Word of the week - infinitesimal
Idiom = Stay on your toes!
Friday's Poem = Get A Life
Read alouds = picture books by Patricia Palocco and Ezra Jack Keats are used for writing mini lessons
Chapter book Lawn Boy by Gary Paulsen
After winter break we will be reading The Liberation of Gabriel King
Friday's poem by Eileen Spinelli
There are books to read.
And birds to feed.
And awesome facts for learning.
There are yards to weed.
And friends in need.
And dreams to set us yearning.
There are trails to hike.
And films to like.
And stories made for swapping.
What I meant to say in this poem today
is there's more to life than
shopping!
In reading students will be reflecting on their own books in a letter to me in their reader's notebooks. They will write about the traits of their main characters as well as reflecting on parts of the storyline.
This next trimester the students are going to be selecting novels from a genre that they haven't read from yet.
Tuesday's library lesson included some time for the students to browse through fables, folk tales, and fairy tales. The students enjoyed flipping in some new titles and reliving some oldies but goodies. There are many variations of Cinderella including The Rough Face Girl, an Algonquin version, and Yeh-Shen a Chinese version which is believed to be the oldest version.
Wordly Wise and spelling unit continue on an every other week basis. In class we continue tor review strategies for studying the words that are the most challenging for us. A helpful way for many is on spelling city. The Wordly Wise words are on Quizlet and the students have been practicing on this site.
We have been working diligently on typing club. Typing is a very important tool for the students to have. If there is ever a time that your child says they don't have much homework, please have them practice. The link is off our web site. We will be placing covers on the keyboards to prevent the peek and peck technique. :) While they won't be able to look down, the program hilights the fingers they need to use on the screen. It will say,"Type on me!" The key is lit up on the screen along with the finger they should use to type with. It's a pretty slick program.
I hope you enjoyed your child's narrative. We practice writing about important people, places and items we have. I modeled stories from authors and my own writing as well as previous 5th graders. The students were asked to write a seed story; not a water melon. They were asked to zoom in and tell the most important parts. Did they begin with a strong lead? Did they end with a reflection, memory, hope, or wish? Did they use figurative language so the reader could see what they saw and feel what they felt? Finally, did they story tell or write a summary. This is their first narrative, many of the students are working on moving away from the telling and more on the showing.
Mrs. Conley and Mr. Wheeler
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
Week of October 19
Vocabulary word of the week = allege
Idiom of the week = They're going bananas.
Class read aloud = Animal House and Iz by Betty Hicks
Poem of the week ( with similes)
"Wicked Witch Willebrand"
Wicked Wirch Willebrand was very scary indeed,
A nose like a banana, eyes like seeds
Her mouth so wide it dimpled her cheeks
And made if difficult for her to speak.
Willebrand's ears were large and very furry,
Her hair was bright red and always quite curly.
On top of her head, was a hat, oh so tall,
If she didn't stand up straight, most likely she'd fall.
Very long fingers were on her broad hands,
She wore rings of every color, purple, red, green, and tan.
Her nails were two feet long and pointed like a steeple
wow, what a scary sight she must have been to people.
Her black dress was long, usually dragging on the street,
And the funniest part were her tiny little feet.
Her five toes curled up, as she walked to and fro,
But where can such a funny lady really go?
Students shared their writing Graffiti boards which display favorite seasons, holidays, colors, and various words and phrases. This will be a page students can refer to if they have writer's block during writing workshop. We will be working on strategies for generating personal narrative writing. We will be writing about a person who matters to us. Students will list clear, small moments they remember with him or her. They choose one to sketch and write the accompanying story. We have more mini lessons that I will update you about.
Our Daily Oral Language lessons include practicing the pronoun I, commas in dates, for items in a series, with quotations, and coordinating conjunctions. The subject of the sentences is King Louis the XIV. He enjoyed his two million tulips in his garden and his meals which included 40 dishes. :)
We finished Alabama Moon and the student wrote about what they loved to display on their lockers in preparation for Watt Key's visit Thursday. We thoroughly enjoyed the book. Watt Key's characters come to life. The students shared their thoughts on a poster where I glued a copy of the last page of the book. Moon's last words are, " I'm going to be fine. You don't need to worry about me." We had many great conversations about the figurative language that bought these characters to life.
The students really enjoyed writing and sharing their thoughts about the last page of the book.
