Another Good Week!

5J has really had an awesome year so far, and once again, we had another good week! We got a lot accomplished and I am happy to say there was some very visible growth. In every subject, the students learned something new, or solidified a skill that we had been working on.

For example, in reading, I am now confident in the students’ ability to read a passage and complete an extended response. This week we really hit extended response hard, and after making the needed corrections to their first drafts, I think they are ready for the next one. Next week we will be reading Evelyn Cisneros: Prima Ballerina, and focusing on a number of things. We will continue practicing our extended responses for the ISAT’s. We will also focus on the skill of summarization and picking out the key parts of a story.

Although extended response is part of reading and writing, we continued working in other facets of writing. We have made some strides in the new grammar curriculum. We are all done with the simple sentence units, and now we are well on our way into the compound sentences part. Not only that, but students have come a long way with their independent pieces. We have a number of authors in our class who are in the final stages of publishing their books with the Cool Cat Press. I’m excited to see what they have in store for us. Next week we will continue as normal, while throwing in some more of the ABC’s D of prompt writing.

Social Studies has been a real blast! If you haven’t noticed yet, I try to steer clear of the textbook as much as possible. History can be very interesting, but sometimes the textbook can make it a little too dull for my liking. As a teacher, there are a lot of resources out there that I can utilize that will still deliver the same information to the students as the textbook. However, the textbook does offer some good guiding questions that the class should still pay attention too. Through our projects, movies, and use of library books, I still expect the students to be able to answer those guiding questions. The students have spent all this week researching their topic, and next week we will begin the presentations on the American Revolution. From what I have seen so far, I have some high expectations for what the students have come up with.

Celebrations:
-100% on Unit 19 Spelling Test
Aimen, Nathan, Victoria, Hannah C., Hannah F., Arushi, Lanie, Matthew R., Cooper, and Nick.
-100% on William Joyce Harcourt Test
Dominic, Avarie, Lanie, Megan, Matthew R., and Julia
-Hannah C. passed Otter Creek division

Conferences on the Way!

With the first half of the year done, it is now time for parent-teacher conferences! We will not be having school on Tuesday because that is the day of conferences. Like last time, I would like the students to be at the conference. I look forward to seeing the parents and students on Tuesday, and I hope everyone enjoys their day off. By the way, be sure to bring in some spare change for our school-wide fundraiser to support the people in Haiti.

As for last week, we were busy as always. In reading we finished up the Harcourt story about William Joyce: a famous author and illustrator. Now we will spend this upcoming week reading Satchmo’s Blues. After reading the students’ extended responses from the last story, I have noticed a lot of improvement. However, there are some things that we can still get better at. We will take the time next week to continue working on the timed extended responses.

In writing, we spent a lot of time breaking down the extended responses, but now it is time to move on. I think the students know what needs to go into those. Now we will get back to the prompt writing we started a few weeks back. We have already learned the AB & C of the steps to prompt writing, but now we will move onto actually writing the prompt and completing step D. Throughout the year we have definitely developed into great young writers, so I am excited to see how we will progress the second half of the year.

In social studies, we had the test on the causes of the American Revolution. Like our last test from the 13 colonies, this was a very difficult test. The students were required to recall what they learned from the other student presentations, and use it to answer some higher level, short-answer questions. Now that we are done learning about the causes, we are going to delve into the actual revolution itself. Each student has been assigned a partner, and they will work together to research a specific part of the war. Then after a few days of research, they will put together a presentation and deliver it to the class. I am excited to see what the students come up with, and hopefully I will learn something new like I did last time.

Celebrations
-100% on Unit 19 Spelling Test
Aimen, Kara, Hannah C., Hannah F., Dominic, Gabby, Max, & Landon
-100% on Shakespeare test
Brenna, Victoria, & Megan
-Max completed all the levels in Otter Creek!
-Gabby qualified for a national competition in swimming!
-Julia spent the weekend in Indiana for a big swim meet!