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

May 11th (No Title)

Thank you once again to Mrs. Noone and Mr. Buck for popping popcorn on last Friday!  You are awesome!!

May 10th Week of May 9th-13th

Sorry for the late post–trying to complete all these assessments!

Students have been troopers taking their time with the NWEA tests.  We finished the last one today!  There are a few students that need to do makeups, but other than that, we are finished!

I hope everyone enjoyed a fun Mother’s day.  I also hope you were impressed with your child’s Mother’s Day book.  They all worked hard and all the sentiments came from their heart.  I was tearing up as I read them.  Their voices really came out!

Reminders for the week:

Wednesday–Buffalo Wild Wing fundraiser–Be sure to take your sheet so DuVall can get credit.  Tell your friends!

Friday–Book Bingo

We are learning:

Spelling–We are continuing with our words from last week because of all the testing.  We will be reviewing and doing more practice with the air words.  We are also making connections with other words that have the same pattern.

Daily5/CAFE–The last couple weeks have been busy with M-Step and NWEA so I haven’t been able to conference with students as much.  I will be meeting with students and discussing strategies they are working on in their books.  We are also working on comparing and contrasting with our animal topic from Science

Writer’s Workshop–This week and next we will be focusing on organizing our ideas and using more voice in our writing.

Science–We are finishing up our unit on Animals and will have an assessment soon.  I will be reviewing this week.

Social Studies–Students are continuing to focus on Manufacturing in Michigan and how we used different resources to manufacture products that contributed to the growth of Michigan.

Math–We are reviewing our Geometry and will have the assessment at the end of the week.

Enjoy your week!

May 5th Testing! Testing!

Just to let you know, the students have been champs with all the assessments!  No matter what the results,  they are working very hard and taking their time.

You probably noticed in the planner that I have postponed the Math test.  We have many required assessments, so I do not want to overwhelm the students.  I will let you know when I reschedule the test for Math.

May 2nd Week of May 2nd-6th

Reminders for the Week:

M-Step Testing–Tuesday and Wednesday.  Get plenty of rest and eat a healthy breakfast!

Tuesday–Parent Talk classes 6-7:30

Wednesday–Art Studio Movie  Night 6-7

Friday–Mother/Son Hoe Down

Dear Parents,

This Week:

Spelling–Our focus this week is the air and ore spelling pattern.  Students need to work on making connections with other words that have the sound and pattern.

Daily5/Cafe–We are still working on Main Idea and Details with informational text.  We are integrating our Science and Social Studies into the Cafe as well.  We will also work on Cause/Effect using our information about Growth in Michigan.

Writer’s Workshop–We took a break from our public discourse to do a fun short diamante poem about animals, which goes along with our Science Unit.   Students are doing a fantastic job.

We will also have to work on the district writing prompt this week as well.  Lots to do!!

Science–Students are having fun with our study of animal life.  We are making a lapbook about the different classes of animals.  We are looking at body structures that help animals survive in their environment.

THANKS AGAIN FOR ALL THE PLANT DONATIONS FOR OUR SALAD PARTY!!  THE STUDENTS LOVED IT AND EVEN TRIED SOME NEW THINGS!  WE COULD NOT HAVE DONE IT WITHOUT YOU!

Social Studies–We are continuing our study of growth in Michigan.  We are learning about different things manufactured in Michigan and the effect on Michigan’s economy.

Math–We are reviewing our Geometry and will have a short assessment on Wednesday.

Have a wonderful week!

Apr 29th Plant Salad Celebration

Thank you , thank you to everyone who donated to the Plant Salad Celebration.   The students are very excited!  We are looking forward to trying all the roots, stems, leaves, flowers and seeds!  We could not do it without you!

Apr 25th Week of April 24th-29th

Reminders for this week:

MStep Testing begins tomorrow!  Please make sure your child gets plenty of rest and eats a healthy breakfast.  Try to calm any nerves by  reminding them to just do their best.  Work for the next couple of weeks will be light because they will be working hard on these tests!

Tuesday–Parent Talk classes at 6 p.m.

Wednesday–Blood Drive

Friday–Plant Salad Party

Thank you in advance for your participation in the Plant Salad party.  This is a fun way to end our unit on plants!  Please let me know if you are unable to bring the item and we will work it out!

Another big thank you to Mrs. Noone and Mr. Buck for popping popcorn for us!  We appreciate it soo00 much.  I know what a big job it is to pop popcorn!

This week:

Spelling–Our focus this week is ere and ier.  We are working on transferring these patterns to our writing.

Daily5/CAFE—This week we continue to work on main ideas and details, compare and contrast with informational text.

