Mrs. Alabakoff's 4th/5th GradeDearborn Public Schools

Nov 21st Thanksgiving Week!

Thank you for great conferences last week!  As Thanksgiving approaches, I know I am thankful for all my wonderful, hard working students and for their supportive parents!!  I hope everyone enjoys a relaxing time with family and friends!

Please remember to send in your permission slip and money for the Movie field trip.

This (short ) week and next, we are learning:

Spelling–No unit this week.  We will resume next week when we return.  Students can still look for the spelling patterns that we learn in their books and everyday life.  They have become quite good with identifying other words with the same pattern.

Daily5/Cafe–We have begun work on informational text.  Students are identifying and describing text features in their reading.  I am sending home their book so they can read and review at home.  Please be sure to return them to school.   These connect with our study of natural resources.  Some may seem to be an easy read for your child, but we are connecting our Science and also focusing how these text features help our comprehension.  Students need to get used to reading everything on the page in the informational text.   Students will read other informational texts and will also be choosing one from the library.

Writer’s Workshop–Students just finished persuasive/opinion writing with a Thanksgiving theme.  We learned the elements of opinion writing.  Ask your child what needs to be included in their opinion writing.  When we return from the break, we will move on to narrative writing.  We are practicing adding more descriptive language by using powerful verbs and adjectives.  This helps to add voice as well.  An at home idea–have your child keep a journal where he/she can practice their writing skills.

Math–We are currently working on multiplication.  We are working with our facts as well as number stories that include groups of things.  Students do need to practice their math facts.  We are having weekly quizzes on the facts, but are not timing them.  However, students do need to learn to complete them in a timely manner.  After the Thanksgiving break we will be focusing on division and also how it connects to multiplication.

Science–Students are learning a lot about our resources and having fun with rocks and minerals.  We just explored soil samples and described the properties.  We will be learning about fossil fuels and how they are used as well.  Ask your child about their learning.  They are welcome to bring home their folder any time, but just need to return it to school everyday.

Wishing you a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Nov 16th (No Title)

Reminders:

Yogurtopia will be hosting its third annual “Cans for a Cause” canned food drive this November. All food items collected will be donated to our local Gleaners Food Bank so that they are able to help feed those in need for the holidays.  In order to give the children the motivation to bring in as many non-perishable items as possible they will be turning the canned food drive into a competition. The students be competing against their fellow classes.

How it works:

Students will be allowed to collect as many non-perishable food items as possible from November 10th, 2016- November 21st, 2016. Once that time is up Miley, the friendly Yogurtopia mascot, will visit the classroom with the most collected items. Each student in the winning class will receive a $5 gift card to Yogurtopia!

Nov 1st Week of October 31st-November 4

Reminders:

1/2 day Friday

No School–Tuesday, November 8th

Thank you so much to all parents helping out with Halloween celebration!  The donations for the breakfast were awesome and I could not have done it without all the helpful parent volunteers.  The kids had a great time!!  I hope everyone enjoyed the trick-or-treating last night!

We are learning:

Spelling–No unit this week

Daily 5/Cafe–We are exploring legends, specifically Michigan legends.  Students are learning about the elements of this genre and are identifying character traits based on evidence from the story.  We are also working on our book club books.  Students are discussing and will finish up with their books, most likely this week.  Each group will then do a book club project of their choice to present the book.

Writer’s Workshop–We are continuing our Zebra Mussel informational paragraphs.  Students have learned how to formulate a topic sentence and include details to make a paragraph.  They are utilizing the information they found about the Zebra Mussels from the internet search.

Math–Our focus this week will be the beginning of multiplication.  Students will be learning about the concept of Multiplying numbers and what each number represents.  We will be drawing models and start learning our facts.  Please be sure to start practicing with your child.  We will be learning the facts in a bit of a different order so it makes a bit more sense to students.  For example, we will be learning our 2 facts along with our 4 facts….3 with 6 and 9 etc.  It is important your child knows that 2×6 represents two groups of six.

Science–We are now switching our focus to Science after completing our unit on Michigan Geography.  We did discuss resources for Social Studies and will now explore earth’s materials and how they are used.  We will start with exploring the properties of rocks and minerals.

Thank you to Mrs. Sullivan for the Better Made pretzels for Michigan Made!!

Have a warm and sunny week!

Oct 26th (No Title)

Please have your child bring back their blue Michigan Geography folder tomorrow.  We are working on a Zebra Mussel informational piece and it is in their blue folders!

I forgot to remind the students!  Thank you!!!

Oct 24th Week of October 24-28

Reminders:

You should have received an email with the signup genius for our Halloween celebration.  We will be having a breakfast!  Please sign up to donate items.  If you did not receive the signup genius, let me know.

Thank You Mrs. Pinch!!!!

We will be having our Halloween costume parade in the afternoon.  Students will bring their costumes and change after lunch.

This week we are learning:

Spelling–This week our focus in consonant digraphs.  We are looking at words with sh, th and ch at the beginning or end of words.  We are also making connections with other words with the same patterns.

Daily5/Cafe–We are working on character comparisons.  We will then look at legends, some tied to Michigan.  We will be studying the elements of the legends.  Students are also working on their book club books and we will be discussing this week.  Students will also be identifying goals and working on individual strategies.

Writer’s Workshop–We finished up our narrative stories and are now collecting information for our informational pieces.  We have tied this to our study of Michigan.  Ask your child to tell you about zebra mussels and how they arrived in Michigan.  We will be composing two great paragraphs!

