Highlights from Last Week:

• Thanksgiving Assembly run by Mr. O'Neil --amazing!
• Dissecting owl pellets and reconstructing rodent skeletons.
• Class sing along of Pompeii and dance party.
• Wrapping up decimal division and multiplication and investigating fractions.

Special:

• Field Trip on Wednesday, December 3rd to the Peabody Museum at Harvard. WE NEED CHAPERONES!
  
• We'll be learning how the environment affected Native American tribal cultures and lifestyles.
  
• CASC Presentation about Weather on Thursday, December 4th.
  
• We'll be learning about the fundamentals of weather from the great Henry Massar.
  
• As a school, we celebrate Inclusive Schools week.
  

Reading:

• Continue reading in our book groups. We're getting close to the ends of our books!
  
• Discuss how a narrator's point of view influences how an event is described.
  
• Read "Chester's Way" by Kevin Henkes as part of Inclusive Schools week.

Writing:

• Take notes on Colonial America for our upcoming writing research project.
  
• Discuss and write about how people who are very different can be friends as part of Inclusive Schools week.

Math:

• Begin investigating fractions by finding a fraction of a whole.
  
• Divide whole numbers into parts to get answers that are fractions.
  
• Investigate mixed numbers.
  
• Compare and order fractions.
  
• Explore ways to find equivalent fractions.
  

Social Studies:

• Research Colonial America and take notes.

Students then will work in a team on the following items:

• A travel brochure for a colonial region.
  
• An advertisement to persuade Europeans to come to your colony.
  
• Diary entries about life in the colonies.

That's the general plan for the week! Thanks for reading.

Highlights from Last Week

• Our Class Breakfast Bash was a blast! Thank you parents for joining us to celebrate our hard work in writing. Students did a fantastic job preparing for our presentation, and cleaning up after it!
  
• Our teaching intern, Ms. Faucon, has been absolutely amazing! She's running guided reading groups, helping students as they work independently, and joining in all of our class activities like she was born to do this!
  
• We met with our first grade reading buddies on Thursday. The first graders picked out a book for the fifth graders to read with them. 
• We had a fun trivia game on the European Explorers. Students worked in teams to answer their own questions about their research.
  
• In math, we dove deeper into decimal multiplication and division instead of launching into fractions. Students learned how to multiply and divide by decimals less than 1. This will help us immensely when we start learning about operations with fractions.
  

What We Didn't Get To

• Describe how a narrator’s or speaker’s point of view influences how events are described.
• Review fraction concepts and relate them to decimals.
• Students will write two diary entries that describe one interaction, one from the perspective of a European explorer and one from the perspective of a Native American. (Most students barely finished one diary entry. They had too much fun researching.)

Special
Wednesday, November 26th:

• Thanksgiving Assembly at 9:30am
  
• Early release at noon

Thanksgiving Break this week!

Reading
Here is what we will work on in Reading this short week:

• Continue reading and discussing in our book groups.
• Students complete "Reading Reports", which have them summarize, infer, predict, evaluate, describe, questions, and look up vocabulary.
• Describe how a narrator’s or speaker’s point of view influences how events are described.

Writing
Instead of starting a new writing project, we will use Writing Time for Social Studies.

Math
Here is what we will work on in Math this week:

• Review decimal multiplication and division concepts.
  
• Take a quiz on the above.
  

Science
Here is what we will work on in Science this week:

• Dissecting owl pellets! We'll learn about the eating habits of owls and the food chain.
  

Social Studies
Here is what we will work on in Social Studies this week:

• We begin learning about Colonial America.
  
• We'll read, "You Wouldn't Want to be an American Colonist"
  

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

Highlights from Last Week

• The amazing Talia and Anthony were fantastic hosts for All School Meeting on Monday. Our class did an excellent job being models of expected behaviors. Bravo!
• Students really enjoyed the Understanding Our Differences workshop, which was about physical disabilities. Everyone left moved and inspired.
• The Living in Outer Space projects were phenomenal! Great job class!
• Students learned about the exciting adventures of European explorers through online research.
  
• We put division to the test in real life applications, such as making teams and taking field trips. Students can confidently divide decimals by whole numbers.
• We finished editing and revising our personal narratives, getting them ready for publishing this week!
  

What We Didn't Get To
Looks like we accomplished most of last week's plan.

Special
********* Ms. Kimball's Class Breakfast Bash! ************
We'll be presenting our personal narratives. Please join us to celebrate all of our hard work and creativity.
When: Thursday, November 20
Time: 8:20-9:15AM
Please contact Mary Miller to coordinate breakfast items you are able to bring.
***********************************************************

This week we start "What I Need" time (WIN time), which is designed to help students who need targeted literacy and math support.

Reading
Here is what we will work on in Reading this week:

• We continue meeting in our book groups.
  
• Students complete "Reading Reports", which have them summarize, infer, predict, evaluate, describe, questions, and look up vocabulary.
  
• Describe how a narrator’s or speaker’s point of view influences how events are described.
  
• Read about the journey of Christopher Columbus.
• Meet with our first grade Reading Buddies on Thursday.

Writing
The Writing block will also be used this week to do research for our Social Studies topic of Explorers. 

• Students will write a short essay explaining how two different narrators can describe the same event differently.
  
