Week of August 30-September 3

I hope everyone had a nice weekend!  Thank you to those who went home and posted their poems to the blog.  You may draw a coupon in the morning!  Parents-We had some technical difficulties with the blog at school on Friday, which is why only a few students have posted their writing so far.  Any child is invited to post their favorite poem that they've written over the last 2 weeks from home.

In other news, we have a very busy week ahead of us, but I know you are all up to the challenge.  Please make sure you study hard because there are lots of assessments this week.

Upcoming Tests:
Monday:  Math
Tuesday:  Word Study (Be prepared to correctly spell, capitalize, and label the key parts of a world map.)
Wednesday:  Social Studies Chapter 1-Geography (Take the History Alive Tutorial to help you prepare.)
Math facts tests will begin this week...starting with multiplication!  Practice those facts!

Read below to see our guiding questions for the week.

Math:
How do I review estimation and computation strategies?

Social Studies:
How do I review what I've learned about geography?
What are the different regions of the United States and how do they differ from one another?

Writing:
What traits make effective writing?

Word Study:
How do I use contractions?

Reading:
What are the metacognition thinking strategies and stems?  How can I use these strategies to become a better reader?

Writing Celebration!

Over the past few weeks we have been writing a lot as we launched our writer's workshop.  The students have read a variety of different poems by other authors and we have learned about how to use another author's writing to inspire our own ideas.  Therefore the students have created several poems modeled after poems by other authors.  Below you will be able to read some of their poems.  I have been very impressed with their hard work during the launching of this workshop!

August 25, 2010

Good afternoon!  Our first Early Release Day was a success.  I am looking forward to tomorrow night's Parent Orientation at 7pm.  Parents, I hope you will all be able to attend.  I am anxious to share a little bit about what has been happening in our classroom thus far and I would like to answer any questions or concerns you may have so far.

Math News:
The math test will be postponed until Monday, August 30.  I believe the class as a whole needs a little more time to review.  Tomorrow in class we will complete a math open response together and I will send home a study guide to be completed at home.  On Friday, we will review the study guide and I will pull students in small groups to provide individualized instruction, while we will also have the opportunity to play some great math games that review the concepts we've been learning.

Social Studies News:
I found a great website for kids to practice various skills on recently called http://www.playkidsgames.com/.  On the website there are 2 fantastic games to help the students review the continents and place them correctly on a map.  Just go to these links to check them out.
http://www.playkidsgames.com/games/continentNames/default.htm
http://www.playkidsgames.com/games/findContinent/default.htm

Writing News:
We will be finishing our launching of the Writer's Workshop on Friday.  To celebrate I would like to allow students to publish their writing on my blog.  Names will not be included on the writing, but it will be a cool way for the kids to show off what they have been working on in their collecting.

Reading News:
In class, we have been learning to build our reading stamina, learning how to do reading responses, and doing reading assessments to give me some information about the children as readers.  Please remind your child to record the book title and pages read each night followed by a parent signature to show that the reading was completed.  Thursday night's reading will be replaced by a social studies magazine with activities that make for great review of what we are learning on the back.
Word Study News:
Please encourage your child to learn the correct spelling, capitalization, and location of the continents, oceans, Equator, Prime Meridian, Tropic of Cancer, and Tropic of Capricorn for next week's word study quiz, which will now take place on Tuesday.

Week of August 23-27

Reflecting on the Past Week:  
This past week was a terrific first full week of school!  I am so proud of these kids for being so focused and hard working already...very impressive!  We have also accomplished quite a bit.  We have learned how to draw arrays for multiplication problems, how to find all the factors of a number, rules of divisibility, and how to determine whether a number is prime or composite.  In social studies, we have learned all the big ideas of social studies, shared our culture boxes, and begun our first major unit, geography.  In writing, we have begun collecting and using the work of other writers to inspire ideas.  We have studied all the rules of capitalization and we have been learning about reading stamina and how to select books for independent reading.  We even began a great read aloud on The Giver that we are all really enjoying!  I can already tell we have a fun, mature bunch of students this year!  Keep up the good work!


Coming Up...
This upcoming week will be a busy one!  We have our first word study quiz on Tuesday.  This quiz will involve writing a letter to me using correct capitalization, so study those capitalization rules!  


We will also have our first math test.  Included on this test will be factoring numbers, prime and composite numbers, and square numbers.  As you prepare for the upcoming math test, please remember to bring home your math notebook to help you with homework and with your study guide.  This notebook can go home each and every day if you wish, so long as it also comes back to school.  Finally, students, please ask if you don't understand something.  I want to know before the test so I can help you.  


Special Notes to Parents:  
Please note that this Thursday, August 26th is Parent Orientation at 7pm.  Please attend if at all possible.  I think this is such a great opportunity for parents to come in and here what 5th grade is all about at Harmony Elementary.  I also like to take this opportunity to address any questions you have about 5th grade so far.
Please remember that Wednesday will be our first Early Release Day.  Please let me know if your child will be using a different form of transportation to get home on Wednesday.


