Monday, December 14, 2009
One Week to Go
With the holiday coming up, we are down to one week, and you can count on it being a good one. We got through a lot last week and I expect similar results this week. I must apologize for this post being so late, but it was definitely a crazy week (and weekend) for me. We have a lot of things going on this week that throw off the schedule, so it will be a little crazy in class as well. With Robert Crown on Tuesday, an assembly Friday, and the winter party at the end of the week, the schedule has been shifted all over. However, it is important to note that we will be having Math each day (just in the afternoon on some days) and the Harcourt test will be Thursday instead of Friday.
As for last week in Reading, we did complete Seeing Earth from Space. Now we will be moving onto the next selection in the series, The Case of the Flying-Saucer People. Although we are taking the test on this story Thursday, it a very good piece, and I am confident the students will have no trouble getting into this one. We will continue focusing on main idea and supporting details throughout this story.
In Writing, the students had an opportunity to share what they wrote in their memoirs last week. From what I have read so far, I am really liking them. I have noticed a lot more elaboration and better word choice from the last memoir we wrote. I am still not done reading them all, but the break should give me a good chance to get through them all. The upcoming week will be spent focusing on our independent pieces. Not only that, but we will spend a lot of time in our Grammar/Sentence Writing curriculum.
In Science, the class has finished up their “The Cell as a Factory” models, shared the models with other students, and even written a piece about their models. The whole idea is to get students to understand the parts of a cell and the function of each part. I haven’t had a chance to finish grading all the quizzes on the cell parts, but I must say, “so far so good.”
This is going to be a bit of a crazy week with all the changes in the schedule. However, I am confident that we will take care of business. I am excited to wrap up our Science Unit and now that the Memoir Unit is complete, we can move on. We have just one more week before break, so let’s keep up the good work and finish this week up strong.
Celebrations!!!!
-100% on Unit 14 Spelling Test
Aimen, Hannah C., Avarie, Matthew R., Julia, Nathan, Dominic, & Victoria
-Lanie & Landon have been having a fun hockey season!
-Gabby, Julia, Megan are doing well in swimming!
-Brenna and Hannah C. both have/had a dance performance!
-Kara's lacrosse is going well!
-Ally had another ice skating competition!
-Nathan & Max were the first 5J students to publish a book with Cool Cat Press!
-Dominic & Max are having a blast on their travel soccer teams!
-The Band and Orchestra concert went really well...good job to all those who partcipated!
Friday, December 4, 2009
Ahead of Schedule
Even with so many breaks in the past few weeks, we have been working very diligently and I am glad to say we are ahead of schedule when it comes to our year-long schedule. If we keep this up, we will be done with most of the curriculum before school ends. That means we will get to delve deeper into concepts that wouldn’t normally be touched on in 5th grade. That is awesome, so keep up the great work!
Reading is progressing very well. This week we read the nonfiction text Oceans, and focused on main idea and supporting details. As we talked about in class, there are often numerous main ideas and supporting details in a nonfiction text. However, as a good reader, we need to be able to pick out the most important ones. We will be reading Seeing Earth from Space, another nonfiction text, and we will continue those same skills. We will also take advantage of all the nonfiction text aids to review some of the concepts we hit on a few weeks ago.
Now that we are half way through the second quarter, I did want to mention that we are right on schedule when it comes to our reading minutes goal. We are hoping to get 100,000 minutes by the end of the year, and right now we are at 38,114 minutes. That is awesome! We have had a lot of students going above and beyond each week to get our total minutes up there, so keep up the great work! As for the number of books read, we are trying to get to 600 books by the end of the year. We need to keep reading 5th grade level books (I don’t count the lower ones) and try to meet our goal. We are currently at 202 books so far this year. That is pretty good, but now I want to see the students step it up a notch.
As for Writing, I read through all of the memoirs and I was quite happy with what I saw. The students put a good effort into elaboration and word choice (which were the main focus of the memoirs). We have spent the last week completing one more memoir. We don’t usually write two pieces in a unit, but I really want the students to make the next step when it comes to elaboration and word choice. After going over last week’s memoirs, I think the students have a good grasp on those two concepts and I want to take advantage of this opportunity, and give them a chance to incorporate what we have learned. We should be finished with them by early next week, and I am excited to see how they have progressed in such a short amount of time. When we are all done with the memoirs, we will present them to the class to incorporate some Speaking and Listening skills into the unit. Once we are all done presenting, then we will go into the unit on the ABC’s & D of Prompt Writing. This will help the students prepare for the writing portion of the ISAT.
In Math, we started unit 5 which deals with fractions. This is a very difficult concept and students really need to be on their A-game if we are going to accomplish what we need to. We spent this entire week reviewing fraction concepts that have been touched on in previous grades. After an initial assessment of where we are in regards to our understanding of fractions, I can tell that this unit is going to take some time. We really need to leave 5th grade with a firm grasp on fractions.
The real story of the week has been Science. Even though we have four days of it a week, we have had a blast in those four days! We are continuing our unit on Small Life by delving deeper into the parts of an animal and plant cell. We started the week by creating models of a factory and associating the things we would find in a factory to the parts of a plant cell. (Thanks to all the parents and students who brought in supplies for this project). The models are coming out quite nice and I am finding that the students have some wild imaginations, but I like it. However, after spending two days constructing our models, I received a special delivery that changed the plans for the week. I had called in for some live specimens of single-celled organisms (amoeba, euglena, & paramecium), a few weeks ago. I didn’t expect them to get here this quickly, but they did. Given that they don’t have a very long life expectancy, we had to drop what we were doing so we could scope them out a bit. Although the students had a little trouble locating these squirmy little guys under the microscope (they can be pretty quick and hard to follow) it was a very beneficial experience. We will talk a little more about these living organisms next week, and discuss how they are related to plant and animal cells.
We had another great week and we are moving right along in the year-long plans. We are ahead of schedule and I hope to keep the pace up so that we can get into some other cool stuff that we wouldn’t normally get into. Keep up the great work, have a good weekend (I will be back up in Wisconsin), and I will see you on Monday!
Celebrations!!!!!
TBA
Reading is progressing very well. This week we read the nonfiction text Oceans, and focused on main idea and supporting details. As we talked about in class, there are often numerous main ideas and supporting details in a nonfiction text. However, as a good reader, we need to be able to pick out the most important ones. We will be reading Seeing Earth from Space, another nonfiction text, and we will continue those same skills. We will also take advantage of all the nonfiction text aids to review some of the concepts we hit on a few weeks ago.
Now that we are half way through the second quarter, I did want to mention that we are right on schedule when it comes to our reading minutes goal. We are hoping to get 100,000 minutes by the end of the year, and right now we are at 38,114 minutes. That is awesome! We have had a lot of students going above and beyond each week to get our total minutes up there, so keep up the great work! As for the number of books read, we are trying to get to 600 books by the end of the year. We need to keep reading 5th grade level books (I don’t count the lower ones) and try to meet our goal. We are currently at 202 books so far this year. That is pretty good, but now I want to see the students step it up a notch.
As for Writing, I read through all of the memoirs and I was quite happy with what I saw. The students put a good effort into elaboration and word choice (which were the main focus of the memoirs). We have spent the last week completing one more memoir. We don’t usually write two pieces in a unit, but I really want the students to make the next step when it comes to elaboration and word choice. After going over last week’s memoirs, I think the students have a good grasp on those two concepts and I want to take advantage of this opportunity, and give them a chance to incorporate what we have learned. We should be finished with them by early next week, and I am excited to see how they have progressed in such a short amount of time. When we are all done with the memoirs, we will present them to the class to incorporate some Speaking and Listening skills into the unit. Once we are all done presenting, then we will go into the unit on the ABC’s & D of Prompt Writing. This will help the students prepare for the writing portion of the ISAT.
In Math, we started unit 5 which deals with fractions. This is a very difficult concept and students really need to be on their A-game if we are going to accomplish what we need to. We spent this entire week reviewing fraction concepts that have been touched on in previous grades. After an initial assessment of where we are in regards to our understanding of fractions, I can tell that this unit is going to take some time. We really need to leave 5th grade with a firm grasp on fractions.
The real story of the week has been Science. Even though we have four days of it a week, we have had a blast in those four days! We are continuing our unit on Small Life by delving deeper into the parts of an animal and plant cell. We started the week by creating models of a factory and associating the things we would find in a factory to the parts of a plant cell. (Thanks to all the parents and students who brought in supplies for this project). The models are coming out quite nice and I am finding that the students have some wild imaginations, but I like it. However, after spending two days constructing our models, I received a special delivery that changed the plans for the week. I had called in for some live specimens of single-celled organisms (amoeba, euglena, & paramecium), a few weeks ago. I didn’t expect them to get here this quickly, but they did. Given that they don’t have a very long life expectancy, we had to drop what we were doing so we could scope them out a bit. Although the students had a little trouble locating these squirmy little guys under the microscope (they can be pretty quick and hard to follow) it was a very beneficial experience. We will talk a little more about these living organisms next week, and discuss how they are related to plant and animal cells.
We had another great week and we are moving right along in the year-long plans. We are ahead of schedule and I hope to keep the pace up so that we can get into some other cool stuff that we wouldn’t normally get into. Keep up the great work, have a good weekend (I will be back up in Wisconsin), and I will see you on Monday!
Celebrations!!!!!
