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

Oct 19th Halloween Celebration!

I was having trouble with my blog, but I think I have solved the problem.

Our Halloween Celebration this year will be a breakfast!  It is a favorite of the students (and mine)!  It will also work out because the whole school parade will be at 2:00.

Mrs. Pinch created a signup genius:

Oct 9th Week of October 9th-October 13th

Reminders for the week:

Monday:

Red Wing Assembly–The organization is sending home folders with materials.  Please be sure to check it out!

DTE Assembly — Students are going to be bringing home a worksheet to complete and return.  Please fill out and return the form because we receive money for our classroom if they are returned!

Tuesday:

PTA Meeting — 7 p.m.

Friday:

11:45 Dismissal

This week we are learning:

Spelling–Because of our busy week and half day, there will not be a unit this week.  We will be reviewing some of our words of the week and content words for our strategy “Expanding Vocabulary.”

Daily 5/Cafe–We are continuing our work with our literature circle books.  We should be finishing those up this week.  We will then move to informational reading and will work on main idea and details.

Writer’s Workshop–Students are enjoying their narrative mystery stories.  We have been brainstorming good beginnings and are also choosing traits for our characters.   We will then work through the writing process with the help of peers and teacher.

Math–We have finished up practicing with our larger numbers.  Some students need some review at home, so please practicing reading and writing large numbers in different forms (expanded, standard and words).   Students who mastered this content made even larger numbers by adding places, and also worked on enrichment activities.   We will move on to collecting, organizing and presenting data.  Students will explore different types of graphs.

Social Studies–Students are working on their lapbooks that will explore the regions of the United States.  This week we will make foldables that describe the various regions.  On Friday, we will have a short quiz on the identification of the regions.  All of this will lead up to students choosing a region to present using a brochure or poster.

Have a great week!

Sep 26th Week of September 25th-29th

Sorry for the late post!  It must be the heat!

THANK YOU SO MUCH TO MRS. SULLIVAN FOR THE POPSICLES AND TO MRS. SAYLOR FOR THE COOLER OF WATER!!  Both really helped!

Reminders:  Math test will be on Thursday.  I postponed because we will be reviewing the next couple days.  Study guide will be coming home tonight.

This week we are learning:

Spelling—Be sure to study words each night.  The extra content words and word of the week are a little more tricky, so practice should be done each night.  Students also need to know the meaning of the word of the week.  Our focus is also long e words and their spelling patterns ee, ea, ie.

Daily5/CAFE–Students will be working on their literature circle books and will be assigned roles for each part.  We will be working on different strategies in our books at individual levels.

Writer’s Workshop–We are working on our mystery stories.  We have created a plan about a time we lost something or something was missing.  Students are allowed to use real or imagined scenarios.  We completed a plan and will work on drafts this week.

Math–Unit 1 Test on Thursday.  Study guide will come home today.

Social Studies–We finished our large posters of the physical characteristics of the U.S.  We will move on to human characteristics this week by connecting to the physical.  We will also research a human characteristic of the U.S. and then write informational pieces.

Have a great week!!

Sep 19th Week of September 18th-22nd

Reminders:

Thursday, September 21st Peace Day Assembly—Wear your pink shirts!

This Week We Are Learning:

Spelling–Our focus this week are long a words.  We are sorting them into their patterns:  silent e at the end, ay, ai and ea and transferring this to our reading and writing.  Our vocabulary words are evidence, phrase, paragraph and Word of the Week is jubilant.  It would be helpful if you could use these words at home to reinforce what we are working on in class.

Daily5/Cafe–Students are practicing problem/solution with individual books.  They are also telling about what the characters did to solve the problem.  We will be also starting our literature circles sometime this week after books and materials are passed out.

Writer’s Workshop–We will be working on a short narrative before moving on to our informational piece which will overlap with Social Studies content.

Math–We are continuing our study of geometry with the last part being polygons and their characteristics.  We are also reviewing addition and subtraction of multi-digit numbers.  Many of the students need a refresher on subtraction, so I will be sending some notes home for extra practice.  We will most likely be having a test at the end of this week or beginning of next.

Social Studies–Our focus is absolute and relative location of places.  Students are currently working on locating states in the United States as they relate to other places.  We will then work a little with longitude and latitude and move on to physical characteristics of the U.S.

Have a great week!

