Welcome to Quarter 4 – where our routine is settled with minimal interruptions, and the children are trying they’re hardest to be unsettled and disrupt routine …… but not in i305 – we have too much to do!

Our learning journey continues in Social Studies. The students will be focusing on

How war and conflict has impacted Singapore and specifically their historical site.

We will be using WW2 and the invasion of Singapore to help us research areas around Singapore.

The students brought home the Social Studies project before the break. This has changed somewhat from what you may have been familiar with in previous years. The students are going to research one important place in Singapore only. We were so fortunate to have Mr. Jon Cooper come and speak to us before the break about his archaeological dig at Adam Park; he modeled perfectly what our students are expected to do with their project.

For Math we are starting Unit 10: Using Data; Algebra concepts and skills. We began with the first lesson today and the most important part is that the students are looking at problems and thinking in different ways about how to solve them.

In RLA we have finished our Fantasy reading unit and we are concluding our Fantasy writing. I plan to hold a publishing party when we are finished as this will be the culmination of a long and in-depth writing unit. In Word study we will be looking at plurals in the next few weeks. We will be reading for our class read aloud Number the Stars by Lois Lowry, our historical fiction novel. I very much enjoy teaching this text as it ties in well with our Social Studies curriculum and the interest levels of 5^th graders.  Our reading unit will be Historical Fiction and we will be working in book clubs to learn about a time period through fiction and non-fiction texts.

This week we are working on our test-taking skills and the genre of reading tests for success. The MAP assessments are next week and this will help the students know how to read and answer test questions.

Next week we will be having our MAP assessments. This will occur each morning starting from Tuesday. Please ensure your child is having plenty of sleep the night before and a good breakfast each day. There will be minimal homework this week to help them as well.

Dates to remember:

Tuesday, 2 April  – Jump-a-thon

Friday, 5 April – Service learning field trip to Christalite Methodist home

Tuesday 9, Wednesday 10, Thursday 11 April – MAP testing

Thursday, 18 April – Grade 5 Parent Information night

Tuesday, 30 April – Battle of the Books, Literacy Lock in 

Welcome back from hopefully a restful long weekend. We are at a great stage in the year with minimal interruptions, we can focus on our learning without too many disruptions.

 

In RLA we have finished our poetry unit, their final poem will be shared with you soon. We are entering into our lengthy study of Fantasy – reading and writing. Our main focus will be understanding the genre, the main characteristics of Fantasy (quest, good vs.evil, themes within, weak to strong) recognising this in what we read and recreating it in our writing. 

 

We have are half way through our Fraction unit in Math, the assessment will be next week. Our next Math unit is Coordinates, Area, Volume & Capacity. The students basic facts came home last week and I do emphasize the need for students to be proficient in their Basic Facts before middle school. 

 

We have started our new social studies unit with much success. Our field trip to Sentosa was very successful in helping with the students background knowledge of Singapore history. We will be moving into our study of push & pull factors for emigrants/immigrants using Singapore & US history to help us understand this. The culminating project will be integrating technology with use of Google maps to show the push & pull factors that helped create their story. 

 

The class has approached the Genre Pie challenge with focus and stamina – it is fantastic to see. 

 

Dates approaching: Student led conferences – March 14 & 15. 

Welcome back!

I hope you had a wonderful, relaxing break and you have returned charged for 2013. We are going to launch right into Semester 2 with many varied projects.

We will begin our social studies semester unit. The first month focuses on building our skills as social studies learners. We will be looking at what resources we can use, when is the right time to choose which resource and how we can make sure a resource is reliable. We will also be having our field trip to the Images of Singapore museum on Sentosa to help build our background knowledge.

In Math we will begin Unit 7 on Exponents and Negative Numbers. This is another big jump in concepts. At the end of Unit 7 we will be assessing their Basic Facts for the third time.