TBA
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
A lot to be Thankful For
5J really does have a lot to be thankful for. We have gotten so much accomplished so far this year, and there are a lot of people that have played a major role in our success. Besides all of the students’ hard work, I am very thankful for all the parental support in 5J. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate everything you do. In addition to the at-home support, the in-school help has been great! I am so grateful for all the parent volunteers. Not only that, but I know the school has asked a lot of the parents lately. With the classroom supplies, the science materials, and the canned food drive, it is very obvious how generous the 5J parents are. I can’t thank you enough.
I would also like to thank the students for their hard work week in and week out. We definitely worked hard last week. In Reading, we read Summer of Fire in the Harcourt Series, and we had our test on Tuesday. We spent a lot of time working with nonfiction text aids. As I discussed in the last blog, in order to increase comprehension, it is very important to take advantage of those text aids. Too often students feel that it’s not important to focus on captions, charts, and bolded words (for example), but that is a habit we are going to break. We are definitely able to identify and interpret a variety of text aids, now we just need to make it common practice when reading nonfiction texts. The class did awesome meeting the demands for this story, and I expect similar results next week. We will be reading Oceans and pinpointing the main idea and supporting details in texts (another vital component of comprehension). Thanks again to the students for all their hard work. If you keep it up, it will all pay off in the long run.
Besides just completing the Harcourt selection, we also finished our read aloud book The Giver. I think a lot of the students can attest that it was definitely a higher-level book. However, read aloud is a good opportunity to expose students to more difficult books they might not read on their own. We just started another book that I think the students will really get into. We are reading the first book in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. It isn’t quite at the same level as The Giver, but it is a great series of books and I would like to get the students hooked on them like we did with Roald Dahl.
Lately, we have spent a lot of time finishing things up. After over 3 weeks of going through the writing process, we have finally completed our memoirs. As I mentioned in previous blogs, we spent a lot of time in the revision stage. This is because I want to make sure the students understand that this is the most important part of the writing process, and revisions can always be made. As a matter of fact, I’m sure if Lois Lowry had the chance, she would make a ton of changes to The Giver. I have already gotten through a number of the memoirs and I think the extra time has really made a difference. However, don’t get too used to this. As a matter of fact, we spent a mere two days working on a 5 paragraph essay on something we are thankful for. I am very excited to read the rest of the memoirs, as well as the 5 paragraph essays.
Besides just finishing up our two writing pieces, The Giver, and a Harcourt selection, the 5J Math class also concluded unit 4. Although some students did not receive the scores they would have liked, I think we can learn a valuable lesson from this test. It is important to take your time and make sure you don’t make little mistakes. There is no doubt in my mind that every student has a strong grasp on the content. The problem with the test was that we were just rushing through it. Long division is one of those things that you need to be very meticulous about, or one little mistake will make a big difference. As a class, we have talked about the situation and I am confident we will use it as a learning experience.
On a lighter note, we really do have a lot to be thankful for. With only two days this week, we spent that time reflecting on some of those things. The students have created 5 paragraph essays on what they are thankful for, and here are some of the things they are thankful for.
Family(parents, brothers, sisters, etc.)
Friends (Maggie, etc.)
Pets (dogs, cats, baby alligator)
Music
Sports (basketball, ballet, football, etc.)
Soldiers
I hope everyone has a great break and I will see you Monday!
Celebrations!!!!
-100% on Unit 13 Spelling Test
Hannah C., Hannah F., Matthew H., Julia, Brenna, Kevin, & Avarie
-Lanie has made 5 goals in the last 2 hockey games!
-Julia finished Otter Creek Multiplication!
-We read 3366 minutes last week! That is the most for the whole year!
-Basketball started for a number of the students in the class!
-Swimming is going very well for a number of students!
-We finished The Giver!
-We finished our memoirs!
I would also like to thank the students for their hard work week in and week out. We definitely worked hard last week. In Reading, we read Summer of Fire in the Harcourt Series, and we had our test on Tuesday. We spent a lot of time working with nonfiction text aids. As I discussed in the last blog, in order to increase comprehension, it is very important to take advantage of those text aids. Too often students feel that it’s not important to focus on captions, charts, and bolded words (for example), but that is a habit we are going to break. We are definitely able to identify and interpret a variety of text aids, now we just need to make it common practice when reading nonfiction texts. The class did awesome meeting the demands for this story, and I expect similar results next week. We will be reading Oceans and pinpointing the main idea and supporting details in texts (another vital component of comprehension). Thanks again to the students for all their hard work. If you keep it up, it will all pay off in the long run.
Besides just completing the Harcourt selection, we also finished our read aloud book The Giver. I think a lot of the students can attest that it was definitely a higher-level book. However, read aloud is a good opportunity to expose students to more difficult books they might not read on their own. We just started another book that I think the students will really get into. We are reading the first book in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. It isn’t quite at the same level as The Giver, but it is a great series of books and I would like to get the students hooked on them like we did with Roald Dahl.
Lately, we have spent a lot of time finishing things up. After over 3 weeks of going through the writing process, we have finally completed our memoirs. As I mentioned in previous blogs, we spent a lot of time in the revision stage. This is because I want to make sure the students understand that this is the most important part of the writing process, and revisions can always be made. As a matter of fact, I’m sure if Lois Lowry had the chance, she would make a ton of changes to The Giver. I have already gotten through a number of the memoirs and I think the extra time has really made a difference. However, don’t get too used to this. As a matter of fact, we spent a mere two days working on a 5 paragraph essay on something we are thankful for. I am very excited to read the rest of the memoirs, as well as the 5 paragraph essays.
Besides just finishing up our two writing pieces, The Giver, and a Harcourt selection, the 5J Math class also concluded unit 4. Although some students did not receive the scores they would have liked, I think we can learn a valuable lesson from this test. It is important to take your time and make sure you don’t make little mistakes. There is no doubt in my mind that every student has a strong grasp on the content. The problem with the test was that we were just rushing through it. Long division is one of those things that you need to be very meticulous about, or one little mistake will make a big difference. As a class, we have talked about the situation and I am confident we will use it as a learning experience.
On a lighter note, we really do have a lot to be thankful for. With only two days this week, we spent that time reflecting on some of those things. The students have created 5 paragraph essays on what they are thankful for, and here are some of the things they are thankful for.
Family(parents, brothers, sisters, etc.)
Friends (Maggie, etc.)
Pets (dogs, cats, baby alligator)
Music
Sports (basketball, ballet, football, etc.)
Soldiers
I hope everyone has a great break and I will see you Monday!
Celebrations!!!!
-100% on Unit 13 Spelling Test
Hannah C., Hannah F., Matthew H., Julia, Brenna, Kevin, & Avarie
-Lanie has made 5 goals in the last 2 hockey games!
-Julia finished Otter Creek Multiplication!
-We read 3366 minutes last week! That is the most for the whole year!
-Basketball started for a number of the students in the class!
-Swimming is going very well for a number of students!
-We finished The Giver!
-We finished our memoirs!
Friday, November 13, 2009
Short/Eventful Week
Well I will be taking another trip with the wrestling team today, so I better post this while I get the chance. I was in Iowa Wednesday and now it’s a four and a half hour trip up to Wisconsin today. All this traveling has given me a lot of time to think about our progress so far this year, and I must say I am very proud of all the students in 5J. As reflected during parent teacher conferences, we have been working hard each and every day. Even though we had a short week, it has been very eventful, and the student in 5J have really stepped it up to meet the demanding expectations. Keep up the great work!
Given that we had a short week, we are taking two weeks on the story in the Harcourt series. Summer of Fire focuses a lot on the different types of text aids students can find while reading nonfiction. There are all sorts of charts, graphics, and word-related aids that help the reader comprehend the text. As I mentioned in the last blog, as time goes on, students will need to get better and better at comprehending nonfiction texts. In middle school, high school, and especially college, a lot of the learning comes directly from reading nonfiction texts. This is especially true in Social Studies, Science, and Math textbooks. If you take advantage of those text aids, you will experience much more success. Therefore, we are spending extra time on this concept and delving deeper into the types of text aids we may encounter, and exactly how to interpret the different varieties. The test will be Friday, so be ready. It is also important to mention that the tests will start being worth more points than what they were in 1st quarter, so make sure you are reading the story Thursdays, studying, and using the links on the blog.
In Writing, we have spent the last few weeks revising our memoirs. I know I have been saying this a lot, but I can’t emphasize enough the importance of the revising step. This is where authors get the chance to go back and focus on elaboration, word choice, and other vital components of the writing piece. If I look at a draft and there are marks all over it (words circled, things crossed off, writing in the spaces and margins, arrows pointing everywhere), then I know the writer revised how they should. I really shouldn’t be able to follow or read your draft. Although we spent a lot of time on revising for memoir, we will not be doing that for other pieces, so be ready to do it right the first time in later Writing units. Next week we will be editing and publishing our final drafts of the memoir. I am very excited to see how the memoirs have evolved from the 1st draft to the final.
The short week has made it difficult to get a whole lot done in Science, but we did it. Everything I had planned was accomplished, and that is all due to the hard work of the students in 5J. We followed up on our experiment with lenses and discussed the different uses for them. Now we get to do some experimenting with onions and figure out what we are looking at, and how it is related to all other living things. I would also like to thank all the students (and parents) who brought in an onion for these activities. I really appreciate your help.
