Friday January 30, 2015

This morning we scored just above 80% on our Greek/Latin Root PWYK as a class!  EXCELLENT WORK LADIES AND GENTS LETS KEEP THIS UP!!

In social studies we wrapped up our exploration of Plymouth colony.  On Monday, we will dive into what happened after the first colonies established themselves and the 13 colonies appeared.

Today's math lesson wrapped up coordinate grids and plotting linear equations.

In the afternoon we received our next spelling list and then wrapped up revision and reresearch on our endangered animal.

To end the day, we received our lesson 12 Journeys vocabulary words, and began our monthly Dojo ticket drawing.

Homework
Math- none (4 opportunity coordinate grid creation optional)
Social Studies- Roanoke research optional due Wednesday
RELA- Bud Not Buddy Ch. 8 (pretty long!) and all Questions; finish TDAs and trifolds
Spelling- Due Feb 9
Other- Planner signed; tissues donated

** IF Monday turns out to be a snow day, please prepare to read more and check out last Monday's post.  Head onto reflex math or some of the other games.

Happy Superbowl weekend!

Thursday Jan. 29, 2015

This morning began with Alyssa as our morning meeting leader.  A very nice birthday party story delighted the gathering at the carpet.

After, we hopped back into Plymouth colony and learned more about why it was founded and how it became a part of America.

Next in math we looked at double line plots, analyzing how the worked in a linear fashion and relationships between lines and data.

In the afternoon we took our Lesson 11 spelling tests.

After, we continued to revise our research papers by doing further research and following our revision checklist.

Today was our last day of working with Cause and Effect in reading.

Homework
Math- SL 10.6
Soc- 4 opportunity to study Roanoke
RELA- Bud Not Buddy Ch. 6-7 p. 45-59, Q1-4
Voc- sentences due tomorrow for "bio"
Other- Planner signed

Wednesday January 28, 2014

Welcome back!  Two days off, three days of extra effort!  I hope everyone got ahead in their reading of Bud Not Buddy.

We kicked off today with students getting some extra time to work on their reading TDAs and trifolds.  This was slightly inconvenient due to all the days off, but some extra time to work on these was needed!

After, we took the middle of the year Science benchmark which is 10 questions, 5 of which we have not discussed yet since we have only completed 2 of 4 units.  We have to do it though!

In math we discussed creating linear equations and plotting those on a coordinate grid.  Today was a nice little look at what algebra could be like, especially for the accelerated group who will start seeing more things like this in math next week.
http://www.shmoop.com/basic-algebra/graphing-x-y-points.html
and link to Study Link 10.4
 https://s3.amazonaws.com/everydaymath/em_at_home/Grade+5/study_link_10.5.pdf

In the afternoon we reviewed our Greek and Latin root of the week "bio"
Quizlet

After, we continued to revise our research papers by doing further research and following our revision checklist.

To wrap up the day, small groups switched, and those who were not working on Text Dependent Analysis questions now began them, and groups who were working on TDA now worked with Mrs. Hand or myself to sift through a text and identify more cause and effect relationships.

Homework
Math- SL 10.4
Soc. St.- *4 opportunity- study Roanoke for the organizer*
RELA- Bud Not Buddy Ch. 4 and 5, p. 31-44, Q4-7; green and blue- finish TDA; purple and pink- finish trifold
Spell and Voc- Spelling due tomorrow; "bio" matching tomorrow, sentences Friday
Other- planner signed; tissue donations :)

Monday Jan. 26, 2015

Hello all, sorry for not updating on Friday.  In my preparations for my personal day, which would have been today, I forgot to update the blog.

Happy snow day.  This a great day to get outside and play or find a nice cozy spot to enjoy some reading.  I highly encourage everyone to get ahead in Bud Not Buddy, since you have this extra time.  With more snow coming tonight, tomorrow could be another day to get ahead in our reading.  Also, if you want to work on a four opportunity, gather some research on Roanoke for our colonies compare and contrast organizer (highly encouraged!)

If you are looking for some great websites to keep you busy check these out!  (Everyday Math, Khan Academy and Study Island passwords are in the back of your homework planner- you glued these in at the beginning of the year)

Reflex Math https://www.reflexmath.com/
This site is new to us, but you can all log in.  Go to "Launch" in the top right corner in the black bar, type in "zgarger" as the username.  Then click on your name and type in your student number (AKA your lunch number) as the password.  Practice, enjoy and level up!

Everyday Math https://www.everydaymathonline.com/student_login.html
Play any fifth or sixth grade games.  Practice what you struggled on in the last LTA.

