Projects and Christmas Craft

Welcome to the last week before Christmas break.  This is a fun week at school, one filled with learning experiences in the classroom.

Fifth graders this week will present both their Earth’s Systems projects to the lower and upper grade classes and their Cereal Box book reports later in the week.  The only thing your child needs from home is a prize for their cereal box before Wednesday.

On Thursday, we will do a fun winter craft.  I have all the materials except for each student will need a decorative pair of socks, either a matching pair or mismatched.  We are making a little rice-filled snowman out of a white tube sock.  The decorative sock will be used to make a sweater and a hat for the snowman.  If you want the sweater and hat to match, get a matching pair of printed socks.  I made one and used two mismatched socks that both had red and green, so that is fine too.  The socks for the sweater and hat should be colorful.  Please send the socks in this week, so we can do this on Thursday afternoon.  If you have extras at home, you can send those in too in case we need a few extras.  

Please email me if you have any questions.  

Thanks and have a great week!



Also, I wrote this but never posted from last week:
Sorry for the lack of contact!
Blog post 12/9

Welcome to another busy school week.  Here’s a few important items to keep in mind.  

We will work on Cereal Box Book Reports in reading every day this week.  Your child should have finished his or her book.  Each student needs a cereal box and a prize, the rest will be done in class.  

In Writing we are learning rules for comma usage.  There are a ton of rules, some with several exceptions.  We will practice that and look for examples of comma usage in other texts.  We are working on writing complex sentences, using subordinate conjunctions.  

In Projects, this is a work week for our Earth Science triads.  They will be putting the finishing touches on their presentations and displays.

We are at the end of the quarter, so even though kids are excited for christmas and other festivities, we have quite a bit of work to do still that counts for grades.  Please help your child maintain focus and keep up the hard work these next two weeks.

Christmas Party Info and Projects

Christmas Party:  We are having a great Christmas party this year.  The Fallon Theater is having an exclusive showing of the Disney movie Frozen for our school. The fifth graders, along with the 4th, 6th, and 7th graders, will walk to the theater on Thursday, Dec. 12.  We will have lunch a little early that day to get there in time for our movie at noon.  The cost is $6.00 for the movie and a popcorn and drink.  

Please send in the $6.00 with your student this week if possible.  I'll be gone a few days next week and I'd rather not leave that for a sub to worry about.

As for the academic part of school, here's what's coming up:

Reading:  Cereal Box book report, each student needs an empty cereal box by Monday Dec. 9.  Books should be read, if not, have your student finish by Dec. 9.  The work for this project will be done in class, except for getting the box and the prize.

Projects:  We are currently working on an Earth science project about rocks, weathering, and erosion.   This project does not require many supplies, but a few students volunteered to bring in tri-fold display boards for their group.  Thank you for providing these!  Our Earth science presentations are scheduled for Monday, Dec. 16.  We will have seven groups in our class, each with information about one part of Earth's systems that shape the landscape.  Each fifth grade team is working with a fourth grade team and they will have information about what is happening with the landscape, why it is happening, and where you can go to see a real world example of their focus area.   We hope you can come see their presentations.  We love having an audience!  Time and location to follow.  

Book Report

This week, my main concern is to make sure each student has a book selected for his or her book report. Most students have let me know their title, but a few have not.  This book can be any chapter book that your child has read as a fifth grader.  The book needs to be completed by Dec. 9, and each student needs an empty cereal box by that date as well.  The book report itself will be done completely in class.  The students will make a cereal box book report, creating a cereal to go with their book.  Please help your child select a book and get it read by that date.  This Thanksgiving weekend may be a great time for some extra reading.

As for projects, many groups selected digital presentations, so very few supplies are needed.  A few notes went home about tri-fold display boards, but check with your student about supplies for their Earth Systems project.

We have been writing gratitude journal entries this week and last week, and when I count my blessings, I count each of these wonderful students and families!  Each student add so much to our class.  Have a lovely Thanksgiving holiday.

Here's the rundown

This week started off busy.  There is a lot to get in before our Thanksgiving break.  I am sure everyone is looking forward to the break, but we are not letting up in the classroom.  There is a lot we need to cover in class before that time.  Here's the rundown of what we're doing:

In Reading, we are back to doing more of our CAFE strategies, with more literacy blocks.  We are assessing each student's progress in their reading goal.  We have read some non-fiction texts about Earth Science to help build our background knowledge for our project as well.  With our increased time in reading in the classroom, we will have a book report due the week of December 16.  The only thing your child needs to do right now is read a chapter book before December 10 or so.  He or she can use any chapter book they have read this school year.  Unless there is an absence, all the work will be done in class.  Please save a cereal box for this project.  More details will be coming.

In Writing, we are shifting from writing narrative to expository texts.  We have almost finished the writing conferences from the last narrative.  These were the ones the students brought home to edit.  They were really good -  I was impressed!  Thank you for your help; it made a difference.  In these days before Thanksgiving, we are writing on a Gratitude Journal prompt each day.  This week, the students are writing about a person they are thankful for with three specific reasons and explanations.  This also reinforces our November Precept, which your student wrote to you about in the parent journal.  Speaking of which, you will have a parent journal letter this weekend, but not over Thanksgiving.

