Pictures ~ Friday, 9/20 ~ Say Cheeeeese! A flyer should have come home with your child on Friday with information about ordering school pictures.
Benchmarking (09-09/28)~ The beginning of the school year means we are spending some time collecting data about your child's abilities in math and reading. I spent a great deal of time assessing your child's reading comprehension, fluency and math computation skills this past week. Though it may seem like a lot of assessment so early in the year, the data is valuable to me as it drives instruction for the year. I will have the data from all the assessments available and ready to discuss with at our conferences in October. I'm happy to say we're done with all benchmarking in our room, so now we can stay focused on curriculum.
What's Happening in the Classroom
Math
We finished Chapter 1 on Friday with an assessment - the standard assessed in Chapter 1 is understanding place value. As mentioned on Curriculum Night, look for the "owl" standards sheet to come home attached to the assessment on Monday to indicate their progress report grade. These assessments are to be signed by you and returned by your child.
Social Studies
We spent the week diving deeper into the events that led up to the Revolutionary War, and grew in our understanding of the opposing perspectives of the colonists and the British. Your children debated who was at fault, and arrived at the decision that they were both right and both wrong. I was impressed with their connections to conflicts in their own lives - there are two perspectives to every disagreement.
We spent the week diving deeper into the events that led up to the Revolutionary War, and grew in our understanding of the opposing perspectives of the colonists and the British. Your children debated who was at fault, and arrived at the decision that they were both right and both wrong. I was impressed with their connections to conflicts in their own lives - there are two perspectives to every disagreement.
The standards assessed is social studies this first trimester is understanding the causes and effects of events in US history. Your child has been working on creating a poster this week about one specific event that led to the Revolutionary War as an assessment of that standard. They have been describing the event in detail, as well as identifying the cause and effect. This poster has be done primarily in class on Google Draw, but they may need to finish it at home if they missed class time. As your child which event they chose, then ask them to summarize it for you and share the cause and effect!
We move on this week to study the Loyalists and Patriots in chapter 11. They will work on an organizer in class summarizing the information in the chapter, then they will add details to their poster using the new information. The poster will be due after they finish chapter 12 - sometime around October 4th. Until then, they will be given time in class to continue to add new information they learn to the poster.
We move on this week to study the Loyalists and Patriots in chapter 11. They will work on an organizer in class summarizing the information in the chapter, then they will add details to their poster using the new information. The poster will be due after they finish chapter 12 - sometime around October 4th. Until then, they will be given time in class to continue to add new information they learn to the poster.
Reading
We have been practicing routines in our Schoolwide curriculum, and we are growing in our ability to have a conversation about what we read. I continue to be impressed at the depth with which your students discuss characters and events in the stories we read aloud, as well as the engagement in their small group work.
They also started book clubs with their classmates. As I mentioned last week, these are self-selected novels - they choose the schedule for reading, and they choose the discussion topics. They will be given time in class to read their novel, but many of them may be reading them at home. Ask your child which book they chose and who is in their group!
Please be sure your child allows time in their schedule to read 20 minutes every night! Far too often, this is the thing that students choose to skip out on. Soon, we will add a Reading Log to the expectation, where they will record the number of pages and minutes they record every night.
Writing
Your kiddos are enjoying the texts we've been reading during our writing time as they have been quite entertaining. We've had a great time laughing together! We've listed to fairy tales retold from a different perspective by Jon Sciezka, and a poetry book called Scranimals by Jack Prelutzky. Ask your child which one has been their favorite! All the text we've read have given them ideas for their own writing, as well as been used to illustrate excellent writing techniques. We're still just establishing our writing community, so it will be another couple of weeks before we take anything to publication.
Word Work - Spelling & Vocab
We began our Word Work groups this week - students were divided into groups based on an initial spelling inventory. Your child is in one of four spelling groups: Syllables & Affixes - beginning, Syllables & Affixes - middle, Syllables & Affixes - end and Derivational Relations. Syllables & Affixes is at grade level and focuses on prefixes, suffixes, and root words; and Derivational Relations is above grade level and focuses of Greek and Latin root words. If you have any questions about where your child placed, please don't hesitate to ask me.
Different groups have varied schedules each day so that I have an opportunity to meet with every group each week. They will have a Word Work sort assignment every day on Google Classroom - these are primarily completed in the classroom, but are homework if they miss class for some reason. They generally work in partners or small groups on these word sorts. The Google Classroom assignments are not graded assignments, but rather serve as just practice.
