Week of January 13

Wow, after a taste of spring this past weekend we were certainly brought right back to our typical temperatures this week.

Please look for the Glow Run information in your child's take home folder.

Congratulations to Eleanor Weyenberg! Eleanor and Oliver Brown are co-champions of the HMS school spelling bee.  We wish you good luck on February 10.

Enjoy a few photos above the class updates!

We had fun with the Rubik's cube mosaics during library.

working on the Rubik's cube mosaic 

inferencing notes in reading class

writing a  rhyming Parts of Speech Poem

Working hard!

We have started our new class read aloud, The Liberation of Gabriel King.  Gabriel King believes he was born chicken. He’s afraid of spiders, corpses, loose cows, and just about everything related to the fifth grade. If it’s a choice between graduating or staying in the fourth grade forever, he’s going to stay put; only his best friend Frita Wilson won’t hear of it. The book takes place in a small town in Georgia with an active Ku Klux Klan, the summer of 1976 is a momentous one. There is so much for the students to learn in this book.  We will practice our inferencing skills and we will be learning a wonderful amount of new vocabulary words each week. This week's words include liberation and integration.  We have talked a little bit about Jimmy Carter, the Watergate Scandal, and the Bicentennial Celebration. There are many important historical events that are discussed in this book. We experience them all through the eyes of a fifth grader. A few of the themes in this book include: friendship, courage, believing in yourself, and integrity. 

Each week Mrs. Conley posts the books she is reading outside of her classroom.   (We'll try to remember to include them in our blogs.)  Students continue to keep track of the genres they are reading.  Mrs. Conley book talks the books she reads each week and the students keep track of ones that spark their interest in their Reader's Notebooks.  

Mrs. Conley is currently reading Song For A Whale.  She recently completed: The Unsung Hero of Birdsong, USA, ( Historical Fiction) The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl, ( Realistic Fiction) and The Friendship War.  ( Realistic Fiction). 

From fixing the class computer to repairing old radios, twelve-year-old Iris is a tech genius. But she's the only deaf person in her school, so people often treat her like she's not very smart. If you've ever felt like no one was listening to you, then you know how hard that can be.

When she learns about Blue 55, a real whale who is unable to speak to other whales, Iris understands how he must feel. Then she has an idea: she should invent a way to "sing" to him! But he's three thousand miles away. How will she play her song for him?

Mrs. Conley and Mrs. Kilpatrick shared the winter reading test results with all of the students on Monday.  We explained what the scores mean and how to read what their strengths are as well as the areas that the student need to work on. They have their sheets in their take home folders.  Please email me if you have any questions.  Below is a sample sheet.  

In language arts we are learning about writing a persuasive letter and citing evidence from sources. The topic is about keeping or not keeping chocolate milk in schools. Many schools have banned having chocolate milk in school. Our students are reading articles about the pros and cons. They will get to decide what they think is best.

We are also writing another seed stories in our writing notebooks. The mini lessons include Patricia Polacco's stories.  Her stories are about her own family and each picture book is an example of a seed story packed with strong vocabulary and figurative language.  My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother, is a fun seed story about Patricia's older brother being better at everything -until Tricia makes a star wish that she can be better at him in something. They hold a competition to see who can eat the most rhubarb!

Grammar lessons can be fun.  Wait! What? We are working on the parts of speech by playing Gramo. The free space markers are Skittles.  The students also watched Grammar Rocks.

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