Outside of the academic realm, I need to apologize for my mistake on last week’s blog. I know I said the NCC Wrestling season-opener was on Wednesday the 11th, but it is actually the 18th. The invitation that Kelli Diaz printed for everyone is correct. I guess it was just a late night in Iowa and I wasn’t thinking straight when I updated the blog. Hopefully no one went to NCC on Wednesday night. Either way, I hope some of you are able to make it out on the 18th to see my team go to work. I have been coaching there for 2 years, and I graduated from there, so NCC is like my second home (Brooks being my first of course). However, make sure all your homework and studying is done first. You know the policy “school first,” and I don’t want anyone coming in Thursday unprepared because they went to the meet the night before.
I would like to thank all the parents and students who made it to parent teacher conferences. I know some had things come up, and that’s totally understandable. I will be sure to reschedule with you. However, I would like to ask another favor of the 5J parents. We are participating in the Holiday Store at Brooks. 5th grade has been asked to bring in wrapping supplies for that store. Also, we have a food drive next week. 5J would love to be the class with the most donations, so we could use everyone’s help. I know we ask a lot of parents, and I really appreciate all your support and hard work. I can’t thank you enough. I hope everyone enjoyed their time off of school. I know it was a short and eventful week, so good job 5J for stepping it up and getting a lot accomplished. I look forward to another successful week coming up.
Celebrations!!!
-100% on Microscope Test
Avarie, Nathan, Hannah C., Jack, Arushi, Kevin, Megan, Max, Nick, Landon, Gabby, Ally, Victoria, Matthew R., & Lanie
-100% on Everglades
Brenna, Megan, Matthew R., Victoria,
-100% on Unit 12 Spelling Test
Kara, Nathan Victoria, Hannah C., Hannah F., Gabby, Lanie, Julia, Landon, Matthew R., Kevin, Cooper & Avarie
-Nathan completed Otter Creek Multiplication!
-Hannah F. & Matthew R. read over 200 minutes last week!
Given that we had a short week, we are taking two weeks on the story in the Harcourt series. Summer of Fire focuses a lot on the different types of text aids students can find while reading nonfiction. There are all sorts of charts, graphics, and word-related aids that help the reader comprehend the text. As I mentioned in the last blog, as time goes on, students will need to get better and better at comprehending nonfiction texts. In middle school, high school, and especially college, a lot of the learning comes directly from reading nonfiction texts. This is especially true in Social Studies, Science, and Math textbooks. If you take advantage of those text aids, you will experience much more success. Therefore, we are spending extra time on this concept and delving deeper into the types of text aids we may encounter, and exactly how to interpret the different varieties. The test will be Friday, so be ready. It is also important to mention that the tests will start being worth more points than what they were in 1st quarter, so make sure you are reading the story Thursdays, studying, and using the links on the blog.
In Writing, we have spent the last few weeks revising our memoirs. I know I have been saying this a lot, but I can’t emphasize enough the importance of the revising step. This is where authors get the chance to go back and focus on elaboration, word choice, and other vital components of the writing piece. If I look at a draft and there are marks all over it (words circled, things crossed off, writing in the spaces and margins, arrows pointing everywhere), then I know the writer revised how they should. I really shouldn’t be able to follow or read your draft. Although we spent a lot of time on revising for memoir, we will not be doing that for other pieces, so be ready to do it right the first time in later Writing units. Next week we will be editing and publishing our final drafts of the memoir. I am very excited to see how the memoirs have evolved from the 1st draft to the final.
The short week has made it difficult to get a whole lot done in Science, but we did it. Everything I had planned was accomplished, and that is all due to the hard work of the students in 5J. We followed up on our experiment with lenses and discussed the different uses for them. Now we get to do some experimenting with onions and figure out what we are looking at, and how it is related to all other living things. I would also like to thank all the students (and parents) who brought in an onion for these activities. I really appreciate your help.
Outside of the academic realm, I need to apologize for my mistake on last week’s blog. I know I said the NCC Wrestling season-opener was on Wednesday the 11th, but it is actually the 18th. The invitation that Kelli Diaz printed for everyone is correct. I guess it was just a late night in Iowa and I wasn’t thinking straight when I updated the blog. Hopefully no one went to NCC on Wednesday night. Either way, I hope some of you are able to make it out on the 18th to see my team go to work. I have been coaching there for 2 years, and I graduated from there, so NCC is like my second home (Brooks being my first of course). However, make sure all your homework and studying is done first. You know the policy “school first,” and I don’t want anyone coming in Thursday unprepared because they went to the meet the night before.
I would like to thank all the parents and students who made it to parent teacher conferences. I know some had things come up, and that’s totally understandable. I will be sure to reschedule with you. However, I would like to ask another favor of the 5J parents. We are participating in the Holiday Store at Brooks. 5th grade has been asked to bring in wrapping supplies for that store. Also, we have a food drive next week. 5J would love to be the class with the most donations, so we could use everyone’s help. I know we ask a lot of parents, and I really appreciate all your support and hard work. I can’t thank you enough. I hope everyone enjoyed their time off of school. I know it was a short and eventful week, so good job 5J for stepping it up and getting a lot accomplished. I look forward to another successful week coming up.
Celebrations!!!
-100% on Microscope Test
Avarie, Nathan, Hannah C., Jack, Arushi, Kevin, Megan, Max, Nick, Landon, Gabby, Ally, Victoria, Matthew R., & Lanie
-100% on Everglades
Brenna, Megan, Matthew R., Victoria,
-100% on Unit 12 Spelling Test
Kara, Nathan Victoria, Hannah C., Hannah F., Gabby, Lanie, Julia, Landon, Matthew R., Kevin, Cooper & Avarie
-Nathan completed Otter Creek Multiplication!
-Hannah F. & Matthew R. read over 200 minutes last week!
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Keep it Up!
Well I just arrived in Iowa for the wrestling season-opener, and what better way to spend the night before than preparing for another productive week of school. Even though we have a short week coming up, I expect to get a lot accomplished. The past week has been very productive, and I expect to keep it up next week.
In Reading, we finished Everglades in the Harcourt Series. We will continue next week with Summer of Fire. We spent our time focusing on visualization and now we will work on the characteristics of nonfiction texts. There are numerous components of nonfiction that are critical to understand. As time goes on, nonfiction texts will play a larger role in student learning, and if you have a good grasp on the components of nonfiction, you will experience much more success.
Writing has been progressing as expected as well. We worked on our Memoirs last week and we will continue to do so next week. Revising has been the main point of emphasis and we are now moving on to editing and publishing. However, as I have mentioned numerous times, revising is the most important step in the writing process, and I expect to see more changes being made throughout the entire process.
Now that we have completed our Social Studies presentations on the 13 colonies (which were awesome by the way), we have moved onto our Small Life unit in Science. We spent all last week learning about microscopes and lenses. Next week will continue working with the microscopes and take a look into cells and their components. If everything goes as planned, we might even get a chance to observe the cells of an onion! This is exciting stuff!
Outside of the classroom, next week has a number of things that I would like to highlight. First and foremost, parent teacher conferences are scheduled for Tuesday. As I mentioned last week, I would like the students to come to the conferences with their parents. In 5th grade, students take a more active role in their education and need to be responsible for their performance. Therefore, it is good for students to hear anything being said at the conferences, and even participate in the discussion whenever possible. Being that conferences are all day Tuesday, there will not be any school. We are also off Wednesday due to Veterans’ Day.
Although I’m sure the 5J students have made plans to stay in all day Wednesday studying, reading, and preparing for Thursday, I wanted to invite everyone to our first home wrestling meet. As many of you may know, Brooks has a partnership with North Central College. Through this partnership, NCC sends a number of education majors to Brooks for observation hours. As a way to give back, NCC coordinates a variety of events to bond the North Central and Brooks communities. Being that I am on the coaching staff of NCC’s wrestling team, it offers a perfect opportunity for this type of event. Kelli Diaz, and administrator in the NCC Education Department, has created flyers that were sent home last week. The meet is against the University of Chicago and it should make for an exciting night. If you are at all interested, I would love to see you all there!
I hope everyone has a great weekend. I look forward to the short, yet fast-paced week coming up. With two days off, parent teacher conferences, and a wrestling meet, next week should be another good one.
CELEBRATIONS!!!
-100% on Unit 11 Spelling Test
Avarie, Matthew R., Landon, Arushi, Hannah C., Hannah F., Dominic, Megan, & Kara
-The class read over 3000 minutes last week (the most so far this year)!
-Lanie & Nathan completed Otter Creek Multiplication!
In Reading, we finished Everglades in the Harcourt Series. We will continue next week with Summer of Fire. We spent our time focusing on visualization and now we will work on the characteristics of nonfiction texts. There are numerous components of nonfiction that are critical to understand. As time goes on, nonfiction texts will play a larger role in student learning, and if you have a good grasp on the components of nonfiction, you will experience much more success.
Writing has been progressing as expected as well. We worked on our Memoirs last week and we will continue to do so next week. Revising has been the main point of emphasis and we are now moving on to editing and publishing. However, as I have mentioned numerous times, revising is the most important step in the writing process, and I expect to see more changes being made throughout the entire process.
Now that we have completed our Social Studies presentations on the 13 colonies (which were awesome by the way), we have moved onto our Small Life unit in Science. We spent all last week learning about microscopes and lenses. Next week will continue working with the microscopes and take a look into cells and their components. If everything goes as planned, we might even get a chance to observe the cells of an onion! This is exciting stuff!
Outside of the classroom, next week has a number of things that I would like to highlight. First and foremost, parent teacher conferences are scheduled for Tuesday. As I mentioned last week, I would like the students to come to the conferences with their parents. In 5th grade, students take a more active role in their education and need to be responsible for their performance. Therefore, it is good for students to hear anything being said at the conferences, and even participate in the discussion whenever possible. Being that conferences are all day Tuesday, there will not be any school. We are also off Wednesday due to Veterans’ Day.
