Happy Friday!
A crazy week for sure, but one full of merriment and lots of acts of kindness! We started the week dressed in our holiday hats listening to Nurse MacDougall lead our Community Meeting! She gave us lots of great reminders on how to help everyone stay healthy! We had lots of fun with spirit week, pajama day being by far the favorite! In Math, we dove into the quadrilateral hierarchy. We learned to look at angles and sides to help us name the different quadrilaterals and played some new games to help us review these concepts. We then moved on to triangle names, those based on length of sides and angles. Students had a lot of fun working in teams to find their way through a Geometry Electronic Escape Room! It was fun to watch the problems solve their way to unlocking themselves! Students have been doing a nice job with geometry - we will review the two days after break and then move on to FRACTIONS! This week we also had fun being investigators again for the Case of Elizabeth's missing Christmas Stocking? WIth a list of 25 suspects, locations and added details, students read clues that contained review math problems. For each problem solved correctly, they received a clue to solve the crime! They did awesome, it was not easy - lots of review tasks to refresh those brains! Proud of their efforts - some pictures of this activity are included in our photo gallery, be sure to ask your child about this. In reading we finished up our literature circles and created movie posters to entice other readers to want to read our novels. It was nice to see students choose to either work with a partner or independently to share what they thought of their books! We also finished up The Santa Clauses looking at all 25 Days of December though haikus written by Santa himself. Students are bringing home their copies of the haikus today! In writing, we did a little work on our narratives this week, but spent some other time working on kindness. I will be sending out links to you all individually that will contain a message from your child about the holidays. We hope you enjoy! Looking forward to relaxing with my family and friends and hope you all enjoy the wonder of the season as well. I am completely overwhelmed by the generosity of our classroom! I am excited to order some more books and classroom materials with the amazon card, thank you so much! Looking forward to a fabulous 2020 with a great group of 5th graders! Merry Merry! Maura Important Dates to Remember:
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Happy Merry Friday everyone!
We had a busy and very productive week in Room 15! We enjoyed a festive Friday with some parents coming in to help spread some holiday cheer! Check out the pictures in our photo gallery to see our crafty students at work! I was touched that a few students asked if they could give some of their gifts to their bus drivers etc. We had spoken at morning meeting today about the passing of Pete Frates, the courageous man who helped raise over $220 million for ALS research. Pete's mantra was always " Be passionate, be genuine, be hardworking and don't ever be afraid to be great." He wore number 3 while playing baseball and his family had asked that today we all try to do 3 random acts of kindness to honor his legacy. I shared this at morning meeting and challenge my class to think of others and spread some smiles and kindness today! In math, we finished our initial work with volume, having a quick assessment on Wednesday. I was pleased with student results. We all need to be reminded the importance of labels to be sure we know we are talking about Volume and not Area! We took a peek at polygons at the end of the week. We had some fun exploring different shapes by building them with Exploragons and then playing a twist on musical chairs to review the basics. Next week we will be digging into quadrilaterals and triangles, learning more about their properties and what makes them special! In reading, we continue our work with Fiction Sign Posts, our focus this week was to look for contrasts and contradictions as well as AHA moments in our reading. We were really lucky to have Mrs. Burns with us for a bit this week. She actually got to finish reading The Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus. I was at a meeting and the students voted to have her finish because they just HAD to know what happened. I absolutely love when they are this excited about a book! We are also looking at holiday customs around the world using evidence based texts to support our studies. So far we have read about Germany, Spain , Australia and France. The Santa Clauses is continuing to teach us more about figurative language as we dive into the daily haiku and analyze what the author was saying. Students have been doing a great job! In writing, we have chosen a personal narrative to bring through the complete writing process at our writers' workbench. This week we worked on telling the story to a partner and then capturing the emotion in words. I can't wait to watch these stories evolve as there are some very creative minds among us! Be sure to ask your child what they are writing about, you might be surprised to hear about a moment that has resonated with them! In Science, we are finishing up our Moon Journals, next Wednesday being the last day. Students have watched the moon go through all 8 phases and have built one model of this process as well. We have also talked about Scientific arguments and how important data and evidence is to scientists. Next week we will continue our work with the Moon