Sep 18th Camp

Mrs. Ranka had a brief camp meeting to just review the basic information and answer any questions.  Students will be bringing home a permission slip today.  Deposit is due by this week Thursday if your child is attending.  If you would like to send your child but need extra time for deposit, shoot me an email and I will forward to Mrs. Courtright.

Also, we have letters asking for a donation to lower our cost.  If you know of a business or person who would be able to donate, please let me know and I’ll get the letter to you.  Any amount helps.

Sep 11th Camp Meeting

Open House is this week on Thursday from 6-7:30.  There will be a camp meeting 4th grade parents in room 201 at 6:45.  Mrs. Ranka will be giving a basic overview of camp and answering any questions during that time.  She will also be giving important dates and deposit information to hold your child’s spot.  She will take a $100 nonrefundable deposit at Open House if you’d like to give it right away-cash or check made to DuVall Elementary.  If you can’t attend meeting, we will send home a sheet with basic information.  Here is a  link you can look at to check it out, click on outdoor education on the arrows.   https://www.wolverinecamps.com/

Sep 11th Week of September 11th-15th

Welcome Back to School!!  I am so happy to have many of the same students in my classroom, as well as many new students as well!  So far we are off to a great start!

Reminders for the week:

Open House–Thursday 6:00-7:30  Hope to see you there!!

We will be starting some of the NWEA testing this week.

We are learning:

Spelling–This year for spelling we will be having spelling words that contain a certain spelling pattern (like last year), but we will also have a few words that we are adding to help improve our vocabulary skills.  We will discuss what the words mean and how they are used, so it is important for your child to know the meaning as well as the spelling.

We will also be doing “Word of the Week.”  Our word this week is duration.  We discussed the meaning and used it in a sentence.  I am looking for students to use this word in their writing and speaking.

Writer’s Workshop–We will begin writing a narrative paragraph about ourselves.  Students will use the writing process do complete this piece.

Daily5/Cafe–Our focus this week is Problem and Solution.   Students will be identify the problem in various genres and will describe the events that led up to the solution.  We are also reviewing some of the CAFE strategies as well.

Social Studies–We will be studying the United States this year, so we are beginning with it’s location within the world–hemisphere, continent etc.  We will be using the compass rose to determine relative location.

Have a sunny week!

May 19th Friday!!

Great Big Thank You!!

Thank you to everyone who helped with the Veterans Fruit Trays.  The students helped sooooo much by decorating trays, wrapping fruit and loading fruit trays yesterday and today.  It is such an amazing thing to experience!

Also, thanks to all the parents for sending in the donations for the Plant Salad Party!  The students loved it!  They ate quite a bit of salad and most went back for seconds!  Everyone tried at least one new thing and then we reported out.  Many of them found something new they liked, other things were “just ok.”

We could not have done it without you!

May 17th Game Day

I forgot to remind the kids to bring board games tomorrow for “G” Day.  Hopefully many of you will receive this tonight!

Apr 25th Week of April 24-28

Sorry for the late post!

Also, just to let you know, we had some make ups for the Math Test, so they will be coming home on Wednesday.

A huge thank you to Mrs. Lackey and Mrs. Malmsten for popping popcorn last week!  It is greatly appreciated!!

Reminder:

Grades 3-5 Concert tonight at 6:00.

Field Trip coming up on Monday, May 1st to Oakwoods Metropark.  Students will be bringing a bag lunch with a drink.  I will be sending home a note as the trip comes closer.

We are learning:

Spelling–Our focus this week is adding the endings es, ed and ing to words.  Students are working on various word work activities with their words.

Daily 5/Cafe–We will be finishing up our Literature Circle books and work on various strategies with those books.  Students are also working on sequencing events in a story they read with a partner.  Hopefully we will be able to have our breakfast book club this week or next.

Writer’s Workshop–Students have been doing some brainstorming about their favorite food.  We are working on using powerful language with adjectives and verbs.

Math–We have started the unit on Fractions.  Students are learning about different ways to represent fractions, including on a number line.  We will be doing various activities using models of fractions.  We will then move on to finding equivalent fractions.

Science–We will be finishing our Plant unit and will end with our Plant Salad Party (details to follow).  The test will be this week and I will be sending home a note about studying as well as the lapbook we made.

Social Studies–We are continuing to work on government by identifying the three branches and their role in the government.

Have a great week!!