Week of December 14-18

Good afternoon, parents! We’ve had a great week! The kids have finished reading their literature circle books and I can honestly say that I believe everyone enjoyed the text they were assigned to read! Many are seeking out sequels and other books written by the same author! I am so proud of their enthusiasm and eagerness to keep on reading!

            Today we also had the opportunity to help our Kinderpups wrap their Husky Helping House gifts and to wrap our own! The kids had a blast and they love working with their Kinderpups! It’s been really neat to watch them step into leadership roles with their younger buddies! J

            Please read the message below for some important things you need to know in the coming days! Have a wonderful weekend!

Upcoming Tests

Division Test on Tuesday

Study Links for the Weekend

To help your child study for Tuesday’s division test, please have him/her practice a 4-5 problems at each of these links over the weekend.

Dividing Decimals Practice: 

http://www.coolmath.com/prealgebra/02-decimals/decimals-cruncher/division

Division Word Problem Practice: 

https://www.ixl.com/math/grade-5/divide-larger-numbers-by-2-digit-numbers-word-problems

Interpreting the Remainder Practice:

https://www.ixl.com/math/grade-5/divide-by-1-digit-numbers-interpret-remainders

Donuts with Santa

Tomorrow from 9am-noon is Donuts with Santa! Hope to see you there!

Schoolwide Pajama Day

On Thursday, December 17^th feel free to wear pajamas! We are having a schoolwide pajama day!

Catalogs Please

Please send in any catalogs you have at home so we can use them for a fun math project next week!

Playground Survey

The PTA is asking that all parents complete the following survey regarding our playground here at Harmony.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Z8F8BND

Here’s what’s coming up next week in our curriculum!

7 Habits: We are going to take some time to step back and review the 7 habits next week as we refocus our personal and academic goals.

Social Studies:  We will begin a fun, new endeavor next week as we explore the Mission U.S. program online to build background information on the Revolutionary War.

Math:  During math we will wrap up our division unit and then we will begin an authentic project in which kids will complete a virtual shopping spree.

Reading: We will finish up our study of point of view and verb tense, and then work on comparing and contrasting literary texts.

Writing:  Our focus for writing will be to learn about perspective, how to see situations and events through another person’s eyes.  The kids will specifically analyze slavery through perspectives of various people including a slave, an abolitionist, a slave owner, and then their own perspective.

Week of December 7-11

Our newest Leader of the Week is…

Meghan!!!

Meghan is a pro at being proactive and at putting first things first! She is a reliable student who works hard to complete all of her assignments in class! I’ve noticed that she has been particularly good at giving detailed responses in both writing and in discussions. She also seeks first to understand during mini-lessons because he listens carefully to the teacher without interrupting. Meghan is a great leader!

Upcoming Tests

Science test over matter on Wednesday, December 9^th (Study guide coming home today)

Math test over Division on Friday, December 11^th

Dates to Remember
December 11^th~Husky Helping House donations due

December 12^th~Donuts with Santa

December 18^th~Class Holiday Party @ 9:00am

Survey for Playground Purchases

Please take the following survey to provide your input for how PTA can best improve our playground.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Z8F8BND

Husky Helping House

Thank you so much to the many people who have donated gifts! We have filled all the items on the child’s wish list! Wow! If you were unable to contribute, we still need tape, wrapping paper, a couple of small boxes to hold nail polish, and gift tags. Email me if you’d like to send one of these items in and I’ll assign you one. Thank you!

Here’s what’s coming up!

Science: During science, we will wrap up and test over our unit on matter.

Social Studies: We will continue to study slavery and then begin a unit on colonial Williamsburg as the students take a “tour” of the town in class.

Math: We will wrap up our study of division through lessons on dividing decimals and interpreting the remainder.

Reading:  The kids are really enjoying their literature circle books and they are excited to finish them up next week!  We discuss each week and the kids seem very interested in the plots and the characters!

Writing:  During writing, our focus will be on learning about point of view and verb tense. These concepts will be put to work in their writing next week as the kids have an opportunity to write slave journals from the perspective of a slave working on a plantation.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns about your child, and please check out our blog to see the newest Leader of the Week! Have a great weekend!

The Physical Properties of Matter.

During science, we experimented with physical properties of matter!  We tested to see how different objects would react when we put the object up to a magnet, a lamp to see if it reflects light, and a dryer to see if it conducts heat. We also tried to stretch the object to see if it was elastic. We had so much fun during this assignment!

Colonial Regions Info

Watch these videos during social studies & discuss with your group members.
How were each of these colonial regions unique?

Watch this link on Tuesday: The New England Colonies

Watch this link on Wednesday: The Middle Colonies

Watch this link on Thursday: The Southern Colonies

Renaissance Research

Websites for Renaissance Thinkers Research

 Be sure to create a thesis and to choose your subtopics before you begin gathering extensive research on your Renaissance person!

 www.ducksters.com

 http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/subjects/renaissance.htm

 http://www.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3753904

 http://www.midrealm.org/mkyouth/links/peopleren.htm

 http://www.biography.com/

Events from the week of October 26!