In Projects, we are learning about Earth's systems, which covers types of rocks and how they are formed, fossils and rock layers, weathering, erosion, and the patterns that bring change in Earth's landscape over time.  Your child will work in a triad or pair, with one of these topics.  Their group will have to choose a way to teach their peers about their topic.  We will share these projects in December.  We have a list of supplies for you this weekend.  Because there is choice allowed in these, it is hard to know exactly what each student will need. Please ask you child about supplies this weekend. We should have a pretty good idea by then.

We are reading a great read aloud right now, a Newbery Award winning book called Bud, Not Buddy.  It is a great book.  When I was reading it a few weeks ago, I actually woke up at 4 am one (weekend) morning thinking about it and had to finish it.  I hope your students are enjoying and finding value in this book.  This year is really flying by!  I am happy with all we are learning and how the students are working.  Thanks for all you do!

Museum Presentations and Projects

After much preparation, we presented our Wax Museum project today about people who have contributed to our community.  There were many areas of concern for me, from costumes, to speech memorization, to transportation, but as far as I could tell, everything went really smoothly.  Again, many thank yous to the staff of the Churchill County Museum for their help with our research and for their willingness to host our event.  Also, thanks to the 13 parent drivers who were on time and made that process so smooth.  I was really proud of this group of students.  To quote on of the museum staff members, "This is the cutest thing I've ever seen!"  I totally agree with her!

Our next project is an Earth Science project, and we will begin with some serious vocabulary next week and then start our study of things that shape the surface of the Earth.

Not to bombard you with projects, but we finished reading Tuck Everlasting and your child was assigned last week to find 10 items that represent a character.  These items should fit in a paper lunch bag.  Students need to have the items in class on Thursday when we present our items and explain why each item was chosen.  Thanks for helping your student be successful at these projects!

Halloween, P/T Conferences and Project Presentations

I have sent out many emails on these subjects, so a quick summary of this busy week:

Halloween - costumes are allowed.  No masks, at least for the school day.  For the parade is fine if they can see.  Our class party is at 2:00.  Colleen Colburn is organizing this, if you want to help, please contact her (354-7318), or me via email and I will forward it to her.  We need parents to bring food and some items for an activity and a game.

Conferences are Friday Nov. 1 and Monday Nov. 4.  Please email me a preferred time and I will schedule you.  If I don't hear from you, I'll schedule you anyway.

Project Presentations - Our Wax Museum project is shaping up.  We will present at the Churchill County Museum on Tuesday, Nov. 5, from 2:00 -3:00.  Thank you to all who have volunteered to drive.  I have overwhelming response on drivers, and thank you for that!  I will be contacting you to let you know how many kids I need you to take and the details of pick up and drop off.  If you are not needed as a driver, please come and see the presentations.  Bring family, friends, co-workers, the museum wants to get people in the doors.  If you know any relatives or descendants of the person your child is studying, I would love to have you invite them as well!

One more note about the project.  The kids need a costume that is historically accurate for their person.  I know this is really a job for the parents, very few kids can come up with a costume on their own.  I appreciate your help in this.  The costume will add a lot to our presentations.  A simple prop or photo is fine, but not needed. Costumes can come in this week, but we need them by Monday at the latest for a dress rehearsal in the classroom that day.  Also, many of you had made additional trips and calls to the museum. Thank you for that.  I know that this is a labor intensive project for the parents and I appreciate what you are doing to support your child's education.  I hope you will be impressed when you see these presented.  They are coming together nicely!

Character Matters Play, Thank yous, Writing Assignments

Today was the fifth grader's play, Character Matters.  The students did a brilliant job, but we owe many thanks to the Drama teacher,  Mrs. Missy Miller, and her helpers:  Mrs. Cherilee Sorensen with costumes, Mrs. Dana Barton with songs, and Mrs. Suzette Benecke with choreography.  They did a fantastic job on the set as well.  They worked tirelessly, well beyond the 45 minute class period twice a week to help the students put on an amazing performance.  Thank you also to Mrs. Anna Jessen who brought cookies for everyone!  What a treat!  It was so nice to have many parents and family members there on relatively short notice.  Having an audience makes it all real for the performers.

Thank you also to Monyca Jensen who sent in supplies for our classroom and refillable plastic water bottles for each student!  They are all labeled and your student will either bring it home or keep it in the classroom to use there.

The Book Fair is stocked with tons of great books.  It will be open all week. before and after school.

This week, we are starting two assignments that may need some parent involvement.  The first is in writing.  Writing has been challenging, and we are writing our last personal narrative from a prompt this week.  On Tuesday or Wednesday (or both nights), your child will bring home a printed out copy of his or her rough draft.  Please help with revisions and editing on paper.  Your child can then bring back the paper copy of the changes and make the changes on their chrome book.  I want the finished product to be the student's work, but I think some one on one help would really benefit these young writers.   Final drafts are due on Thursday, and most students should be done with a first draft for Tuesday afternoon.

The second assignment is in projects.  We have researched our people for our Fallon Wax Museum at the Churchill County Museum.  However, if your child finds he or she is missing information as they go to write their script, there are a few ways to help out.  Feel free to call Bunny at the museum, who will research specific questions like a birth or death date.  You may also take your child to the museum, where they can go to the research room and look for more information.  We can do internet research in the classroom if needed, but some of the people really don't have much information published online about them.  Also, your child will need a costume for their person, so keep that on your radar.

Let me know if you have questions about any of this.  It's a lot of info to take in.  I'll try to be more concise next week!