Mrs. Whitley's Classroom Blog

Friday, February 17, 2017

Week of February 20-24

Good afternoon, parents! I hope you’ve had a nice week! We’ve had a wild week with all of our schedule changes, but the kids were so flexible! I appreciate them so much! Please see below for some important info about next week. Enjoy the beautiful weather!

Dates to Know

Battle of the Books All-Star Test on Monday, 2/20
Study Guide due Thursday, 2/23
American Revolution Test on Friday, 2/24
Class Pizza Party on Friday, 2/24

Pizza Party

Please return your child’s permission slip for next Friday’s pizza party by Monday (if possible).

The Water Step

Our Water Step service project will continue through February 28^th. If you have any shoes you would like to donate, please send them in next week! Thank you in advance!

Here’s what we’re learning next week…

Language Arts: How do I punctuate dialogue, interjections, and conjunctions?
Writing: How do I confer with a peer to improve my writing? How do I revise and edit my feature article? The goal is publish these by Friday!
Science: How does energy travel in an ecosystem?
Math: How do I multiply fractions and mixed numbers? Students will learn to use models as well as algorithms for multiplying both fractions and mixed numbers.
Social Studies: How did the Continental Army finally succeed in defeating the British during the American Revolution?

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Fraction x Whole Number

Click on the following links to learn how to multiply a fraction by a whole number. After this, you get to work in stations today to practice these skills! Have fun!

Algorithm Song for Fraction by a Whole

Models for Fraction by a Whole

Friday, January 27, 2017

January Learning Events

This week in Mrs.Whitley's classroom we have been working on a new project. We are setting up the Water Step project at our school. The Water Step project is a non profit organization that collects donated shoes and sells them to an exporter and the money they get from that goes to giving water to people in 3rd world countries. We did this because every 60 seconds a child dies from unclean water. Our project will start on February 1st and end on February 28th. We hope to fill 4 WaterStep boxes with shoes.

Our class made posters to put up around the school telling people to donate old shoes, we had people tell about it over the announcements, and we had people write a script to tell about it on newscast.

This week we also did an activity where we had either a nonfiction text feature or text feature definition taped on our back. We had to give each other hints about our text feature and you had to find the person that had the matching feature or definition.

Our class made posters for the third annual Fifth Grade vs. Teachers basketball game. The teachers have won for the past two years but this year the students hope to change that. We have a great team this year and they want to win badly. Us, fifth graders are determined to win. Last year the fifth graders lost by 1 point so we think we can beat the teachers.

Friday, January 20, 2017

Week of January 23-27

Dates to Know

Social Studies Study Guide Due: Thursday, 1/26

Social Studies Test over Colonization: Friday, 1/27

5^th Grade Basketball Game: Friday 1/27 @ 6:30pm @ South Oldham Middle

Wish List

Highlighters! We have suddenly gotten VERY low on highlighters and we use them almost daily. If anyone would like to make a donation to our classroom, we really need highlighters and your donation would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

5^th Grade Basketball Game

Students vs. Teachers Basketball game begins at 6:30pm. If your child is playing or participating in some way, please have he/she arrive no later than 6pm. For anyone who wishes to play, but was not drawn, you may still have a chance. If a child from our team is unable to make it at the last minute, I will draw from the remaining forms at the game that night, but your child must be wearing the 5^th grade t-shirt. Keep in mind that this is unlikely. However, I would encourage everyone to attend because regardless of whether you’re playing or not, it will be a fun night for all!

Social Studies Study Guide

While I’ve taught most concepts, not everything on the study guide has been covered in class just yet. Therefore, the kids may begin the study guide this weekend, but it’s not due until Thursday, 1/26.

Last call for STOMP registration!

If you forgot to send in your child’s registration for STOMP, please do so no later than tonight. She will accept take a picture via e-mail by tonight or you can electronically send it in. I've attached the registration form again. Thanks!

Here’s what we’re learning next week!

Reading: How does a reader expand his/her knowledge of a topic? Next week will consist of a variety of research lessons in preparation for the kids’ writing assignment on positive human activity. What are nonfiction text features? We will explore the different features of nonfiction and how to incorporate them into our own articles.

Writing: How do I effectively organize information from multiple sources? How do I write an effective lead? This week our class will begin writing articles about a human activity of their choice that has a positive impact on the environment. This will tie in with our study of Earth systems.

Science: How do humans positively impact the environment? This week we will explore ways in which humans positively impact Earth systems.

Math: How do we estimate sums and differences? How do we add and subtract mixed numbers?

Social Studies: What was the Triangular Trade? What types of governments existed during colonial times? We will study these topics and review for Friday’s test.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to contact me. Thank you and have a great weekend! J