"Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful."

Monday, October 2, 2017

Week of October 2nd


Dates to Know
Friday, 9/29: Field trip to Farnsley-Moremen Landing
Monday, 10/16: Fall Festival 6-8pm
Thursday, 10/19: No School (Teacher Work Day)
Friday, 10/20-10/27: Fall Break (No School)
 
Regions/World Map Quiz
Several students needed extra practice on either the regions, the world map, or both from our previous social studies test. Please check your child’s take home folder tonight. If your child needs extra practice, I’ve included a simple study guide to help them. Please help them prepare for a quiz this Wednesday. *If your child does not have this in his/her take home folder, a quiz will not be given to him/her on Wednesday, but an alternate activity will be offered. 
 
Conferences
This year we are having a Parent-Teacher Conference Day rather than doing them after school. Therefore, I will be here from 8am-4pm on Monday, November 6th hosting conferences. Please sign up for one time slot per family. We have 28 kids in class so I can only host one conference per family. There simply isn't enough time to schedule multiple conferences for one student. If you are unable to make it to conferences on this day, please send me an email and we can schedule a phone conference. I hope everyone is able to sign up and I look forward to meeting with each of you! Please use the Sign Up Genius to select a time slot for your child’s fall conference:   http://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e094aa4a92da5f85-fall
 
Field Trip
We had a blast on the field trip today! The kids seemed really excited to learn about archaeology! They enjoyed digging at the site, making their own bricks, and even touring the old home. Check out the photo link below (courtesy of Holly Miller) and ask your kiddos about the trip!
 
Class Pumpkin
Once again it’s that time of year to decorate a pumpkin for our class! I will brainstorm with the kiddos today and if you have some ideas please send them my way. I would love some parents volunteers to come in and help us decorate in the afternoon next Thursday, October 12th!
 
Substitute Next Monday & Tuesday
Just a heads up that I will have a sub next Monday and Tuesday because I will be out of town at a conference graciously sponsored by the PTA called Get Your Teach On. My friend, Jill McClay has been subbing for years and she will be stepping in for me on those two days. I am so excited for this opportunity to learn new and exciting ways to engage students in learning and I plan to bring a lot of new ideas back to share with the teachers. If you need to reach me, please contact me prior to this Sunday or after Tuesday of next week. Thank you!
 
Our Guiding Questions for the Week:
7 Habits: How do I set wildly important goals (W.I.G.s)?
Math: do I use the order of operations? How do I interpret mathematical expressions?
Social Studies: How did Native Americans adapt to various environments? What are the unique characteristics of the Native American cultural regions?
Reading: What are idioms, adages, and proverbs?
Writing: How do I use figurative language in my writing?
 
Have a wonderful week! J

Native Americans Blendspace

Use this Blendspace to fill in your graphic organizer about natural resources used by the Inuit.


https://www.tes.com/lessons/MdGRIduq6jCrog/the-inuit-tribe.

Sunday, September 24, 2017

Fun week


This week was awesome we synergized  together with  a person that we haven't really hung out with a lot  and we figured out our similarities and differences with a Venn Diagram. Then we figured out we weren't so different after all!😊
   This week we had to write about emojis and their view of life. It was super fun. We got a prompt had to write about it with an emoji sticker. #Emoji πŸ˜ŽπŸ˜πŸ˜ƒπŸ˜˜πŸ˜œπŸ€“πŸ˜Ž☺️😊 This helped us to practice using the trait of voice in our writing.

We had also had a Crazy Hair and PJ day. πŸ˜‹ We earned this because of all of our donations to Tiger Trek! 

 
  

Friday, September 15, 2017

Region researching

This week we reserched on different regions. We worked very hard and hope to continue that.πŸ€“

We worked on murals. We made different regions including the Northeast, the Southeast, and the Midwest.

Our teacher made this activity so much fun! We love our teacher!😘

 
 

This is one of our murals. They were so much fun! We all had a blast!πŸ˜‹

Monday, September 11, 2017

Word It Out Homework

Your homework for the next several nights is to make a word cloud for each region as we study it. That means you are going to use the knowledge you gained in class to create a word cloud using the names of all the states in the region as well as 10 or more words to describe the region you learned about in class that day. States that are 2 words like New York will have to be typed without a space. For example, NewYork. Use the following website to make your word cloud. https://worditout.com/word-cloud/create Print it out and bring it to school the next day. If you cannot print, send me the word cloud via email by clicking "Save" on the lefthand side of the screen and sending it to jennifer.whitley@oldham.kyschools.us. I will print for you if you cannot print at home. **Another option kids seemed excited about was to design the word cloud on a piece of paper using markers or colored pencils rather than using the computer. This too is absolutely fine. The purpose here is to reaffirm the learning we’re doing in class each day in a fun, creative way.

Tuesday: Make a word cloud about the Northeast region. Use words to describe the region's characteristics.

Wednesday: Make a word cloud about the Southeast region. Use words to describe the region's characteristics.

Thursday: Make a word cloud about the Midwest region. Use words to describe the region's characteristics.

Friday: Make a word cloud about the Southwest region. Use words to describe the region's characteristics.

Monday: Make a word cloud about the West region. Use words to describe the region's characteristics.

Sunday, August 27, 2017

Learning Events @ the Start of School

This week we had a blastπŸ˜„! We used synergy
 and  teamwork to create a mission statement for our class.
 
We also learned about needs and wants. We each got a slip of paper that had multiple activities we needed to accomplish. We had to use the iteams in front of us to make the objects that we were given on the slip of paper.  We learned about scarcity as we found out that we did not have enough materials to successfully make each item listed on the paper. 
 
 We also did a stem activity where we had to create a stack of Dixie cups and popcicle sticks to hold chapter books. Some of us went a little crazy🀣! When they fell there was and explosion of chaos! All of us worked hard to acheive our mission!   
Some of us were a little camera shyπŸ“Έ. We had to build a free standing structure using straws. It was difficult to accomplish. But we eventually we got it standing. We had to stick the straws inside each other or use a small amount of tape to tape it together. We noticed that tape did not hold together very well.  The other complicated part of this nation was that we could not use the tape to secure the structure to the table. 
We worked very hard this week and we  guarantee  we will work even harder next week.πŸ˜‰

Friday, August 11, 2017

Welcome!!


Image result for welcome to 5th grade

Welcome, 5th graders! I cannot wait to meet you! You will have an opportunity to come meet me, check out our classroom, an drop of your supplies on Monday, August 14th!

 
 
Just to share with you a little about me, I am a mother of 3 boys, I’m an Oldham County native, and I’ve been teaching for 12 years now. I absolutely love teaching and 5th grade is my favorite. I’ve actually taught 5th grade for 10 years now. I taught in Shelby County for 2 years at the start of my career (4th grade and 3rd grade), at Harmony Elementary for 9 years (5th grade), and at Kenwood Station for 1 year so far (5th grade). If you are new to Kenwood Station, welcome! We are so happy to have you and you will love this community and this school!

I want you to know that in my classroom we strive to have fun and to make friends while learning, so come in each day ready to be challenged and ready to use the 7 habits of happy kids! My favorite quote is: “Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.”

I hope to see you Monday evening and I look forward to our first day together on August 16th! Rest up and enjoy these last few days of summer!