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

Dec 4th Week of December 4-8

Reminder:

Talent show tryouts today after school are cancelled!

Friday–Lock-In 5-8 p.m.

Math Tests for Unit 4 are coming home tomorrow.  I know that students have been waiting, but I have make-ups that needed to be done before I send them home.  Thank you for your patience!

This week we are learning:

Spelling–Our focus this week are or and ar words.  Our content words are theme, introduction and inform.  Word of the week is disburse.

Daily5/CAFE–This week we are finishing our practice with point of view and will move on to identifying and describing the theme in different books we are reading.  We will then compare and contrast based on the themes.

Writer’s Workshop–Students are developing an opinion piece based on a holiday topic.  We sorted evidence cards to determine what side of the issue they supported and completed our organizer.  We will begin our first drafts.

Math–We have moved on to Unit 4 which is working with decimals.  We will be writing and reading them, converting to fractions, as well as comparing and ordering them.  It would be helpful if your child practices at home.  We also equate the decimals to money.

Science–We are continuing our study of different forms of energy.  Students will be working on making, exploring and collecting evidence with their marble coasters.  Make sure to ask them about the stored, potential energy and how it is stored as height.  They should also be able to explain the transfer of the energy as it relates to the marbles representing coasters.  Good Stuff!!

Have a wonderful week!

Nov 18th Week of November 20-24

Reminder:

No school Wednesday, Thursday, Friday!

We are learning:

Daily 5/Cafe–Students are working on point of view using different versions of The Three Little Pigs.  We compared and contrasted the point of view of both and are now using Claim, Evidence, Reasoning to write a paragraph about whether we believe the pigs or the wolf.  Team Wolf or Team Pigs!

Writer’s Workshop–Students are finishing up their “Turkey” narratives.  Their turkeys turned out so cute and we are excited to share both the turkey and the story.  Students were required to write 3 well developed paragraphs for their narratives.

Math–We are finishing up Unit 3 with identifying in problem solving when to multiply and when to divide.  We will also be solving various number stories.  After that, we will start our study guide and will finish reviewing after Thanksgiving.  Most likely a test will be given the Thursday or Friday we get back to school.

Science–Our focus is Energy!  Students learned about different forms of stored energy and we made our Rubber Band Rollers.  The students made a claim and collected their evidence.  They had a great time.  We recorded our observations and will talk/write about results.

No Spelling unit this week because of the short week!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends!  I know this year I am thankful for many things, including your children that I get to teach and enjoy everyday!  Their enthusiasm and kindness is so amazing and I look forward to watching them learn and grow.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Nov 18th Food Drive!

I mistakenly thought the drive ended Monday and told the kids to bring more cans, but it ended Friday!

Thank you so much to all those who donated!  Our class ended up with over 400 items!

A special thanks to Avery, his father and grandfather for their very large donation.  We will help a lot of families!

Nov 16th Seussical!

What a great trip to the Seussical play!  The students really enjoyed it!

A big thank you to the PTA for providing the bus for the trip!  We are so lucky to have them!

Nov 1st Candy for the Troops

Nov 1st Field Trip tomorrow!

Tomorrow is our field trip to Cranbrook!

Students need to bring a bag lunch with a drink (No glass bottles, please).  Wear comfortable shoes!

Parent Drivers–Please make sure you check in at the office, so Ms. Cathy has your information on file.  It needs to be updated each year!

Thank you!

Oct 26th Halloween

Oct 26th Halloween Candy for the Troops

Again this Halloween, we will continue our tradition of taking all extra candy to donate to the troops overseas.  Please send any extra or unwanted candy to DuVall with your child by Friday, November 3.  We will pack it up and send it off.  Thanks in advance and let’s see if we can beat our amount from last year! 🙂

Oct 24th Halloween Dance

Correction!  The dance is 5:30-8:00.  I think I posted the time incorrectly on previous post.

Oct 23rd Week of October 23rd-27th

Reminders:

Monday–Cipriano Meet starting at 4 p.m.

Thursday–Girl Scout Meeting DuVall Cafeteria 6 p.m.

Friday–Halloween Dance 5-8 p.m.

Permission slips and money due for Cranbrook Field trip on Friday

We are learning:

Spelling–Our focus this week is the ch, tch pattern.  We are making connections with other words with the same pattern.

Daily 5/CAFE–We are working on informational text with a focus on text features.  We are also working on the strategy of Main Idea and details.  After practicing this strategy, we will write summaries using the main idea and details.

Writer’s Workshop–We shared our Mystery narratives while listening to spooky sounds.  We are now moving on to opinion writing, by using information to determine both sides of an issue.  We will write a piece together, by going through the steps of opinion writing.

Math–We will be finishing up Unit 2 with a test most likely on Thursday.  Look for the study guide.  The focus is on larger numbers in different forms, line plots with landmarks and creating a line plot using measurement.  Many students need review at home on measuring to the nearest 1/4 of an inch.  We will be reviewing most of the week.

Social Studies–We have been collecting information on every region and have placed it in our foldable.  The last part of this unit will be comparing/contrasting the different regions.

Have a warm week!