Hello 5-2 Parents ~
A great big THANK YOU!! to our room moms (Mrs. Bilfaqi, Mrs. Koroulis, and Mrs. Klinkenborg) and volunteers for making our Halloween Party such a delight! Despite Mother Nature's insistence on an indoor parade, the kiddos had a ton of fun in the room playing games and making crafts :) Thank you!!
Important Dates
Progress Reports ~ Friday, 11/15 ~ Your child's progress report should have been sent electronically on Friday. Please don't hesitate to reach out should you have any questions after you receive your child's progress report.
Get Moving Day ~ Tuesday, November 19th ~ Student Council is sponsoring a Spirit Day they've named Get Moving Day! We encourage your children to get in the spirit by wearing gym shoes and exercise clothing and looking for your opportunities in your day to get your family up and moving! We will be doing the same here at school :)
Family Reading Night ~ Thursday, November 21st from 6:30pm-8:00pm ~ Come and hear presentations from two illustrators: Jacqueline Alcantara, a picture book illustrator, and Sean Dove, a graphic novel illustrator. We have some great activities planned, as well as plenty of story times!
Thanksgiving Break ~ Monday, 11/25 to Friday, 11/29. Enjoy the time with your family.
Math
Your child should have brought home their Chapter 3 Summative Assessment for you to review and sign. If your child did not meet standards on this assessment, they brought home some additional review work for this weekend. For additional practice, they can review videos and practice problems on Khan Academy for these same skills. I will review the skills during Target Time next week, then give children an opportunity to re-take the assessment. Please note these tests were given on Tuesday - after our grade books closed last Friday, so these scores are entered into the 2nd trimester.
We began Unit 4 this week - Multiplying and Dividing Fractions. The concepts in this chapter start simply, but can get tricky in the later lessons. I suggest they continue to monitor their understanding by reviewing and correcting their homework. This is still a strategy many of our students are learning. After we check homework, I suggest students "own their learning" by correcting the incorrect problems. There is time in every math block to ask me for help with any problems they struggle to correct, and I encourage them to come back for support if they need it. You can support your child by checking their workbook for corrected pages.
Science - Earth & Space
We finished up our Earth & Space unit with an assessment on Friday. Please look for these sign and return Owl Scorecards to come home today. Since these assessments were taken on Friday, they were included in the Trimester 1 Progress Report.
Social Studies
We began our unit on the Revolutionary War with a tug-of-war game in the classroom on Monday. What fun the kids had re-enacting the battle with an actual game of tug-of-war!! The red team represented the British, and the blue team represented the Continental Army - ask your child how unfair the game seemed at first with the largest students on the British side. There were several rule changes to the game that represented the actual events, and the Continental Army was actually able to win the game - ask them how the blue team won!
After reading chapter 13 in their History Alive textbook and completing an organizer this week, we began work on our Revolutionary War Battle posters today. They chose a specific battle to research further and will use the research to create a poster to display on a timeline of the battles of the Revolutionary War. Their research notes and poster are due on Thursday, November 21st. The assignment and a few research links are posted on Google Classroom.
The final Unit 13 Assessment is scheduled for scheduled for Friday, November 22nd. To prepare for the assessment, your child should re-read the chapter in their History Alive textbook, review he completed organizer posted on Google Classroom as a study guide, and create flashcards for the vocabulary words in the chapter.
Social-Emotional Learning
We continued our focus on Gratitude this week by creating Gratitude Journals. They are recording 3 things they are thankful for every day, and the reason they are thankful for them every day in their journals. The challenge is they are not allowed to record the same reason twice - so once they have written they are thankful for their house, they cannot use that gratitude again. The idea is to push them to recognize the many things they have in their lives to be thankful for. By thinking on things we are grateful for every day, we can shift our perspective from those despairing thoughts when things go wrong.
There are enough pages in their book to take them through to Thanksgiving. They will record in their journals every day while they are in school, and I would encourage you to have them pull out their journals every day while on break until Thanksgiving. I have suggested they pull out their Gratitude Journals at the Thanksgiving table and share them with their families.
Reading
We have been exploring conflict in fictional stories this week, specifically looking at the types of conflict and how the conflict changes the character. By understanding how the conflict changes the character in a story, we can uncover the theme and the lesson in a story. This type of inferential comprehension study pushes students outside of their comfort zone, but I've been impressed with the way so many of your children are taking risks and exploring their understanding in discussions, both whole and small group. Take the time to discuss the conflict in their independent reading book this weekend!
Writing
We have spent time in our Personal Narrative unit learning about those elements of a well-written narrative - ask your child if they can name a few things they have been encouraged to include in their stories! They chose the story they will be taking to final publication last week, and were given time to finish the rough draft. A few students needed to finish up their stories at home this weekend - ask your child to tell you the story they chose! Next week, we will work on revising and editing our stories. We will plan to publish them in a classroom book the week after Thanksgiving Break.
LMC
I was so impressed with how well your children presented their space debates! They were well prepared and articulate as they presented different sides of two different issues related to space travel. The rubrics for their research and presentation will be coming home this week for a sign and return.
As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.
It's not happy people who are thankful, but thankful people who are happy.
