 Week of 5/20 Hello all. Hope you enjoyed a great weekend. Just wanted you all to have a heads up for what is in store this week. The kids are working on two separate "research" based projects. In science they are doing a research paper on an environmental concern that faces our planet. They are going through a writing process in class and will be required to turn in a two page typed final paper by Thursday the 30th. I will only require homework be done on this project if students are unable to perform their in-class tasks in the amount of time allotted. The other project is our state of expertise. Students have chosen one of the U.S. states to do some research on, develop notes, and construct a brochure. Again, this should be an all in-class assignment, but may require some work to be completed at home. In math we are working on topic 19 which focuses on different graphs and probability. We will test on this topic this Friday. Also students continue to work on an architecture project. Students took the 6th grade placement test on Friday last week. They were not to study for the test, hence the lack of communication on it, but it was material covered throughout the year. If your child meets the requirements for taking some advanced math, I will be notified, then let you know when the next testing time is. This is not the exclusive piece as to where your student will be placed in math next year, but rather just another way to be sure we correctly place your child to be challenged and have success. We have a vocabulary assignment due this Tuesday and will test on the spelling and meaning of the words this Thursday or Friday. Students will be assigned their next set of states for their states and capitals quiz on Friday. Our Human Health and Development lessons will begin in one week, and almost all students have turned in their permission slips to view the final video, and we have Junior Achievement lessons beginning this Tuesday thanks to Mr. Chen. THANK YOU!!! Don't forget the Book Fair starts this week, we have Back to School Night on Thursday from 6-7, and to love your child because they are the only one of them. I feel blessed to be with these kiddos everyday, and I am beginning to feel the start of those separation pains that arrive with the onset of summer break. Week of May 13th Good morning parents. I hope you are off to a great week. We are in the process of wrapping up our STAR testing today, and the kids have shown great resolve in taking the test. We are all in attendance, so no make ups in the coming days. Yippeee!!!! Here is a list of upcoming dates for your calendars:
This week we are wrapping up the test and I have introduced a few projects that the students will be working on for the next few weeks. Here is a list of those projects:
If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me, otherwise I look forward to seeing you all next Thursday. GO WARRIORS! Mr. Ewing Week of 4/29-5/3/2013: Sorry for the delay on this newsletter. It was a rather busy weekend for my family. I will keep this short and send this out as an e-mail as well. This is to insure all families get to see this posting the week before testing. Math this week will consist of a topic test on perimeter and area this Tuesday, starting topic #8 on shapes, working through review for testing week, and hopefully we will test on topic #8 this Friday. I will devote extra class time for math this week. In writing, students are wrapping up their persuasive paper and are continuing to develop a power point to present their invention of choice. We are also using a weekly editing sheet this week to review some punctuation and grammar concepts. Science this week: Students received a study guide for the system of living thins test which will be this Thursday. It is a big test and we will have extensive review on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. Three outlines are due, along with the study guide, on the day of the test. There are two optional outlines on this site that students can do as extra credit. We had a special fourth grade review lab today and we will have review in many different forms this week. Students are asked to do some end of unit review in their floppy science books. Remember our students will be tested on 4th and 5th grade science material this year. Our science is scheduled to be tested next Wednesday and Thursday. Vocabulary and Grammar this week involve using grammatical terms in a vocabulary set up. Ask your students. They have to show their knowledge of these terms by constructing a sentence that has each of these and showing which words are which. Odds and Ends: Students can use tomorrow's HW Club for some STAR review or homework time. 2:06-3:00 STAR TESTING BEGINS NEXT WEEK: Language Arts Monday and Tuesday Science: Wednesday and Thursday Math: Monday and Tuesday the 13th and 14th Make up days will be that Wednesday and Thursday. There will be limited HW through testing. Please have the kids get a good night's sleep each night, have a healthy breakfast, and get up early enough to be ready to go by 8:45. Have a great week!!!!! Mr. Ewing Week of 4/22-4/26/2013 Welcome back from a weekend which brought with it a large taste of summer. Green's Gator Garden was planted this past week, and I am sure those veggies enjoyed the weather this weekend. Speaking of the garden, just a heads up, but I will be asking Green parents, who are available, to sign up for one week during the summer to tend to the garden with their child and family. It is very good for the kids, enjoyable, and you get to reap the wonderful goodness of whatever fresh, organic fruits and veggies are ready during your week. Keep an eye out for the sign up sheet.We have only two full weeks of classes until we begin state testing and we have a lot to do in this short amount of time. Do your best at home, to encourage your child to visit those websites, when time is available, and review/practice for the upcoming test. Math: We will test this Monday on the geometry concepts we worked on last week. We will move into perimeter and area of different shapes and quadrilaterals. A lot of this is review but there are new concepts as well. We will probably test on this topic on Friday of this week. Students will be working on practice math review tests in class and at home this week. IXL is optional, but recommended for your child. Reading: I have chosen to not read Bud Not Buddy at this point, but instead focus on using small reading pieces to solidify reading comprehension strategies, grammatical concepts, and use readers that are based in the sciences and current events. Students should read a minimum of 30 minutes per week. Science: We will continue with our living systems unit. We have focused on four systems in the human body, and are now moving on to systems in plants and the omnipotent photosynthetic process. We will be working on a packet that encompasses all fourth and fifth grade material, and will be excellent review for the students. We will work on it both in class and at home, so students need to be organized and responsible for the material. I am hoping to have student science fair boards back to them by the end of this week (no time again last week.) We will be using a number of different methods to review fourth grade material and students will be assigned work in their science floppy books to review fifth grade concepts previously learned. Writing: Persuasive writing peer-editing will be done on Tuesday. If your student has yet to finish their rough drafts in class, they are to do it as homework and be ready for Tuesday. Final drafts are due this Friday, April 26th. Grammar/Vocab New set of vocabulary words going home this Monday. The words focus on the root -therm, and ties right in with a lot of the science we have completed. The grammar focus is on capitalization and correct punctuation for titles and such. Social Studies: Students will continue on with their work in the Revolutionary war and the ensuing development of our nation at its birth.Odds and Ends: HW Club every Tuesday after school. Running shoes on Wednesday and Friday Talent Show 6PM on Thursday Wednesday is Collaboration. 1:51 Release Week of 4/15-4/19/2013 We have another very busy week coming up and I am very pleased how the students were able to return from the extended spring break and get right back to work. we had a very accomplished week and I know we will continue on the same path this week. Liam O'Flynn, Darren Cho, and Brent Boyd are the top winners of our March Madness bracketology and have won lunch with me sometime in the next few weeks. Last week a newsletter came home informing parents about the upcoming events that are designed to help our students have a seamless transition to Fallon. On Thursday we will be walking over to Fallon in the morning to meet with many of the teachers, staff, and current students. Also in that newsletter was an extensive list of all the material your student can review for the upcoming state testing. included in that list were a few websites students and parents can visit to review material or do sample questions. Please try to visit these when time allows. This Friday we will have a garden day that will extend into after school time. If any parents or students are willing and able to assist in the planting of our summer veggies, I would welcome the help. Please let me know so I can plan accordingly. Math: We will be testing on graphing and plotting this Monday and then moving into our geometry unit. This unit will progress very quickly like our unit on graphing. Also, we will have one math review/test prep-packet coming home this week and students will be assigned different question sets throughout the week to have ready for review during class. we have a separate packet we will be reviewing in class throughout the remainder of the year. IXL will be optional this week. Reading: We will begin our next core literature book titled Bud Not Buddy. It is a wonderful piece and will provide us ample opportunities to look at character development in relation to theme, descriptive use of language, use of inference and predicting to gain a better understanding of the story, and many other rich reading and writing concepts tied into the 5th and 6th grade standards. Also, we will use Curriculum Associate short reads to practice for the state testing. Science: We will continue with our living systems unit. We will be looking into the digestive, excretory, and circulatory systems this week. I am hoping to have student science fair boards back to them by the end of this week. We will be using a number of different methods to review fourth grade material and students will be assigned work in their science floppy books to review fifth grade concepts previously learned. Writing: We will resume our narrative writing focus this week. Students have chosen an invention they will argue is the most amazing invention of all time. We will have a specific format they are using to develop their opinion, support it with two facts, and develop a counter-arguement they may foresee someone arguing against their belief. Grammar/Vocab We will have our new vocabulary word list this week, and the quiz will be this Friday as usual. This week I have put together terms relating to language