In addition to the sorts on Google Classroom, your child will also have 8 Spelling City assignments (4 spelling and 4 vocabulary) each week. Each group has a different due date for their Spelling City assignments, but they are given an entire week to complete these assignments. Some choose to do them all in the first night, some choose to do them over the weekend, some choose to complete them throughout the week. Ask your child which group they are in, and for their weekly due date. Assignments are expected to be completed by their weekly test date. Each week they will take a spelling test and a vocabulary test. I will not send home information on these assessments, but rather ask you to log into your child's account periodically and monitor their scores by clicking on "My Records." If your child does not demonstrate mastery on an assessment, they will be asked to complete additional assignments over the weekend, and re-take the assessment on Mondays.
Your child should have their Spelling City password written in the front of their assignment notebook - if they do not, please encourage them to see me and I'll make sure they write it down.
Grammar
Grammar instruction began this week with Lesson 1 - Complete Sentences. Our instruction takes place on Tuesdays, and they will have an assignment in their Skills Practice (SP) Book on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights. We review the first two assignments in class, and the assignment turned in on Fridays is used as an independent assessment of their skill. Each week, the 3rd page will always be assessed - you can check their progress by looking at their book each week.
These will be returned on Mondays - I've written an 'M' for 'Meets' or a 'D' for 'Developing on page 3. Some of your kiddos will have to re-do their assignments on Monday night. Since this grammar curriculum is new to the district, I expect there to be some challenges for the kiddos this year. Please encourage your child to see me if they grow too frustrated with their grammar assignments.
Character Education (Social Emotional Learning Time)Word Work - Spelling & Vocab
We began our Word Work groups this week - students were divided into groups based on an initial spelling inventory. Your child is in one of four spelling groups: Syllables & Affixes - beginning, Syllables & Affixes - middle, Syllables & Affixes - end and Derivational Relations. Syllables & Affixes is at grade level and focuses on prefixes, suffixes, and root words; and Derivational Relations is above grade level and focuses of Greek and Latin root words. If you have any questions about where your child placed, please don't hesitate to ask me.
Different groups have varied schedules each day so that I have an opportunity to meet with every group each week. They will have a Word Work sort assignment every day on Google Classroom - these are primarily completed in the classroom, but are homework if they miss class for some reason. They generally work in partners or small groups on these word sorts. The Google Classroom assignments are not graded assignments, but rather serve as just practice.
In addition to the sorts on Google Classroom, your child will also have 8 Spelling City assignments (4 spelling and 4 vocabulary) each week. Each group has a different due date for their Spelling City assignments, but they are given an entire week to complete these assignments. Some choose to do them all in the first night, some choose to do them over the weekend, some choose to complete them throughout the week. Ask your child which group they are in, and for their weekly due date. Assignments are expected to be completed by their weekly test date. Each week they will take a spelling test and a vocabulary test. I will not send home information on these assessments, but rather ask you to log into your child's account periodically and monitor their scores by clicking on "My Records." If your child does not demonstrate mastery on an assessment, they will be asked to complete additional assignments over the weekend, and re-take the assessment on Mondays.
Your child should have their Spelling City password written in the front of their assignment notebook - if they do not, please encourage them to see me and I'll make sure they write it down.
Grammar
Grammar instruction began this week with Lesson 1 - Complete Sentences. Our instruction takes place on Tuesdays, and they will have an assignment in their Skills Practice (SP) Book on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights. We review the first two assignments in class, and the assignment turned in on Fridays is used as an independent assessment of their skill. Each week, the 3rd page will always be assessed - you can check their progress by looking at their book each week.
These will be returned on Mondays - I've written an 'M' for 'Meets' or a 'D' for 'Developing on page 3. Some of your kiddos will have to re-do their assignments on Monday night. Since this grammar curriculum is new to the district, I expect there to be some challenges for the kiddos this year. Please encourage your child to see me if they grow too frustrated with their grammar assignments.
Every week, we come together in "Trust Circle" to discuss our character, focusing on one character trait per month. We call it the "Trust Circle" because it's a safe place for students to honestly evaluate their character and reflect on areas of improvement. We can all grow in our character, right?
This week, we've been discussing Responsibility. Responsibility is doing what needs to be done without being asked. Hopefully, you've seen an increase in responsibility from your 5th grader as I've challenged them to choose one area to increase their responsibility. They were asked to choose something that they are regularly asked to do at home, but don't often do well, and complete it without being asked. This week, they are to report back to the circle if they were able to meet the challenge, as well as how their parents responded. The conversations have been rich with reflection of past triumphs and failures, but they left the conversation resolved to improve this week!
Whew! Overwhelmed yet?? I hope not...but if you are, please don't hesitate to reach out to me with any clarifying questions. Your children are doing an excellent job adjusting to the increased expectations in 5th grade, and should be managing all of what I just shared independently!
“The child must know that he is a miracle, that since the beginning of the world there hasn't been, and until the end of the world there will not be, another child like him.” – Pablo Casals
Cheers ~
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