Although I’m sure the 5J students have made plans to stay in all day Wednesday studying, reading, and preparing for Thursday, I wanted to invite everyone to our first home wrestling meet. As many of you may know, Brooks has a partnership with North Central College. Through this partnership, NCC sends a number of education majors to Brooks for observation hours. As a way to give back, NCC coordinates a variety of events to bond the North Central and Brooks communities. Being that I am on the coaching staff of NCC’s wrestling team, it offers a perfect opportunity for this type of event. Kelli Diaz, and administrator in the NCC Education Department, has created flyers that were sent home last week. The meet is against the University of Chicago and it should make for an exciting night. If you are at all interested, I would love to see you all there!
I hope everyone has a great weekend. I look forward to the short, yet fast-paced week coming up. With two days off, parent teacher conferences, and a wrestling meet, next week should be another good one.
CELEBRATIONS!!!
-100% on Unit 11 Spelling Test
Avarie, Matthew R., Landon, Arushi, Hannah C., Hannah F., Dominic, Megan, & Kara
-The class read over 3000 minutes last week (the most so far this year)!
-Lanie & Nathan completed Otter Creek Multiplication!
Saturday, October 31, 2009
One Down, Three to Go!
We have one quarter down and three more to go. I can’t believe we are already over one quarter of the way done with the year. I guess time flies when you’re having fun (or just staying busy). We have had a great 1st quarter and I have some high expectations for the following three.
As for the last few weeks, we have been busy as always. (I have to apologize for not updating the blog last week. Let’s just call it “technical difficulties”). Anyway, we accomplished a lot this week. We finished up all the research presentations on the 13 colonies. They went awesome! Not only did the students learn a lot, but I learned a lot of new interesting facts as well. We will be taking a break from Social Studies for the next few weeks and focusing on Science. Next week, we are going to be starting our “Small Life” unit. There are a lot of really cool activities that go along with all the learning we will be doing. Needless to say, I am very excited to get this unit started.
As for Reading, we have been moving along as planned. We finished up reading Island of the Blue Dolphins Friday and we will be starting Everglades on Monday. One thing I would like to mention about our Harcourt series (which I put in last week’s "technical difficulties”) is that it is an anthology of a number of stories put together. However, the stories are only excerpts of the original stories. This makes it very difficult for students to get a real feel for the quality of these stories. The reason I bring this up is because all the excerpts are from some really good stories. If you have the chance, I would highly suggest students get their hands on the full versions. They wouldn’t be in the anthology if they weren’t topnotch.
We are also well on our way into the next unit of Writing. We started our Memoir unit this week. We spent all this week immersing in different published memoir pieces. This has allowed us to create a list of defining characteristics of a good memoir. Next week, we will start the writing process to create memoirs of our own. However, as I have already mentioned to a number of students, we really need to focus on the revising and editing stages of the writing process. We are stressing “elaboration” in this piece. This means I want to see DETAILS, DETAILS, DETAILS! We will be spending a lot of extra time revising and editing in order to makes sure this happens. Make sure you are starting to think about what you want to write about. I am excited to see what kind of memoirs turn up.
I hope everyone has a fun, safe, and SCARY weekend. I would like to thank all the parents who made the Fall Party such a success. It was really nice to be able to have something like that and not have to worry about it on my end. I know it took a lot of work on the parents’ part. I can’t tell you how appreciative I am to have such supportive parents. Thanks again!
By the way, make sure everyone brings the signed envelopes from the report cards back on Monday. Also, parent teacher conferences are coming up. I look forward to meeting with all the parents and students. I know students may not be used to being at the conferences, but I would really like all the students to come if they can. It will be a good chance for students to take ownership over their progress in the 1st quarter.
CELEBRATIONS!!!
-100% on Unit 9 Spelling Test
Cooper, Hannah F., Hannah C., & Victoria
-100% on Unit 10 Spelling Test
Aimen, Kara, Victoria, Hannah C., Hannah F., Landon, Matthew R., Cooper, Breanna & Ally
-Austin, Aimen, & Hannah C., are done with Otter Creek Multiplication!
-Jack, Arushi, Matthew R., & Max are done with Otter Creek Division!
-Lanie had a wrap around goal in her last hockey game!
-Jack, Austin, & Cooper are in the playoffs for football!
-Megan, Lanie, & Max are in the championships for intramural soccer!
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Little Time, a lot Accomplished!
I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend. Despite the extremely short week, we accomplished a lot. In Reading, we took a break from the Harcourt series. We are actually a week ahead of the other classes, so instead we stayed busy working on figurative language. The students identified numerous pieces of figurative language that authors use like similes, metaphors, and onomatopoeias. In Writing, they even practiced creating pieces that included figurative language themselves. Even with the little time, we got a lot done for literacy. In the upcoming week, we will get back on track with the Harcourt series and we will be reading Woodsong, by one of my favorite authors Gary Paulsen.
In Math, we had our test on Tuesday, and although I am not completely done grading them, they are looking good so far. We also started working in Unit 3 which deals a lot with reading graphs, tables, and other data collection devices. As the unit goes on, we will also begin to delve into some geometry concepts. I am looking forward to another great few weeks in this unit.
We spent a lot of time this week working in Social Studies. The students are currently completing a research project on one of the 13 colonies during the 17th and 18th centuries. Each student is working in a pair, and they have spent a lot of time researching and preparing a draft for a PowerPoint presentation. We will start working on those PowerPoints this coming week. I have kept an eye on what information the students have been coming up with and I am very excited to see these presentations in the near future.
Although we had so little time last week, we really did get a lot accomplished. This upcoming week will be the last week of the quarter, so let’s keep our noses to the grindstone and finish this quarter strong. Report cards will be going out the following week, and parent-teacher conferences will be coming up too. Make sure everyone brings back their form confirming the times for parent-teacher conferences. I hope you all had a great weekend and I have some high expectations for this coming week.
Celebrations!!!!!
-100% on Spelling Test
Aimen, Megan, Victoria, Hannah C., Hannah F., Julia, Max, Landon, Jack, Matthew R., & Ally
-Max completed all levels in Division Otter Creek
-Victoria read over 200 minutes last week
-Nathan, Landon, Aimen, & Arushi finished really long books last week
In Math, we had our test on Tuesday, and although I am not completely done grading them, they are looking good so far. We also started working in Unit 3 which deals a lot with reading graphs, tables, and other data collection devices. As the unit goes on, we will also begin to delve into some geometry concepts. I am looking forward to another great few weeks in this unit.
We spent a lot of time this week working in Social Studies. The students are currently completing a research project on one of the 13 colonies during the 17th and 18th centuries. Each student is working in a pair, and they have spent a lot of time researching and preparing a draft for a PowerPoint presentation. We will start working on those PowerPoints this coming week. I have kept an eye on what information the students have been coming up with and I am very excited to see these presentations in the near future.
Although we had so little time last week, we really did get a lot accomplished. This upcoming week will be the last week of the quarter, so let’s keep our noses to the grindstone and finish this quarter strong. Report cards will be going out the following week, and parent-teacher conferences will be coming up too. Make sure everyone brings back their form confirming the times for parent-teacher conferences. I hope you all had a great weekend and I have some high expectations for this coming week.
Celebrations!!!!!
-100% on Spelling Test
Aimen, Megan, Victoria, Hannah C., Hannah F., Julia, Max, Landon, Jack, Matthew R., & Ally
-Max completed all levels in Division Otter Creek
-Victoria read over 200 minutes last week
-Nathan, Landon, Aimen, & Arushi finished really long books last week
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
All is Well
All is well in 5J! I hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend. It works out perfect that we just got done studying Christopher Columbus, and now we have the day off to celebrate his contributions. This has been another successful week and once again we accomplished a lot. In Reading we finished up Iditarod Dream while continuing to work on making inferences. We had a number of students get 100% on the test Friday, so good job everyone and keep it up. I also had a lot of students only a few points from 100%. To help get over that hump in the future, don’t forget I have links on the blog homepage that students can use to help them study for the test. We are actually ahead of schedule in Reading, so we will take the week off on reading a Harcourt story. Instead, we will be focusing on identifying figurative language and using similes, metaphors, and other techniques to spice up writing.
While we are on the topic of Writing, we will be completing our final drafts for our book reviews on The Twits. We spent all of last week going through the writing process for the reviews, and I think we are starting to get that down. I have read through all of the Parrot Perspectives and we have discussed the importance of the revision and editing stages. I am confident the students really focused on those stages last week, and I’m excited to read through those book reviews. Although we could not send anyone to the Cool Cat Press last week (because of OLSAT’s), I will be sending some this week, so keep working on those independent pieces.
In Math, we finished up our review of Unit 2 and we will be having our test on Tuesday. For those of you in my class, I hope you studied this weekend. Remember, you can always take home your class notes, SRB, and you should have the parent letter for each unit. You can use those if you ever need help studying or doing the homework. I think we worked really hard during Unit 2 and I am confident we are all ready for the test.
We are progressing at a similar rate in Social Studies. We finished up learning about Plymouth and Jamestown last week. We also started our research projects on the 13 colonies. Each student will work with a partner to do research, make a PowerPoint, and present what they learned to the class. I am hoping all the research can be done by Friday, and we will be ready to start creating our PowerPoints on Monday. That might be pushing it a little bit, but I guess we will have to see how things go.