arts and the students are very familiar with most, but we must have these solidified now. We are continuing to break apart sentences and review the labeling of word and punctuation usage. Students must know the meaning of these words, how they are used in sentences, and be able to pick them out from different sentence types: adverb, adjective, prepositional phrases, nouns (-pro and proper), verbs, and appositives. Social Studies: Students will continue on with their work in the Revolutionary war and the ensuing development of our nation at its birth. Odds and Ends: Every Tuesday: Homework Club from 2:10-3:00 in our room, C-12 Wear running shoes on Wednesdays and Fridays Fallon field Trip Thursday 8:45-11:30 Fallon Counselors on campus Friday morning Need field trip forms for Fallon walk Week of 4/8-4/12/2013 I hope everyone enjoyed their spring break and you are all refreshed for our next leg of this year: the push to STAR testing in early May. We are scheduled to do testing this year on the first and second full weeks of May. This gives us roughly 4 weeks to complete the majority of our fifth grade curriculum, review fourth grade science material, an review the concepts we have worked on throughout this school year. This is a lot to get done, but I will motivate the kids to their part and approach these coming weeks with extra enthusiasm to get the task done. I will be sending home some 5th grade review packets for students to work on as homework and taking away some normal, weekly homework to compensate for the additional time spent on the review packets. I will also suggest a few websites for you and your student to look over should you so choose. March Madness has been exciting, and unfortunately this year many of the rounds were played while we were away from school on break. We will go over our brackets tomorrow, do the related math work(which is great review), and we will have two winners by Tuesday of this week. Those two lucky winners will have either have lunch off-campus with me, I will work out the logistics with the families and our administration, or they will have lunch prepared by myself and dine on our luxurious picnic tables out back. We will select a date when the winners are announced. I am luckily still holding strong with Louisville as my winner. GO CARDINALS!! Math: We will review topic 16 on Monday and test this Tuesday. We will then move into a quick unit on graphing and plotting equations in the quadrant system. IXL will be optional this week. Reading: We will be using short comprehension readers this week to discuss and review topics such as theme, using generalizations and inferences, looking at grammatical structure of sentences, and other areas of the language arts. These readers will be on many different topics and are designed to replicate the wording structure of our state test. We will begin our next core literature book next week. Science: We will continue with our living systems unit and students will perform their "Cells on Stage" in-class project on Wednesday of this week. We will be looking into the digestive, excretory, and circulatory systems this week. Writing: We have wrapped up our poetry unit and a few students will be finishing theirs during recess time this week. We will resume our narrative writing focus this week. Students have chosen an invention they will argue is the most amazing invention of all time. We will have a specific format they are using to develop their opinion, support it with two facts, and develop a counter-arguement they may foresee someone arguing against their belief. Social Studies: Students will participate in a very hands-on "Revolutionary War Walk Through" this Thursday in school. A flyer went home with information regarding this project the week before break. Odds and Ends: Every Tuesday: Homework Club from 2:10-3:00 in our room, C-12 Wear running shoes on Wednesdays and Fridays Collaboration Wednesday. Release @ 1:51 Week of 3/11-3/15/2013: I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and you were able to get out and enjoy the amazing weather. I was able to celebrate my boy's second birthday at a local park on Sunday with 75 degree weather! Amazing Northern California MArch weather. Here we are leading up to Camp Arroyo. Thank you for the drivers who have volunteered to bring studnets and luggage to camp on Tuesday the 19th and Friday the 22nd. It looks as though we are all set. Any last minute questions, please let me know, but otherwise, this is probably going to be the most memorabl time for many of our fifth graders this year. As a staff, we are very excited about the week. Math: We will test on unit 15 this Wednesday and begin our next unit on Thursday of this week. Studnets have earned a second party of their choice, by having over 85% of the class successfully get the correct mean on our ongoing project. It looks as though it will be an alliteration Pajama, Pillow, Pizza, (Pirated, not really) movie day on Monday of next week. I will let you know more details later. Next week we will begin our March to March Madness Math Mathem. We use the NCAA basketball tournament to do all sorts of mathemeatical concepts. We will use fractions, decimals, percentages, multiplication, division, ratios, probability, and algebraic equations to break down the madness. Students must do at least 30 minutes on IXL every week. Reading: We have finished the book and we will have a follow up project in class this week. We will be using two science "readers" this week to work on main idea and supporting details. Students must complete two AR quizzes by the end of March, and should always be reading at least thirty minutes a night at home. Science:Unit 1 test will go home this week. Ask your child how they did. Students knew this was to be one of the hardest tests of the year and test preparation was a key point we touch on throughout the year. We will be moving into systems of living things this week, and this is our final unit of the year. Studnet sshould be close to finishing their science fair boards, and they are set to be turned in on the Monday following camp. Studnets can turn in their completed boards anytime this week if they are already complete.The trout release field trip is all set for March 14th. We have enough drivers at this point.Writing: we will continue working on our poetry projects. Social Studies: Week of 2/25-3/1/2013: Welcome back from a great weekend and from our amazing trip to Camp Arroyo. Many memories were created through hands-on active learning centers and community deveploment projects. All Green students were on exceptional behavior and the whole week was a great success. A huge thank you to Mia teetsel, Paul O'Flynn, and Rigo DeLeon for chaperoning the event. Without you this would not have been the same experience. A great big thank you to all the parents who helped get the kids and their luggage to and from camp. we have a very busy week coming up leading us into our spring break, which falls next week. Math: Writing: We will continue working on our poetry projects, and the final portfolios will be due this Thursday. Grammar/Vocab We will have our new vocabulary word list this week, and the quiz will be this Friday as usual. Social Studies: Odds and Ends: Every Tuesday: Homework Club from 2:10-3:00 in our room, C-12 Wear running shoes on Wednesdays and Fridays Collaboration Wednesday. Release @ 1:51 Minimum Day on Friday. 12:40 Science: The science fair is Thursday evening and our student's boards will be displayed along with the rest of the school's in the MPR. We will be getting into lesson two of the unit on systems and will begin our in class project called "Cells on Stage". Week of March 25th-March 29th: Week of 2/25-3/1/2013: CAMP ARROYO INFORMATIONAL EVENING: THURSDAY 2/28 6-7 in MPR Welcome back from another fantastic weekend. I hope you were able to get out and enjoy the sunny weather with family and friends. We are back to our first full school week in quite some time. I am happy to say that our class will be working on another musical/art performance for your viewing pleasure. We will be learning some more songs from Matisyahu and other artists as well. This will look a bit different from the first performance in many ways. This comes at a great time since we are beginning our unit on poetry tomorrow. We have 28 seats taken care of for our trout release field trip, which means we need one more driver to volunteer. I will send home an email later in the week when all forms have come in. Thanks to those who volunteered their time that day. The end of trimester number 2 is this Friday, which is also a minimum day. Look for report cards to come home the following week. There is a lot of work to do and here is a look ahead to the upcoming week. Math: We are well into the unit on percentage and ratios. We will test on this unit this Thursday. Students must do at least 30 minutes on IXL every week. Reading: We are continuing in our core literature book and will be working on an in-class activity involving character development by authors. Students need to complete two AR quizzes this month, just like last month, by Feb. 25th. Science: I have set a trout release date. Please sign the field trip forms and send back ASAP. We will need drivers to fit all 29 of our students, I will transport our little fry. Please step up and help if you can. It is always a fun and educational trip for our students.We are through lesson three in the elements unit of science and will finish the unit this week. I will send home study guides for a test that will be the following Wednesday March 6th. Students have been given a reprieve on the lesson outlines to free up some time for working on their science fair projects. There will be no outlines 3 and 4, although I will allow students to complete the outlines as 10 points extra credit, per outline, toward their final trimester grade. They will be due on the day of the test. I will have them posted on the science link of this site. Science fair projects should be really underway and close to wrapping up the actual "doing" of the experiment and our students should be preparing to organize their data gathered, and mapping out their boards, doing any research as to the "why" of the results, and developing a conclusion to their hypothesis. Writing We are beginning our poetry unit this week. The students will be working on developing their personal portfolios for poetry. At the end of this two week unit, the students will have created five different poems utilizing five different structures. It is my job to be sure we tap into the interest of all students in a unit like this, so their will be many different subjects for the students to choose from. I look forward to seeing their final products. Grammar/Vocab Grammar topic 16 this week focuses on identifying different forms and types of adverbs. Quiz and packets due this Friday. This week we are back to our Latin roots, and will be focusing on the roots -vit and -viv which mean "life". Social Studies: We will continue our colonial studies, comparing and contrasting the northern, middle, and southern colonies. We will also continue our studies of patriots John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson. Odds and Ends: Read Across America Week: Crazy Hat