Khan Academy https://www.khanacademy.org/login
Get started working through 5th grade or 6th grade if you are accelerated.

Study Island https://app.studyisland.com/cfw/login
You know the deal here!  PA Core Math or Reading!


Homework from Friday
Math- Lesson 35 both sides
Social Studies- optional but highly encouraged 4 opportunity- research Roanoke for our compare and contrast colony organizer.
Reading- Bud Not Buddy Ch 3, Q 1-4 (I believe); I highly encourage you to read ahead!!
Spelling- Due Jan 28
Vocabulary- "bio" sentences due Friday
Other- planner signed; assessments signed

Thursday Jan. 22, 2015

Due to a lovely 2 hour delay, we got a late start on the day.  We went straight to library upon arrival.

Indoor recess consisted of us creating images out of coordinate planes.  This will be finished tonight. 

Grammar Focus: Pronouns

Writing Focus: continuing revision

In reading we looked at the new expectations for TDAs.  Some students worked on these with partners (hint hint organization/text structure with cause and effect).  The pink group who I worked with today was spectacular with cause and effect.

Homework

Math- finish animal coordinate grids

Soc. St.- Roanoke 4 opportunity organizer (optional)

RELA- Bud Not Buddy, Ch. 2, p. 9-20, Q4-8

Spell- due Jan. 28th

Other- planner signed; tissues donated; assessments signed

Wednesday Jan. 21, 2015

We started today with our mal/male PWYK.  Although we improved our overall class score to 71% proficient/advanced, we are still not hitting our goal of 80%.  We will continue to work and study towards this goal.

In social studies we began researching Jamestown colony so we can compare its information to the colony of Plymouth (and Roanoke for a 4 opportunity).  Groups worked hard!

We continued to look at coordinate grids in math and incorporated some geometry terms into explaining relationships between lines on the coordinate grid.

Revisions and personal conferences were the focus of our writing block today.  Students used a very thorough revision checklist and sticky notes to further research and elaborate within each paragraph.

In reading we returned to the topic of Cause and Effect.  Knowing that Cause and Effect is a form of text structure and a way of organizing text is extremely important in this lesson.

Homework

Math- Lesson 34

Social Studies- Roanoke research 4 opportunity

Reading- Bud Not Buddy Ch.1 p. 1-8; Q1-3; Time Travel to Jamestown reading annotation and questions answered

Spelling- Jan. 28 due

Other- planner signed; coins of compassion/food donations Friday (sports spirit day); tissues donated; assessments signed

Tuesday January 20, 2015

Today started with Zack telling us a very unique story that happened to him back when he was in 1st grade.  Ask your child who Zack met!

After, we did a quick activity with colonial jobs/people and what best suited each individual in this class.

Heading into math, we reviewed the basics of coordinate grids and then played a battleship type game to infuse these coordinate skills.

In the afternoon we played "I have... Who has..." to review our mal/male roots.  After, we looked at our introductions for writing that were written with the substitute and began writing our introductions.

To wrap up the day, we were introduce to Lesson 11 vocabulary words, and then worked in heterogeneous groups to find synonyms, antonyms, other forms, and write sentences.

Homework

Math- SL 9.1 (read the directions very carefully); 2s and 1s in the proficient column of the LTA revised

Reading- Read 30 min (book logs due Jan 23); Journeys vocab. lesson 11

Vocab.- mal/male due tomorrow

Other- planner signed; assessments signed (LTA); tissues donated; Coins of Compassion and Food Donations for Friday's Sports Day Spirit Day

Wednesday Jan. 14, 2015

Just a heads up- I will not be in tomorrow so there will be no blog post.  I will be over at district office doing more curriculum righting, this time for math.  Best behavior tomorrow!  BEST!!!

Today began with Devon as our morning meeting leader.

We then jumped directly into Social Studies where we explored how the colonies began, the timeline of how things unfolded during this time period, vocabulary, and what colonists brought along with them.

In math we extended patterns, aligned corresponding terms, created ordered pairs, graphed them, and analyzed the relationship between patterns/data.

In the afternoon, we began looking at how to write complex sentences (tough!), and we wrapped up our body paragraphs.

To cap off the day we completed a quick cold read to see if we could be bounced up another level in reading.

Homework
Math- Lesson 3- All Qs; Research Fibonacci sequence for Mr. Moz
RELA- Read 30 min; Crisis in Africa- annotate, #proof; answer
Vocab- mal/male sentences due next Wed.
Other- planner signed; assessments signed; tissues donated (thank you to those who have already donated some!)

