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

Mar 21st Week of March 20-24

Sorry for the late post!

Reminders for this week:

Wednesday–Recycling Assembly

Thursday–Literacy Night 5:00-6:30  and Unit 6 Math Test

Pennies for Pasta collection has begun!

We are learning:

Spelling–Our focus this week is prefixes.  We are learning the meaning of prefixes and identifying root/base words.  Please be sure to practice a little each night.  The words are getting a little harder, so they made need extra practice.

Daily5/CAFE–We are revisiting our individual Learning Plan goals and revising them.  Students are showing great growth.  We are working to improve even more as we work on our reading and writing strategies.  Our strategy focus this week is compare/contrast.  We will be using characters in our books, as well as compare/contrast with different books.

Writer’s Workshop–We are finishing up our public discourse paragraphs this week on the wind turbines in the Great Lakes.  The students are learning a lot about both sides of this issue.  We will be using our research to support our opinion in paragraphs.

Math–We have had lots of fun with Geometry!  We have also been working on some real world multiplication/division number stories using various strategies to solve them.   Unit 6 Math test will be Thursday.  A study guide will be coming home as well.

Science–We took our Sound test and they will be coming home at the end of the week.  We had a few students absent, so there are some makeups.

Social Studies–We are beginning our unit on Government.

Have a great week!  Spring is supposed to be here!

Mar 15th Math FYI!

Your child is bringing home their 3 dimensional solids we made today out of marshmallows and toothpicks (tons of fun)!  I told them about an activity they could do at home with dish soap and water and their shapes.  I thought about it and the marshmallows might not work and you may have to make the vertices out of small bits of clay.  The clay will work better than the marshmallows.  Just wanted to let you know in case your child wanted to try it at home!

Crazy Hair Day tomorrow!

Mar 13th Week of March 13th-17th

Reminders for the week:

Tuesday–PTA meeting cancelled

Wednesday–Late start, Recycle Assembly

Thursday–Parent Talk classes

Science Sound test on Thursday (students will have their folders and a review page coming home tomorrow).

We are learning:

Spelling–Our focus this week is scr,  str, thr, spr pattern.  We will be sorting and making connections with these spelling patterns.

Daily 5/Cafe–We have begun our book talks!  Students are going to be sharing books they have read and enjoyed.  This is a good way to get other students reading a variety of books.  I will be making a calendar so every student will have an opportunity to share a book they are reading.  Maya was the first student to share and did an awesome job!  Be sure to ask your child about their book talk as well as the others that have been shared.

We are also working on summarizing text.

Writer’s Workshop–We are continuing our work on Public discourse with an issue in Michigan.

Math–We have finished our study of 2-dimensional figures and are now moving on the 3-dimensional solids.  We will be doing various fun activities to explore properties of these solids.  We will make them and look for examples in our everyday life.  We will finish up this unit with some practice with multiplication and division number stories.

Science–We are finishing up our unit on Sound and will have a test on Thursday.  Students will bring home their folder and review page.

Have a warm week!!

Feb 27th Week of February 27-March 3

Welcome Back!! I hope everyone enjoyed time with family!  I enjoyed my family time, but was excited to see all the kids this morning!

This Week:

March Is Reading Month kickoff assembly—Wednesday, March 1st

We are learning:

Spelling–This week we are focusing on tch and ch words and will continue to make connections with this spelling sound and pattern.

Daily5/CAFE–Students are reading biographies and are enjoying learning about different people through this genre.  Currently they are making posters about their person by focusing on main ideas and details about the person’s life.

Writer’s Workshop–We are continuing to focus on public discourse issues related to Michigan.  We are researching wind turbines in the Great Lakes by looking at both sides of the issue.  We will then write a paper about this issue by stating our own opinion and using reasons to support.

Math–We are continuing our work with Geometry.  Students are completing a flipbook with all the new terms, definitions and illustrations.  We will be working with triangles and quadrangles this week.

Science–Students did very well on their Light Assessments.  They will be coming home this week.  We are now moving on to sound.  We are writing it in our planner, but please send in a shoebox lid (any size) with your child for an activity we will be doing.  If you have extra, it would be great if you could send them in as well.

Have a great week!