Our newest Leader of the Week is...

 Emory!!!

      Emory is being honored this week for her use of habits 1, 4, and 5!  She, like many of our students, is very proactive and comes in each day with a wonderful attitude!  She is ready and eager to learn every day!  She also uses Think Win-Win daily as she works hard to help others and to seek solutions that will make everyone happy!  She is also a good listener.  Emory definitely seeks first to understand, and then often helps others!  Keep up the hard work, Emory!

Red Ribbon Week Fun!!

        BizTown was a huge success!  This year I had a chance to be a little more involved in many of the businesses and I was blown away by the kids' work ethic!  In the restaurant, people would start sweeping or wiping down tables without even being asked to!  CPAs throughout the town worked extremely hard to print and pay invoices as well as to get everyone their paychecks so they could spend their hard-earned money!  No matter which business I went into, all the kids were hard at work, and they each took their jobs very seriously.  It was a great experience!  Here are a few pictures from our visit below!

Native American Murals and Dwellings

Everyone has been chosen to research a Native American tribe and they had to draw a picture of the dwelling and the region where that tribe was located.

The final murals turned out great!

Everyone even got to make a model of a Native dwelling from their cultural region!

Week of November 2-6

Dates to Know

November 3^rd ~ No School

November 5^th ~ Picture Retakes & PTA Skate Party @ Champs from 6-8

November 17^th and 19^th ~ Conferences and Progress Reports

November 25^th-27^th ~ Thanksgiving Break

Parent-Teacher Conferences

This fall we are going to hold student-led conferences so your child can share his/her progress and goal setting with you.  The plan is to have 4-5 families at a time in the room while Ms. Hafner and I facilitate.  We will allow your child to lead the conference and Ms. Hafner and I will step in as well to answer questions and clarify goals set for the student. Rather than being sent home in the Wednesday folder, during this time, you will also receive your child’s progress report. I will also be available during your conference to answer any questions and to discuss the progress report with you and your child as needed. More information about this will be sent home next week so you can sign up for a time slot, but in the meantime, please save the date. :o)

Picture Retakes

Thursday November 5^th is Picture Retake Day for anyone who was not here on Picture Day this year.

*On another note, I will be out for a training 3 days next week, Wednesday-Friday.  If you have any immediate concerns, please contact the office.  I will be checking my email daily, but please be aware that I will not be at school as the training is off site.  Thank you!

*Please check out our blog for pictures from this week including BizTown and our newest Leader of the Week!  Have a HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

This Week’s Learning Plan

Science:  What is matter?  The kids will be learning about matter and they will learn how to prove that matter is there even when you can’t see it!

Social Studies: What were the motives for exploration and the first colonies in the New World?  We will examine why people first came to the New World (the Americas).  We will also begin to study the first colonies (Roanoke, Jamestown, and Plymouth) and try to understand why they were or were not successful.

Math:  How do I multiply decimals?  The kids will learn to use various algorithms and strategies for multiplying and problem solving with decimals.

Reading:  What can I learn about people from the Renaissance?  We will begin researching and gathering information about Renaissance thinkers.

Writing:  How do creative thinkers tell stories?  The kids will have the opportunity to explore and examine the work of Renaissance thinkers and they will write about how they told stories through their artwork.

We are having fun making our tribal homes! We are using natural resources to create Native Americans' houses. We were split Into groups to learn about different tribes such as: Tlingit, Nez Perce, siux, ect. I can't wait to put these in the hall!

Leader of the Week ~ October 5-9

Our Leader of the Week is…

Sanya!!!

          Sanya has been chosen as our Leader of the Week for her exceptional leadership in her role as Technology Coordinator!  She does a fantastic job every day of keeping track of the iPads for our hallway and making sure they are put away and plugged in each night.  Not only that, but she does this without any reminders from me.  She has been very proactive in this role and she always begins with the end in mind by first gathering all of the iPads before she puts the cart away.  She also puts first things first because while she knows this is an important role, she makes sure her classwork is complete before moving on to her work as the technology coordinator!  Way to go, Sanya!

October 5-9

Dates to Remember

October 7^th ~ Early Release

October 10^th ~ Harmony Harvest

October 19-23 ~ Fall Break

Upcoming Test
Math test over Decimal Place Value on Friday, October 9th

Book Fair Shopping

Today I took the kiddos to preview our Book Fair.  They had the opportunity to record in their agendas anything they’d like to put on a wish list.  If you would like for your child to purchase any of these items, we will be shopping as a class on Monday morning.  Please send money with your child on Monday if he/she wishes to make a purchase.  Thank you!