Writer’s Workshop–We are finishing up with a quick write where students are using powerful language to write a descriptive piece about a fictional room.  Our inspiration was the book “The Flying Dragon Room.”  Ask your child to tell you about it!

Math–We have been jumping around a bit!  We are continuing to work on multiplication facts.  It is very important students continue to practice these at home.  We have also started multiplying larger numbers.  Some students are quite good at it and I will be extending their learning.  They are finding out how important the basic facts are though!

We are then moving back to a little Geometry by exploring 3 dimensional shapes.

Science–We finished our study of plants and have started on animals.  Students are learning how to classify animals based on observable characteristics.

Social Studies–We are continuing with the Growth of Michigan by looking at causes and effects of early manufacturing in Michigan.

Have a sunny week!

Apr 11th Week of April 11th-15th

Reminders for this week:

Thursday–Fun Run 2pm

Friday–Lock-In  If your child is attending, please return the permission slip with money

We are learning:

Spelling–Our focus this week is are words.  Students will be completing various word work activities and will be making connections.

Daily 5/CAFE–Lots going on!! The students are working on their various book club projects.  They have chosen some great things to present the books they have read.  We are working on the R.A.N. Strategy for our non-fiction reading.  Students will also continue to work on main ideas and details.  If time allows, we will move on to cause and effect.

Writer’s Workshop–Students have completed their plan for our public discourse writing.  They are stating their opinion, using 3 reasons and connecting their opinion to a core value.  We will be writing our 1st drafts and will then edit and revise.

Math–We are focusing this week on dividing shapes into parts with equal areas.  This will then lead into our study of fractions.

Social Studies–This week will will analyze photographs and describe how logging and mining contributed to Michigan’s economy.

Science–Students are learning all about plants!  We are making lapbooks for each part of our study of plants.

Thanks again for all the Michigan Made donations!!  The students love this!

Have a good week!

Apr 5th Week of April 4th-8th

Welcome Back!  I hope everyone had a restful break!  It sounds like the kids enjoyed a lot of fun activities with family.

Reminders for the week:

Popcorn on Friday–We are in need of popcorn poppers!  Please let me know if you can pop for us on Friday!

Assembly on Wednesday–Recycling

Fun Run on Friday afternoon

Martian Marathon on Saturday

We are learning:

Spelling–We are continuing our work on homophones.  Students will be tested on the words on Friday

Daily 5/Cafe–We have a lot going on!  We are working on Comparing/Contrasting using main ideas and details.  We are also integrating Social Studies into the Daily 5 by using organizers to analyze photographs and for stating viewpoints with reasons and details.  Students are also using the R.A.N. strategy (Reading to Analyze Non-Fiction).

Writer’s Workshop–We will be taking our viewpoints and reasons with details and will write a public discourse paper on Windmills in the Great Lakes.  Students are using their researched information.

Math–Our focus is Geometry and currently we are comparing and contrasting polygons by using our math vocabulary.

Social Studies–We are working on growth in Michigan and are using primary sources for information.

Science–We have started our study of plants.  Students are learning this week how to classify plants based on observable characteristics.  Students should be looking for different types of roots, stems, leaves and flowers.  They can bring in examples if they choose.

Have a sunny week!

Apr 4th Popcorn Poppers Needed!

This Friday is our turn for popcorn!  We are in need of 2 people to help pop popcorn.  If you are available, please let me know!

Thanks in advance!

Mar 21st Week of March 21-25

Spring is Here!……well, maybe the temperature is not springlike, but at least we are getting closer to warmer temps!  Please make sure your child dresses for the weather.  It is still chilly in the morning.

Reminders for the week:

Tuesday–PTA meeting

Wednesday–conferences for those scheduled

Friday–No School–beginning of Spring Break

This week we are learning:

Spelling–We are continuing our study of homophones.  The students are doing a great job with these.  Since it is a short week, we will be working with these words when we come back from break as well.  No test this week!

Daily 5/Cafe–This week we are continuing to work on Author’s Purpose.  We will also be using main ideas/details to summarize informational text.  Students also have been working on their book club books and we will most likely start our projects to present the books this week.

Writer’s Workshop–We are integrating our Social Studies into writing by starting on a public discourse paper.  Students are researching about wind turbines in the Great Lakes.  This will take us a couple of weeks.  Students will be stating their opinion and will be using reasons from their research along with details.

Social Studies–We are discussing growth in Michigan after statehood.  Students have been doing a great job analyzing photographs from the 1800’s to determine what life was like.

Science–We finished our unit on Forces and Motion and we now finish out the year with plants and animals.  We will just begin this week and will continue after the break!

Have a great week and an even better Spring Break!