Monday, and all day readathon on Friday!!! CAMP ARROYO PAYMENTS BY THE END OF THE WEEK PLEASE. Wear running shoes on Wednesdays and Fridays Every Tuesday: Homework Club from 2:10-3:00 in our room, C-12 Trout Release Filed Trip Form Trimester 2 ends Friday: Early Dismissal Chaperon Meeting for Camp Arroyo 8 AM in C-11 Collaboration this Wednesday the 27th: 1:51 release Week of 2/19-2/22/2013: Hello families. Welcome back from a wonderful weekend. In another long dry spell here after very little rain late last week. Even though it's nice weather, we definitely could use some rain here and snow in the hills. If not, it could make for a difficult, dry summer. Let's hope the high pressure pushes out, and the stormy low pressure systems move in. And on that note, it looks as though something will be coming through here soon with some much needed rain. YEAH!! We have a busy couple of weeks here leading up to our outdoor educational camp in March. Trout release date, informational meetings for camp, end of trimester two, second trimester assessments, science fair projects, March Math Madness, and so much more. PLease read through this letter with your child every week.Thanks and have a great week. Math: Students have completed the unit on dividing with decimals and signature sheets will go home on Tuesday. Retakes for the exam will be on Thursday. We are beginning our unit on ratios and percents. Our students have been working with these math components throughout the year in our mean, median, mode music lessons (that is how they won the electronic party), so I believe this will be a successful math unit for our class as a whole. Also, many students will be starting an advanced ratio/garden lesson in conjunction with this unit and the next. I am going to continue to revisit fractions throughout the remainder of the year, as this can be one of the most difficult math concepts in the 5th grade. There is no POW this week. Students must do at least 30 minutes on IXL every week. Reading: We are six chapters into our book Hatchet and please ask your kids about this book and get them to retell some of what they have most recently read. That is a great way to enhance their understanding and comprehension skills. Students will meet in their literature circles following every few chapters of reading. We will take a comprehension quiz sometime this week, and last week's results were great so I think the students are enjoying the adventures of Brian Robeson. Students need to complete two AR quizes this month, just like last month, by Feb. 25th. Science: I have set a trout release date. Please sign the field trip forms and send back ASAP. We will need drivers to fit all 29 of our students, I will transport our little fry. Please step up and help if you can. It is always a fun and educational trip for our students.Outline #2 is due this Thursday, and we will begin lessons/demonstrations on lesson three this week. Students should have used the minimal homework given last week, and this four day weekend, to possibly get ahead on their science fair projects. I will checking for procedures and materials early this week in class. Writing I used my extra time this weekend to grade our student's district assessments as well as their response to literature piece they did for our class. 58 papers later, I feel like I am oozing out author's messages out of both ears. They were great. Look for results to come home with your students today. We will begin our next writing format, which is the persuasion piece we have already started on what each student believes to be the most important invention in history. Grammar/Vocab Grammar topic 15 this week focuses on identifying different forms and types of adjectives. Quiz and packets due this Friday. This week I have made a list of ten words that are in our trout vocabulary or the elemental vocabulary. Look for nightly assignments for these words to help the kids gain a deeper understanding of each word. Social Studies: CAMP ARROYO PAYMENTS BY THE END OF THE WEEK PLEASE.We will continue our colonial studies, comparing and contrasting the northern, middle, and southern colonies. We will also continue our studies of patriots John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson. Wear running shoes on Wednesdays and Fridays Every Tuesday: Homework Club from 2:10-3:00 in our room, C-12 Trout Release Filed Trip Form Math Signature Forms Week of 2/11-2/14/2013: Hello families. Welcome back from a wonderful weekend. In another long dry spell here after very little rain late last week. Even though it's nice weather, we definitely could use some rain here and snow in the hills. If not, it could make for a difficult, dry summer. Let's hope the high pressure pushes out, and the stormy low pressure systems move in. What an amazing turn out at Muffins with Mom on last Friday. Hope you got there early. We are in need of Science Fair volunteers if anyone has the time please let me know. Science Night is Thursday, March 28th. Have a great week and see you all very soon. Math: We have completed the unit on multiplying with decimals and are into the unit on dividing with decimals. We should be ready to test on this unit by the end of this shortened week. I am going to continue to revisit fractions throughout the remainder of the year, as this can be one of the most difficult math concepts in the 5th grade.There is no POW this week. Students must do at least 30 minutes on IXL every week. Reading: We are three chapters into our book Hatchet and please ask your kids about this book and get them to retell some of what they have most recently read. That is a great way to enhance their understanding and comprehension skills. Students will meet in their literature circles following every few chapters of reading. We will take a comprehension quiz sometime this week. Students need to complete two AR quizes this month, just like last month, by Feb. 25th. Science: We have completed lesson 1 of the elements unit and will finish lesson 2 this week. Students will have a pop quiz on the periodic table this week. Science FAir projects should be underway for all students in our classroom. Last Friday I was able to meet with about half the class to discuss their topic of choice and to steer them in the right direction for creating a grade level project. I will meet with the other students on Monday. Encourage your child to expand and go further on projects that may seem below grade level or where I have asked them to do so. By this Thursday, students should have really started to develop the steps of their procedure for conducting the experiment. I want the students to have fun with this and really get into what they are doing. The dates are just to keep them up to speed and not have this be a burden down the road. Encourage them to take pictures along the way and create graphs where they can, so they can have a visually attractive science board to display their data. Our trout have hatched and they are in the alevin stage. Ask your child about this stage in their life cycle. Writing On Tuesday of this week, we will take our second trimester district writing assessment. It focuses on response to literature, so we should be well-oiled and ready to go. We will begin our next writing format, which is the persuasion piece we have already started on what each student believes to be the most important invention in history. Grammar/Vocab Grammar topic 15 this week focuses on.... Last week we did the -bio root and the students faired really well with these words. This week I have made a list of ten words that are in our trout vocabulary or the elemental vocabulary. Look for nightly assignments for these words to help the kids gain a deeper understanding of each word. Social Studies: Monday we have Soul Shoppe during our 10:15 slot.We will continue our colonial studies, comparing and contrasting the northern, middle, and southern colonies. We will also continue our studies of patriots John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson. CAMP ARROYO PAYMENTS BY THE END OF THE WEEK PLEASE. Wear running shoes on Wednesdays and Fridays Wednesday is collaboration. Early release @ 1:51 No school Friday and the following Monday, so enjoy the four day weekend. Every Tuesday: Homework Club from 2:10-3:00 in our room, C-12 Week of 1/22-1/25/2013: Okay. It's Monday evening, and first off, happy MLK Day and I hope you enjoyed the extra day off this past weekend. On my home-front, there is no new news on my little baby girl making her final move into this world. We are now two days over and doing many things to help her along her way. I have a substitute in line to take the classroom for five work days in a row for me when baby girl comes. As of now, I will be with the kids tomorrow, but obviously things can change in an instant. Here is what is in store for C-12 this shortened week. We will be finishing our unit on addition/subtraction of fractions on Tuesday, and then testing on the unit this Wednesday. Following this unit, we will move into decimals on Thursday.Have a great week and see you all very soon. Math: There is no POW this week. Students must do at least 30 minutes on IXL every week Reading: We are working on developing our inference skills and students will begin to read from our Houghton Mifflin Anthology book. We will begin a three day lesson on a story called "Eye of the Storm", which focuses on a period of time in the life of a storm chaser. We will work out of this book until we begin our next core literature book. Science: Study guides went home last week for the unit test on weather, which will be this Thursday(I pushed it a day so as to not be on the same day as the math test). Students need to have completed all of this unit's outlines and have them ready for the day of the test. We will begin our next unit on Friday, which is unit 1 Elements and molecules. I am still working on sending home a science fair packet and details on dates students need to stay up with. As of now, students can begin to develop thoughts on what subject/ concept they want to work on. Look for those science fair instructions. Writing Students have completed the graphic organizer for their response to literature piece and have written for two class sessions on their rough drafts. Students should be ready to do a peer-editing session on Wednesday of this weelk. This will be followed by revisions and beginning their final drafts.That being said, I have the students working on creating a power point, in computer lab, that shows what invention they believe is the greatest of all time. This will lead them into creating their persuasive piece following the completion of our current piece of work.We will begin a persuasive writing piece this week. Grammar/Vocab Students are working on the grammar lesson based on possessive forms of pronouns and nouns. The root for the week is -mal and -male which means bad or evil. Remember students must review these words for at least a few minutes every night at home and be prepared to test on Fridays.Also we are continuing to work on three songs by Matisyahu. This is great work for memorization and completing tasks. The students will be required to learn parts of each song and it will be part of their homework this week (a lot of kids have memorized