~ Loris Malaguzzi
Cheers ~
Theresa Fowler
A great big THANK YOU!! to our room moms (Mrs. Bilfaqi, Mrs. Koroulis, and Mrs. Klinkenborg) and volunteers for making our Halloween Party such a delight! Despite Mother Nature's insistence on an indoor parade, the kiddos had a ton of fun in the room playing games and making crafts :) Thank you!!
Important Dates
Progress Reports ~ Friday, 11/15 ~ Your child's progress report should have been sent electronically on Friday. Please don't hesitate to reach out should you have any questions after you receive your child's progress report.
Get Moving Day ~ Tuesday, November 19th ~ Student Council is sponsoring a Spirit Day they've named Get Moving Day! We encourage your children to get in the spirit by wearing gym shoes and exercise clothing and looking for your opportunities in your day to get your family up and moving! We will be doing the same here at school :)
Family Reading Night ~ Thursday, November 21st from 6:30pm-8:00pm ~ Come and hear presentations from two illustrators: Jacqueline Alcantara, a picture book illustrator, and Sean Dove, a graphic novel illustrator. We have some great activities planned, as well as plenty of story times!
Thanksgiving Break ~ Monday, 11/25 to Friday, 11/29. Enjoy the time with your family.
Math
Your child should have brought home their Chapter 3 Summative Assessment for you to review and sign. If your child did not meet standards on this assessment, they brought home some additional review work for this weekend. For additional practice, they can review videos and practice problems on Khan Academy for these same skills. I will review the skills during Target Time next week, then give children an opportunity to re-take the assessment. Please note these tests were given on Tuesday - after our grade books closed last Friday, so these scores are entered into the 2nd trimester.
We began Unit 4 this week - Multiplying and Dividing Fractions. The concepts in this chapter start simply, but can get tricky in the later lessons. I suggest they continue to monitor their understanding by reviewing and correcting their homework. This is still a strategy many of our students are learning. After we check homework, I suggest students "own their learning" by correcting the incorrect problems. There is time in every math block to ask me for help with any problems they struggle to correct, and I encourage them to come back for support if they need it. You can support your child by checking their workbook for corrected pages.
Science - Earth & Space
We finished up our Earth & Space unit with an assessment on Friday. Please look for these sign and return Owl Scorecards to come home today. Since these assessments were taken on Friday, they were included in the Trimester 1 Progress Report.
Social Studies
We began our unit on the Revolutionary War with a tug-of-war game in the classroom on Monday. What fun the kids had re-enacting the battle with an actual game of tug-of-war!! The red team represented the British, and the blue team represented the Continental Army - ask your child how unfair the game seemed at first with the largest students on the British side. There were several rule changes to the game that represented the actual events, and the Continental Army was actually able to win the game - ask them how the blue team won!
After reading chapter 13 in their History Alive textbook and completing an organizer this week, we began work on our Revolutionary War Battle posters today. They chose a specific battle to research further and will use the research to create a poster to display on a timeline of the battles of the Revolutionary War. Their research notes and poster are due on Thursday, November 21st. The assignment and a few research links are posted on Google Classroom.
The final Unit 13 Assessment is scheduled for scheduled for Friday, November 22nd. To prepare for the assessment, your child should re-read the chapter in their History Alive textbook, review he completed organizer posted on Google Classroom as a study guide, and create flashcards for the vocabulary words in the chapter.
Social-Emotional Learning
We continued our focus on Gratitude this week by creating Gratitude Journals. They are recording 3 things they are thankful for every day, and the reason they are thankful for them every day in their journals. The challenge is they are not allowed to record the same reason twice - so once they have written they are thankful for their house, they cannot use that gratitude again. The idea is to push them to recognize the many things they have in their lives to be thankful for. By thinking on things we are grateful for every day, we can shift our perspective from those despairing thoughts when things go wrong.
There are enough pages in their book to take them through to Thanksgiving. They will record in their journals every day while they are in school, and I would encourage you to have them pull out their journals every day while on break until Thanksgiving. I have suggested they pull out their Gratitude Journals at the Thanksgiving table and share them with their families.
Reading
We have been exploring conflict in fictional stories this week, specifically looking at the types of conflict and how the conflict changes the character. By understanding how the conflict changes the character in a story, we can uncover the theme and the lesson in a story. This type of inferential comprehension study pushes students outside of their comfort zone, but I've been impressed with the way so many of your children are taking risks and exploring their understanding in discussions, both whole and small group. Take the time to discuss the conflict in their independent reading book this weekend!
Writing
We have spent time in our Personal Narrative unit learning about those elements of a well-written narrative - ask your child if they can name a few things they have been encouraged to include in their stories! They chose the story they will be taking to final publication last week, and were given time to finish the rough draft. A few students needed to finish up their stories at home this weekend - ask your child to tell you the story they chose! Next week, we will work on revising and editing our stories. We will plan to publish them in a classroom book the week after Thanksgiving Break.
LMC
I was so impressed with how well your children presented their space debates! They were well prepared and articulate as they presented different sides of two different issues related to space travel. The rubrics for their research and presentation will be coming home this week for a sign and return.
As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.
It's not happy people who are thankful, but thankful people who are happy.
~ Loris Malaguzzi
Cheers ~
Theresa Fowler
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