Saturday, September 17, 2017

Hi everyone...and welcome to our first classroom newsletter of the 2017-18 school year! At the end of each week, I will be sending you the latest edition of News From Room 202to keep you updated on our core subject highlights, as well as to communicate any important reminders about upcoming activities. Hope you enjoy it!!

We spent a good deal of time these first few weeks building our classroom community. Together, we discussed rules and expectations, and became familiar with 5th grade routines. We also constructed a Friendship Web, and reflected on the importance of each one of us to the success of our class as a whole. I introduced a new activity this year (that I picked up at last year’s P.D. in St. Louis). BreakoutEDU is an immersive learning platform, offering activities that engage students in the “Four Cs”: critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, and communication. Check out the 5th Grade Fun! photo album on my webpage to see how our class did on their firstBreakout, entitled Teamwork!

Additionally, here are a few highlights from our core curriculum subjects…

Reading: Students have received their Independent Reading Logs. Here, they will keep track of the I.R. books they read and stretch themselves to try new genres. To support the class in making appropriate choices, we had a mini lesson on choosing a “just right” book – one that allows them to think as they read. Additionally, our class is beginning to record their thinking as they read each day. (You should see evidence of this annotation in the post-its sticking out of their books!) Also, students had the opportunity to dig deeper into their summer reading text,The Invention of Hugo Cabret. Using Brian Selznick’s work as inspiration, they wrote their first reading responses of the year by describing, in detail, their own imagined automata.

Language Arts: We have begunLaunching the Writer’s Workshop. Students personalized their notebook covers with images and words that will inspire them as they write. In the weeks to come, we will begin “planting seeds” for our stories, which will lead us into our first unit, Raising the Quality of Narrative Writing. This week, our class will beintroduced to the 5th grade word study program, and receive their first vocabulary word list. Each week, they will receive direct instruction in the phonemic code, and explore common spelling patterns, with the goal of applying what they learn to decode and encode unfamiliar words.

Math: We started the year with a warm-up mini project entitled, My Life in Numbers. Our finished work is on display outside Room 202. Also, we began our first unit of study, Place Value. Students have been hard at work building on their prior knowledge by examining decimal place value. The goal is to develop math flexibility, giving students multiple strategies for problem solving. You should have received username and password information for IXL in your child’s homework folder. Students are encouraged to use this online tool at home for additional practice.

Religion:In support of our daily prayer circles, we took time during these first few weeks to explore five different types of prayer (petition, intercession, praise, thanksgiving, and blessing), and to practice using them as we pray each day. Also, students completed their first quiz on this material. Additionally, we joined the G.C.S. community for First Friday Liturgy at St. Michael’s. The 5th grade curriculum includes instruction in the seven Sacraments, and we have begun by looking closely at the Sacrament of Confirmation. We will review this material, and students will have a Chapter 8 quiz on Wednesday, 9/20.

Science: We began our year with a hands-on activity entitled Mystery Boxes. Working in groups, students practiced the skills of scientists, as they observed, recorded, inferred, and reached consensus on the contents of 6 mystery boxes. Then, we conducted a mock science conference, during which they had a chance to consider the findings of other groups, ask and answer questions, and defend their theories or revise their thinking. Finally, they discovered (much to their dismay!) that they could not open the tops to confirm with certainty the boxes’ contents. The goal of this activity is to help students tap into the same curiosity that drives scientists to research, discover, and invent. This week, we will begin our first unit, Physical Science, by exploring the energy transformations that take place during a roller coaster ride!

Upcoming dates to remember:

Mon., 9/18: Lice check

Wed., 9/20: Religion quiz (Ch. 8)

Thurs., 9/21: Bookstore open; Back-to-School Night – 7:00 p.m. in cafeteria

Hope everyone had a restful weekend, and I look forward to seeing many of you on Thursday evening!

Mrs. Greco