all the lyrics from the songs, but others need a strong push to be ready for our performance). Social Studies: Odds and Ends: FRIDAY the 25th @ 2:00 sharp in the MPR Our musical performance. Please attend if you can!! Monday: We begin Soul Shoppe lessons. Ask your child.Camp Arroyo dues are to be presented to the office when you are ready. I have receipts for those who have already paid going home tomorrow. Wear running shoes on Wednesdays and Fridays Every Tuesday: Homework Club from 2:10-3:00 in our room, C-12 Students are encouraged to find either a yellow shirt or a royal blue shirt, that is fairly solid, to wear for our performance. Week of 1/30-2/1/2013: Hello all. I hope you had a great weekend, and extended time with your little ones. We have a very short week and our normal routine will be tweeked accordingly. First off, thank you all so much for coming to our classroom's musical performance on Friday. The kids seemed nervous, but full of pride to perform these songs for you and their peers. I know all the fourth grade teachers came to me later and stated how proud they were to see how much maturation and confidence many of our students exhibited during the performance. I believe it was a great success for our students in some of them finding their "voice/interests", increasing their vocabulary, increasing confidence in public speaking/singing, developing compassion and the belief in good for real world situations, and progressing as students half way through their final year before the step to middle school. I look forward to creating something else, together, as a class, for the future enjoyment of a simliar audience. Thanks again! We received our trout eggs on Monday and I have raised trout in the classroom for the past five years. Your studnets will get an in-depth look at the life-cycle of these amazing anodromous fish! Have a great week and see you all very soon. Math: Topic 11 tests will be handed back wednesday, and signature sheets are due back on Friday of this week. Retakes are scheduled for Friday during lunch recess. We will focus on decimals this week. There is no POW this week. Students must do at least 30 minutes on IXL every week. Reading: We are working on developing our inference skills and students will begin to read from our Houghton Mifflin Anthology book. We will begin a three day lesson on a story called "Eye of the Storm", which focuses on a period of time in the life of a storm chaser. We will work out of this book until we begin our next core literature book. Science: We will pass back weather tests on Wednesday and begin our unit on elements and molecules. This is an awesome unit with many amazing labs and demonstrations. We call this unit, "Building Everything". Also, the trout in the classroom curriculum will begin this week. Some material will go home, but the majority will be done in class. Writing We will wrap up our response to literature papers this week, and begin our persuasive writing papers next week. Grammar/Vocab Their will be no new vocabulary words this week. We will work on grammar rule 14 and quiz on this material this Friday. Social Studies: Odds and Ends: JANUARY 30th is collaboration. Release @ 1:51Camp Arroyo dues are to be presented to the office when you are ready. I have receipts for those who have already paid going home tomorrow.Wear running shoes on Wednesdays and Fridays Week of 2/4-2/8/2013: Hello all. welcome back from a great weekend. I hope you had time to do wonderful things with your families, and really soak up this beautiful life we all are blessed to live. I am adjusting to having another little one in the household and the joys and responsibilities of this new little nuggette. We have a busy week ahead and here is what is in store. Have a great week and see you all very soon. Math: We are going to be wrapping up our topic 6 lessons on Tuesday of this week, and the kids will test on multiplying decimals this Wednesday. We have completed topic 11 retakes, and they will go home on Monday of this week. We will move into dividing with decimals following the topic 6 exam, and our students have seen a lot of this concept already with a little side lesson we have been doing throughout the year called, "mean-median-mode." So I sense we will be moving quickly through this unit as well. There is no POW this week. Students must do at least 30 minutes on IXL every week. Reading: On Monday, we will begin our next core literature book called Hatchet. This is a fascinating book and we will be doing many wonderful activities throughout the duration of this book, focusing on developing our reading comprehension skills. Students will work in small literature circles to discuss the book in more depth. Students need to complete two AR quizes this month, just like last month, by Feb. 25th. Science: We began our unit on atoms and elements last week and will continue on with this unit for the next month. We are getting very familiar with the periodic table, and each student has been given one. But I suggest they print one out from the internet, or purchase an inexpensive one, and have it posted somewhere in their rooms so they can just peak at it here and there. Please ask them what aspects of this unit they worked on each day as they come home. It's a great wayfor them to boast and to really comprehend the material, which at times can be very abstract and "big" for them to grasp. Also, the trout in the classroom curriculum will begin this week. Some material will go home, but the majority will be done in class. Writing We will wrap up our response to literature papers this week, and begin our persuasive writing papers next week. Grammar/Vocab We had copier issues this past week, and it was a very short week, so we did not get to grammar topic 14 and we will pick that up this week. Vocabulary will consist of words from our core literature book and the science material. I will have nightly homework involving the vocabulary words, so please be aware of this. Social Studies: Students will continue working on the colonial era with ms. Currin Odds and Ends: Monday we have Soul Shoppe during our 10:15 slot. Camp Arroyo dues are to be presented to the office when you are ready. I have receipts for those who have already paid going home tomorrow.Wear running shoes on Wednesdays and Fridays Every Tuesday: Homework Club from 2:10-3:00 in our room, C-12 Week of 1/14-1/18/2013: Welcome back from an extremely chilly weekend. Our school garden took A hit this weekend and we lost some of our starter plants. Ohh the trials of gardening. This weather is great conversation for our current unit of science. Talk to your child about factors of weather and how to forecast weather. A few items on the radar. 1) Please bring Camp Arroyo fees to our wonderful secretaries in the office when you have time. (Unless you have already paid, or we have arranged otherwise) Camp runs from March 19th through the 22nd. It will be here before we know it. 2) Look for science fair project details to come home by the end of this week. The fair is tentatively set for March 29th. 3) We have our date set for performing the music we have been practicing. It will be January 25th starting @ 2PM in the MPR. Please attend if you can. 4) My baby is still in the holding pattern and I feel confident we should have our new baby girl in this world by this coming weekend!! So needless to say, my household is a bit on edge right now. I will keep you posted. Have a great week and see you all very soon. Math: Students have received their scores for topic 12 and have signature sheets to be signed and returned by you, by this wednesday. Retakes are set for lunch time on Wednesday the 16th. We have started into topic 11, which focuses on adding and subtracting fractions of all types. POW #14 is due this Friday. Students must do at least 30 minutes on IXL every week Reading: We have read an Australian folklore on the creation of Earth and the studnets will be doing an art project called Aboriginal Dot Art. It should be a lot of fun. We are working on developing our inference skills and students will begin to read from our Houghton Mifflin Anthology book. Science: We are discussing lesson 3 of weather and will move into lesson four on Wednesday of this week. We should finish this unit by the end of this week, review on Monday of next week, and test on Tuesday the 22nd. Study guides will go home on Wednesday or Thursday of this week. Look for those science fair instructions. Writing: Instead of moving into a writing piece based on persuasion, we have started our unit on "Response to Literature". Last week we listened to a short story and discussed aspects of author's message from the story. Students filled in a graphic organizer to help them organize their response to this particular piece. Today(Monday) we reviewed the piece, read another story, and now the students will begin to create their piece in response to this story. Students are focusing on the author's message, supporting it with direct quotes from the story, tying in a personal connection to the story, and then beginning to develop their papers. We will continue to work on this through the week. That being said, I have the students working on creating a power point, in computer lab, that shows what invention they believe is the greatest of all time. This will lead them into creating their persuasive piece following the completion of our current piece of work.We will begin a persuasive writing piece this week. Grammar/Vocab: We will be working on pronoun usage and the antecedent of a sentence. Our roots for the week are -bene, -bon, and -ben, which mean good or well. Remember students must review these words for at least a few minutes every night at home and be prepared to test on Fridays. Also we are continuing to work on three songs by Matisyahu. This is great work for memorization and completing tasks. The students will be required to learn parts of each song and it will be part of their homework this week (a lot of kids have memorized all the lyrics from the songs, but others need a strong push to be ready for our performance). This will be sometime next week. I will keep you posted and send home invites to all parents or family members. Social Studies: Students will review the 5 themes to geography. They have a 5 theme research paper due this Thursday. Reading about new England colonies. Odds and Ends: FRIDAY the 25th @ 2:00 sharp in the MPR Our musical performance. Please attend if you can!! Monday: We begin Soul Shoppe lessons. Ask your child.Camp Arroyo dues are to be presented to the office when you are ready. I have receipts for those who have already paid going home tomorrow. Wear running shoes on Wednesdays and Fridays Every Tuesday: Homework Club from 2:10-3:00 in our room, C-12 Spelling Bee this Friday 8:45 in MPR Week of 1/07/2013-1/11/2013: Wow! Here we are in the year 2013. