August 26-30

The first two weeks of school have flown by quickly.  Students have successfully learned the procedures of the room and our gelling into a cohesive, collaborative group.

Parent Night

Parent Night will be Tuesday, August 27 from 6-7:30.  Parents will meet in the cafeteria to hear a few words from our principal, Mrs. Thoroughman.  Parents will then head to classrooms for teacher presentations.

Zaner-Bloser On-line Writing Program

Students will be introduced to the Zaner-Bloser website this week.  They will be playing grammar games and composing a persuasive letter on-line. Check it out with your child!

Reading

Students were given Independent Reading Contracts on Wednesday.  This assignment will be due September 30. We are continuing to read and analyze There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom.

Math

We will be finishing up Everyday Math Unit 1, Number Theory this week.  Students will take the Checking Progress Assessment the week of Sept. 3-6.

Social Studies

Our brief exploration of world and US geography has come to a conclusion.  Students will have a test on the material covered Friday, August 30.  A study guide will be given on Tuesday.

Great Thinker

Students have collaboratively worked on their Great Thinker project.  The project will wrap-up within the week.

Welcome Class of 2013-2014!

I greatly enjoyed meeting the students and parents that attended Caughlin Ranch's Ice Cream Social last Thursday, and I can't wait to meet the rest of the class this coming Monday, August  12.  Parents, look for a Student/Parent Handbook coming your way this week.  I will review the information in the handbook with the students the first few days of the week.  Students are expected to bring the handbook home and share it with you. There is a page for you to sign indicating you reviewed the book. Please keep the book at home as a reference guide.

Below is an outline of tentative academic studies the first few weeks of school:

Math

Our first unit of study in Everyday Math is Number Theory. This will be supplemented with a review of base 10 and place value.

Reading

Students will be reading the novel There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom.  This novel will provide a platform for studying story structure and characterization. Students are expected to read assigned pages nightly and be prepared for classroom discussion the following day. Students will eventually be asked to read a realistic fiction novel of their choosing  for analysis.

Social Studies

Our focus in 5th grade social studies is United States history. We will begin this study by learning a little bit about U.S. geography, followed by a quick study of the first people of North and South America and European exploration of the Americas.

Science

Atomic theory will kick off our science studies and then we will begin our first FOSS unit--Mixtures and Solutions.

Language Arts

Word study will focus on  words I expect to see spelled correctly in students' everyday writing and homophones.  Words studied will also come from the content areas.

Students will write in the content areas and also be given weekly writing assignments to be completed on-line using the Zaner-Bloser On-Line Writing Center.  More information about this remarkable web based program to follow.

Grammar will begin with a review of sentence and paragraph structure.

Great Thinkers

 Our motto for the year is D-1 Home of the Great Thinkers, and my goal is to support, expand, and challenge the thinking abilities of my students.  Students will be working on a collaborative mini-research project of a great thinker to answer the question: What makes a person a great thinker?