In RLA we will begin our Semester 2 Genre Pie. This follows the very successful Genre Pizza project and will culminate in a Pie party. The eight genres the students will be required to read this semester are:
Poetry
Award winning
Free Choice
Humor
Non Fiction
Classic
Double Genre
Realistic Fiction

We will finish up our non-fiction reading unit; as well as assess and share our non-fiction writing. Our next short unit will be Poetry – reading and writing.

We will begin our new word study and grammar program for Semester 2. There will be a little open-book assessment for the students this week to show their learning during Semester 1 in word study.

Human Growth & Development classes will be taking place the week before Chinese New Year as well.

Important dates:
Friday, 7 December – Genre pizza challenge
Human Growth & Development classes – 10 – 17 December
Friday, 21 December – Winter holiday party

We are one week away from celebrating our Genre pizza challenge! At present we have half the class finished and I’m positive many more over the next few days. Next Friday the students will get to celebrate with as much pizza as their heart delights.

We are finishing our unit on Fractions, decimals & percent’s with graphs tomorrow. Next week, we will begin our unit on Using Data; Addition & Subtraction of Fractions. As we progress the students automacity with Basic facts becomes even more important. If this was one of your child’s goals – please continue to support them at home with this.

We have finished our reading unit on following characters into meaning, as you would have seen this week at home. I plan to finish our Persuasive essays this week, with them coming home for you to see next week. We will end Semester 1 with a non-fiction reading & writing unit. You will see their independent reading will be non-fiction as well.

With the HG & D unit taking a chunk of our time we will be have less time to read in class and I would ask that the students try to read more at home during December.

We also have our visiting author with us this week and next. Janne Ritske from Tabitha will also be coming to speak to us. It really is a very busy time from now until winter holiday. The class is working well together and we have a wonderful learning atmosphere at present.

Dear parents

We survived Halloween … and we are into the busiest quarter of the year! I consider it busy because we have so many events on.

Deepavali holiday – Tuesday, 13 November
Scoliosis screening – Thursday, 15 November
UN day – Friday, 16 November
Science field trip – Wednesday, 21 November
Thanksgiving holiday – Thursday/Friday 22/23 November

Running into Human Growth & Development classes in December and culminating with our winter party on Friday, 21 December. With all that in mind we still have a lot to learn in the classroom.

For Math we have finished our Division unit. This is a very short unit with only seven lessons and I strongly suggest that you have your child use IXL to keep practicing division skills that may need reinforcement. We are onto our first fraction unit of the year, and our longest unit with 13 lessons. This will cover Fractions, Decimals and Percent’s. There are a lot of new concepts introduced so there may be from time to time extra practice sent home, or assigned to help the students practice. Today, their second basic facts sheet came home and for those that have Basic facts as a goal, this is one of our main steps to measuring it.

Fizz quiz! The students are very much enjoying learning about the periodic table in science. The different elements we are working with to create chemical reactions and now we are moving into creating chemical equations. These are BIG ideas and I am working to keep it simple. You will see extra homework coming home to help reinforce the students learning.

We have finished our personal essays and are now moving into transferring these skills into Persuasive essays. We will be continuing working on paragraph structure, using persuasive tools to effectively communicate what they are trying to convince their audience of and transition words. I am trying to have the students choose a topic with a broad appeal that can reach a large audience.

We have nearly finished our character unit in reading and I have been pleased with the types of thinking the students are trying and using in their conversations and written responses. Please encourage them to practice these skills when they discuss with you at home about their independent books.

As a class we have fallen in love with our shared read-aloud Wonder by R.J Palacio, this is a fantastic book and definitely our favorite time of the day as we share this together.

We have four more weeks left in our Genre Pizza challenge, with five students completely finished and many more very close, I can see that I will be ordering a massive amount of Pizza come Friday, 7 December. Please encourage your child to keep on with this challenge.

Hello Class i305 & Parents

I am so impressed with how most of the class is attacking their Genre pizza challenge. Please help me to remind the students from time-to-time about this.

