Highlights from Last Week:

I hope everyone had a pleasant mid-winter break. I’m looking forward to getting back and diving into teaching and learning.

Before the break...

• We started informational writing. Students learned how to pick a topic and narrow down the focus of their informational writing to a big idea or deep question that will guide their work.
• Students explored atlases of early America and taught one another how to analyze the information presented in a map.
• Fractions seem to pose little challenge for students. They were able to subtract mixed numbers by borrowing from the whole when they needed a larger fraction to subtract from.

What We Didn't Get To:

• We didn't get to note-taking in writing. 

This Week's Plan


Upcoming Special Events: ​​​

• Talent Show Auditions --Thursday, March 2 and Tuesday, March 7

Special Activities:

• Global Citizenship --Students will learn about ways to be an active global citizen. We'll discuss choosing a cause to support in preparation for our year-end project.

Math:
Fraction Addition and Subtraction Review.

• Review fraction basics, addition, and subtraction.
• Fraction word problems
• Study for assessment. See Study Guide.
• Take assessment.

Reading:
Book Groups. Close reading & quoting evidence.

• Continue discussions and literary analysis in book groups.
• Practice close reading and finding/quoting evidence to support answers to comprehension questions.

Writing:
Informational Writing.

• Organizing notes.
• Using reputable, kid-friendly resources to become an expert in your subject.
• Outlining with a table of contents.

Social Studies:
Colonial America.

• What is colonization and why do people colonize?
• What were the first colonies of America like?
• Practice point of view: Describe an event from two different points of view, a colonist's and a Native American's.

Science:
We switch to Social Studies.

Homework:
Please check the Homework page for more details.

1. There is no new Homework Project or Blog this week.
2. Students will have some short reading and research assignments related to their year-end Global Citizenship project.
3. Read 25 minutes at home per day and log the title, author, and time in the planner.
4. There will be a math page for homework each night.

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

Highlights from Last Week:

We played Greek and Latin Root Word Jeopardy. Student teams used their list of root words to come up with vocabulary and define words. The Thursday group (Ellie, Jacob, Isaiah, and Thomas B) emerged victorious.

Students did an amazing job on their Global Citizenship Part 1 projects. They shared some of their work, inspiring and informing the rest of the class --and me! It was wonderful to have hope for the future reignited through the compassion and concern students show for humanity and the planet.

In Social Studies, I read aloud from A History of US, which gives an in-depth and engaging history of the United States. We read an amazingly dense history of the world and learned how a "cultural stew" and "idea pool" helped to make the U.S. the way it is today.


What We Didn't Get To:
A snow day, while delightful, didn't help our progress through my plans last week. Here is what we missed:

• The informational writing launch. Our Greek and Latin root words activity took way longer than I anticipated.
• We still didn't get as far as I wanted to in informational reading. Instead, I added a lesson on determining theme in informational text.
• Colonization in Social Studies. We spent some time looking at a general history of the world and how that connects to America.
• In math, I didn't get to teach the kiddos my second game, "Bet on Equivalence."

This Week's Plan

Just found out --Snow Day on Monday! This will likely affect the plans below. Nevertheless, I'll still push to cover them.

Upcoming Special Events: ​​​

• Early Release Wednesday.
• Valentine's' Day: Tuesday. Students may bring in Valentine's for classmates, but if they do so, they should consider giving one to every member of the class so that no one feels left out.
• February Break: Next week! School resumes Monday, February 27th.

Special Activities:
None that I can think of right now (I'm often spontaneous, though). 

Math:
Fraction Addition and Subtraction.

• Equivalent Fractions --I have a fun game to practice making equivalent fractions.
• Adding and Subtracting Fractions --We'll learn the steps to add and subtract fractions with like and unlike denominators, then practice simplifying our answers.
• Mixed Number Borrowing --This is a fun technique to subtract fractions when you don't have a large enough fraction. We'll borrow from the whole.

Reading:
Book Groups. Informational Text Reading.

• Book Groups --Students continue their book group work on summarizing, questioning, critically thinking, and discussing.
• Structure Informational Text --We'll look at a variety of ways to structure informational texts, such as topic/detail, compare/contrast, cause/effect, and sequence/narrative.
• Explicit and Implicit Meaning  --Students will find evidence and use quotes accurately to support their thinking about what the text says and means.

Writing:
Begin Informational Writing.

• On-Demand Informational Writing --After students conduct research, they will write a short informational piece about their chosen topic. This will help me know what to focus on in our Informational Writing unit.
• Strategies for Choosing a Topic and Taking Notes ​--We'll learn how to using questioning to develop an informational topic with a specific focus. We'll also learn about a notetaking strategy I call "categories," where students organize notes based on overarching topic categories.

