Highlights from Last Week:
In our short week before the Thanksgiving break, we had some great experiences as a class.
 
We published our first personal narratives and celebrated with a sharing party. Students read an excerpt from their stories to the class accompanied by some chill music and mood lighting.
 
We finished There’s a Boy in the Girl’s Bathroom by Louis Sachar. The ending was moving and inspiring, proving to students that you should never judge a person from the outside. We traced a remarkable character development, that’s for sure!
 
To celebrate our “Books We’ve Finished” list reaching 100 books, we enjoyed a fun sing-a-long to a Ms. Kimball original hit, “We Finished Over 100 Books.”
 
We had an extra special morning meeting on Wednesday for which Dr. Brown and Mr. Randa joined in our activities. We played a thrilling game of “Don’t Make Me Laugh, with the poker-faced Dr. Brown facing off against the hilariously witty Mr. Randa. It was an unforgettable duel! Hopefully we’ll witness a rematch soon.

 
What we didn't get to:
 We hit it all!

​
This Week's Plan
 
Special:

• Monday –no school for students. Teachers have a scintillating professional development day.

  

Math: 
Decimals.

• Decimal Addition & Subtraction Review and Game –We’re practice our decimal addition and subtraction skills with a fun game and a little standard review.
• Multiplying Decimals by Whole Numbers –We will explore how to multiply decimals first by drawing models, then by estimating, then by using algorithms.
• Multiplying Decimals by Decimals –We will draw models to illustrate the concept of multiplying by numbers less than 1, which can be very tricky to wrap your brain around!

 
 Writing:  
Personal Narratives.

• Using Timelines to Plan the Sequence of Events –Students will choose a new small moment story to write and list a chronological sequence of what happens. The goal is to organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally.
• Orienting the Reader –Students will establish a situation and introduce themselves as the narrator by using introductory techniques.
• Pacing the Story –Students will learn how to slow down at the important parts and speed through the unimportant parts.

 

Reading:
Book Groups. Analyzing a Character.

• Analyzing a Character’s Change Over Time –Students will learn how to trace a character’s actions over the course of a story, finding specific examples from the text. Students will write a short essay explaining how the character changed over time.
• Reading Response Journals –Students continue to practice writing thoughtful, evidence-based responses about their independent reading.
• Book Groups  –Groups of students meet weekly to discuss a shared text.

 
Social Studies:
Begin studying Colonial America. We will learn about the following through videos, readings, and reenactments:

• Who was in America before the colonists?
• Why did Europeans come to “The New World?”
• What was life like in the first years of settlement?

 
Homework:
Please visit the Homework Page for more details.

• Homework Project: There is a new homework project called “Living in Outer Space.”
• Math: There will be a page or two of math practice each night.
• Reading: 20 minutes of daily independent reading is expected. Students should log it in their Planners. 
• Reading Response Blog: Students have a new Reading Response Blog to respond to by Friday.

 
Thanks for Reading!
So that's the plan for the week. Please feel free to email me with any questions, comments, or feedback. 
 

 Highlights from Last Week:
Students finished their Climate Tour posters and they look fantastic! Each student researched the climate of three chosen destinations and presented their findings on an informational and vibrant poster. I am very impressed at students’ creativity! I will post pictures on the Student Work page soon!
 
In math students are challenging their understanding of decimals. We reinforced our skills at comparing decimals with a fun Kimball-created game called “Decimal War.” I love devising math games to practice skills!
 
We are getting close to the end of Louis Sachar’s There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom. Students are outraged at the current plot developments. Watching them react is priceless! I am amazed at how much they have improved at citing evidence from the text to support their claims.
 
Students are finishing up their first personal narratives. To help students assess their narrative technique and English mechanics, I created some checklists, which students are diligently working through. I love watching them independently revise and edit their writing because I know such habits will be invaluable to them in the upper grades.
 
With the repeated practice writing Reading Responses, students have greatly improved their ability to think and write insightfully about their independent reading. It’s inspiring to read students critical thoughts about characters, plot events, and authors’ craft in detailed, clear explanations. This type of critical analysis opens up so many opportunities for engaging literary discussions –and we’re not even in middle school yet!
 
What we didn't get to:

• Comparing and rounding decimals was trickier for students than I thought. Therefore, we didn’t get to subtracting decimals.
• I didn’t want to rush students’ Climate Tour poster presentations, so we didn’t get to our weather and climate quiz.

 

This Week's Plan
 
Special:

• Wednesday: Early release, the start of Thanksgiving break! No school until Tuesday, December 1st.