This upcoming week will be a very short one, but I still have some big plans. We obviously have Monday off, but we also have a half day on Wednesday. We will continue our normal Wednesday schedule until we leave (so we will have Math). This means we really only have 3 days to focus on Reading, Writing, and Social Studies. However, I have high expectations for this class and I am confident we can still get a lot accomplished.
Celebrations!!!!!
100% on Spelling Test
-Lanie, Austin, Matthew R., Jack, Julia, Dominic, Avarie, Aimen, Brenna, Cooper, Max, Kara, Nick, Gabby, Hannah F, & Hannah C.
100% on Folktales From Asia
-Ally, Megan, Avarie, Nick, & Brenna
-Jack’s FB team beat an undefeated team last weekend.
-Julie, Megan, & Gabby had time trials for swimming.
-Victoria, Brenna, & Hannah F. completed all levels on Otter Creek Multiplication
-Matthew R. read over 300 minutes in a week.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Shaking Things Up!
We really did shake things up this week. With 2 assemblies, band and orchestra, and our bully prevention program, each day was different than the next. Not only that, but we only had Math for 3 days, we had the beginning of our parent volunteer schedule, and the copy machine has been down for 2 weeks. Although there were a number of changes this week, we still got a lot accomplished.
Despite a few obstacles, in Reading, we completed Folktales from Asia. We have been focusing on making inferences and we will continue to do the same for the next few weeks. Next week we will start reading Iditarod Dream, which should lend itself well to making inferences. I think it is also important to mention that last week, we read the most minutes we have all year! We are around 11,000 total minutes so we are on our way to our goal to 100,000 minutes. Keep up the great work everyone!
In Writing we finished our Parrot Perspectives of the Christopher Columbus landing. I have already read through a number of them and they are AWESOME! Not only did we focus on including a number of facts about Christopher Columbus, but we incorporated the 1st person perspective in our writing. I’m excited to finish reading them. The students also did a great job of working through the writing process. We will be spending a lot of time this year working on writing, so it’s important we get that process down. Besides our Parrot Perspectives, we also started working in our Book Review Unit. We will delve even deeper into what makes a good book review next week, while continuing to write individual pieces that will eventually be published with the Cool Cat Press.
Although the schedule had numerous interruptions, we still got a lot accomplished in Math and Social Studies. We will be wrapping up Unit 2 in Math this week and probably have a test the following week. Let’s be ready for that. In Social Studies, we are learning about the beginning of colonization in America. We spent a lot of time on Jamestown and Plymouth, and next week each student will begin researching and creating a presentation about one of the 13 colonies. I am excited to see how the students will demonstrate what they have learned in Social Studies!
Like I said, this week was interrupted by a number of things, but I would like to highlight the Bully Prevention Program we completed this week. We spent a lot of time discussing what bullying looks like, what to do if you are being bullied, what to do if you are a bystander, and what to do if you might be bullying someone else unknowingly. At the 5th grade level, this is a very important topic, especially since we are trying to prepare for next year. After conducting an anonymous survey, it is clear that all of us have encountered bullying in some way, shape, or form. This trend will probably continue in middle school. With that being said, the program was very useful to help prepare for future bullying circumstances. I would highly suggest parents talk to your child about what they learned and reinforce the importance of being prepared for these situations.
We really did shake things up this week. Despite all the changes to the schedule, the limited time to complete curriculum, and the copy machine (which was tough for me), we really got a lot accomplished. Next week shouldn’t be quite as crazy, so I expect to see even more progress. However, we do have OLSATs this week, this is an important assessment that the schools will use for various reasons including PA placement. Let’s be ready for this on Tuesday. I would also like to thank all the parents for being so flexible with the changes in the volunteer schedule. I really appreciate your enthusiasm and I am excited to get all of you in the classroom.
Celebrations!!!!!
100% on Spelling Test
-Cooper, Lanie, Megan, Arushi, Ally, Dominic, Victoria, & Hannah C.
100% on Roberto Clemente Test
Megan, Matthew H., Kevin, Hannah C., Nick, Victoria, & Gabby
-Kara completed all levels for multiplication in Otter Creek
-Jack’s Bday was Friday (hope you had fun this weekend)
Despite a few obstacles, in Reading, we completed Folktales from Asia. We have been focusing on making inferences and we will continue to do the same for the next few weeks. Next week we will start reading Iditarod Dream, which should lend itself well to making inferences. I think it is also important to mention that last week, we read the most minutes we have all year! We are around 11,000 total minutes so we are on our way to our goal to 100,000 minutes. Keep up the great work everyone!
In Writing we finished our Parrot Perspectives of the Christopher Columbus landing. I have already read through a number of them and they are AWESOME! Not only did we focus on including a number of facts about Christopher Columbus, but we incorporated the 1st person perspective in our writing. I’m excited to finish reading them. The students also did a great job of working through the writing process. We will be spending a lot of time this year working on writing, so it’s important we get that process down. Besides our Parrot Perspectives, we also started working in our Book Review Unit. We will delve even deeper into what makes a good book review next week, while continuing to write individual pieces that will eventually be published with the Cool Cat Press.
Although the schedule had numerous interruptions, we still got a lot accomplished in Math and Social Studies. We will be wrapping up Unit 2 in Math this week and probably have a test the following week. Let’s be ready for that. In Social Studies, we are learning about the beginning of colonization in America. We spent a lot of time on Jamestown and Plymouth, and next week each student will begin researching and creating a presentation about one of the 13 colonies. I am excited to see how the students will demonstrate what they have learned in Social Studies!
Like I said, this week was interrupted by a number of things, but I would like to highlight the Bully Prevention Program we completed this week. We spent a lot of time discussing what bullying looks like, what to do if you are being bullied, what to do if you are a bystander, and what to do if you might be bullying someone else unknowingly. At the 5th grade level, this is a very important topic, especially since we are trying to prepare for next year. After conducting an anonymous survey, it is clear that all of us have encountered bullying in some way, shape, or form. This trend will probably continue in middle school. With that being said, the program was very useful to help prepare for future bullying circumstances. I would highly suggest parents talk to your child about what they learned and reinforce the importance of being prepared for these situations.
We really did shake things up this week. Despite all the changes to the schedule, the limited time to complete curriculum, and the copy machine (which was tough for me), we really got a lot accomplished. Next week shouldn’t be quite as crazy, so I expect to see even more progress. However, we do have OLSATs this week, this is an important assessment that the schools will use for various reasons including PA placement. Let’s be ready for this on Tuesday. I would also like to thank all the parents for being so flexible with the changes in the volunteer schedule. I really appreciate your enthusiasm and I am excited to get all of you in the classroom.
Celebrations!!!!!
100% on Spelling Test
-Cooper, Lanie, Megan, Arushi, Ally, Dominic, Victoria, & Hannah C.
100% on Roberto Clemente Test
Megan, Matthew H., Kevin, Hannah C., Nick, Victoria, & Gabby
-Kara completed all levels for multiplication in Otter Creek
-Jack’s Bday was Friday (hope you had fun this weekend)
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Back in the Swing of Things
After two short weeks, and now a full week under our belts, we are getting back into the swing of things in 5J. We were able to spend an ample amount of time in all subject areas and we have made a ton of progress this week. We will continue this throughout the weeks to come.
In Reading this week we completed “We’ll Never Forget You Roberto Clemente.” This was a very moving story that lent itself well to introducing the concept of inferences. We will spend much of next week fortifying the idea that good readers make inferences before, during, and after reading. While reading the next Harcourt selection, “Folktales From Asia – Who is Best,” we will continue practice making inferences. I suggest the students practice this on their own as much as possible. This is a very difficult concept, and it takes some higher-level thinking. However, it is a critical part of being a good reader.
In writing, we are wrapping up our Parrot’s Perspectives of the landing of Christopher Columbus. This writing project has accomplished a number of goals. One, it has given the students a better understanding of Christopher Columbus. Two, it has allowed students to prove their understanding on the Social Studies topic. Three, it has given students a chance to write in the 1st person perspective, and four, students have practiced the steps in the writing process they will be working through the rest of the year. Although I haven’t assessed what has been written yet, I can tell that the students’ pieces are progressing as expected and I am so exited to read what they have written. In the next few days, we will wrap-up this piece, and move onto writing book reviews. The students have already had some practice with these, but we will go into even greater detail on a good book review.
We will be having a little change in the schedule this upcoming week. Instead of math for five days, two of our days will be spent with Mr. Gatz and myself working through the Bully Prevention Curriculum. I highly suggest you discuss some of the things we have gone through in class. We will be talking about specific strategies to identify bullying, what to do if you are being bullied, what to do if you see someone else being bullied, and what to do if you catch yourself bullying someone else. This is a district-wide curriculum, and each grade level will be working through this the next few weeks. It is a research-based program that has proven itself effective, so I hope to see similar results in 5J. This should help to prepare them for M.S., H.S., and even life.
Outside of Math, we will continue to progress as normal in every subject area. I am excited to see what this week has to bring. However, I would like to mention a few things. Now that we are halfway through the quarter, it is progress report time. I am sending home progress reports for students who have a D or F in any subject. If you have not received a progress report, that is good news! If you have, it means we need to start getting business taken care of. Please feel free to contact me to discuss the grades in greater depth. However, if you did not receive a progress report, and you would still like to see how your child is doing, feel free to contact me and I will take care of that for you.