Message from Our Room Mom

Our room mom this year is Jona Cox and she would love to gather parent contact info. so that she can communicate with the families of each student in our class.  Her communication with you will be related to our 5^th grade classroom such as information about classroom celebrations, etc.  If you would like to share your contact information with her (phone and email address), please send that to her at jonacox20@yahoo.com.  I am not permitted to simply share my contact list with her.  Jona is awesome and she will make a fabulous room mom this year!

Harmony Harvest

Come out next Saturday for the annual Harmony Harvest from 5:00-8:00pm!

This Week’s Learning Plan

7 Habits:  We will review the 7 habits and continue using our data notebooks which I will be able to share with you at conferences in November.  :o)

Science:  We will continue our first science unit, Building a Scientific Community.  We will investigate the scientific method, and learn about what it means to do science through inquiry.

Social Studies:  We continue to learn about Native Americans this week with a focus on the various culture regions the Native Americans settled in and how they adapted to these environments.  Your child will be able to make a mural of the region as well as a model of a Native American dwelling from his/her assigned region.

Math:  We will wrap up our study of decimal place value this week with a  test on Friday.  Look for a study guide to come home Monday.  This will be due on Wednesday.

ELA:  Our focus for ELA will be to continue our Clues to a Culture unit.  We will further our study of Native Americans by examining and writing our own trickster tales.  The kids will also have the opportunity to explore the different perspectives of white settlers and Native Americans on who owned the land.  They will then be given the opportunity to take a perspective and debate on this topic.

Oil Spill Science Experiment!

Oh No! There has been an oil spill in cups! At each table everyone had to work together to get out all of  the oil out of the cups. In each cup there was water and there was vegetable oil and you only had the following materials to get it out: oats,pipette,Cotten balls,and a spoon. This is fun!

Week of September 28 - October 2

Happy Friday, parents!  It’s been another busy week full of fun activities in class!  The kids have been so enthusiastic about the Zombie Apocalypse project in class this week!  They’ve done a great job analyzing their 2 possible cities for settling during the Zombie Apocalypse through the use of the 5 themes of geography and this project culminated today when they wrote their final reflection.  Ask your child about where he/she chose to settle during the apocalypse and why.

 

And our newest Leader of the Week is...

Xander!!!

 

            Xander is a proactive student with who is bubbling with jolly energy every day!  He puts first things first each week as he completes his assignments prior to having fun.  He also does a great job of synergizing with his classmates to complete group tasks. Xander enjoys sharpening the saw through video games and enjoying any and all things related to his favorite movie, “Star Wars.”  Keep using the 7 habits, Xander!

 

 

Harmony Harvest Auction Item

Attached to this email I’ve included a picture of the artwork that the kids worked together to make for our Harmony Harvest auction item, themed “It takes a village to raise a child.”  Funds used to purchase this item at the Harvest will go back to our classroom.  If you were unable to contribute to the purchase of materials used to make our art project, you can still help out.  We need a frame.  If you would like to help us purchase a frame for our project, please send in a few dollars in an envelope marked Jona Cox and she will get a frame for our project.  The kids did a great job, so check it out!

Message from Our Room Mom

Our room mom this year is Jona Cox and she would love to gather parent contact info. so that she can communicate with the families of each student in our class.  Her communication with you will be related to our 5^th grade classroom such as information about classroom celebrations, etc.  If you would like to share your contact information with her (phone and email address), please send that to her at jonacox20@yahoo.com.  I am not permitted to simply share my contact list with her. Jona is awesome and she will make a fabulous room mom this year!
 

Upcoming Events:

October 10^th ~ Harmony Harvest
October 14^th ~ Early Release Day
October 19^th – 23^rd ~ Fall Break
October 28^th ~ BizTown Field Trip

*Please return your child’s field trip form and money for BizTown at your earliest convenience.

Here’s what we’re learning next week…

Science:  How do I analyze and debate a scientific topic?  The kids will read and analyze a scientific article, then form and opinion and debate about their ideas.

Social Studies:  How did the first people come to the Americas?  We will investigate major migration theories and learn about how Native Americans, particularly the Inuit, adapted to their environment.

Math:  How do we order, compare, and round decimals?  We will continue working with decimals to place them in order, to compare them, and to learn how to round with decimals.

ELA:  During ELA this coming week, students will research and develop an essay on Native American culture.  They will also learn to compare and contrast 2 cultures.  Our word study focus will be on homophones, as the kids will learn to differentiate between these words which sound the same but have very different meanings.

September 21-25

Dates to Remember

September 23^rd ~ Hands-On Science

September 25^th ~ Husky Hustle during Related Arts

Message from Our Room Mom

Our room mom this year is Jona Cox and she would love to gather parent contact info. so that she can communicate with the families of each student in our class.  Her communication with you will be related to our 5^th grade classroom such as information about classroom celebrations, etc.  If you would like to share your contact information with her (phone and email address), please send that to her at jonacox20@yahoo.com.  I am not permitted to simply share my contact list with her.  Jona is awesome and she will make a fabulous room mom this year!

