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!