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday break and I look forward to hearing about all of the amazing events that took place in the kid's worlds over the break. It most certainly has been quite chilly here in the East Bay and has dried out since those rains prior to leaving for break. Try and hold discussions with your kids about the weather as that is our main focus in the sciences right now. Hopefully we are creating little meteorologists that have a better understanding of what is going on out there. We have a lot of material to get to right away in the classroom, and the next big event to look forward to is Camp Arroyo in March. Be sure to have all payments in for your child as soon as you are able. That way I can ease the logistics burden on our Camp leader, Mrs. Diaz. Here is what we have in store for the week ahead. Have a great week and see you soon. Math: We will review the first 5 lessons in topic 12 on Monday, followed by completing this unit's lessons by Thursday of this week. we will review Thursday afternoon and test on Topic 12 this Friday. POW # 13 will be assigned on Monday and is due this Friday.Reading: We have completed the book Number the Stars and will wrap up our discussion about this book's topic on Monday of this week. We will begin reading our next core literature book this Wednesday. I am working with Mrs. Diaz to coordinate which book we will read next. Students are required to read for thirty minutes every night and take 2 A.R. quizzes by the end of this month. We will continue to work on identifying main idea and supporting details of different texts to bolster our student's comprehension skills. Science:We will review lesson 1 and 2 of the weather unit early this week, and we will do lessons 3 and 4 by Friday of this week. Students should have completed their daily weather journals, and will be working with a partner to develop graphs for one aspect of their journals they have already been assigned. This will be an in class project. Also, the Science Fair occurs in early March this year and students should start thinking about a topic/project they may want to do for the fair. I will be handing out procedures for students to follow for completing this task. It is a mandatory project for all Green 5th graders and I want to give the kids a good amount of time to create a wonderful, detailed board for their particular topic. Look for this to come home by the end of the week. Writing: We will begin a persuasive writing piece this week. The students will have the topic introduced on Monday, direct lessons on persuasive writing style (audience it's written for, fact-based reasoning, voice usage, etc..), and begin to develop their graphic organizer for their rough draft. Their fables have been corrected and they will be hung in the classroom so ask your child for their grade received. Grammar/Vocab: We will be working on pronoun usage and we will return to the Greek and Latin roots this week. Remember students must review these words for at least a few minutes every night at home and be prepared to test on Fridays. Also we are continuing to work on three songs by Matisyahu. This is great work for memorization and completing tasks. The students will be required to learn parts of each song and it will be part of their homework this week (a lot of kids have memorized all the lyrics from the songs, but others need a strong push to be ready for our performance). This will be sometime next week. I will keep you posted and send home invites to all parents or family members. Social Studies: Students will review the 5 themes to geography. They have a 5 theme research paper due next Tuesday. Reading about new England colonies. Odds and Ends: Monday: We begin Soul Shoppe lessons. Ask your child.Wednesday of this week is collaboration. Dismissal @ 1:55 Wear running shoes on Wednesdays and Fridays Every Tuesday: Homework Club from 2:10-3:00 in our room, C-12 Week of 12/3-12/7: Welcome back from a wet and wild weather weekend. The weather is perfect timing for us moving into our weather unit in science. We are moving into our second week back from break and have a lot to look forward to in the classroom. Here's a look ahead. Have a great week. Math: We will continue with our topic on fractions and will test on this topic, #10 and one lesson in 11, on Friday of this week. POW # 10(sorry I said the wrong one) will go home today. Most students did really well on the last one which dealt with an elephant's heart rate. Be sure your child follows the requested steps. Students are responsible for doing 30 minutes on IXL math this week. Focus on fractions. Reading: We will begin our next core literature book, called Number of Stars. The book takes place in WW II Europe and involves a girl in her early teens and the trials she deals with throughout this time frame. Students will be working in literature groups to discuss reading segments. As necessary I may assign some chapters to be read at home and lit. circle assignments to be completed for meeting times. Students are required to read for thirty minutes every night and take 2 A.R. quizzes by the time we break on December 21st. I will be sending home the science tests today. Our kids did really well and were definitely saturated with the water cycle. as stated before, we will be moving into the unit on weather. I will be posting a few sites on the science link on this site for students to use as we progress through this unit. Students will be responsible for a daily weather journal that will begin going home starting tomorrow. Writing: We will begin our next piece on fables and the students will create a fable to explain a severe weather condition. Outlines for the assignment will go home on Monday, and most of this work will occur in class. This is great because of the creative nature of the assignment and also it leads into our next science unit. Grammar/Vocab: We will be working on verb tense this week in grammar. The Latin root we will be investigating is -cred, which means to believe. Isn't that incredible! Social Studies: We have finished our unit on the Age of Exploration, and will begin our studies of the New World. Having the background map on the 13 colonies will prove helpful, as will our understanding of human geography.' Odds and Ends: Camp Arroyo: Just a heads up on some payments. San Jose Tech Museum field trip form. (Going Home Tuesday) Wear running shoes on Wednesdays and Fridays Every Tuesday: Homework Club from 2:10-3:00 in our room, C-12 Week of 11/26-11/30: Welcome back from a nice, extended break for all of us. I hope you were able to spend time with family and friends, and gave thanks to all of the wonderful people we have in our lives. Any travelers, I hope the trip was smooth and I look forward to hearing from the kids this week about their experiences and new memories that were created. Getting back, we have four weeks until we leave again for an even longer break and there is soooo much to do in the coming weeks. So here we go, and I hope you all have a fantastic week. Math: We have completed topic #9 and are set to move deep into fractions. We will look to complete topics 10 and 11 by the time we break in late December. Students are asked to complete 30 minutes of IXL math on fractions. Also, the problem of the weeks will be back in effect. Students should complete POW #9 by Friday of this week. Take a few minutes to see your child's explanation for coming up with the answer the way they did. Reading: We will begin our next core literature book, called Number of Stars. The book takes place in WW II Europe and involves a girl in her early teens and the trials she deals with throughout this time frame. Students will be working in literature groups to discuss reading segments. As necessary I may assign some chapters to be read at home and lit. circle assignments to be completed for meeting times. Students are required to read for thirty minutes every night and take 2 A.R. quizzes by the time we break on December 21st. I have posted the water cycle unit's study guide under science information on this page, but the students will receive their hard copy on Monday. Directions are on the sheet. We will complete our lesson on water conservation on Tuesday, review the unit on Wednesday, and then test on Thursday of this week. Writing: We will begin our next piece on fables and the students will create a fable to explain a severe weather condition. Outlines for the assignment will go home on Monday, and most of this work will occur in class. This is great because of the creative nature of the assignment and also it leads into our next science unit. Grammar/Vocab: Students will work on the roots -scrib and -script. The words will go home on Monday and we will have a quiz on Friday of this week. Students should spend 5 to 10 minutes a night learning these words. Our grammar for the week involves better understanding different types of verbs and their usage in sentences. We will quiz on Friday. Social Studies: We have finished our unit on the Age of Exploration, and will begin our studies of the New World. Having the background map on the 13 colonies will prove helpful, as will our understanding of human geography.' Odds and Ends: Camp Arroyo: Just a heads up on some payments. San Jose Tech Museum field trip form. (Going Home Tuesday) Gator Gallop Awards on Friday the 30th TBD Wear running shoes on Wednesdays and Fridays Every Tuesday: Homework Club from 2:10-3:00 in our room, C-12 Hello families. I hope you all enjoyed a fantastic three day weekend. We have a very truncated week ahead of us in preparation for our Thanksgiving Break. There is a lot to do from today until Thursday, and the kids have definitely earned a little break from the rigors of school and everything else going on in your lives. I hope you parents find time to relax and enjoy some time off as well. Week of 11/13-11/15: Here is a look at the short week ahead, and have a great week. Math: We will complete topic 9 on factoring and prime factorizing. We will focus some extra time on math this week to complete the unit and be prepared to test on Thursday of this week. Reading: We completed Walk Two Moons last week and we will make a culmination project in class this week. Also, we will reenact portions of the book in class with small groups. The students seem excited about this due to the fact their is no movie to follow up this amazing story. Also, read 30 minutes a night this week, and try to take an AR quiz prior to leaving for break. We will move into lesson 3 of the water cycle unit this week. We will probably finish the unit by Thursday, but I will wait to assess on the unit until we return from break. We had to push back the Water Olympics until this week, and students should complete lesson 2 of this unit in their floppy science books by Thursday of this week. Vocabulary: We will not have words this week from our Latin roots book. Odds and Ends: All three days this week will be early dismissal 2:06Thanksgiving Break: No School 11/19-11/23 Wear running shoes on Wednesdays and Fridays Week of 11-05 through 11-06: Hello all. I hope you are doing well. Sent this one out after school on Monday. Another busy weekend in the Ewing household. We have completed one trimester and i must say, this class is really starting to kick it into high gear. We are tackling a lot of new concepts and the students are handling the rigor of fifth grade in stellar fashion. Keep it going as we move into the next chapter of this year. Conferences will begin this week and the schedule is very tight. I will ask that all students attend their conferences. They will not be student-led, but I do want them present. The