Idiom of the week = They're going bananas.
Class read aloud = Animal House and Iz by Betty Hicks
Poem of the week ( with similes)
"Wicked Witch Willebrand"
Wicked Wirch Willebrand was very scary indeed,
A nose like a banana, eyes like seeds
Her mouth so wide it dimpled her cheeks
And made if difficult for her to speak.
Willebrand's ears were large and very furry,
Her hair was bright red and always quite curly.
On top of her head, was a hat, oh so tall,
If she didn't stand up straight, most likely she'd fall.
Very long fingers were on her broad hands,
She wore rings of every color, purple, red, green, and tan.
Her nails were two feet long and pointed like a steeple
wow, what a scary sight she must have been to people.
Her black dress was long, usually dragging on the street,
And the funniest part were her tiny little feet.
Her five toes curled up, as she walked to and fro,
But where can such a funny lady really go?
Students shared their writing Graffiti boards which display favorite seasons, holidays, colors, and various words and phrases. This will be a page students can refer to if they have writer's block during writing workshop. We will be working on strategies for generating personal narrative writing. We will be writing about a person who matters to us. Students will list clear, small moments they remember with him or her. They choose one to sketch and write the accompanying story. We have more mini lessons that I will update you about.
Our Daily Oral Language lessons include practicing the pronoun I, commas in dates, for items in a series, with quotations, and coordinating conjunctions. The subject of the sentences is King Louis the XIV. He enjoyed his two million tulips in his garden and his meals which included 40 dishes. :)
We finished Alabama Moon and the student wrote about what they loved to display on their lockers in preparation for Watt Key's visit Thursday. We thoroughly enjoyed the book. Watt Key's characters come to life. The students shared their thoughts on a poster where I glued a copy of the last page of the book. Moon's last words are, " I'm going to be fine. You don't need to worry about me." We had many great conversations about the figurative language that bought these characters to life.
The students really enjoyed writing and sharing their thoughts about the last page of the book.
Monday, September 28, 2015
Week of September 28
idiom of the week -I'm all ears
vocabulary word = punctual
Read aloud = Alabama Moon by Watt Key
Hi Parents,
Thank you for helping you children remember their favorite books. We have been busy working on our Reading Timelines.
This week we set up our daily oral language notebooks in class. Each class begins with two sentences that contain a few various grammatical and spelling errors. We correct the sentences together. Along with capitals for the beginning of a sentence and for proper nouns, we will work on we dropping the before adding suffixes like (adoreable = adorable).
We will edit our paragraphs that we wrote last week in class. During class we will talk about the parts of a paragraph and add the pieces that we may be missing from our first drafts. For example, we will begin with an indent. We will check to make sure there is an introduction. Our paragraph rubrics can be located on the helpful links from our homework page.
This week's Friday poem is My Little Brother. We will be introducing similes and metaphors.
My teacher says to sue
metaphors and similes
whenever we write poems.
My brother Tom swoops in
like an F5 tornado
and destroys my bedroom.
He's a human wrecking ball
that crashes through my room
leaving trampled toys behind.
But I'd rather write it like this:
I've got an evil little brother.
And just
leave
it
at
that. -by Ralph Fletcher
In library this week we will begin the Inquiry Process. The inquiry process it a tool we find useful throughout our lives. ( We CONNECT - WONDER - INVESTIGATE - CREATE MEANING - EXPRESS AND REFLECT) The students selected 4 topics they are interested in from the informational books in our library. ( such as whales..) What are some questions that I could ask that I would like to know? For example - Did whales always swim in the sea? Next week we will investigate our topics.
In Wordly Wise we are making our way through Wordly Wise unit 1. The students can review rhe words on quizlet. (Book 5 unit 1) We haven't done this yet in class, but some kids in study hall have tried this link.
I appreciate your with making sure your child is reading 20 minutes each night. Weekends are busy times for many families. I am requiring 20 minutes total for the weekend. We are continuing to work on our reading stamina.
Have a wonderful week!
vocabulary word = punctual
Read aloud = Alabama Moon by Watt Key
Hi Parents,
Thank you for helping you children remember their favorite books. We have been busy working on our Reading Timelines.
This week we set up our daily oral language notebooks in class. Each class begins with two sentences that contain a few various grammatical and spelling errors. We correct the sentences together. Along with capitals for the beginning of a sentence and for proper nouns, we will work on we dropping the before adding suffixes like (adoreable = adorable).