• Student take notes on their research on European Explorers. From those notes, they will write trivia questions.
• Students will write two diary entries that describe one interaction, one from the perspective of a European explorer and one from the perspective of a Native American.

Math
Here is what we will work on in Math this week:

• We take an assessment on Division.
  
• Multiply decimals less than 1 by other decimals less than 1.
  
• Divide decimals by decimals.
  
• Use models and pictures to show decimal multiplication and division.
  
• Review fraction concepts and relate them to decimals.

Science
We take a break from Science this week to focus on Social Studies.


Social Studies
Here is what we will work on in Social Studies this week:

• European explorers: research route maps, goals, impact on native cultures, and impact on the world.
  
• We'll take a closer look at Christopher Columbus during our reading time.

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

Highlights from Last Week

• Met with our first grade reading buddies.
  
• Learned how to divide decimals and played a fun math division game called, "Division Dash."
  
• Researched Native American tribes and learned how the environment where they lived affected their lifestyles and cultures.
  
• Read about hypothermia and why it's so dangerous.

What We Didn't Get To

• Quote accurately from the text when we explain what the text means and also when we draw inferences.
• Finding, defining, and using new vocabulary words.
• We haven't finished watching BrainPop videos on Life and Ecosystems, or answering Science MCAS questions .

Special
All School Meeting: Monday, November 10 at 8:40am. Our very own Talia, Anthony, and Julia will be hosting the meeting.

Veterans Day: Tuesday, November 11th. No school.

Understanding Our Differences: Thursday, November 13th. In this special Thursday Afternoon Program, students learn about disabilities and how to respect those that live and learn differently than what is considered "normal."

Reading
Here is what we will be working on in Reading this week:

• We continue our Book Group discussions.
  
• Summarizing your reading.
  
• Comparing and contrasting two characters using evidence from the text.
  
• Finding, defining, and using new vocabulary words.

Writing
Here is what we will be working on in Writing this week:

• Writing a short essay that compares and contrasts two characters, or
  
• Writing a short essay that analyzes a character.
  
• Students will also make final edits to their personal narratives, which I will post on the website for your reading pleasure later this week!

Math
Here is what we will be working on in Math this week:

• Interpreting the remainder in division.
  
• Division number stories and writing algebraic equations.
  
• Ordering decimals from least to greatest.
  
• Reviewing for an assessment on Division (next week).

Science
In Science, we'll try to finish up watching our BrainPop videos on Life and Ecosystems then answer some practice MCAS questions to sharpen our understanding of concepts like migration, hibernation, metamorphosis, and more.

Social Studies
In Social Studies, we will learn about the European Explorers who discovered/invaded the Americas. We'll discuss what it meant to be an explorer and how exploration impacted the world.


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

Highlights from Last Week

• We got a great new piece of technology --the clickers! Students have a little remote on which they can submit answers. My computer tallies the results instantly and I can help students who missed certain questions. The students love them!

• Students worked in partnerships to create a food web poster using data from Yellowstone National Park. They learned how energy flows from organism to organism. 
  
• We played a fun game in math to practice classifying polygons. Students took an assessment on polygons. A little reteaching on my part is necessary since most students missed the same questions on comparing polygons.
  
• I gave students a packet on Antarctica to practice responding to reading. We have a lot of work to do in this area to help students write clear, complete, and accurate responses to their reading.
  

What We Didn't Get To
We missed a session of Book groups on Friday because I couldn't resist letting students enjoy Brain Pop videos that help them with the Science MCAS. The videos are just so much fun!

Special
This week on Thursday we will meet for the first time with our first grade book buddies and read together.


Reading
Here are the reading lessons we will work on this week:
We will continue to meet in our book groups and have lively discussions about the text. We will:

• Compare and contrast two or more characters in the stories using specific details from the text.
• Quote accurately from the text when we explain what the text means and also when we draw inferences.
• Describe how a narrator's point of view influences how events in the story are described.
• Determine the meaning of unknown vocabulary and figurative language.

When students are not meeting with me in their book groups, they will be:

• Reading assigned chapters from their group book and "Power thinking".
• Reading and responding to assigned texts.

• Reading independently.
• Finding, defining, and using new vocabulary words.

Writing / Social Studies
This week we finish up our personal narrative unit. Students have a few more edits to make before we publish them all. 

After we finish our narratives, we're going to hold off on starting our next writing unit, Informational Writing. Instead, we are going to combine writing with Social Studies, teaching students how to take good notes and organize their research. We'll focus on the following:

• Use the "boxes and bullets" note-taking strategy.
  
• Write clear, complete, and accurate notes from research.
  
• Cite your sources!

Math
Here are the math lessons we will work on this week:

• Review how to classify polygons and compare properties of polygons. Take a follow-up quiz and correct the Unit 3 Math Assessment.
  
• Begin Unit 4 on Division by reviewing the relationship between multiplication and division.
  
• Use the partial quotients algorithm to solve division problems. The focus is on place value.
  
• Dividing decimals using the partial quotients and estimation.

Science

• We finish watch BrainPop videos on Life and Ecosystems, then we practice taking Science MCAS questions to test our understanding.
  

Social Studies
 As mentioned in the Writing section, we will be learning about history through reading and research. Here are the topics we will be researching this week:

• Native Americans: How did the environment a tribe lived in affect the tribe's culture and way of life?
  

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