time slots are 15 minutes, so please do your best to be on time and I will do my best to keep meetings as beneficial and precise as I can. Have a great week and GO GATORS! Math: We have completed topic 5 and will test on it tomorrow. Students were given the option to do pages 132 and 133 in their hard books as review for the test. We did some review today and will answer any final questions prior to the assessment tomorrow.We move into topic 9 involving factors and multiples. Students will be given a problem of the week (POW) tomorrow and it should be completed and turned in by Friday of this week. Encourage students to try the extension activities if you have the time. Last week students completed their trimester 1 district assessment and I will be discussing those with parents at our conferences. Science : We will move along in unit 3 of our science text and discuss watersheds and water sources for human consumption. We will do a fantastic lab, called the water Olympics. It demonstrates the amazing characteristics of water and why it is so important to life on Earth. Students should have completed their first outline of the unit and pages 88-99 in their floppy, interactive text books. We will review these in class this week.Vocabulary: This week we are focusing on the root -graph, which means writing. Have your student work on the meaning of these words for a Friday quiz. We will play some review games with the words in class. Our grammar rule for the week is irregular plural nouns and plural nouns. We will work on the packet in class, but each child is responsible for having the packet completed by Thursday of this week. Test on Friday.Reading: We are close to finishing our core literature book Walk Two Moons. Students will meet in their Literature groups and hold "reading forums" on the chapters in this particular section. The book has really captured their interest, and has a lot everyday meaning for the students. Ask your child about the "messages".Writing: We are wrapping up the narrative writing piece and we will be moving into creating legends about certain weather phenomenon. We will start with some short reads about the belief systems of cultures from the past that answered these huge questions for them prior to all of the technology at our fingertips these days. I am very much so looking forward to this activity with the students. It ties in with our science, weather unit, and our social studies unit on early Native Americans. Odds and Ends: Wed. the 7th: Collaboration Day: Release @ 1:55 Friday: Donuts With Dads 7:40 AM Friday the 9th: Early Release 2:06 Monday 11/12 No School: Veteran's Day Conferences begin Thursday, and continue next week on Tues, Wed, and Thurs Wear running shoes on Wednesdays and Fridays Week of 10/29-11/2: Hello all. Hope this finds everyone having a wonderful beginning to a new week. Here is a look into what we have in store for the week. Also, I will send home an updated conference schedule. Their are some conflicts, so please ask your child about the forms, and if you have not returned your prefered times, please do so when you see the remaining available slots. MATH: We will continue in topic 5 which covers 5th grade algebra. I am providing students who have a good understanding of this grade level algebra with a look into some 6th grade algebraic concepts. Students, finished a test on data sets last week, and the class did very well. Science: Students will be bringing home their solar system tests today, and i am happy to say the class did an impeccable job!!! Well done. Planet projects are now due this Wednesday and kids will present on that day as well. The water cycle was introduced last Friday, and we will roll up our sleeves and get wet with it this week. Writing: We will continue with our narrative piece, and it will be completed by the end of the week. Also, students will take the semester 1 district writing assessment on Tuesday of this week. Vocabulary: We are doing two units this week. One unit is the root "-port" which means to carry, and the other unit focuses on "-mit and -miss" which both mean to send. The reason we are dong two, is I feel the students already have knowledge of many of these words. We will work on games and comprehension of these terms more than usual throughout the week. I think the kids are up to the challenge. We had great discussions about many of the words today. Quiz your kid at home. They have a personal dictionary to complete for Friday on four of the words. I have pushed the quiz to this Tuesday, so quiz your students tonight. Reading: We will finish Walk Two Moons this week and have a final project to complete in class. Also, students have been requested to complete two AR quizes in the period from 10/15 through this Wednesday the 31st. Odds and Ends: Wednesday is Halloween. Parade 8:45-9:15. Conference Slips need to be returned. Wear running shoes on Wednesday and Friday Hello to all families. I hope this finds you enjoying the day and this amazing change in weather. I love it and how refreshing! Also a perfect segue into our weather unit in science. I was trying to post my weekly newsletter on our site and I am having difficulties logging in today, so I wanted to update families, via this email, on what our week ahead looks like. MATH: We are continuing on mean, median, mode, and range within data sets. This is within topic 19 and we will, for now, not focus on any other parts within this topic. So this will be lessons 19-5 and 19-6. We will test on this on Wednesday of this week. We will begin in topic 5 on Wednesday. This focuses on algebraic equations/expressions. Retakes for unit 4 are on Wednesday of this week. Please return parent signature forms from test #4 ASAP. Science: Students should have completed all of the lesson outlines for the solar system unit. They will be checked this Friday. Study guides are due on Friday as well. The test on the unit will also be Friday. All these Fridays is because the outlines and guide are to be used as, exactly that, "study guides". Planet Projects will be completed in class this week, and presented to the class on, you guessed it, Friday. Writing: Students have completed their rough drafts and had a peer editing conference today for their narrative writing piece. Our grammar focus is use of quotation marks since we are using dialogue in the writing to develop setting and characters. Vocabulary: We are doing two units this week. One unit is the root "-port" which means to carry, and the other unit focuses on "-mit and -miss" which both mean to send. The reason we are dong two, is I feel the students already have knowledge of many of these words. We will work on games and comprehension of these terms more than usual throughout the week. I think the kids are up to the challenge. We had great discussions about many of the words today. Quiz your kid at home. They have a personal dictionary to complete for Friday on four of the words. Reading: We are up to chapter 24 in Walk Two Moons, and we will "pop-quiz" on a chunk of chapters this week. Odds and Ends: Parent/Teacher conference forms went home today. Please return ASAP as I will fill in the slots on first come first serve basis. I hope to accommodate everyone. Red Ribbon Week: Crazy hair day on Wednesday and Pajama Day on Friday. Math signatures Hope everyone has a great week and look forward to getting together soon. Jason Ewing week of 10/15 Grammar/Vocabulary/Writing: We are continuing to work on Greek and Latin roots. This week we are looking at the root "-sect" which means to cut or separate. Students will have a personal dictionary sheet involving four of these words. On Friday, the students were introduced to the grammar lesson on use of quotation marks. We will continue with this lesson as this ties in with our narrative writing piece that the kids are currently working on. Students began a piece based on either their dream job in 15 years or a day in the life of them being president. we are in what we call the "ruff ruff" draft, where they just "let it flow" and write on the topic without completely worrying about punctuation and spelling. Those errors will be fixed in our editing process. Ask your kids about what they have chosen to write about. Math: Students have completed all the lessons in the long division topic and we will do lesson 4-9 on Monday, which focuses on critical thinking in solving word problems. we will review for the topic test on Tuesday, and take the test on Wednesday. We will then jump to topic 19and work on mean, median, mode, and range in data sets. I have some fun lessons for the kids to develop data with. This is a week long lesson and will be taking an assessment on that unit toward the end of next week. Don't forget students have access to Pearsonsuccess on line. You can find the link under my "useful websites" link on this site. Also, students will be required to spend 30 minutes a week on the IXL website as a homework assignment. Students can use the site to bolster understanding of material we are working on, or choose future units if they are ready. History: See Ms. Currin's website. Science: This week we will dive deeper into the solar system unit. Our second lesson, following the sun lesson, is on our complete solar system. The students have been introduced to the planet project, and the link for the directions and research sheets will be on the science site this week. The final product is due on wednesday, October 24th. I will allow some in class time for the project, and groups will not be required to meet outside of school. In the past I have asked groups to meet, but not this year. Ask your child what special orb they are focusing on and who they are working with. We will continue into the lesson on gravity and inertia this week. We will test on the unit next Friday, the 26th.A heads up for parents. Students are given outlines with each lesson in a unit. The outlines run concurrently with the lesson text and are to be completed in class. If students, for whatever reason, are unable to complete the outlines in class, they become homework. I do not collect the outlines until the day of the test for that unit. They are to be used as resources for studying for the unit tests. When I do check them, eachoutlinee will be worth 20 points. If students keep up on these outlines, not only are they great resources for studying, but they make the students be more investigative readers and they are a positive mark in the record books. I will have links for the outlines on the science page of this site for those kids who have misplaced theirs. Reading: We are doing an in-class read of Walk Two Moons and are working in small group literature circles. We will continue in this fantastic book, which is filled with many examples of figurative language. Also, students are requested to read 30 minutes a night at home, and then to write on a post-it note either a connection, the author's message, an inference, or a prediction.We will work on the reading comprehension strategy of deciphering between fact and opinion. INS AND OUTS: Return Camp Arroyo forms Every Friday= Run-Club Wednesdays and Fridays wear running shoes for PE. Hey all. I hope you enjoyed a fantastic weekend of fall weather, maybe some walks in the park, some ball games, and