Reading:
Identifying Key Ideas and Details. Book Groups.

• Reading Response Journals –Students continue to practice writing thoughtful, evidence-based responses about their independent reading.
• Explicit details and Inferences –We continue to look at how to explain what a text says explicitly and compare that with how we draw inferences from the text.
• Book Groups  –Groups of students meet weekly to discuss a shared text.
• Teacher Read Aloud –We are getting towards the end of There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom. Students turn and talk to analyze plot developments and character changes over time.

 
  Writing:  
Personal Narratives.

• Publish and Share –Students will publish their first personal narrative. We will have a sharing session to celebrate.

 
  
Math: 
Decimals.

• Adding and subtracting Decimals –Students will learn how to add and subtract decimals using models and a couple of different algorithms.
• Decimal Game –We’re practice our decimal addition and subtraction skills with a fun game.

 
Science:
Finish Weather and Climate.

• Climate Project –Students will finish presenting their Climate Tour posters.
• Weather & Climate Quiz –I will assess students’ understanding of the water cycle, the causes of weather, and the difference between weather and climate.

 
Homework:
Please visit the Homework Page for more details.

• Homework Project: None.
• Math: There will be a page or two of math practice on Monday & Tuesday. 
• Reading: 20 minutes of daily independent reading is expected. Students should log it in their Planners. 
• Reading Response Blog: Students do not have a new Reading Response Blog to respond to.

​I am not assigning homework over the Thanksgiving Break. Happy Thanksgiving! Rest, relax, and rejuvenate.
 
Thanks for Reading!
So that's the plan for the week. Please feel free to email me with any questions, comments, or feedback. 

Highlights from Last Week:
We had a wonderful and insightful workshop with author Gregory Mone. He taught us what it’s like to be a professional writer and shared some strategies for being a good writer. Students got to revise one of his stories from 6th grade!
 
We took our 2nd big assessment of the year on multiplication and division. Students seemed confident!
 
In Science, we explored storms. Students learned to compare and contrast informational text presentations –BrainPop and our Scholastic Weather Atlas books. Each format taught students about a particular storm but in different ways.
 
In Writing, we are learning how to write personal narratives. I added a lesson last week on how to stay in the main character’s point of view. To demonstrate, I told students a personal story about a time I rode my bike with my brother down a hill and crashed. Students had to recognize when I gave details that I couldn’t have possibly have known from my point of view at the time. We still have more work to do in the area to improve students’ abilities to write from their own point of view.
 
What we didn't get to:

• In Science, we only briefly touched on “climate” last week.
• In Writing, we still need to read published personal narratives to get inspiration for our own.
• In Math, students didn’t start their next open response.

 
 
This Week's Plan
 
Special:

• Wednesday: Veterans Day –no school.

 
Reading:
Identifying Key Ideas and Details. Book Groups.

• Explicit details and Inferences  –We continue to look at how to explain what a text says explicitly and compare that with how we draw inferences from the text.
• Evidence in the Text –Students will use their own independent reading as well as our class read aloud to identify evidence in the text to support their thinking.
• Book Groups  –We dive into our guided reading book groups to practice the above skills.
• Teacher Read Aloud  –We are getting towards the end of There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom. Students turn and talk to analyze plot developments and character changes over time.

 
Writing:
Personal Narratives.

• Using Dialogue –Students will learn how to incorporate dialogue into their stories, which will help them maintain a set point of view.
• Reading to Write –To inspire our narrative craft, we will read published personal narratives and get ideas for our own.
• Using Paragraphs –Students will learn how to use paragraphs to separate different parts of their story.
• The Heart of the Story –Students will learn how to develop a theme, a message, or a lesson within their personal narrative by zooming in on the what their story is really about.

 
 
Math: 
Wrap Up Estimation & Computation. Begin Decimals.

• Correct the Unit 2 Assessment  –Students will correct their own assessments in an effort to provide immediate feedback. I will grade them separately though.
• Open Response  –We’ll tackle another open response problem and learn how to use specific vocabulary to make our written answers more precise.
• Decimal Models –We will learn about the first three decimal place values and draw models using base-10 blocks to help up visualize decimal numbers.
• Comparing Decimals –Students will learn how to order decimals from least to greatest.
• Adding and Subtracting Decimals –Students will learn how to add and subtract decimals using models and two different algorithms, partial sums and the standard algorithm.

 
Science:
Finish Weather and Climate.