We will edit our paragraphs that we wrote last week in class. During class we will talk about the parts of a paragraph and add the pieces that we may be missing from our first drafts. For example, we will begin with an indent. We will check to make sure there is an introduction. Our paragraph rubrics can be located on the helpful links from our homework page.
This week's Friday poem is My Little Brother. We will be introducing similes and metaphors.
My teacher says to sue
metaphors and similes
whenever we write poems.
My brother Tom swoops in
like an F5 tornado
and destroys my bedroom.
He's a human wrecking ball
that crashes through my room
leaving trampled toys behind.
But I'd rather write it like this:
I've got an evil little brother.
And just
leave
it
at
that. -by Ralph Fletcher
In library this week we will begin the Inquiry Process. The inquiry process it a tool we find useful throughout our lives. ( We CONNECT - WONDER - INVESTIGATE - CREATE MEANING - EXPRESS AND REFLECT) The students selected 4 topics they are interested in from the informational books in our library. ( such as whales..) What are some questions that I could ask that I would like to know? For example - Did whales always swim in the sea? Next week we will investigate our topics.
In Wordly Wise we are making our way through Wordly Wise unit 1. The students can review rhe words on quizlet. (Book 5 unit 1) We haven't done this yet in class, but some kids in study hall have tried this link.
I appreciate your with making sure your child is reading 20 minutes each night. Weekends are busy times for many families. I am requiring 20 minutes total for the weekend. We are continuing to work on our reading stamina.
Have a wonderful week!
Thursday, September 17, 2015
September 17
Thank you for coming to Open House. It was wonderful to see you all.
Students will begin to practice their cursive, grammar, and punctuation skills as we begin our Daily Oral Language. We will also be working on FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE. Students will be able to determine the meaning of words and phrases that are used in text such as metaphors and similes. We'll be sharing a few poems with personification including "Backpack".
Backpack by Irene Latham
I'd say paper
is my favorite feast -
I love it spiraled,
bound or loose-leaf.
Pencils poke,
rulers break.
Textbooks give me
a belly ache.
Whatever you feed me,
I'll do my best;
you're the one
who takes he tests!
The Friday poem, Backpack, will focus on PERSONIFICATION = giving human traits (feelings and actions) to non-human things.. Student will take a poetry survey where we will discuss their favorite poems and poets etc.
In reading the students are making entries in their new notebooks. We are discussing reading stamina. I am requiring 20 minutes of reading each night and I track and recorn books and page numbers Monday through Friday.
Our school read aloud is Alabama Moon by Watt Key
Monday, September 14, 2015
Monday, September 15
Open House is tonight!
Idiom of the Week They're in hot water.
Word of the Week bizarre
Read aloud Be A Perfect Person In Just Three Days by Stephen Manes
Students are finishing up their short pieces on the Best Part of Me. We will be decorating our writer's notebooks this week, attending our first library lesson on Tuesday, and we will be setting up our computers! A bust full week.
Snacks! We have snack/recess from 9:04-9:20 everyday. Please help your child remember to bring their snacks and water. It's a long morning.
The students will be writing to short prompts daily and on Friday we will have a poem activity. This Friday the lesson is about their backpacks. If they could talk, what would they say...?
Please have your child read every night. I absolutely suggest having them read to you and you to them.
Idiom of the Week They're in hot water.
Word of the Week bizarre
Read aloud Be A Perfect Person In Just Three Days by Stephen Manes
Students are finishing up their short pieces on the Best Part of Me. We will be decorating our writer's notebooks this week, attending our first library lesson on Tuesday, and we will be setting up our computers! A bust full week.
Snacks! We have snack/recess from 9:04-9:20 everyday. Please help your child remember to bring their snacks and water. It's a long morning.
The students will be writing to short prompts daily and on Friday we will have a poem activity. This Friday the lesson is about their backpacks. If they could talk, what would they say...?
Please have your child read every night. I absolutely suggest having them read to you and you to them.
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
September 9
We made it through the first day of school! Thank you all for your support as we get the schedules, lockers, lunch numbers, and rules and procedures in place.
This morning we went on a scavenger hunt though the building with our 8th grade buddies.
I will keep you posted.