Math–Our Unit Two test is Wednesday and review will be coming home today.  Make sure your child brings it back to school tomorrow so we can continue our review in class together.

Social Studies–We will be finishing up our unit on Geography of Michigan and will most likely have a test on Thursday or Friday.  Details to follow.

We have also been tying in Earth’s Materials for Science by looking at different rocks and minerals.

Enjoy your week!

Oct 21st Halloween Dance Time Correction

HALLOWEEN DANCE IS  6:00-8:00!

Oct 21st Thank you!

Thank you to all parents who chaperoned the field trip today!  It was a great trip and we really appreciate your help!

Oct 18th Week of October 17th-21st

Reminders for this week:

Rouge Factory tour — Friday October 21st

Halloween Dance — Friday October 21st 5:30-8:00

We will be leaving in the morning.  Those parents chaperoning can come up with your child.

Students (and adults) should bring a bag lunch with a drink.  No glass bottles please.  We will be eating lunch there and walking back to school after lunch.

We are learning:

Spelling — This week our focus is blends.  We will be making connections with other words in that have blends (fl, st, sl etc.) .  Students often look for blends in their books and in their writing.

Daily5/Cafe–We should be finishing up our study of fables/folktales this week and will move on to myths.  Students are doing character analysis using the characters in the fables and folktales.  We will be using graphic organizers to compare/contrast characters in the stories.

Writer’s Workshop–Students are finishing up their “room” stories by adding linking words and more descriptive language.

Math–We are working on subtraction of numbers to 1000.  We are also doing number stories using both addition and subtraction.  Students are learning various strategies for solving these problems.   Students who master the concept move on to more challenging problems.

Social Studies — A BIG thank you to the Saylors for the McClure’s Pickles.  We enjoyed them!  Many of the kids even liked the spicy ones!!

We will soon be finishing up with our study of the Geography of Michigan.  Our focus this week is how humans use and modify the environment.  We will also discuss reasons for movement to and from Michigan.

We are going to also encorporate some of our Science concepts into Social Studies by looking at Earth’s resources.  Students have been bringing in various rocks and minerals from Michigan.  We will explore the properties of these rocks and minerals as well.

Have a wonderful week!

Oct 11th Week of October 10th-14th

Reminders:

PTA Meeting tonight 7pm

1/2 day Friday

We are learning:

Spelling–Our focus this week is long and short u.  Please review the words with your child and discuss spelling patterns.  Students are also making connections with other u words in reading and writing.

Daily5/CAFE–We will be finishing up our study of folktales and fables this week and will then move on to myths.  We are learning about the characters and using evidence from the story to identify traits.  We are also working on using that information to draw conclusions.  This week we are also starting book club, where students work in small groups for discussions of their books.  We work on individual strategies and then create a book sharing project at the end of the book.  Lots of fun and learning!!

Writer’s Workshop–This week we started a narrative fantasy piece.  We read “The Flying Dragon Room”  for inspiration.  Students created their plan and are now starting on first drafts.  Our focus is on making our stories very descriptive with adjectives.

Social Studies–Our focus this week is natural resources in Michigan and how people use them.  We will also learn about positive and negative consequences of their use.

We sampled Garden Fresh salsa and chips this last Friday for Michigan Made.

Math–Students are practicing addition with regrouping and this week we are starting on subtraction.  We will work on different strategies for the subtraction as well.  Students usually end up having a favorite that works for them, but it is important for them to know the different strategies.  Subtraction usually gives them more trouble, so it would be helpful for them to practice at home.

Enjoy your week!!

Oct 3rd Week of October 3rd-7th

Wow!  I can’t believe we are in October!  I am really enjoying your children and look forward to watching them grow.

Just a reminder—Make sure your child dresses for the weather.  It has been chilly in the mornings (although I am hearing it will reach 80 this week), and we try to get outside for some fresh air in the morning.

If you have not already done so, please turn in permission slip and money for the trip on Friday the 21st.  Parents are welcome to attend, but they will also need to pay the $10.  We will be walking to catch the shuttle from the Henry Ford Museum.  Looking forward to a great trip!

We are learning:

Spelling–This week our spelling focus is long and short e.  We also have a few content words that go along with what we are learning in other subjects.  Your child should be able to tell you about them.  We work on the spelling patterns for the words, so even if the words are easy to spelling students also need to identify the patterns.  For example, ee and ea make the long e sound.  They should be able to transfer this to their reading and writing.

Daily5/Cafe–Our focus is Check for Understanding when we read.  We are also exploring folktales and learning about character traits.  Students will be making their own webs with partners about the characters in their own books.  We will then move on to fable and explore their characteristics.

Writer’s Workshop–We are working on a descriptive piece about your child’s favorite place.  Students should be including lots of descriptive language.  We first explored the mentor text Saturdays and Teacakes for inspiration and example of good writing.

Math–Tonight a Unit One pretest will be coming home that we will use as a study guide.  Students worked on time, elapsed time, bar graphs and pictographs.  Students even collected their own data and made a bar graph!  We are moving on to addition of multi-digit numbers.

Social Studies–Our first unit is Geography.  We are learning about Michigan’s relative location using a compass rose, as well as what region to which our community belongs.  This week we will be exploring the natural characteristics of Michigan such as landforms, water and natural resources.  We will be making flipbooks!

The students are enjoying Michigan Made as well!  We sampled Hudsonville ice cream this past week!  Delicious!

If you and your child see something that he/she would like to sample and would like to donate, it would be great!  The two third grade classes work together on this, so let me know if you would like to donate an item for one of the Fridays.

Have a sunny week!