Tuesday January 13, 2015

This morning began with our newest Greek/Latin root of the week: "mal/male" meaning worse/abnormal/bad.
Quizlet  and   More mal/male info

We began our next Social Studies Unit which is all about colonists colonizing the new land that would become America.

http://www.history.com/shows/america-the-story-of-us/videos/america-the-story-of-us-rebels

(the first 15 minutes)

Next we began to analyze bar and circle graphs.  

In the afternoon, we completed our spelling test for Unit 2 which was accompanied by a pesky cougar story.  We then dissected another quality body paragraph and began writing our "why our animal is endangered" body paragraph.  As we wrapped up, we transitioned into our final day of Main Idea and Supporting details in reading.

Homework

Math- SL 5.9

Reading- Read 30; trifolds finished for Pink and Purple

Vocab- mal/male matching tomorrow

Other- Planner signed; assessments signed; donate tissues please :)

Monday Jan. 12, 2015

Two hour delay to start off our day.

Ok, it wasn't nearly that bad...

We began our day by heading to art.  We then took our recess time to get in some quality math time, and then went directly to lunch.  In math overviewed turning fractions into decimals and decimals into fractions.

In the afternoon, we wrote our 4th body paragraph about our endangered animal's habitat.  As we discussed Friday, this is a very difficult paragraph to write because information is usually very straight forwards and you really must do extra research to elaborate.

To finish the day, we continued to work in our guided reading groups and Study Island with the strategy of main idea and supporting details.

Homework

Math: Converting fractions and decimals (check on calculator!)

Reading: Read, annotate, number proof and answer questions (Space reading)

Spelling: Due tomorrow!

Other: Planner and assessments signed

Friday Jan. 9, 2015

This morning we jumped directly into our Latin/Greek root PWYK.  I was very disappointed with this week's scores seeing as only 14 out of 24 students received proficient or advanced.  That is 58% of the class.... This is unacceptable and needs to be pulled up to at least 80%.  Next week we hit this hard with more review.

In math we analyzed word problems using CUBES so that we could decide if the whole number came first or second when dividing fractions.  At the end, we had an RSA to check our understanding.

In the afternoon we received back 4 assessments that need signing.  We reviewed all of these assessments and anything on the LTA (math) that received a 2 needs to be revised.  After, we analyzed a habitat body paragraph for our endangered animal research papers.  Monday we will write the habitat paragraph.

To wrap up our day we worked on some Main Idea and Supporting Details passages.  In these passages we found the most important points of paragraphs and the entire text.  In each case we supported them with details to prove our claim.  After, we used quotes from the text to write full short answer to various main idea questions.

Homework
Math- Lesson 24 both sides (CUBES)
RELA- read 30 min
Spelling- due Tuesday
Other- Planner and 4 assessments signed

Thursday Jan. 8, 2015

*Sorry for no blog again yesterday- I was at district office working with some 4th and 5th grade colleagues on reading curriculum!*

This morning began with a morning meeting from our very own MadLab.

Today's final science lesson of the unit involved hair and microscopes.  Ask you child what we did!

Then in math we figured out how to divide whole numbers by fractions and discovered why our answers always get larger when we do this.

After our final health lesson, we took the writing period to catch up, revise, and further research anything from the first three body paragraphs (physical appearance, behavior, and diet) about our endangered animals.

To wrap up the day, each guided reading group worked on discovering main ideas and backing them up with details from the text.  In the blue group that I worked with, we read through a really cool National Geographic article that directly connected with our shared reading story about Cougars.  Really challenging text!  Really great effort!

Homework

Math- Lesson 23 both sides

RELA- Read 30 min (new chapter book coming soon!)

Spell/Voc- ben, bene, bon sentences tomorrow; spelling due Tuesday

Other- Planner signed

Tuesday January 6, 2015

First day back and I forget to blog.  Sorry!

Today we started off our cold and snowy morning with the accelerated math placement assessment.  All students took this, but only some will be placed in accelerated math based on results.

After, we discussed and practiced dividing fractions by whole numbers.

Later in the afternoon, students had their first health lesson of the year.  Post health lesson we jumped back into writing our second body paragraph of our endangered animal research project.  Since this was left go for a few weeks, we did some rereading and researching yesterday to get our heads back into the game based on our animal.

Finally, we wrapped up the day with a look into main ideas and details.  We read a story about cougars and pulled out main ideas for paragraphs, sections and the entire story.  To support our main ideas we used explicit textual evidence and details to prove ourselves.

Homework
Math- Add, Subtract, Multiply Fractions Word Problems (BOTH sides)
Reading- PB p. 109
Voc/Spell- Spelling due 1/13; ben bene bon sentences due Friday
Other- Planner signed