PICTURES ARE TOMORROW
This morning we went on a scavenger hunt though the building with our 8th grade buddies.
I will keep you posted.
PICTURES ARE TOMORROW
Friday, August 21, 2015
Meet and Greet Reminder
Happy August,
We have certainly been blessed with rather warm and wonderful weather. The next few rainy days are good for raining and back to school shopping.
Mrs Jag and I sent out our back to school letters a few weeks ago. If you did not receive yours in the mail for some reason please let me know and I will send you one.
Our Meet and Greet is Thursday, September 3 from 10 to 11:00 a.m.
I look forward to meeting everyone.
Love,
Mrs. Conley
Welcome Back Letter -
Hello! We are so excited to work with you this year and can’t wait to meet you. Mrs. Jagolinzer (Mrs. Jag for short) will be one of your fifth grade teachers this year. She will teach math, science and social studies, and Mrs. Conley will be teaching language arts and reading.
Mrs. Jag lives in Cumberland with her husband and their younger son, Samuel, her dog, Vince, and her cats, Ella and Louis. Ben, her older son, will be a freshman at Kenyon College in Ohio this fall. That is going to be a big adjustment for her. Her family has been enjoying the summer, although it has been very busy. She has hiked six mountains this summer, one of them with her 84 year old father! She has also been busy building some end tables for her living room and playing lots and lots of tennis.
Mrs. Conley lives in South Portland with her husband and their three children. Her oldest children, Shannon and Patrick, are twins and they are both in college. Patrick is majoring in sports management at SMCC and Shannon is a nursing major at St. Anselm. Shannon also runs for the cross country team and is aiming to make it to the Division II Nationals this year. Mrs. Conley’s youngest daughter, Kayla, will be a seventh-grader this year. They, too, have enjoyed every minute of their summer. Some of their special moments included family time at Higgins Beach in Scarborough, hiking and biking in Acadia National Park, and they enjoyed a fabulous special family vacation in Wyoming where they camped in Grand Teton National Park.
We hope you and your family have had a wonderful summer as well. We are looking forward to hearing about your summer adventures when you return to school on Tuesday, September 8th. We will be working and playing hard this year. Between Mrs. Conley and Mrs. Jag you can expect about forty-five minutes to an hour of homework each night. You may want to begin thinking about where you would work best to complete your homework. It might be at the kitchen table, perhaps a desk in your room, or maybe you have another idea. Budgeting your time this year will be an important skill. You can expect homework on Monday through Thursday nights with the weekends generally free for family and fun.
Fifth graders know their math facts. You’ve got a bit more time to play Yahtzee, cribbage, bake recipes, play Monopoly, or any other activity that helps you learn your facts. You can even call out math facts as you’re driving to the beach. ☺ We will use all of our multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction facts this year. You can find some additional activities on our teacher pages. We know you can do it!
Mrs. Conley’s daughter, Kayla, just finished reading Counting by 7’s. As fourth graders you set reading goals for the summer. If you haven’t had a chance yet to settle down with a good book, it’s not too late.
We will organize our school supplies during the first few days of school. The school supply list can be found at http://hms.yarmouthschools.org/supply-lists.
Enjoy the last few weeks of your summer. Rest, relax, and have fun. We can’t wait to meet you. It’s going to be a fun year!
See you soon,
Mrs. Jag & Mrs. Conley
P.S. We will be in our classrooms on Thursday, September 3 from 10:00 until 11:00 setting up and preparing for the start of school. Please feel free to stop in for a few minutes to say hello during this time.
Monday, March 16, 2015
March
Word of the week = sluggish
Idiom of the week = She has ants in her pants,
In reading we will be discussing THEME
What stuck with you?
What was the message or lesson that the author wanted you to take away from the story?
Common themes include : the importance of family, acceptance, courage, perseverance, cooperation, compassion, honesty..
We will discuss the themes of our class read aloud novels and share the themes in our current books with each other.
In language arts, we are polishing up our explorer biography picture books.
Idiom of the week = She has ants in her pants,
In reading we will be discussing THEME
What stuck with you?
What was the message or lesson that the author wanted you to take away from the story?
Common themes include : the importance of family, acceptance, courage, perseverance, cooperation, compassion, honesty..
We will discuss the themes of our class read aloud novels and share the themes in our current books with each other.
In language arts, we are polishing up our explorer biography picture books.
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)