hopefully a Giant's win by the time you read this. Our students had another fantastic week in the classroom. As I said before, I was at the district office for a conference last Thursday and Friday, and I received a shining report from the substitute teacher and the kids were able to acheive a lot while I was away. I look forward to getting back together on Monday and we have a fantastic week ahead of us. Here is what you can expect your child to do this week in the classroom. Week of 10/8-10/12: Wow!!! What a fantastic day last Friday turned out to be. The students really seemed to enjoy tasting all of the wonderful dishes prepared by our families during the potluck feast that was the grand finale of our Heritage Project. I want to thank you all for taking the time to prepare the food, deliver them to school, and help with the clean up. Also, thank you to all the parents who helped volunteer their time at the school on Friday. You were all such a big help. The Heritage Project is such a rich way to get our community feel developed in the classroom, and I have watched the kids begin to open up to one another much more than the first weeks of school. Progress reports will go home on Monday of this week. Not every student will have one sent home, but ask your child if they have an envelope for you following school on Monday. Here is what to expect for the following week and the near future. Have a fantastic week and maybe we will see you at the Dublin High School Parade this Friday. Grammar/Vocabulary/Writing: We will continue to work with the root "-ject" as I feel the kids were not given enough in class time to work their activities that help them gain an understanding for the root and our ten focus words. We will test on Wednesday for these words and the grammar rule from last week. Grammar: This week's focus is the proper usage of common and proper nouns. Writing: This week we will focus on writing a narrative piece. One concept within this will be to focus on the use of dialogue in their writing pieces. We will look to use inferences through dialogue to understand the characteristics of the plot and the main characters of the writing piece. Also, we will focus on using correct punctuation when using direct quotes. Math: Math signature sheets went home on Friday and they need to be returned by Wednesday of next week. Retakes are scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. We just started topic 4 at the end of last week and will continue on. The topic's focus is division and estimating quotients. In order to pick this concept apart more easily, kids need to have their multiplication facts down. I am working with students to assure this happens, but parents can work with flash cards at home to bolster their student's times table. History: Science: We have finished the lesson on the sun and students should have completed their first outline of the year. Each lesson will have an outline that makes the students be more investigative readers to complete the sheet. I will not be collecting these outlines, but I will be counting as an assignment the completion of the outlines for each lesson within a unit. So this unit is on the solar system and their are three separate lessons. On the day of the test, I will ask students to open their binders so I can check their completed outlines for the unit. If they are compete and show thought and effort in diagrams, graphs, etc.., then the students will receive 20 out of 20 points. These are great resources in studying for the tests and gaining a rich understanding of the material, along with all of the other presentations, lessons, demonstrations, and experiments we do throughout each unit. Class time will be given for students to work on these, but at times they may need to finish these as homework.We will begin the lesson on the planets and students will be introduced to their next project. The planet project link will be on the science part of this site. Please look to their to review the lesson with your child. It will be posted by Wednesday of this week. Reading: We are doing an in-class read of Walk Two Moons and are working in small group literature circles. We will continue in this fantastic book, which is filled with many examples of figurative language. Also, students are requested to read 30 minutes a night at home, and then to write on a post-it note either a connection, the author's message, an inference, or a prediction.INS AND OUTS: Math Signatures Picture Day, Thursday the 11th Wednesday is Collaboration Day. Early release is at 1:55.************ October 12th. 3:45 Dublin Homecoming Parade Return Camp Arroyo forms Every Friday= Run-Club Wednesdays and Fridays wear running shoes for PE. Wear Green on Friday to show your spirit!!!! Grammar/Vocabulary: We will continue with Latin and Greek roots with "-ject" being our focus this week. Students will choose four words from this week's list to put into their personal dictionaries. Grammar: This week's focus is the proper usage of common and proper nouns. Writing: The students have finished their descriptive writing pieces and we will introduce our new writing genre: narrative writing. Math: This week we will test on topic 3. The test will be given on Wednesday. Monday will focus on the multi-step math problems students encounter quite often. Tuesday will be a review day. We will begin topic 4 on Thursday of this week. History: The posters or brochures should be completed and turned in. If not, please be sure your children have them completed by the time they give their presentations. Students will begin giving presentations on Wednesday of this week. I really look forward to these. Don't forget to turn in bibliographies as well. See you at the Friday potluck!Science: This week we are into unit 5 of our book. This unit focuses on the solar system, with an emphasis on our sun, the powers of inertia and gravity, and the orbits of the planets.Reading: We are doing an in-class read of Walk Two Moons and are working in small group literature circles. We will continue in this fantastic book, which is filled with many examples of figurative language. Also, students are requested to read 30 minutes a night at home, and then to write on a post-it note either a connection, the author's message, an inference, or a prediction.INS AND OUTS: Wednesdays and Fridays wear running shoes for PE. Wear Green on Friday to show your spirit!!!! Oct 5th Gator Gallop Heritage Project potluck 9:15 AM on Friday, October 5th. Return Camp Arroyo forms Every Friday= Run-Club Week of 9/24-9/28: Grammar/Vocabulary: We will continue with Latin and Greek roots with "-dict" being our focus this week. In addition to these ten words that focus on this root, students will be given two "academic" words that they will see throughout their schooling, this week the words are "synthesize" and "theme", and use our personal "dict"ionary templates to gain a rich understanding of these words. Grammar: We will be focusing on simple and compound sentences. Math: We have completed topic 3 lessons 1 and 2. We will get through lessons 3-6 this week and test on the unit sometime next week. Topic 2 test parent signature sheets went home on Friday. Please sign and return. Students who will be doing retakes will take them this Wednesday. These students have access to Pearson Success to review lessons on line. They can also see me for extra support during silent reads or recesses. All students have access to pearson success and the link is on this site under web sources. Students have been registered on IXL math. This is a fantastic website that our Green students can use to practice all kinds of math concepts at all grade levels. Next week, I will request all students try to get on IXL for a minimum of thirty minutes a week. Log in is user name=first name last name (no spaces) and password is gator. Also, POW#5 will be due this Friday as well. Encourage your chilodren to do the extensions if they have time, and also to follow the steps and instructions as close as possible. Science: We will wrap up the beginning unit on Tuesday and test on the unit this Thursday. Students will be given a study guide to be completed and turned in the day of the test. Finish it early and use it to review concepts. Anything on the guide could&will be found on the test. We will begin the solar system following the exam. Writing: Last week we finished our "ruff-ruff" draft of the descriptive writing piece. We walked through how peer-editing should look, and the students were paired up with a classmate and conducted a very productive peer edit. We will make revisions today, and students will be ready to type their final drafts in computer lab on Tuesday morning. Reading: We are doing an in-class read of Walk Two Moons and are working in small group literture circles. We will continue in this fantastic book, which is filled with many examples of figurative language. Also, students are requested to read 30 minutes a night at home, and then to write on a post-it note either a connection, the author's message, an inference, or a prediction. History: Heritage Project posters due Wednesday, September 26th. We will begin to develop our presentations this week, and they will begin on Monday of the following week. Don't forget to turn in bibliographies with the final posters. Students need 2 books, 2 websites, and the primary source interview as a minimum. INS AND OUTS: Wednesday, Sept. 26th is 2nd Collaboration Day. EARLY RELEASE @ 1:51 Wednesdays and Fridays wear running shoes for PE. Wear Green on Friday to show your spirit!!!! Oct 5th Gator Gallop Heritage Project potluck 9:15 AM on Friday, October 5th. (Newsletter went home Monday) Return Camp Arroyo forms Every Friday= Run-Club Week of 9/17-9/21: Hello to all, and happy beginning of a new and wonderful school week. I am really happy about the community being created within the walls of our classroom and the way our students are interacting with each other. We are in for a fantastic year together. Last week our class did their first week of rotating to Ms. Currin for their history/government/geography lessons and besides getting the highest behavior ranking possible from Ms. Currin, they came back excited and curious about the upcoming election. Talk to your child about the November election. This is a great opportunity and they won't experience another until they are in high school. We also had our first visit of the year to the library and we are scheduled to visit every Thursday, so remind your child about their library books Wednesday nights/Thursday mornings. The Great Gator Gallop is sneaking up on us. Look for pledge/donation slips to come home with your child sometime this week. The event is on Friday, October 5th. This is the same day as our potluck finale of the Heritage Project. More info to come on the potluck. Grammar/Vocabulary: We will continue with Latin and Greek roots with "-spec" being this week's focus. Our grammar focus will look at the use of conjunctions in senetences. We will discuss weekly expectations and procedures. Basically the first four days are getting the words/concept, then different activities to gain an understanding of the concepts, followed by a quiz on Fridays. Math: Thanks to those families for sending back the test forms and