Social Studies:
Colonial America.
I'll introduce Colonial America through a read aloud of A History of US by Joy Hakim and other texts. We'll use our informational reading skills to practice finding explicit and implicit meaning. We'll explore answers to the following questions:

• What is colonization and why do people colonize?
• What were the first colonies of America like?

Science:
We switch to Social Studies.

Homework:
Please check the Homework page for more details.

1. There is no new Homework Project this week.
2. Students will write back to their partners on Blog #7 by Friday.
3. Read 25 minutes at home per day and log the title, author, and time in the planner.
4. There will be a math page for homework each night.

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

Highlights from Last Week:

Climate Tours: This week students finished up their Climate Tour projects. Each student chose three destinations around the world to visit, each with a different climate. After researching their chosen climates and what causes each climate, students created posters to share what they learned. Students "traveled" everywhere, from the ice caps in the north pole to arid desert in Australia.

Greek and Latin Root Word Game: On Friday we started a fun vocabulary game to help students develop an understanding of Greek and Latin root words. Given a root, student teams had to come up with a unique vocabulary word build from that root. We'll play round 2, the Jeopardy portion, this week.

Behavior Expectations: We had to spend some time this week as a class discussing behavior. Negativity, calling out, belittling peers, attention-seeking, lackluster listening, and distracting actions of some students have been getting in the way of teaching and learning for all. We identified that it's a problem and promised to grow and improve as a group. 

Student Satisfaction Survey: Students took an anonymous survey that I created to gauge their satisfaction with the school year so far. I got some really helpful feedback from students on where my strengths are and about areas that could use improvement. As a class, we discussed the results, giving students an opportunity to analyze graphs. Overall, most students are very satisfied with how fifth grade is going.

​
What We Didn't Get To:
A lot. We got bogged down this week with unwanted behavior issues, but also our Climate Tour project took a lot longer than anticipated. Here is a list of things that we didn't get to:

• Equivalent fractions and adding fractions. Instead we spent extra time on finding fractions of sets and an open response.
• Informational text structures and implicit//explicit meaning took a backseat to text features, which we wrote about in an in-class reading response.
• Measuring weather. 
• Colonial America.

This Week's Plan


Upcoming Special Events: ​​​

• Early Release Wednesday.

Special Activities:

• Homework Project Shares: Students will share their Global Citizenship Part 1 projects.

Math:
Fraction Addition and Subtraction.

• Equivalent Fractions --I have a fun game to practice making equivalent fractions.
• Comparing and Ordering Fractions --I also have a fun game for this!
• Adding and Subtracting Fractions --We'll learn the steps to add and subtract fractions with like and unlike denominators, then practice simplifying our answers.

Reading:
Book Groups. Informational Text Reading.

• Book Groups --Students continue their book group work on summarizing, questioning, critically thinking, and discussing.
• Structure Informational Text --We'll look at a variety of ways to structure informational texts, such as topic/detail, compare/contrast, cause/effect, and sequence/narrative.
• Explicit and Implicit Meaning  --Students will find evidence and use quotes accurately to support their thinking about what the text says and means.

Writing:
Continue Spelling and Vocabulary.​

• Vocabulary --We'll look at common Greek and Latin root words through a fun game and Jeopardy.
• On-Demand Research --I will ask students to choose a topic to write an on-demand informational text about. First, I will observe how students conduct research on the topic.
• On-Demand Informational Writing --After students conduct research, they will write a short informational piece about their chosen topic. This will help me know what to focus on in our Informational Writing unit.
• Strategies for Choosing a Topic and Taking Notes ​--We'll learn how to using questioning to develop an informational topic with a specific focus. We'll also learn about a notetaking strategy I call "categories," where students organize notes based on overarching topic categories.

Social Studies:
Colonial America.
I'll introduce Colonial America through a read aloud of A History of US by Joy Hakim and other texts. We'll use our informational reading skills to practice finding explicit and implicit meaning. We'll explore answers to the following questions:

• What is colonization and why do people colonize?
• What were the first colonies of America like?

Science:
Finish Weather and Climate. ​

• Measuring Weather: We'll explore some old-fashioned instruments used to measure weather.
• Weather and Climate Assessment: Students will show their understanding of weather and climate on an assessment built from former Science MCAS questions.
  

Homework:
Please check the Homework page for more details.

1. Students finish their "Global Citizenship Part 1" and turn it in by Wednesday.
2. Students will receive a partner to respond to on the Reading Response Blog. Students must write about their partner's blog by Friday.
3. Read 25 minutes at home per day and log the title, author, and time in the planner.
4. There will be a math page for homework each night.

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