Thank You

Today was a sad day in 5S because it was hard to see everyone go, but a good day because I got to see these great kids end one chapter and begin another.  I wanted to thank everyone for the kind gifts and notes of thanks that were sent in this week.  You were all so very thoughtful and generous and it means a lot.  I love teaching and this year made me love what I do even more.  Hard to believe that on the first day of summer I am still thinking about how great it is to be able to spend my days in the classroom taking a group of little people on a journey that never gets boring and is always full of learning and laughter, but I am.  Thanks for an amazing school year. I hope that everyone has a great summer.  The view up here in Door County is amazing and the alarm clock is turned off! Take care everyone and thanks for everything.

That's All Folks...

This year has been truly wonderful.  I know that a group of little people like this does not come together very often, and that makes me a bit sad today.  I hope that everyone has an amazing summer and will blaze new trails at Hill and beyond.  I am looking forward to our final week of fifth grade.  Remember we have no school on Monday and the kids will be dismissed at 10:15 on Friday morning. On Tuesday everyone can bring in a stuffed buddy or pillow for our school-wide citizenship celebration. There is no homework this week and no spelling list. 

I am truly going to miss each of you kids!  Thanks for all the positive energy and hard work you did this year.

This Week in 5S

We're almost done everyone!  There are only 8 days left of fifth grade and we are going to make the most of them.  Our big event this week will be the 5th Grade Farewell party on Wednesday afternoon.  On behalf of the kids, thank you for all of you who have given your time and talents to this fun day to celebrate the end of elementary school for these great kids.

Our theme for the week will be courage.  We are going to explore different types of courage and look for examples in literature, nonfiction texts, and the real world.  Sometimes courage means acting on something, but sometimes it takes courage not to act as well.  The students are all going to create a book that illustrates examples of courage explored like taking that first jump off the high dive or walking up to a new friend for the first time, getting back on the balance beam after a fall, giving a presentation in class or rounding third for home knowing that it's going to be close! There is courage all around us!

The remaining time in class this week will be spent learning about the Civil War.  The kids and I will explore texts and video clips to try to understand the causes, effects, and lasting legacy of this bloody time in American History.

Homework for the Week of May 21st

Monday: 5S Math students will need to find 10 examples of polyhedrons at home tonight.  Write the object and the type of polyhedron it is on a sheet of paper for tomorrow.


Tuesday: 5S Math students all need to bring in a few cans to class on Thursday, try to find interesting sizes! 5S Math will also have Study Link 11.2.


Wednesday: Review the social studies spelling list for Friday's test.


Thursday: 5S Math will bring home Study Link 11.3 tonight.


Friday: Enjoy the last weekend of fifth grade kids!

Spelling for the Week of 5-21

This week's spelling list was created by the students based on their social studies group jigsaw project from last week.  Every student has a list that will be in their binders this weekend.

Homework for the Week of 5-15

Monday: No school today, but be sure to bring in the materials you have gathered for the Cinderella shoe report we will do in class tomorrow.  Tuesday is the only time I have set aside for this work so if you forget everything, you will not have time in class to do any of the work.

Tuesday: 5S Math will bring home Study Link 10.9 and everyone will need to bring home their reading anthology to read the story about the Lewis and Clark expedition and write a thoughtful one paragraph summary of the text.

Wednesday: 5S Math will bring home the study guide for tomorrow's unit 10 test.

Thursday: Everyone needs to practice their oral defense of the shoe which will be given in class tomorrow. Remember that you will need to explain how every item on your shoe connects back to the text.  Also be prepared to answer questions about your choices from classmates. 5S Math will bring home the Family Letter from unit 11.

Friday: Enjoy the weekend!!!

Spelling for the Week of 5-14-12

This week the kids will be creating their own spelling list based on the social studies work that we will be doing on the years following the ratification of the US Constitution and the lead-up to the Civil War around 70 years later.  This list will be used for the following week's spelling test and will be sent home later this week so the kids can work on the difficult words over the weekend.

This week we are going to review some of the words on past lists and take a few different multiple choice tests that will focus on proofreading.

Cinderella's Shoe

This week during our LMC time, Mrs. May taught a lesson on traditional fairy tales.  I had all of the kids check out a copy of Cinderella or borrow one from my classroom library to read.  Did you know that there are over 200 different versions of this classic tale from all around the world?  With our twenty five versions we are going to create an interesting book report.  The kids are going to create the shoe that Cinderella would have worn in the book that they read...and I need a bit of help from all of you at home to pull this one off!

This project is going to be done on an actual shoe.  Strange I know, but this is a classic Mr. Schumann assignment that I have done many times with amazing results.  To make this project truly successful I am going to need a few items from home.  First, if anyone has old high heels that you had to wear to cousin Irma's wedding that you no longer need, we can give them new life at school.  Please send in any old shoes that we can transform.  I have many odd shoes from doing this project in the past, but these kids like options!  We also need random craft items to glue on the shoes.  Anything you have like old fabric, a bad dried flower arrangement that lives in the basement, the junk you bought at Michael's that you meant to put to good use, small dodads and whatnots is what we need.  I need all of this to be sent in on Tuesday the 15th.

I also need extension cords for the low temp hot glue guns we will be using to get everything on the shoe.  If you can, please send one in on Tuesday the 15th.  The kids are going to make the inside of the shoe as Cinderella sees herself and the outside of the shoe how others see her.  The grade will be based on an oral defense of their shoe.  Every single item on the shoe must have a connection to the book including color choices and any item that is glued on.  The kids will present their shoe to the class and must be able to answer questions from the class to defend the choices made with evidence from the text.  Thank you all in advance for your help with this out of the box book report!

Spelling for the Week of 5-7

There will be no spelling list for this week.