if you have questions about this year's process for sending home test results, please contact me. Retakes were taken on Friday, and those students have forms that need to be returned as well. We are on the final lesson of topic 2 and we will have the topic test on Wednesday. Each week students are given a "problem-of-the-week" (POW) that involves higher-level-thinking and a specific process in describing their strategy used to solve the problem. They will be introduced on Mondays, completed at home throughout the week, and discussed on Fridays. They are a lot of fun, and shows many different styles and strategies for gaining the final result. Science: Your students have completed an experiment/demonstration to demonstarte the steps of the scientific method. Ask them about it. We will continue on the introductory unit, which involves tools scientists use, data involved in the process, displaying the data in graphs, and basically preparing us for the upcoming year. We will jump into the solar system next. Our assessment on the first unit will be Tuesday(9/26) of next week. Writing: We have started our descriptive writing piece and continue to work on using different startegies to make our writing more "juicy". Students did a visual walk-through of an object in their desk that grew to the size of a house. They have a template in their writing journals that helped organize the senses felt as they walked through this object and found new uses for the object now that it is the size of a house. Our process will involve brainstorming onto this template, writing a rough/rough draft, doing a peer-led editing workshop, personal additions and editing, followed by writing/typing the final draft. We will do the majority of this in class. Some students who work at a slower pace or just did not make good use of their independent work time, will need to finish this at home. Reading: Students have been placed into literature groups and we have discussed the different jobs each student will have for different sections of the book Walk Two Moons. We will start this book on Monday and since this is our first core literature book of the year, we will do a group read in class and work in our groups focusing on making connections, summarizing, developing open-ended questions, and gaining a richer insight to the book. It's a great book and look forward to sharing it with your children. History: Geographic features map test this Wednesday with Ms. Currin. INS AND OUTS: Wednesdays and Fridays wear running shoes for PE. Wear Green on Friday to show your spirit!!!! Oct 5th Gator Gallop Every Friday= Run-Club Wed. 9/19= Garden Club meeting during lunch recess Week of 9/10-9/14: Hello families. I Hope you all had a fantastic weekend and are ready for a great week ahead. I want to thank you all for taking the time to come to Green's Back-to-School event on Thursday of last week. It was great to meet many of you and it's clear that we have some fantastic families here at Green. I am truly blessed to work in an environment with such positive, caring people all around. Thanks again, and I will be in touch with those parents who signed up to volunteer your time for the betterment of our classroom. Grammar/Vocabulary: We will continue with Latin and Greek roots with "-man" being this week's focus. Our grammar focus subject and predicates of "rich" sentences. We will discuss weekly expectations and procedures. Basically the first four days are getting the words/concept, then different activities to gain an understanding of the concepts, followed by a quiz on Fridays. Math: The students completed the first unit and took the topic test on Friday. I was happy to see all of the great results. We are not able to send the actual tests home, but your kids will come home with the results and corrected problems of any ones they missed. We will begin topic 2 this week which focuses on number sense. We will be working on mental math, estimating to check for reasonability, rounding large numbers, and quickly revisiting larger addition and subtraction problems. Our topic test will be some time next week. Science: We will begin Unit 1 focusing on the scientific method, gathering data, and tools of science. We will conduct a "Thumb-War" experiment this week in class to review the steps of the scientific method. Rotations with Ms. Currin's class will begin this Tuesday. Writing: We will continue working on descriptive writing and begin our narrative paper later on in the week. Great job on the I Am From poems! Reading: We will wrap up the read aloud of "Freak the Mighty" The students have been focusing on character development as we read through this book. We will begin our core literature book called Walk Two Moons. We will work in small "literature groups" to discuss the chapters of the book and develop strong comprehension skills. History: Interviews for the Heritage Project should be completed, the questions and answers typed/written, and turned in by Wednesday of this week. I have changed the due dates on the website here. Previously I had last year's due dates still there. I will give students time in class on Tuesday to work on this portion of the project. Please bring materials to class in order to make the best use of time. INS AND OUTS: Wednesdays and Fridays wear running shoes for PE. Wear Green on Friday to show your spirit!!!! Week of 9/4-9/7: Hello families. I hope you had a fantastic weekend and enjoyed the extra day with your families. It was a gorgeous weather weekend after that chilly little Friday we all experienced. We had a very successful beginning to our school year last week in class. The students seemed to really "come out of their shells" as the week progressed, and I am placing great emphasis on developing a real community atmosphere in C-12. We have a unique group of students and I look forward to meeting all of their families this Thursday at Back-To-School Night. Last week, besides doing some community building lessons, we were able to begin working on descriptive writing, our first unit in math, and begin a read-aloud book called Freak the Mighty. It's a book I enjoy reading at the beginning of the year, and the kids seem to be really enjoying it. Next week we have a lot of interesting and strong lessons to begin. This is what we will be doing in each of these areas. Grammar/Vocabulary: We will begin Latin and Greek roots with "-ped" being this week's focus. Our grammar focus is sentence recognition. We will discuss weekly expectations and procedures. Basically the first four days are getting the words/concept, then different activities to gain an understanding of the concepts, followed by a quiz on Fridays. Math: We will finish the last two lessons in topic 1 and have our first test on Friday. We will review in class on Thursday. This is a review unit for many students and is a great way to get back in the "student-saddle". The next topic we will begin focuses on number sense such as estimations, rounding, and critical thinking with word problems. Also this week, students will be taking our district beginning of the year assessment. This enables us to have a benchmark for where these students are coming into the classroom. This will be on Wednesday and IS NOT a test to study for. Science: We will begin with a book scavenger hunt to just get a feel for the 5th grade text. Regular rotations will begin next week and we will start in Unit 1, which is gathering data and understanding the scientific method. Writing: Students are working on a poem titled "I Am From". This will be completed by Thursday. We are focusing on descriptive writing and the use of adjectives and strong(juicy) verbs. Reading: We will wrap up the read aloud of "Freak the Mighty" The students have been focusing on character development as we read through this book. History: The Heritage Project will be introduced this week and students will begin to develop their interview questions and find a relative they will interview. all of the details for this project can be found on my website under the homework heading. This project will culminate with a presentation from each student and a potluck some time in early October. INS AND OUTS: Back to School Night: Thursday, September 6th Welcome 5th Grade GATORS!! August 28th, 2012 and OUR FIRST DAY!!! Dear Students and Families, Welcome to room C-12. This is going to be an outstanding year!! For those of you who have not met me, here is a brief introduction. I have been an educator for six years, a soccer player for life, and a soccer coach for sixteen years. I helped found and have been running the Gator Garden Group for the past two years, and I am eager to start my first full year here at Green Elementary. Together, your 5th “teaching team”, myself along with Joe Romagna, Harmony Lingen, Glady Diaz, and Lisa Currin, has planned some amazing experiences for the children this year! In the upper grades, we have a “team” approach to teaching and believe that we can tailor our instruction to better meet specific learning needs if we work together. Given this philosophy, your children will also be working with Ms. Currin, Mr. Romagna, and Mrs. Diaz on some special projects throughout the year. Given this structure, please stop by and introduce yourselves. Parent-student-teacher collaboration is very important to us; our doors are always open. In the classroom, on the playground, and in the community, we have high expectations for our students. We look for best effort, a positive attitude, and personal responsibility for learning. We want our students to be enthusiastic, confident, inquisitive, and independent learners. During the year, they can expect intense instruction in written language, science, social studies, mathematics, technology, and reading comprehension strategies. Students will concentrate on organization (please make sure your child has a binder, homework planner, and subject tabs by Tuesday), study skills (see our link on the web page), and time management. They will also focus on oral presentations, research reports, and teamwork. Homework consists of reading (30 minutes and evidence of a comprehension strategy), Accelerated Reader, spelling/vocabulary, math, science, and history Monday-Thursday. Over the weekend, I expect each student to have read for at least one hour. Reports and writing projects have longer deadlines and will be assigned on a more periodic basis. A newsletter will be posted on my teacher website every week to detail the items planned for that coming week (tests, math concepts, projects upcoming, etc..). You should sit down with your child every Monday for a few minutes and look over the weekly newsletter. I will plan to have it posted every Sunday night. If you need to contact me, email is the quickest. We check phone messages at the end of each day. My contact information is provided on the magnet stapled to this letter. Please don’t hesitate to notify us if we can help. I look forward to working with your children and having a terrific year! The fifth grade science curriculum More detailed information will be provided at Back-to-School Night on Thursday, September 6th . Until then, please stop by and say “hello”. See you soon! Mr. Ewing
Last Modified on May 19, 2013
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