This week's guiding questions will be...
Math:  What is a square number?  How do we find square roots?  What is prime factorization?
Social Studies:  How do I determine latitude and longitude?  How do I used geographic terms to describe land and water?  What are the physical features of the U.S.?
Writing:  How do I use my culture box to spark ideas?  how do we use the work of other authors to develop our own ideas?
Word Study:  How do I learn important world geography terms?
Reading:  How do I develop my reading stamina?


Upcoming Tests:
Word Study Quiz over Capitalization (Tuesday)
Math Test (Friday)
Multiplication facts quizzes will also begin this week.  We will do 2-3 per week.  Please learn your facts!  It only makes math that much easier!

Social Studies Today

In social studies today we began learning the continents and oceans.  Here are a couple of songs we sang in class to help your child remember the continents and oceans.  Please encourage them to practice these.

Continents Rap to the tune of:

“We will Rock You”

North America
South America
Europe (clap, stomp, stomp, clap)

Africa
Asia
Australia (clap, stomp, stomp, clap)

And don’t forget
Antarctica
These are the seven continents
Sing along with me
And you will see
You’ll get to know them just like me.

*Repeat above lines…
Last line after repeat-
“We will we will learn them!!!” (clap, stomp, stomp, clap) 2x



Oceans Song to the tune of "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean"
 
Atlantic's the name of an ocean
Pacific and Indian too
The Arctic is often forgotten
I know my oceans; do you?
 
Oceans, oceans
I know my oceans; do you?  Do you?
Oceans, oceans
I know my oceans; do you?

Week of August 16-20

           It's time for the first full week of school!  We have had a lot of fun getting to know one another through a variety of activities including a "snowball" fight that was a lot of fun!  The kids filled out papers about themselves and then wadded them up and tossed them all over the room.  It was the one time I allow paper balls to fly across the room!  Once the "snowball fight" was over, each child picked up a paper and read about the person while the rest of the class raised their hands to guess whose paper it was.  It was a lot of fun!  We also had a very successful game of Catastrophe (a Harmony tradition for 5th graders) during the MegaSkills Assembly on Friday over Teamwork and Perseverance.  It is now time to apply what we know about perseverance as we start diving into our content areas!  I am excited to watch these students learn and grow into mature adolescents this year!  Each week I will fill you in on the topics we will be learning about in the various content areas.  I will also post any upcoming tests or quizzes on this page as well.  Please check the Homework page for the week's homework assignments.  

This week's units are as follows.

Math:  In math this week we will with the first unit of Everyday math.  We will learn about how to use rectangular arrays to find factors of numbers.  We will also learn about divisibility and learn some strategies for telling whether or not a number is divisible by different one digit numbers.  We will even learn about prime and composite numbers.

Social Studies:  In social studies this week we will continue to focus on the big ideas of social studies which are culture, economics, geography, government, and history.  Please remember that your culture box is due on Friday.  Don't forget to follow the project guidelines and to use your rubric to prepare for your presentation.  

Writing:  This week during writing we will continue to launch our Writers' Workshop.  We will establish a routine for writing and discuss the types of entries one would expect to see in a writer's notebook.  We will also learn to use the work of other authors as inspiration for our own writing.

Word Study:  This week's word study lessons will be over the rules of capitalization.  Students will also be learning the difference between a common and proper noun.  A quiz over this will follow next Tuesday in which students will be required to write me a letter in which they will use correct capitalization.

Reading:  Reading lessons this week will be tailored to helping students select appropriate books for independent reading as well as helping students set goals for themselves as readers.

Upcoming Tests/Quizzes:

Word Study Quiz next Tuesday, August 24 over the correct use of capitalization

Culture Box assignment due Friday

Kids,

        Please remember that starting this week you need to read for 20 minutes each night.  I would like for you to record the book title and pages read every night at the bottom of your agenda.  Please remember to get a parents signature to show me that your parents have seen your agenda and to indicate that you have completed your nightly reading.  Table points will be awarded daily for completed homework and signed agendas!

~Mrs. Whitley  :o)

First Days

What a fabulous start to the school year!  I have been so impressed with you all!  We have got an excellent class full of enthusiastic learners with fun, friendly personalities.  I am most impressed with how well you get along with one another.  Keep it up!

Please remember to wear tennis shoes for our assembly tomorrow so you will be able to participate in the Catastrophe game!  If you haven't brought in magazines yet, please do so tomorrow.  We need them for an activity we will be doing in social studies.  Get some rest tonight and I will see you bright and early!

Welcome

Welcome to Mrs. Whitley's Classroom Blog!  This is my first year attempting to use a blog as my classroom website, but I'm excited for all of the cool things it will allow me to do including interacting with students and parents outside the classroom.  Please bear with me while I learn my way around blogging.  :o)


Tonight is the eve of the first day of school for the 2010-2011 school year and I must say that I am very excited!  Our turnout at Open House was excellent and I can't wait to work with each of you!  Please know that I love to answer questions so do not hesitate to ask me if something is on your mind.  We are going to have fun and learn a lot this year!  I hope you each get plenty of rest as we start out the school year and I look forward to seeing your smiling faces each morning!  :o)