• Weather and Climate –Students will learn about climate and how weather patterns make up a location’s climate.
• Climate Project –We will work on a fun real-world project were students research the climates of three destinations they want to travel to and present their findings in a poster or brochure.

 
Homework:
Please visit the Homework Page for full details.

• Students have a new Reading Response Blog to respond to. The new prompt will hopefully help students learn what a description is. They will practice their skills at determining key ideas and details.
• The Homework Project, “What If,” is due on Thursday, the latest.
• There will be a math page or two each night.
• Students should be reading at least 20 minutes each day and logging it in their planners.

 
Thanks for Reading!
So that's the plan for the week. Please feel free to email me with any questions, comments, or feedback. 

Highlights from Last Week:
Students enjoyed our Science activities last week. We made a cloud in a bottle using rubbing alcohol to simulate dust in the atmosphere, water, a 1-liter bottle, and a bicycle pump. The “Wow” factor was high! We learned about the causes of storms from Bill Nye the Science Guy, particularly the warm strip of water in the Pacific Ocean called, El Nino.
 
Some students went above and beyond this week to create their own weather instruments. Trisha and Whitney made a rain gauge to measure precipitation. Ryan made an anemometer to measure wind speed. Liana, Caitlin, and August made a barometer to measure atmospheric pressure. It was cool to see these complicated devices made with everyday materials and student ingenuity!

To demonstrate the Water Cycle, students performed interpretive dances, using their creativity to model how water cycles on earth and through its atmosphere. 
 
In the spirit of Halloween, we learned some “scary” math –dividing with 2-digit divisors! Students learned to use their “M.O.M.”s –menu of multiples– to help them make these complicated problems much easier.
 
What we didn't get to:

• In Writing, we spent extra time on generating ideas for personal narratives, so we still have a couple of lessons from last week to tackle.
• We didn’t get to division number stories in Math.
• We have a little more about clouds to cover.

This Week's Plan

Special:

• Author Gregory Mone visits on Tuesday, November 3rd. He is a novelist, science journalist, and speaker. Click here to learn more about him. He will teach students some writing techniques in a workshop.
• Our first completely full week of school –with no early release!

Reading:
Identifying Key Ideas and Details. Book Groups.

• Explicit details and Inferences  –We will look at how to explain what a text says explicitly and compare that with how we draw inferences from the text.
• Evidence in the Text –Students will use their own independent reading as well as our class read aloud to identify evidence in the text to support their thinking.
• Book Groups  –This week we will form guided reading book groups where we will read books at our just-right levels and practice the skills mentioned above.
• Teacher Read Aloud  –There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom by Louis Sachar. As I read, students turn and talk to share their analyses and evaluations of the characters and plot developments.

Writing:
Personal Narratives.

• Generating Ideas for Personal Narratives –We’ll add to our list of ideas for our stories, thinking about places that matter to us and times we’ve had strong feelings.
• Reliving the Moment –We will practice some strategies to help us see our experience in a step by step way before we write and write in a way that allows readers to experience the moment too.
• Planning Ahead to Capture all of the Details –To think and write about an experience with more depth, we’ll try a narrative planning strategy that is similar to a movie storyboard.
• Reading to Write –To inspire our narrative craft, we will read published personal narratives and get ideas for our own.

Math: 
Estimation and computation.​​

• Division Number Stories and Remainders –We will learn how to turn English into Math and solve real world division problems that involve remainders. We’ll learn what do you do with the remainder depending on the unit.
• Review for an Assessment  –Students will work through concepts on the Unit 2 Study Guide while I meet with small groups to offer support and guided practice.
• Unit 2 Assessment  –Students will need to demonstrate understanding of place value, powers of 10, multi-digit multiplication with both partial products and the standard algorithm, estimation for both multiplication and division, division with both 1-digit and 2-digit divisors, and number stories with remainders for answers.
• Open Response  –We’ll tackle another open response problem and learn how to use specific vocabulary to make our written answers more precise.

Science:
Weather and Climate.

• Cloud Formations –We will read about how the different types of clouds cause our weather.
• Storms –Students will read about how different storms are created, comparing what they read to other media, such as the Bill Nye “Storms” episode and weather reports online.
• Weather and Climate –Students will learn about climate and how weather patterns make up a location’s climate.

​
Homework:
Please visit the Homework Page for full details.

• Students have a new Reading Response Blog to respond to.
• There is a new Homework Project called, “What If.”
• There will be a math page or two each night.
• Students should be reading on average 20 minutes each day and logging it in their planners.

Thanks for Reading!
So that's the plan for the week. Please feel free to email me with any questions, comments, or feedback. ​