Homework for the Week of 5-7-12

Monday: 5S Math will bring home Study Link 10.6 tonight and everyone needs to look for items to use for the shoe book report.

Tuesday: 5S Math will bring home Study Link 10.7 tonight and keep looking for items for your shoe.

Wednesday: Tonight everyone needs to continue to search for materials that you can use on your shoe book report.  Remember to only pick items that you can connect to something in your text.

Thursday: 5S Math will bring home Study Link 10.8 tonight.

Friday: You need to bring the materials you have gathered for your Cinderella shoe to class on Monday.

This Week in 5S

Here is what we will be working on this week:

• The class is going to create an online Google survey on Monday that will be sent out to the May Watts staff to learn more about how we feel about the timing of lunch and recess.  Last week the kids found research from across the country to support their positions.  We have interviewed several classes and this week all of our data will be organized into two different graphs the kids will create on the computers.  These graphs along with a formal opinion/argument piece of writing will be finished by the end of the week and given to Mr. Raczak and the May Watts leadership team to make a final decision on what we will do next year.
• Microscopes have been a huge hit!  This week we will examine a few household items that look mighty different when under 400 X magnification!
• 5S Math will begin a unit on algebraic thinking this week.
• The kids will take the final CBM tests of the year this week.
• Our reading time will be spent looking at the relationship dynamics between the main characters in two of our read aloud books.  We will be comparing Rob and Sistine from The Tiger Rising to Gabe and Frita in The Liberation of Gabriel King. There are a lot of similarities between the relationships these kids developed and we will explore how their interactions are similar and different.
• My flex group will be exploring a very cool, sort of long, and very deep picture book called The Collector of Moments all week long.  At the end of the week the kids will be collecting their own moments and describing their connection to the theme of the book.
• At the end of the week we will be creating an advertisement that will aim to protect the rain forest and draw attention to the problems associated with these areas of the world.

Homework for the Week of 4-30

Monday: Tonight you need to find and copy the definitions of all this week's spelling words.  5S Math will bring home the Family Letter for unit 10 and Study Link 10.1.


Tuesday: 5S Math will bring home Study Link 10.2 tonight, and please be sure that the permission form for the trip to Hill has been signed and returned to school.


Wednesday: 5S Math will bring home Study Link 10.3 and this is your last chance to send in a picture of your room for our inference project.  I am still missing a few. 


Thursday: Tonight you'll come home with a TFK on the rain forest that you need to read and bring back to school tomorrow for an activity.  The spelling test is tomorrow and 5S Math will bring home Study Link 10.4.


Friday: Enjoy the weekend!

Spelling for the Week of 4-30

Words from Spanish


canyon, yucca
tornado, hurricane
breeze, chaps
cafeteria, arroyo
coyote, matador
tomato, abalone
barbecue, cargo
mosquito, chocolate
plaza, guacamole
pueblo, iguana
chili, plaza
alligator, ranch
rodeo, saguaro
patio, sombrero
bonanza, platinum
avocado
mesa
burro
enchilada
burrito

Our Class Picture

This is our official class portrait. I have some cropping to do, but this is the picture that will grace the walls of our classroom for the rest of my days as a teacher.  Some of the kids have suggested a golden frame as they now know that they are my favorite class so far, but I'm going to stick with the black and white version for the 15th group of amazing little people on the wall of fame.  I trust they know that when I look at this picture, the frame I see will indeed shine like gold. Thanks to Jude's mom for taking the photo!

Science Extra Credit

I shared this extra credit opportunity with the class today, but I wanted to post it here as well. On Wednesday night at 8:00 on PBS there is an episode of NOVA titled "Secrets of the Sun" which ties in beautifully with what we have been learning about these past few weeks. NOVA as the kids know is my favorite show on TV!  I will give extra credit to anyone who watches the program and writes a thoughtful one page reflection that shares what was learned. PBS is channel 11 and 191 HD on Comcast.  Set it up to tape and have a great conversation with your child about how the information presented in the show compares to what I have tried to teach everyone about stars at school. This extra assignment is going to be due on Monday.

This Week in 5S

This is  going to be a busy week in 5th grade.  Here is what we will be working on:

• There is going to be a science quiz on Tuesday about stars and space.  A study guide will come home on Monday night for this multiple choice and essay quiz.
• We are going to WVHS's Planetarium on Friday from 11:00-1:00.
• To celebrate Earth Day, the kids in 5S are going to take a walk around our school to pick up trash and some organic items that will be brought back into the classroom to create Trash Monsters.  Kids will be working in teams on this project that will also include a writing activity.
• The students in 5th grade are going to be working on a mini-research project this week.  This time, students will be observing the other students in our school and interviewing some of the kids to determine if having lunch first and recess second is the best way to go.  Perhaps recess should be first? The kids will be researching online to find articles explaining the pros and cons of the timing, we will learn about how to conduct an interview, what to do when observing the kids in both lunch and recess, and how to summarize the findings.
• We are going to begin a three week unit on microscopes this week.  The class will learn how to use a microscope, how to prepare a slide, and we will begin to examine slides with a variety of cells.
• Some of our reading time will be spent with a nonfiction story about space.  The class will be comparing the quality of information learned in the text to the information we learned in science to determine which source was better and why.
• In the homework section there is an odd assignment that I wanted to explain.  I asked everyone to email me a picture of their student's bedroom. Why??? I have done this project several times and it is a blast!   All year long we have spent time making inferences with the reading that we do.  The photos are going to be used in a lesson on making inferences.  By this point in the year we know a lot about each other and should be able to make inferences based on the evidence in a photo of a classmate's room to determine who lives in which room.  I will put all of the photos into a presentation that will be watched early next week.  Please email me the pictures this week.  Thanks and enjoy the rest of the weekend.