Feb 16th (No Title)

Just a reminder:

We have been taking our timed multiplication tests on a regular basis!  Many of the students are up to their nines!  Please make sure you are practicing with your child.  Short, frequent sessions work best.  We are then going to move on to the division facts!

Life is a lot easier if your child knows them!!

Also–Science test (Light tomorrow).  You should have seen your child’s Light folder come home yesterday with a study guide.   Please practice this information with your child.  All of the students have been doing quite well with the information.

Feb 14th Happy Valentine’s Day!!

We will be celebrating at 2:00.

Feb 14th Fundraiser

We will be having a fundraiser for our Inland Seas field trip on Valentine’s Day (tomorrow).  Both Brera and Yogurtopia (They are next to each other) will give a portion of their proceeds for the day back to us.  Brera is giving 15% back (Pizzas 5.99-9.99) while Yogurtopia is giving 50%, just mention DuVall when you make your purchase.  Dinner and a dessert treat for your loved ones 🙂  sounds terrific, right?    Please tell your family and friends!  Feel free to let them know we really appreciate them too!

Feb 6th Week of February 6-10

Reminders for this week:

Valentine’s Day is Coming!

The students will be able to pass out Valentines to their classmates.  If they wish to do so, they will need to fill out one for each student in the class (Mrs. Alabakoff likes Valentines too!).  I am sending home a class list of names if your child wants to personalize the Valentine cards.  It is not required and can just sign their own name.

We are learning:

Spelling–This week’s focus is homophones (words that sound the same, have different spelling and meaning).  Practice how to spell them, but also the meaning of each and how to tell the difference.  I will be giving a sentence with each word and students will have to identify the correct word out of the pair.

Daily5/Cafe–We are working on informational text and main idea with details.  Students have been using graphic organizers to practice this strategy.  They are also working on their own books as well.

Writer’s Workshop–We have just begun our research for our public discourse issue.  We have selected issues that are important to Michigan!  Students will research and use that information to write an opinion letter.  They are already learning a lot about and are quite excited!

Social Studies–We finished our study of Michigan history up to statehood.  The students did a great job and had a lot of fun learning.  They were very motivated.  I will be sending home the assessment I did with them later in the week.

Science–We have begun our unit on Light and Sound.  Students learned about different types of energy and completed a graphic organizer with examples.  They also created superheroes that use different types of energy.  We will be studying different types of materials light travels through and creating designs with these materials.  Students will also be learning about reflection and refraction with various activities.

Math–Our focus is fractions and decimals this week.   Students will be using models to represent both.   We are also still working on multiplication and division.

Have a sunny week!

Jan 24th Week of January 23-27

This Week:

Math–Math tests are coming home today!  The students did great!  Please continue practicing perimeter and area and multiplication facts!

We are starting on the next unit which is place value.  Coming home today is a short quiz I did with each individual student to assess what they know about reading large numbers.  Please take the time to review this with your child and practice at home.  Some students were able to read larger numbers than to the ten thousands place, and I noted this on the bottom.  I will be differentiating for these students as well by giving them larger number activities.  Tonight’s homework only goes up to the ten thousands, but students need practice differentiating between the place of a digit and it’s value.  It would be helpful to reinforce this at home.

We are also continuing our facts tests for our ice cream toppings.  Please practice these at home.

Spelling–Our focus this week is the oi and oy spelling patterns.  Students need to focus on both the pattern and sound.

Daily5/Cafe–We are working on main idea and details with nonfiction.  Students are also practicing strategies in their own individual books.

Writer’s Workshop–We are finishing up with our “Duck on a Bike” stories where we learned about organization of our writing.  We also added quotations into this writing with the proper punctuation.

Social Studies–We should finish up with our Michigan history unit by the end of the week.  The students have been very excited to learn about the history.  We will be learning how Michigan became a state this week!  Ask your child to tell you about how Michigan became a state!

Have a great week!

Jan 20th (No Title)

DuVall Families,

With several different school fundraisers held in November and December along with holiday shopping, many families have given generously to our school, family, and friends.  As a way to take a break from some of these expenses for good causes, the Yogurtopia Fundraiser for the 5^th grade field trip will be postponed.  Information about a future fundraiser to help reduce the cost of the 5^th grade field trip will be shared at a later time.  Thank you to all our school families and staff who continue to help make excellent learning opportunities happen for our students.