week of September 16

Happy Friday,

It looks like we will have a wonderful weekend with summer-like weather! 😎

Additional after school activity  = Birding Club - This club takes place in the library with Ms. Stuhr the first Wednesday of every month. 2:45 -3:30 ish.


Reminders - the orange folders have been distributed.  We are learning how to use them to keep our papers between home and school organized. Please send in the $2.00 for the folders if you haven't yet had the chance to do so.

* Thank you for sending in healthy snacks for our morning snack time.😀

* Please help remind your child to pack their books for school. We read in class every day.


Read aloud -

WE LOVE OUR READING CORNER CHAIRS

This week in A Night Divided:  Gerta sees her brother, Dominic, staring at her from the platform in West Germany.  This is the first time she has seen Dominic in four years!She waves to him, but she is caught by a Grenzer. Gerta is sternly warned to not wave at anyone or to look at the wall. Gerta attends her Pioneer meetings after school where she learns that freedom is overrated and they must always avoid fancy clothes and music from the Beatles.  Fritz and Gerta sneak some time and listen to the Beatles in his room. Fritz was able to purchase the album through the black market.  Gerta shares that she learns that her friend Anna's older brother, Peter, will be sneaking out of East Germany in the trunk of a car of some students from West Germany. The students are in East Germany visiting museums.....     We had lots to think about and discuss.

We have the comfiest reading corner in the school.  A big thank you to an extremely generous donation, we enjoy our mini lessons and reading time with new Big Joe bean bag and chairs and reclining cushioned small beach chair AND gaming chairs.  It is heavenly and makes reading even more enjoyable.  It is very cozy when we hold class discussions.


Language Arts

One of our lessons this week was a full class and small group lesson about our Life Role Outcomes:  Self-Directed Learner, Quality Producer, Collaborative Learner, and Responsible and Involved Citizen  Both groups did an outstanding job working together and presenting.

Thinking about the right bullet ideas for each learning outcome

presenting to our classmates

In math this week we learned more about PEMDAS.  We have learned how to solve problems with both multiplication/division and addition and subtraction.  Next week we will add in exponents and parentheses.  Big stuff!

We also added another couple of challenge choices to our homework repertoire.  We learned how to solve Sodoku puzzles and Mr. Gross introduced a new puzzle called Skyscrapers.  As a reminder, the expectation is at least 20 minutes of math each night Monday through Thursday and a completed packet returned to school on Fridays.  If your child finishes the packet early in the week they are expected to work on challenge choices for those twenty minutes.  Children have access to a new set of challenges each Monday.

In science we began our exploration of magnets.  Our budding scientists discovered that magnetic force travels through paper, wood, skin, and cloth.  They also discovered they could push or pull another magnet depending on which poles we placed near each other.  We'll soon read about the first known magnets; lodestones.  We will also test items to decide if they are magnetic or not.  It's always fun to see fifth graders grapple with the idea that not all metals are magnetic.  This is new learning for many!