December

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.