On a lighter note, I would like to give a big thanks to Mrs. Archey for organizing the parent volunteer schedule. She has obviously put a lot of time and effort into this and I really appreciate it. I am excited to see parents in the classroom and I know the students are too. However, if there is a day you can not make it for your scheduled time, please do not fret. It really is not a big deal. As a matter of fact, on some days I may even struggle to find something for parents to do. If there are ever any questions, please feel free to contact Mrs. Archey or myself, and thank you so much for all your time in and out of school.
As mentioned last week, I would like to continue to post “Celebrations” on my blog. I’m sure I will be missing some, and some students may even get recognized more than others. However, to help me celebrate everyone, please let me know if you have anything I can post on our “Celebrations” for the week. This is what I have so far for last week:
Celebrations!!!!!!!!!
-Kara, Hannah F., Jack, Matthew R., Cooper, Ally, and Avarie all earned 100% on their Spelling Test!
-Hannah C., Dominic, and Julia earned 100% on the Spelling test for the 3rd week in a row!
-Austin's football team is still undefeated!
-Megan read over 200 minutes last week on her “Weekly Reading Minutes!”
-The class has passed the 10,000 minute mark on our reading goal for the year!
-Lanie won her first hockey scrimmage last weekend (“against the boys”)!
-Gabby , Dominic , Kevin , Jack , Arushi , and Max have completed all the levels in Otter Creek Multiplication and are now
working on Division!
-Landon had his first hockey game of the year on Friday!
-Aimen won her families “best dressed” competition during the “Eid”
celebration.
-Ally completed a triathlon last weekend…WOW!
In Reading this week we completed “We’ll Never Forget You Roberto Clemente.” This was a very moving story that lent itself well to introducing the concept of inferences. We will spend much of next week fortifying the idea that good readers make inferences before, during, and after reading. While reading the next Harcourt selection, “Folktales From Asia – Who is Best,” we will continue practice making inferences. I suggest the students practice this on their own as much as possible. This is a very difficult concept, and it takes some higher-level thinking. However, it is a critical part of being a good reader.
In writing, we are wrapping up our Parrot’s Perspectives of the landing of Christopher Columbus. This writing project has accomplished a number of goals. One, it has given the students a better understanding of Christopher Columbus. Two, it has allowed students to prove their understanding on the Social Studies topic. Three, it has given students a chance to write in the 1st person perspective, and four, students have practiced the steps in the writing process they will be working through the rest of the year. Although I haven’t assessed what has been written yet, I can tell that the students’ pieces are progressing as expected and I am so exited to read what they have written. In the next few days, we will wrap-up this piece, and move onto writing book reviews. The students have already had some practice with these, but we will go into even greater detail on a good book review.
We will be having a little change in the schedule this upcoming week. Instead of math for five days, two of our days will be spent with Mr. Gatz and myself working through the Bully Prevention Curriculum. I highly suggest you discuss some of the things we have gone through in class. We will be talking about specific strategies to identify bullying, what to do if you are being bullied, what to do if you see someone else being bullied, and what to do if you catch yourself bullying someone else. This is a district-wide curriculum, and each grade level will be working through this the next few weeks. It is a research-based program that has proven itself effective, so I hope to see similar results in 5J. This should help to prepare them for M.S., H.S., and even life.
Outside of Math, we will continue to progress as normal in every subject area. I am excited to see what this week has to bring. However, I would like to mention a few things. Now that we are halfway through the quarter, it is progress report time. I am sending home progress reports for students who have a D or F in any subject. If you have not received a progress report, that is good news! If you have, it means we need to start getting business taken care of. Please feel free to contact me to discuss the grades in greater depth. However, if you did not receive a progress report, and you would still like to see how your child is doing, feel free to contact me and I will take care of that for you.
On a lighter note, I would like to give a big thanks to Mrs. Archey for organizing the parent volunteer schedule. She has obviously put a lot of time and effort into this and I really appreciate it. I am excited to see parents in the classroom and I know the students are too. However, if there is a day you can not make it for your scheduled time, please do not fret. It really is not a big deal. As a matter of fact, on some days I may even struggle to find something for parents to do. If there are ever any questions, please feel free to contact Mrs. Archey or myself, and thank you so much for all your time in and out of school.
As mentioned last week, I would like to continue to post “Celebrations” on my blog. I’m sure I will be missing some, and some students may even get recognized more than others. However, to help me celebrate everyone, please let me know if you have anything I can post on our “Celebrations” for the week. This is what I have so far for last week:
Celebrations!!!!!!!!!
-Kara, Hannah F., Jack, Matthew R., Cooper, Ally, and Avarie all earned 100% on their Spelling Test!
-Hannah C., Dominic, and Julia earned 100% on the Spelling test for the 3rd week in a row!
-Austin's football team is still undefeated!
-Megan read over 200 minutes last week on her “Weekly Reading Minutes!”
-The class has passed the 10,000 minute mark on our reading goal for the year!
-Lanie won her first hockey scrimmage last weekend (“against the boys”)!
-Gabby , Dominic , Kevin , Jack , Arushi , and Max have completed all the levels in Otter Creek Multiplication and are now
working on Division!
-Landon had his first hockey game of the year on Friday!
-Aimen won her families “best dressed” competition during the “Eid”
celebration.
-Ally completed a triathlon last weekend…WOW!
Friday, September 18, 2009
Short Weeks and High Expectations
Although we have had 2 short weeks in a row, I must say that I am very proud of how this class has stepped up to the plate. In only 8 school days, we have completed 2 spelling tests, 2 Harcourt test, and a Math test. Not only that, but we have gotten through virtually the same amount of instruction as we do on a normal week. I have some high expectations for this class, and I definitely showed that the past two weeks. There is no doubt that the students met those expectations. Great job students and parents!
This week in reading, we completed “Elena” in the Harcourt anthology. Next week we will move onto “We’ll Never Forget You Roberto Clemente.” As a class, we have been doing very well on the tests, and I expect the same results for the rest of the year. Each student should be reading the story a minimum of 3 times a week: twice in class (Tues. & Thur.), and once at home (Thur. night). Not only that, but there are focus strategies with each story that the students will be practicing. We have been taking care of most of that in the classroom, but once in awhile there might be some homework for a strategy. Each week, the class has also worked on completing an “extended response” for each story. The ISAT data shows that we need to improve in extended response, so that will be a major focus for much of this year. Thus far, the students are really doing well working together on an extended response, but soon they will have to do them alone! As for the read aloud, we finished Roald Dahl’s “The Twits,” and the students loved it. I have already noticed a number of students reading some Roald Dahl’s other titles. Great job students and let me suggest a few other titles: “Matilda,” “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator,” “Witches,” “Georges Marvelous Medicine,” “Boy: Tales of Childhood,” and “The Enormous Crocodile.” Those are some of his more popular, and grade-appropriate titles that you would probably enjoy. We started a new read aloud, and it is one of my favorite books of all-time. It is Lois Lowry’s “The Giver.” Although it is a little higher level, and starts off a little slow, when the book gets going I know the students will love it. We have been doing great in reading, and we will continue to progress at the same pace throughout the rest of the year.
In writing, we are all done with the introduction unit! We will start working in our writers’ workshop this week on a piece that is connected to what we are learning in Social Studies. We have been covering exploration and Christopher Columbus, so we will be writing a piece on the “Parrot’s Point of View of Exploration.” It should make for interesting piece of writing, it links to Social Studies, and it will allow us to get some practice in the writing process. Students will begin to bring their journals home a few times a week and will be assigned to do some free writing on their own. This writing can come in the form of whatever they want. However, we are starting Cool Cat Press soon, so I would encourage the students to start working on a piece they would like to eventually publish. We have been sharing some of the students’ work, and there are definitely some students out there who should be highly considering publishing some work with the Cool Cat Press. The students have done a great job in the first unit of writing and now we will begin to transition into the next one.
All other areas, Math, Spelling, etc. are going great and we will continue to move . along as planned. However, I did want to make note of a few things. One, the parent volunteer schedule is being coordinated by Mrs. Archey. She has already been in contact with a number of you to see how much you would like to be in the classroom. Mrs. Archey will serve as a relative liaison between all the volunteers and myself. She should be able to answer most of your scheduling questions. However, I want to make it clear that if you can not make it to your scheduled time, it is not a huge deal. I am lucky to have such willing parents, and it really is a privilege. Therefore, don’t feel like coming in needs to be an obligation for you. If you can’t make it in, we will be just fine. Another thing I wanted to mention is that pictures are on Monday! Please come in something suitable for pictured day, and don’t forget your order forms. Lastly, I would like to start posting some “Celebrations” on my blog. These will consist of a variety of accomplishment the students in 5J have achieved. They could be anywhere from getting an A on a test to winning a football game. There is always so much to celebrate, and I’m sure I won’t get to everyone and everything. However, if you feel you (or your student) have something worth “celebrating,” let me know and I will post it.
