Back to Normal

Greetings!  

We are back to a normal week this week after our testing last week.  What we are looking forward to this week:  returning to our book club schedule, having literacy blocks to read and write, finishing our opinion papers about when you deserve a trophy, finding our best learning style through a multiple intelligence survey,  choosing a book project that matches our learning style, writing a space picture book in Projects, hearing the second half of The One and Only Ivan, and playing kickball with the official rules on these lovely afternoons.  This is a great time of the school year and we have lots to learn in the last weeks of school.  Our schedule of work will remain the same until the very last days of school.  

On the horizon, we have the Nevada State Writing Proficiency test the week of May 5.  Also, weather permitting, we will be painting the playground that week as well.  I am still looking for a few volunteers for that project.  Please email me if you are available.  I can't give you a solid date until we check the weather, but I'm aiming for May 8 from 1:15 - 3:30 and hoping to get 4 or 5 parents to help.  Should be fun, right? 

Have a great week.  These fifth graders are awesome and I love being with them every day!

CRT Testing

Hello Fifth Grade families, 

You will be happy to know that our first day of CRT testing went very well.  These are the things I noticed that impressed me:  all students at school on time, kids ready to work hard, plenty of nutritious snacks (thank you, parents!), many students working hard for two or more hours, and students checking and double-checking their work.  I was happy with the effort I saw today!  Now we need to be ready to do it all over again tomorrow!  No homework this week, just the early bedtime and healthy breakfast.

Our testing schedule looks like this:  

Tuesday:  a.m. - Reading Part 2       p.m. -  Math Part 1

Wednesday: a.m. - Science Part 1 p.m. -  Math Part 2

Thursday: a.m. -  Science Part 2 p.m. - no testing

Then we will look ahead to the State Writing testing the week of May 5. Thanks for all your efforts to make our testing week smooth and successful!

Eclipse and Testing

We ended our school day today with a short video on the Blood Moon Lunar Eclipse that is happening tonight.  This is the first of four, a tetrad of total eclipses, each occurring six months apart.  It is interesting, but of course, to see it, you have to be up at midnight.  It should be visible somewhere between 11:00 pm and 12:30 am.  There was a lot of talk among the students of setting alarms and getting up in the middle of the night, so this is just advance warning in case this discussion arises in your homes.    

Another important matter on the horizon is CRT testing which will begin first thing next week.  Mrs. Anderson is arranging snacks to be brought in on testing days, which is every day next week.  We will not have our typical homework that week, but I am telling the fifth graders that they are to get to bed at least 30 minutes earlier to be rested for their tests each day.  Thank you for helping them be ready.  I don’t like to spend too much time talking about testing in the classroom.  It is a fine line between stressing them out and having them take the tests seriously.  On an individual level, the test data is used for a full school year to determine what each student knows and still needs to learn.  It is important that the results are a fair representation of what your child knows.  Please encourage your child to take the time to do his or her best.  

Have a great week and contact me with any concerns or questions.  Thanks for all you do to make our classroom run smoothly!

Spring Break - Night sky Viewing

It is Spring Break, a perfect time to do this learning task if your schedule allows it.  We are studying the solar system right now, and your student will start writing a book with a partner about a topic when we return to school.  We have talked about moon phases, stars and constellations, visible planets in the night sky, and the size and direction of shadows.  With no school this week, if you are able to view any of these things, please do so.  If you are outside during sunny weather, notice the shadows and how their size and direction changes throughout the day.  Why is this?  The moon and stars are often visible late at night and early in the morning.  What phase is the moon in right now? Can you see any constellations?  Are they in the same place throughout the night?  All year long?  There is no grade attached to this request, just a chance to see what we are learning about.

I have met with most of you for Parent Teacher Conferences.  Thank you for taking time to meet and discuss your child's progress.  If any questions arise, please contact me.  Have a great Spring Break!

Classroom News and Spring Conferences

We’re off to another great week in the fifth grade.  We are in new book clubs in reading and we are working on an opinion writing essay in writing.  We started a new Space Systems project.  The students don’t know this yet, but this will be a book-writing project.  They will work in pairs and be assigned a topic such as planets, stars, gravity, etc.  We learned about relative distance today and went outside to figure out how far Neptune is away from the sun.   They went home with some questions that may be fun to look up at home, or we will find the answers in the classroom.   We had a few auction items today. Thank you Julie Evans for sending those in, they were a hit! We ended our day with possibly my favorite PE yet.  We shot Q-tips through a straw into a “Pot of gold” and played marshmallow catch with a partner.  There was really no skill advantage for anyone and we all had a great time.  Thanks Jackie Trease for sending in these items for our Valentine’s party, we ran out of time that day, so our Cupid games became Leprechaun games today.  

Parent teacher Conferences will be held the week of March 24.  I will have times for a few conferences Monday 3/24, Tuesday 3/25, and Thursday 3/27 from 4:15 - 5:30 and Wednesday, 3/26 from 5:30 - 6:30.  I can meet on Friday as needed. With busy spring schedules, I will (really try to!) keep to a prompt schedule.  These are not student led.  Your child is welcome but not required. Please email me with your preferred time. Looking forward to meeting with you all!

Come See Our Projects

Please come see our Sphere Interaction project presentations.  We will be presenting between 2:00 - 3:00 in the Oasis Academy lunchroom.  We are inviting 4th and 5th grade families and the 2nd and 3rd grade classes.  Each station will have a short explanation of the spheres involved and the event and how the spheres interacted in their event.  They will have a display board with information and a model to show before and after the interaction event.  It should be an educational opportunity for all of us.

Thank you to those who sent in auction items!  We had some great things to auction off on Thursday.  You may send in items any day this week.

Conference scheduling will take place soon.  Looking forward to discussing progress and growth of these marvelous fifth graders!  Have a nice week!

End of Third Quarter

Time is just flying by and we are at the end of the third quarter this week.  We finished the animal research slide shows today and we are holding writing conferences this week to go over each student's research report.  Overall, these were outstanding!  It is exciting to see the growth in each student's writing abilities. We will begin opinion writing this week, which will be our focus for the fourth quarter.

In Reading we finished a book called True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle.  It is a personal favorite of mine, and we are rewriting the last chapter.  We will also show what we know by writing about different themes in the book and how the characters deal with challenges in the book.  We have students ready to read their final chapters for our read aloud time this week.

Thank you all for sending in supplies for projects, especially the tri-fold boards.  We will build on Wednesday and Thursday of this week.

The end of the quarter also brings up auction time in our classroom.   I have some items for auctions, but if anyone wants to send in a few additional things to auction off in the classroom, I would really appreciate it.  Food items are popular, like Gatorades, mini chip bags, candy bars or other treats.  If it is something your child likes, probably other students would too.   Also, because we are learning about supply and demand, having just a few of any one item is helpful.  Don't feel like you have to get 20 of something, just a few is better.  The students look forward to auction time and having new and exciting things really helps.  Thank you in advance to those of you who are able to send in a few items.