Husky Hustle

Please encourage your children to collect donations from family and friends for the Husky Hustle.  For each $50 donation your child collects, he/she will be entered into a drawing to win either a bicycle or a $25 Target gift card!  Donations are due by Friday, September 25^th.

This Week’s Learning Plan

7 Habits:  We will begin making use of our data notebooks this week.  These notebooks will allow the kids to track their educational progress and set personal and academic goals.  Thank you to the PTA for donating pronged folders to the entire 5^th grade for this purpose!!

Science:  This week kicks off our first science unit, Building a Scientific Community.  We will explore what it means to have a hands on vs. minds on approach to science, investigate the scientific method, and learn about what it means to do science through inquiry.

Social Studies:  In a fun, new twist on social studies, the kids will do a one week unit on the Zombie Apocalypse!  They will work in pairs to make decisions about where to settle during a hypothetical Zombie Apocalypse and they will have to support those decisions based on what they know about the different U.S. regions.

Math:  We will begin our student of decimal place value this week with a focus on how to write decimals through the thousandths.

ELA:  Our focus for ELA will be to wrap up our Playing with Words as we learn to apply figurative language to our own writing.  We will also learn about what it means to be a fluent reader and practice our reading fluency through group readings of poems and reader’s theater scripts.

Scientists

Click on the links below in order to help you learn and draw conclusions about scientists!

 

http://pbskids.org/dragonflytv/scientists/

http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-104122.html

http://www.scilogs.com/communication_breakdown/liz-heinecke/

http://www.niehs.nih.gov/news/video/chat/

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/explore/explorers/interview-with-luke-dollar/

Zombie Apocalypse!!

Here are a few links to help you get started on your Zombie Apocalypse project.

 

 
Main Resource for Zombie Apocalypse Survival

Average Temperature by State

Average Rainfall by State

Profiles of the 50 Largest U.S. Cities

U.S. City Data

State Info

Find out more information about the state in which your city is located.

Crime vs. Safety Index

U.S. Atlas

Click here to read more about your state and city.


 

Region Study

We are learning about all the different regions! We are using Pic Collage and ChatterKid to talk about the different features of each region.

7 Habits

We are making Haiku Decks for the 7 habits! We teamed up into groups of 3 and took pictures of all the habits.  For example, number 1, be proactive number 2, Begin with the end in mind. Afterwards, we will get a chance to share what we have made. I can tell everyone's working hard!

Week of September 14-18

Our newest Leader of the Week is...

Alley!!!

      Alley does an awesome job of using the 7 habits!  She is particularly good at being proactive and seeking first to understand, then to be understood.  Alley is a hard worker with a "can-do" attitude.  She is also a leader amongst her peers when it comes to being an active listener.  She listens to others and engages in all lessons during class!  Keep it up, Alley!!

Dates to Remember

Monday, September 14^th ~ Beginning of our PE rotation (Please have your child where tennis shoes.)

Tuesday, September 15^th ~ Picture Day & MAP Testing

Friday, September 18^th ~ Classroom Guidance with Mrs. Murphy

Wednesday, September 23^rd ~ Hands On Science

Friday, September 25^th ~ Husky Hustle

Upcoming Tests:

Math Test over Order of Operations and Mathematical Expressions on Thursday, 9/17

This Past Week in Pictures!

Below you will see 3 pictures of the kids working on math during station teaching.  On this particular day, the stations included an order of operations activity, an expressions activity, and a game called Factor Captor.  The kids really enjoy station teaching during math!

The Knot Game!  This is a fun brain break competition that we do from time to time.  The boys' are featured below trying to undo their knot!

The girls' knot was even bigger because we have more girls!

The following 4 pictures feature our sweet 5th graders reading with the Kinderpups in Mrs. Rankin's class!  We try to work with them each Friday.

Curriculum Plans for Next Week

7 Habits:  Our focus this week will be on habits 6 and 7, synergize and sharpen the saw.  On Wednesday, the kids will then create a Haiku Deck presentation on the iPads to showcase the 7 habits.

Social Studies:  We will begin a one week unit on U.S. regions Monday.  This unit will allow the kids to learn about and explore the various characteristics of the 5 major regions of the United States.

Math:  This week we will wrap up our unit on Order of Operations and Mathematical Expressions.  We will review, complete a transfer task, and test on Thursday.

Reading:  The focus of writing will be to explore idioms, proverbs, synonyms and antonyms to learn how writers play with words.

Writing:  During reading this coming week, the kids will use the research they’ve gathered and “play with words” to create a biopoem and a short report on a scientist or inventor of their choice.