In RLA we have started a new reading unit on Character. We will examine characters in their reading partnerships using books at their Just Right level. The students are not just learning about characters but about relationships, struggles, journeys characters experience, and friendships. They will make comparisons and connections. Students will build inferential and analytical reading skills by questioning and connecting with characters in their texts.

Our writing unit will be personal and persuasive essays. We will use our narrative unit as a springboard into helping them write personal essays about something of importance to them; this then leads into us repeating the essay process but using persuasion as a tool.
This week I will send home their published narrative for you to see their self-assessment and mine. We had our publishing celebration on Friday afternoon; it was lovely to see the kids reading and responding positively to each other’s writing.

In Word study we are focusing on using words accurately in our writing and how vowels change the sounds that words make. The use of the comma to change a sentence and add meaning is our focus in Grammar.

We have started Unit 3 in Math – this unit’s focus is Geometry and you would have already seen that there are some huge steps in their learning. We are working slowly through it trying to make sure that as a class we understand each new skill. Last week I sent home the problem solving sheet – this will come home four times this year; the same as the Basic facts assessment. If you feel that your child needs more support in some concepts remember that they have an IXL log in, an EDM log in and I can send some supplementary Basic Facts sheets home as well.

We are continuing on with our Mixtures & Solutions unit in Science. Our last focus has been on Saturation. We will assess our understanding so far this week before moving onto our next big idea – the Fizz quiz, looking at chemical reactions.

With all curricular areas I am more than happy to help you extend or provide support for your child. Just let me know!

I’m so pleased to introduce to you our reading adventure for semester one, Genre Pizza! From now until December the children are expected to read 8 books of varying genres at their ‘Just right’ level. They now know this as they have each had a conference with me about what book is ‘Just Right’ for them. The genres are :
• Historical Fiction
• Biography
• Non fiction
• Mystery
• Adventure/Action
• Realistic Fiction
• Science Fiction
• Fantasy
When the class has completed this challenge they will be rewarded with a whole class pizza party. More details on that much closer to the date. This challenge helps introduce the students to new genres that they may otherwise not encounter with their own choices. It also helps them set goals and work through the challenge in an organized manner.

Welcome to the second month of school. We have started and built some very successful routines in our first few weeks of school that will serve to enhance our learning community, by making all those little things that occur in the classroom far more automatic.

We have been working on building community within the classroom with time being devoted to getting to know each other, playing together and forming new friendships. Friendships may still be something of a concern for your child – if it is for you and them, please let me know. I can work with this in the classroom as well.

We are working through our reading unit on building agency and independence as a reader. By now you will see that every night they read and log, every day at school they read and log. Building this habit now is so important to help themselves, and me see their reading life and it adds another piece to the puzzle about how to make sure we are reading ‘just right’ books. We will continue to work through this unit with the end goal being independent readers, successful reading partnerships in the classroom and far more sophisticated thinking about what they are reading.

We have begun our writing workshop, as we always do at the beginning of the year we are focusing on personal narratives. The students are working on their writing stamina in the classroom and we are writing new stories each day. The more stories we create it will be easier for them to choose one and take it through the writing process to publication. The phrase being heard in the classroom right now is ‘ When you are done, you have just begun’. As in keep on writing!

In Grammar I am continuing to reinforce our No Excuse rules with all their writing and we are reviewing this, as well as focusing on Capitalization rules that may be new learning for them. For Word Study we are looking at the languages that have contributed to today’s English to help us explain why we spell words the way we do.

The scientists in the classroom have been doing fantastic work as we have begun our first investigations into Mixtures & Solutions. We will be completing the first part of this unit this week and it will be followed up with an I-check to assess their understanding so far. Expect to see this coming home next week.

We have completed our first unit in Math, as you will have seen the unit test coming home. The student’s basic facts test will come home today – there will be only four of these tests this year. As I explained that fifth graders are expected to have automatic recall of their facts in this grade. Please work to help your child if they need a little help in this area.

The Gecko Bucks has had a very successful start – thank you for your support in having this signed each week.