First Week of October

Hello once again! I can't believe it's October already.

Some news first:

This week we will begin our Book-It Campaign! I will send home a letter later this week with details. As a short explanation (as I am sure you have all been through this before!) the students will have a goal each month in terms of how many books they need to read. If they meet that goal they will mark it on our sheet and receive a Pizza Hut coupon. The main purpose, however, is to get your child reading.

The first quarter is over in 3 weeks...I will give you a moment to let that sink in. Yes, October 18 is the final day of the first quarter. I have been updating Progress Book (finally!) fairly often nowadays to make sure you are up-to-date on your child's progress in each subject.


Now to the week!

Reading - We finally finished "The Westing Game" as our whole class reading unit. This week the students are doing project work rather than taking a cumulative test on the book. I have really pushed the students to put as much effort into these projects as possible. Some of them are a little more advanced, and others are going to take a lot of work. However, I did tell the students to not go out and buy supplies. I have plenty of materials in my classroom if they are in need of anything. We will also be writing our first book report together on "The Westing Game" in order to prepare them to write their own every month from now on. Beginning in October the students will be expected to turn in 1 book report on the last day of each month. I will be making them a copy of the format I would like them to use when we go over how to make it. We will then begin reading out of our Explorer books for the first time this year by the end of the week.

English - We had our first test last week, and with everything going on with Reading we will not be doing much in this subject this week. We will begin doing mini-lessons out of the spelling unit each week, but there will not be spelling lists or tests.

Social Studies - We are continuing with Chapter 2: Early People by looking at some of the earliest Native American tribes in the United States, such as the Iroquois, Algonquian, Cheyenne, and Pueblos. One of the skills we are focusing on is note-taking in the classroom. While I am not a huge fan of lecture, I do understand that students are expected to be able to do it in higher level classes. Due to this we are slowly coming into it by using PowerPoint presentations. The students are receiving the presentations with words missing while the one on the board is a complete version. They are gaining the ability to follow along and write in the correct statement or word.

Science - This week we are continuing with Earth and Space by evaluating the sizes of the planets on a scale comparison, making flip charts on the different planets and their characteristics, and then moving on to how the tilt of the Earth and the sun's rays create seasons. We will be having a quiz Friday just on the planets.

Until next week!

Mrs. Perkins
Fifth Grade Teacher
Seneca East

The Westing Game finale

As part of the unit on "The Westing Game" all of the students had to choose a character to follow for various activities.  This led to our Suspect Wall when the students drew a portrait of their character and then compared them to another character with a partner. We will find out who the murderer is this week!

Catching up!

Oh boy. I apologize for not updating for a really long time! The first few weeks of school are always crazy. I will try my best to make sure I update every week for the rest of the year. 

First some news:

*This week is Spirit Week! A notice went home on Friday,  but here is a preview of the week.
Monday: Pajama Day
Tuesday: Farmer/Redneck Day
Wednesday: Blast from the Past
Thursday: Black Out/White Out Day
Friday: School Spirit

I cannot wait to see the kids dress up this week (and dress up myself as well)!

*Our MAP testing is finished (phew!). We will not have any more standardized tests  until March, April, and May when we will have three different ones administered.  At least we get a nice long break until then!

*I will be updating Progress book this week.  I was at first waiting for enough grades to put in, but now I am searching for someone to show me how to do it (first year teacher problems)!

Now onto the classroom:

English- this week we will have our first test over unit 1. This will cover sentences, types of sentences, subject and predicates, conjunctions, and run on sentences. I have given the students pages 31-41 for practice, although it is not mandatory. Next we move on to writing narratives.

Reading- We are finally finishing up "The Westing Game" by Ellen Raskin. By the end of this week we will finally know the answer to who killed Samuel Westing!  As part of the unit on this book we compared and contrasted characters and events from the story, learned about inferring and predicting, developed comprehension and vocabulary skills, and simply enjoyed reading! To wrap up the novel we will be completing project work rather than a test. I am sure the students won't mind this in the least! After this unit we will do one story from our reading textbook before beginning guided reading groups. This will allow more one-on-one time to work on reading skills.

Science- We have completed our first test and have moved on to the planets in the system.  This week we are doing a packet reviewing different characteristics of the planets and then moving on to making a scale model of the system using seeds, beans, and an assortment of other materials.

Social Studies- Our first test is this week and there is a plethora of information the students need to know for the test. They have had ample time to study, however so good luck to all!

We are then moving on to the Early Americans in Chapter 2 where we will begin learning the history of the United States starting with Native Americans.

I will try to post pictures soon! 

Until next time!

Mrs. Perkins
Fifth Grade Teacher

Week #3

Happy Labor Day everyone!

We will be having a short week for the first week of September, but we will still be VERY busy!

We will have MAP testing starting the end of this week and continuing throughout the month of September.

Last week the students had their hearing checked. All were sent home with a paper saying how this screening went.

I wanted to take a moment to explain homework in my classroom because I sent home homework for the first time last week and was met with mixed reactions. I want to emphasize that in this classroom I do NOT take homework for a grade except in very special circumstances. In my opinion, it is unfair for the students when it is taken for a grade because I do not know how much help, if any, the students get from other members of the family. If they do receive help that is fine - I would like them to ask for help if they do not understand. On the other hand, if one student does it all by themselves and does not do well, I do not think it is fair that another student who received a lot of help from a family member would be graded on the same scale. So in the future if your child does not understand a question and does not finish it, I will not freak out about it count it against them because I want them to ask questions if they did not understand. If nobody asks questions and they get all of the answers correct, I will assume they understood the material and move on rather than taking one more day to go over materials many students obviously did not understand. Of course if they keep coming to school with their homework not finished I might question it.... Thank you for your patience and understanding as we figure this all out together!

ELA

Reading - Last week we began reading The Westing Game, one of my favorite mystery novels. We discussed genre, characters, and vocabulary, and even though we are only a few chapters in the students are already trying to guess who the murderer is going to be! We will continue reading this story out loud and begin focusing on character analysis, including physical and personality traits of each character, major vs. minor characters, protagonists and antagonists, and comparing and contrasting characters with graphic organizers. Students will also begin writing in a "Reading Journal" everyday except Fridays when I will collect them.

Writing - On Friday I will be going over the format I would like the students to follow for our Weekly Essay that will begin next week.  We will do one together, and then I will give them a topic to write about for the following week. I have told them in class this will not be homework as long as they use their time wisely in the classroom.

Language - Last week we focused on forming complete sentences and the types of sentences (declarative, imperative, interrogative, and exclamatory). This week we will keep the focus on sentences by learning about subject and predicate.


Social Studies

Geography is still the focus for this first chapter. Last week we looked at states, regions, countries, and continents. This week we will be looking at latitude and longitude, landforms, and bodies of water in the United States.

Science

We are still looking at Earth and Space (one of my favorites!). Last week we performed some activities looking at the rotation of Earth and how it causes night and day, as well as the effect it has on the time zones around the world. This week we will be looking at more changes the rotation causes including the length of shadows throughout the day, and then go into phases of the moon. There will be a quiz on everything we have learned so far either late this week or early next week!

 
As a final note, I was appalled to hear about bullying that was occurring with a student in a lower grade by numerous students throughout the school. While I do not believe any of the students in our classroom were involved I would like to emphasize to the students that it is never acceptable to treat another human being in this way. I have zero tolerance in my classroom for any of this kind of behavior, so I will be going over this with the students once more this week. We want to be Bucket Fillers in our classroom, not Bucket Dippers!

Thank you so much and have a wonderful week!

Mrs. Perkins
Fifth Grade Teacher
Seneca East Elementary