Here are the “Celebrations” for this week:
-Hannah Ferguson’s B-day was on Tuesday
-Cooper Sargent had a great football game last weekend
-Avarie Wilson will be in Florida this weekend
-Nathan Cardona completed a 600+ page book last week
-100% on Spelling Test: Aimen, Megan, Kara, Hannah C. & F, Dominic, Gabby, Lanie, Julia, Landon, Nick, Kevin, Matthew R., Brenna, & Ally
-Mr. Johnson won wk. 1 of Fantasy football 106-104
This week in reading, we completed “Elena” in the Harcourt anthology. Next week we will move onto “We’ll Never Forget You Roberto Clemente.” As a class, we have been doing very well on the tests, and I expect the same results for the rest of the year. Each student should be reading the story a minimum of 3 times a week: twice in class (Tues. & Thur.), and once at home (Thur. night). Not only that, but there are focus strategies with each story that the students will be practicing. We have been taking care of most of that in the classroom, but once in awhile there might be some homework for a strategy. Each week, the class has also worked on completing an “extended response” for each story. The ISAT data shows that we need to improve in extended response, so that will be a major focus for much of this year. Thus far, the students are really doing well working together on an extended response, but soon they will have to do them alone! As for the read aloud, we finished Roald Dahl’s “The Twits,” and the students loved it. I have already noticed a number of students reading some Roald Dahl’s other titles. Great job students and let me suggest a few other titles: “Matilda,” “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator,” “Witches,” “Georges Marvelous Medicine,” “Boy: Tales of Childhood,” and “The Enormous Crocodile.” Those are some of his more popular, and grade-appropriate titles that you would probably enjoy. We started a new read aloud, and it is one of my favorite books of all-time. It is Lois Lowry’s “The Giver.” Although it is a little higher level, and starts off a little slow, when the book gets going I know the students will love it. We have been doing great in reading, and we will continue to progress at the same pace throughout the rest of the year.
In writing, we are all done with the introduction unit! We will start working in our writers’ workshop this week on a piece that is connected to what we are learning in Social Studies. We have been covering exploration and Christopher Columbus, so we will be writing a piece on the “Parrot’s Point of View of Exploration.” It should make for interesting piece of writing, it links to Social Studies, and it will allow us to get some practice in the writing process. Students will begin to bring their journals home a few times a week and will be assigned to do some free writing on their own. This writing can come in the form of whatever they want. However, we are starting Cool Cat Press soon, so I would encourage the students to start working on a piece they would like to eventually publish. We have been sharing some of the students’ work, and there are definitely some students out there who should be highly considering publishing some work with the Cool Cat Press. The students have done a great job in the first unit of writing and now we will begin to transition into the next one.
All other areas, Math, Spelling, etc. are going great and we will continue to move . along as planned. However, I did want to make note of a few things. One, the parent volunteer schedule is being coordinated by Mrs. Archey. She has already been in contact with a number of you to see how much you would like to be in the classroom. Mrs. Archey will serve as a relative liaison between all the volunteers and myself. She should be able to answer most of your scheduling questions. However, I want to make it clear that if you can not make it to your scheduled time, it is not a huge deal. I am lucky to have such willing parents, and it really is a privilege. Therefore, don’t feel like coming in needs to be an obligation for you. If you can’t make it in, we will be just fine. Another thing I wanted to mention is that pictures are on Monday! Please come in something suitable for pictured day, and don’t forget your order forms. Lastly, I would like to start posting some “Celebrations” on my blog. These will consist of a variety of accomplishment the students in 5J have achieved. They could be anywhere from getting an A on a test to winning a football game. There is always so much to celebrate, and I’m sure I won’t get to everyone and everything. However, if you feel you (or your student) have something worth “celebrating,” let me know and I will post it.
Here are the “Celebrations” for this week:
-Hannah Ferguson’s B-day was on Tuesday
-Cooper Sargent had a great football game last weekend
-Avarie Wilson will be in Florida this weekend
-Nathan Cardona completed a 600+ page book last week
-100% on Spelling Test: Aimen, Megan, Kara, Hannah C. & F, Dominic, Gabby, Lanie, Julia, Landon, Nick, Kevin, Matthew R., Brenna, & Ally
-Mr. Johnson won wk. 1 of Fantasy football 106-104
Friday, September 11, 2009
Falling Into Place
I am glad to say that things are really starting to fall in place! Students are getting the routines down, we are advancing as planned in the curriculum, and the high expectations of 5th grade are being met. I am so proud of this class, and I can’t tell you how many times I have bragged about them to my wife. I really think she is getting sick of it.
Anyway, this week has been another great one! In Reading we pushed through “Dear Mrs. Parks” in just four days. We will have to do the same thing next week with “Elena.” We also just finished Roald Dahl’s “The Twits,” and the students loved it! I highly suggest locating more of his books. They are awesome! We will have to look for a new read aloud on Monday. Not only that, but the students compiled a large number of minutes in reading this week. As a class, we read a total of 2,657 minutes! If we keep it up, we should have no trouble meeting our goals of 100,000 minutes and 600 books! As I mentioned at Curriculum Night, Reading is very important to me. Research shows that students who excel in reading normally excel in other content areas. Therefore, let’s work together to make reading a priority!
Obviously the reading has been working. The students did fantastic this week in Spelling. We had 19 students earn an A on the Spelling test Thursday. Good job students and parents, and keep up the good work. Remember: 1.) Contracts are due every Thursday. 2.) Test is every Thursday. 3.) If you get 3 A’s in a row you do not have to do the contract the following week. 4.) If you are on alternate list, you need to choose words from the base list (including the ones missed on the pretest). 5.) PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT!!!
As I mentioned in the last blog, we started writing in our journals this week! The students were ecstatic to finally start writing. We shared a number of the entries and I am proud to announce that we have some real up-and-coming authors in the ranks. We will continue working in our journals next week. I have some real high expectations for this class, and I am excited to see what kind of writers they will progress into throughout the year. Keep in mind that students are allowed, and encouraged, to take their journal home and do some free writing on their own. If ever parents would like to join in, feel free to write some entries in the notebooks as well. That interaction can often spark some really great writing pieces. Besides just the journaling, we will also continue to work on “extended response.” We are on our way to becoming great writers!
Although all the 5J students are not in my Math class, it is my understanding that the Math classes are progressing as expected. Ms. Horst’s class, along with mine, will be having a test on Unit 1 Monday. Make sure you spend this weekend looking over your notes. As for the other classes, you can stay up-to-date by checking out the other 5th grade teachers’ blogs. You can find them by going to the Brooks homepage (see “Helpful Websites”) and clicking on the “Blogs” link. Tech also put a link for my blog on there (just in case you forget the url). Remember, if at anytime you are having trouble with the Math homework, you can refer to a number of resources. You can bring home your class notes, SRB, math journal, and even the parent letter at the beginning of each unit. If those don’t do the trick, as Mrs. Parks said in the story this week, “never be afraid to ask questions,” it is the only way you will learn the content.
Although we didn’t accomplish everything I wanted to in Social Studies this week, we were able to watch President Obama’s address to the students. The President delivered a very powerful message and if you missed it I highly suggest you check it out. You can see it online at any of the following links.
mms://media.ipsd.org/ipsd_ondemand/ObamaSpeech.wmv
mms://media.ipsd.org/ipsd_ondemand/ObamaSpeech2.wmv
mms://media.ipsd.org/ipsd_ondemand/ObamaSpeech3.wmv
We will really hit Social Studies hard next week and learn about exploration from the eastern hemisphere to the western hemisphere.
I would also like to mention the fact that I ran into one of Brooks’ 5th graders from last year on Thursday. She is currently a 6th grader just across the street, and we had a long conversation about a number of things. One thing that I would like to highlight is her take on middle school. She had a lot of good things to say about how 5th grade really helped her prepare for middle school. It wasn’t always easy for her, but she kept her nose to the grindstone and now she is excelling at the middle school level. However, she wanted me to give this year’s 5th graders a piece of advice. She said, in much more words, that you need to make sure you work hard and really try to learn as much as you can in 5th grade. Much like I have been preaching, middle school is a whole different ball game, but if you put forth an honest effort in 5th grade, the transition to middle school will be a smooth one. I am confident, that if everything continues to progress as it has so far, everyone will be ready to go for next year.
This week has really been a great week! Things are beginning to fall into place and I am excited to see how we will continue to progress. I hope everyone has a great weekend. Let’s be ready to have another productive week next week.
Just a Few Side Notes:
-I will hopefully have a “suggested” parent volunteer schedule posted by this weekend.
-Mrs. Archey will be coordinating the parent volunteer schedule. She has all your available times and contact information. She will be contacting you soon to set up the volunteer schedule.
-The “Inisbrook” fundraiser is underway, so make sure we are getting on that.
-There is no school this coming Friday (Building Articulation Day).
-GO BEARS!!!
Anyway, this week has been another great one! In Reading we pushed through “Dear Mrs. Parks” in just four days. We will have to do the same thing next week with “Elena.” We also just finished Roald Dahl’s “The Twits,” and the students loved it! I highly suggest locating more of his books. They are awesome! We will have to look for a new read aloud on Monday. Not only that, but the students compiled a large number of minutes in reading this week. As a class, we read a total of 2,657 minutes! If we keep it up, we should have no trouble meeting our goals of 100,000 minutes and 600 books! As I mentioned at Curriculum Night, Reading is very important to me. Research shows that students who excel in reading normally excel in other content areas. Therefore, let’s work together to make reading a priority!
Obviously the reading has been working. The students did fantastic this week in Spelling. We had 19 students earn an A on the Spelling test Thursday. Good job students and parents, and keep up the good work. Remember: 1.) Contracts are due every Thursday. 2.) Test is every Thursday. 3.) If you get 3 A’s in a row you do not have to do the contract the following week. 4.) If you are on alternate list, you need to choose words from the base list (including the ones missed on the pretest). 5.) PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT!!!