as well as work on individual reports on the planets. Students are creating Google Slide shows with information about one of the planets. Be sure to ask your child what they have learned about theirs so far! Monday kicks off spirit week! Monday is holiday hat day! I can't wait to see what we come up with, I am still debating on a few choices I have at home! This is always fun for the kids (and teachers) as we wind down to Winter vacation. Please see important dates below for details for each day! Wednesday is a big day in grade 5 with our holiday concert and performance of The Nutcracker! This is sure to get everyone into the holiday spirit! Students will be performing for the whole school on Wednesday at 2pm and then that evening for parents and friends at 7PM. It is going be awesome! I have had the pleasure of watching some of the dancers create their dances and give up recesses to practice their moves, they are very proud of themselves (and just a bit excited!) We will share some holiday fun with our buddies next Thursday afternoon which is always a highlight of the season. A holiday craft and some reading with our buddies will definite help spread some Christmas cheer! I know this time of year is so crazy and I just want to say how appreciative I am of all that you continue to do at home to support your child! They come to school with a smile and an eagerness to learn that is just awesome! Enjoy the weekend and be sure to check out the photos from the week! Cheers! Maura Important Dates to Remember: Monday. December 16 - Holiday Hat Day - Community meeting 9AM all are welcome to attend Tuesday, December 17 - Mad about Plaid Day - Plaid shirts, scarves, pants.. any plaid will do! Wednesday, December 18 - Norwell Day - wear your Norwell gear and show your Norwell pride! - Nutcracker perfomance in school at 2pm - be sure costumes are in school - NUTCRACKER and band performance - 7PM Thursday, December 19 - Winter Sparkle Day - snowflakes, sparkles, icicles glitter and tinsel Friday, December 20 - Bring a pair/Wear a pair - PAJAMA DAY - donating to Cradles to Crayons Friday, December 20 - School vacation begins ENJOY THE HOLIDAYS - SEE YOU ON JANUARY 2nd! Happy Friday all!
Well, December quickly reminded us that Winter is now here! Our snow day put a little magical touch on our field trip to see A Christmas Carol. I was very impressed by the production and very proud of the behavior of our classroom as we represented Cole School! This week we have begun to look at figurative language using a book titled The Santa Clauses: Short Poems from the North Pole. This book has a haiku written for the 25 days until Christmas, and we look at each to see if we can find similes, metaphors, alliteration, onomatopoeia and other figurative language. Students are doing a great job with this. I am hoping to see them use some of this figurative language as they begin to dig deeper into their personal narratives! In Math, we have begun working with volume of rectangular prisms. Students spent two days working with cubes and nets to build different prisms and see the connection to the formula for volume. We will be continuing our work with volume next week and then will begin looking at geometry. This is always a fun unit as we look at characteristics of triangles and quadrilaterals and spend some time playing Pattern Block Soduko! Math assessments on Order of Operations are in Friday folders for your review. I was very pleased with student work, some just need to slow down a bit to be sure they have answered ALL parts of a question. In Reading, we have begun to look at Fiction Signposts. This week our focus was on Contrasts and Contradictions. This is when a character does or says something that makes you stop and think "Why is the character doing that?" The answers can help us make predictions or make an inference about the conflict or plot in a story. Students will be working to look for this signpost during their literature circle work next week! We are very excited to be spending an hour with author Victoria Coe next Monday! We listened to Ms. Coe read us the first chapter of Fenway & Hattie and are looking forward to meeting her and talking about her writing process. Thank you Cole PTO for sponsoring this event! In writing, we have chosen one of our narrative ideas to take through the process. Students are now working on first drafts to get their ideas about this story down on paper. We will then begin to pull the stories apart, looking at leads, transitions, dialogues conclusions and much more. I am excited to work on their stories with them! Thank you in advance to the parents who are coming in to work on some holiday crafts next Friday. Students are really excited and I am excited we will be sharing their crafts with some of our local senior citizens! Lots going on and only two weeks until break! Don't forget Wednesday, December 18th is the 5th grade band concert and presentation of The Nutcracker. I sent home a copy of the suggested costumes via email and the list is on schoology as well. I am so disappointed to have to miss the night performance this year, as my whole family is heading to the Christmas at Pops that evening, a tradition we have celebrated for over 40 years! I know the kids will put on a great show and I will look forward to hearing about it! Hoping everyone can take some time to celebrate the season! Thank you for all you do for our class! Cheers! Maura Important Dates to Remember:
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March 2020
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