As I mentioned in the last blog, we started writing in our journals this week! The students were ecstatic to finally start writing. We shared a number of the entries and I am proud to announce that we have some real up-and-coming authors in the ranks. We will continue working in our journals next week. I have some real high expectations for this class, and I am excited to see what kind of writers they will progress into throughout the year. Keep in mind that students are allowed, and encouraged, to take their journal home and do some free writing on their own. If ever parents would like to join in, feel free to write some entries in the notebooks as well. That interaction can often spark some really great writing pieces. Besides just the journaling, we will also continue to work on “extended response.” We are on our way to becoming great writers!
Although all the 5J students are not in my Math class, it is my understanding that the Math classes are progressing as expected. Ms. Horst’s class, along with mine, will be having a test on Unit 1 Monday. Make sure you spend this weekend looking over your notes. As for the other classes, you can stay up-to-date by checking out the other 5th grade teachers’ blogs. You can find them by going to the Brooks homepage (see “Helpful Websites”) and clicking on the “Blogs” link. Tech also put a link for my blog on there (just in case you forget the url). Remember, if at anytime you are having trouble with the Math homework, you can refer to a number of resources. You can bring home your class notes, SRB, math journal, and even the parent letter at the beginning of each unit. If those don’t do the trick, as Mrs. Parks said in the story this week, “never be afraid to ask questions,” it is the only way you will learn the content.
Although we didn’t accomplish everything I wanted to in Social Studies this week, we were able to watch President Obama’s address to the students. The President delivered a very powerful message and if you missed it I highly suggest you check it out. You can see it online at any of the following links.
mms://media.ipsd.org/ipsd_ondemand/ObamaSpeech.wmv
mms://media.ipsd.org/ipsd_ondemand/ObamaSpeech2.wmv
mms://media.ipsd.org/ipsd_ondemand/ObamaSpeech3.wmv
We will really hit Social Studies hard next week and learn about exploration from the eastern hemisphere to the western hemisphere.
I would also like to mention the fact that I ran into one of Brooks’ 5th graders from last year on Thursday. She is currently a 6th grader just across the street, and we had a long conversation about a number of things. One thing that I would like to highlight is her take on middle school. She had a lot of good things to say about how 5th grade really helped her prepare for middle school. It wasn’t always easy for her, but she kept her nose to the grindstone and now she is excelling at the middle school level. However, she wanted me to give this year’s 5th graders a piece of advice. She said, in much more words, that you need to make sure you work hard and really try to learn as much as you can in 5th grade. Much like I have been preaching, middle school is a whole different ball game, but if you put forth an honest effort in 5th grade, the transition to middle school will be a smooth one. I am confident, that if everything continues to progress as it has so far, everyone will be ready to go for next year.
This week has really been a great week! Things are beginning to fall into place and I am excited to see how we will continue to progress. I hope everyone has a great weekend. Let’s be ready to have another productive week next week.
Just a Few Side Notes:
-I will hopefully have a “suggested” parent volunteer schedule posted by this weekend.
-Mrs. Archey will be coordinating the parent volunteer schedule. She has all your available times and contact information. She will be contacting you soon to set up the volunteer schedule.
-The “Inisbrook” fundraiser is underway, so make sure we are getting on that.
-There is no school this coming Friday (Building Articulation Day).
-GO BEARS!!!
Saturday, September 5, 2009
What a Week!
First and foremost, thank you so much for those parents who were able to make it out to Curriculum Night. I hope it was as informative as you expected and helped to give you a good idea about how I do things in the classroom. The one thing I can’t stress enough is that if you ever need anything, please feel free to contact me at anytime. Also, if you were unable to make it, your child should have brought home a packet of papers for you. Let me know if you have any questions.
As for the past week, we have been busy as always. We finished reading "Sees Behind Trees" in the Harcourt series, and although I haven’t finished grading the tests yet, I am very hopeful of the results. We focused a lot on narrative elements, and now we will be transferring into previewing text for the next story. This week we will be reading "Dear Mrs. Parks." As posted in the last blog, we are reading Roald Dahl’s "The Twits" for read aloud, and we should be able to finish that book this week.
We also wrapped up our unit on the digestive system this week. If you’re curious to see how much they learned, just ask the students to tell you what happens to an apple when you eat it. That should make for an interesting dinner conversation! We will be switching gears from Science to Social Studies this coming week, and we will be focusing on early exploration. We will also integrate the ideas behind previewing text into each Social Studies lesson.
We have spent the last few weeks preparing students to begin writing in 5J. We have talked about the writing process, ideas for writing, and other aspects that will affect what the students put in their writers’ notebooks. However, I have been holding the students back from actually beginning to write in their notebooks. This has really helped to build the anticipation and excitement to become authors. I can’t tell you how many times I hear, “Do we get to start writing today?” Well, it’s finally that time! This week we will start writing in our notebooks and the students will start the process of independent/creative writing in their notebooks.
In the 5J Math class, we are almost done with the first unit on Number Theory. We should be able to finish the unit this coming week and have the test on Friday. If all goes as planned, expect to see a study guide coming home this week.
Just a few reminders I wanted to mention. I know it’s early and there are a lot of little things to remember, but hopefully the weekly routines will start to become habit. First, the students need to be reading 100 minutes a week. We are on our way to meeting our reading goals (100,000 minutes and 600 books), and the students need to be turning in a weekly reading log every Monday (Tuesday this week). Also, we have spelling tests every Thursday. Make sure your child is studying Wednesday and has their contract turned in Thursday. Finally, we have a test on the Harcourt story every Friday. This means each Thursday the students should take home their book and read the story. If there are ever any issues, please contact me. However, keep in mind we are getting them ready for Middle School. Therefore, your responsibility in all of this shouldn’t be much more than a brief checking of their homework, a little help now and then, and a signature when needed. They should be at the point where they are responsible for most of this by themselves.
I hope everyone enjoys their long weekend. Thanks again to those who made it to Curriculum Night, and I look forward to seeing many of you in the classroom. I will have a volunteer schedule sent out A.S.A.P..
As for the past week, we have been busy as always. We finished reading "Sees Behind Trees" in the Harcourt series, and although I haven’t finished grading the tests yet, I am very hopeful of the results. We focused a lot on narrative elements, and now we will be transferring into previewing text for the next story. This week we will be reading "Dear Mrs. Parks." As posted in the last blog, we are reading Roald Dahl’s "The Twits" for read aloud, and we should be able to finish that book this week.
We also wrapped up our unit on the digestive system this week. If you’re curious to see how much they learned, just ask the students to tell you what happens to an apple when you eat it. That should make for an interesting dinner conversation! We will be switching gears from Science to Social Studies this coming week, and we will be focusing on early exploration. We will also integrate the ideas behind previewing text into each Social Studies lesson.
We have spent the last few weeks preparing students to begin writing in 5J. We have talked about the writing process, ideas for writing, and other aspects that will affect what the students put in their writers’ notebooks. However, I have been holding the students back from actually beginning to write in their notebooks. This has really helped to build the anticipation and excitement to become authors. I can’t tell you how many times I hear, “Do we get to start writing today?” Well, it’s finally that time! This week we will start writing in our notebooks and the students will start the process of independent/creative writing in their notebooks.
In the 5J Math class, we are almost done with the first unit on Number Theory. We should be able to finish the unit this coming week and have the test on Friday. If all goes as planned, expect to see a study guide coming home this week.
Just a few reminders I wanted to mention. I know it’s early and there are a lot of little things to remember, but hopefully the weekly routines will start to become habit. First, the students need to be reading 100 minutes a week. We are on our way to meeting our reading goals (100,000 minutes and 600 books), and the students need to be turning in a weekly reading log every Monday (Tuesday this week). Also, we have spelling tests every Thursday. Make sure your child is studying Wednesday and has their contract turned in Thursday. Finally, we have a test on the Harcourt story every Friday. This means each Thursday the students should take home their book and read the story. If there are ever any issues, please contact me. However, keep in mind we are getting them ready for Middle School. Therefore, your responsibility in all of this shouldn’t be much more than a brief checking of their homework, a little help now and then, and a signature when needed. They should be at the point where they are responsible for most of this by themselves.
I hope everyone enjoys their long weekend. Thanks again to those who made it to Curriculum Night, and I look forward to seeing many of you in the classroom. I will have a volunteer schedule sent out A.S.A.P..
Sunday, August 30, 2009
WELCOME TO 5J
The first week has gone by fast, but we have already accomplished a lot. We had our first Spelling test on Thursday and the class average was a over 90 percent! Great work students and parents, keep it up! We have also finished reading The Hot and Cold Summer in our Harcourt series. The students were practicing making predictions before, during, and after reading. We will be starting Sees Behind Trees this week. Science is off to a great start as well! We are learning about the digestive system, and that should last for awhile. Math and Writing are also well underway, and we have some big plans for the next few weeks.
The students have decided to read The Twits by Roald Dahl as our read aloud. Dahl is a hilarious author and a great illustrator. He has a number of great books so I would definitely suggest the students try out some of his other titles. I have also included a link on this blog that is a great resource for finding books based on author, genre, and/or reading level. Take advantage of that, along with the other links I have included.
We have also set some goals for the year. As a class, we are going to try to read 600 books, and a total of 100,000 minutes! We can definitely do this! Each student has a weekly reading log that they bring home. They should be reading a minimum of 100 minutes a week, and recording it in their log. If everyone stays on track with their reading, we should have no trouble meeting our goals.
It has been a great start to the year and I have high expectations for the rest of the year. Feel free to contact me whenever you need, and I look forward to seeing you at Curriculum Night!
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