Hello everyone!

We sure woke up to a blast of winter this morning! I hope everyone had a nice weekend. We have a busy few weeks coming up. We are starting our NWEA testing today throughout the building. This is going to bump our schedule around a bit. Here is what we are covering this week:

Spelling: This week we are looking at the vowel digraph ‘oo’. Our spelling words are hooligan, pontoon, doorknob, moodiest, snoozes, rotation, revolution, gravitational, government, indentured.

Math: Today we have our math NWEA test and we will be continuing on working on adding and subtracting fractions.

Science: We are going to be learning about the seasons and why we have low and high tides.

Writer’s Workshop: Students are working on their first drafts and revising and editing of their graphic novels. They are really excited about these and I look forward to reading them.

Daily 5: This week we are working on the book Hatchet by Gary Paulsen and we will continue looking at character traits.

Our next NWEA test is on Wednesday.

Have a great week!

Hello Everyone,

I hope everyone enjoyed the break. I really enjoyed the time with my friends and family. I am very eager to get back into our routine. We will be diving right into our work with the following subjects:

Spelling: Our spelling pattern is looking at the ending sounds in words. The words for the week are cruel, quarrel, apparel, pretzel, tranquil, decimal, dividend, divisor, denominator, numerator

Writing-Students are planning and will begin writing their own graphic novels/comic strips.

Science-Students are focusing on revolution vs. rotation and will starting the phases of the mooon.

Math-Students are starting Unit 5- Adding and subtracting fractions.

Reading-Students will be getting a new book club book for the class and we will be looking at character traits and theme

Have a great week!

Hello everyone,

I hope everyone has had a wonderful break and time with your friends and families. We will be jumping right back into our regular routine on Monday. I have started using a new method of practicing our spelling words and our content words. The students have the opportunity to practice their weekly spelling words and patterns through online games. Spelling City is a website that I will be adding our words to and the website will customize games and practice tests for the students to use throughout the week. Added practice of their spelling words, vocabulary words and content words will help increase their reading and writing scores. I highly encourage extra practice each week of the words. The students are familiar with using Google Classroom and the lists will be posted on there with a link to the practice. Students can also access the link to spelling city on the blog and search for whichever list they want to practice. I will be working on going back and adding our previous lists to the website so students can continue to practice words that are from the past weeks. Enjoy your last day and I will see the students on Monday.

Click Here For Spelling City

Mr. Hawkins

Good morning!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. This is our last weekend before the Holiday break. Our holiday party is Friday and we are still in need of many things to be donated so if you wish to send in something, please check out the last post and comment with what you would like to bring. We also have the book exchange going on and the books need to be sent in before Wed. This week we are covering many things.

Spelling: article, vehicle, ample, whistle, missile
content words-seasons, axis, orbit, comet, constellation

Math: We are continuing our division and decimal unit and will be taking a test on Thursday.

Writing: We are working on finishing our Winter pieces and we are starting our graphic novel unit.

Science: Students are publishing their planet books and they will be sharing them with 2nd and 3rd graders. We will begin talking about revolution vs. rotation

Reading: Students are getting new book club books and we are continuing to work on standard prefixes. We will begin looking at Greek prefixes toward the end of the week.

Social Studies: Students are working on their partner projects

Friday is our Holiday STEM day, book exchange and holiday party. We also have a fun writing assembly on Tuesday and holiday caroling on Wednesday. I hope everyone has a great week.

Good morning,

Our class is shopping at the school  Santa Shop on Thursday.

For our holiday party this year, we are going to be doing a few different things. We will looking at different holidays from around the world. If your family has something you do as part of your culture, and your student would like to share it with the class, please have them let me know and we can set that up. We will be doing a full set of candy caned based math, science and language art lessons throughout the day. We will be ending the day with a book swap, video and hot chocolate drink station.

For the book swap, please have your student bring in two gently used chapter books, that your family has already read. These books will be given to other students in the class as a trade, and you will not be getting them back. Your student will be coming home with a different gently used book of their choice. The reason we are asking for two books is to make sure that if some students are unable to bring any books, that we have enough to trade. If your student can bring one, that is will still work. Any extra books after the students have picked, will be added to classroom library for student use during Daily 5. Please have these books brought into the classroom by Wed, December 16!

For the candy cane activities and the hot chocolate station we need the following items to be donated to the room. These all need to be turned in by Wed Dec., 16th as well.

3 packs of cups-at least one foam pack for hot chocolate

2 boxes of plastic spoons

1 Large carton of heavy whipping cream

3 cans of sweetened condensed milk

2 bags of semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 can of unsweetened cocoa powder

2 gallons of whole milk kept cold

1 bottle of vanilla extract

1 bag mini marshmallow

1 bag of crusted candy canes

1 bag of Hershey kisses or similar chocolate

2 cans of whipped cream

1 bottle of vegetable oil

1 bottle of vinegar

2 bottles of hydrogen peroxide

40 candy canes.

Please comment on this post with the items you are planning to send in. You can check the comments to see what has already been pledged. Have a great week!

Good morning everyone! I hope everyone had a great weekend. This week we are following our regular schedule. We still have our coin war going on throughout the building which is raising money for the Leukemia Foundation. Notes will be coming home this week for our Holiday Celebration.

This week we will be covering:

Spelling- We are covering closed syllables with the VC/CV spelling pattern. our words are intersection, excessive, obvious, disgusting, sluggish and planetary, obtuse, quadrangle, tessellation, scalene

Math-We are continuing to work on our division and decimal unit. Students are still increasing their number fluency by learning to do inverse operations to solve and check their work. For example, the students should be able to do a multiplication problem to check their answer to division problem. We will have their test next Thursday.

Science-Students are finishing the first drafts to the planet research projects and will be creating books for the 2nd and 3rd graders.

Daily 5- Students are continuing to work on their personal strategies and we are focusing on prefixes. Students should be able to break words with prefixes into the prefix and root word. They will be able to read determine meaning of unknown words.

Writing-Students are in the middle of writing a non-personal narrative about a major snow storm.

Have a great week!

Hello everyone,

I have had lots of questions about the Lansing field trip. Unfortunately if the permission slip and deposit were not turned in before the deadline, students will not be able to attend. The bus is filled to capacity and no other students are able to attend. The space was limited and time was sensitive because this is not a 5th Grade field trip normally. Ms. Rauch was allowing the interested students to go with the lower grades, but the bus has booked and there are no available spaces left. If you have sent in the deposit this week, it will be coming home with your student today.

If you wish to participate along with your student in their math workshop today, please come to the school just before 9:00 to hear a presentation about the workshop model and the Common Core.

Have a great Friday!

Hello Everyone,

I hope each of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We are starting off running here with lots of new things happening this week. We are starting a coin collection in the building to benefit the Leukemia Foundation. The class that collects the most money will win a pasta party from the Olive Garden.

Spelling-When a vowel is followed by a /r/, it effects the sound of the vowel. Example b/ir/d

Pattern Words: compartment, temperature, warrior, partnership, volunteer

Content words:difference, estimate, probability, relation, equilateral

Science: Students are going to be starting the first drafts of their planet books, using their research.

Writer’s Workshop: Students are starting new narrative pieces.

Math-We are starting unit 4 with a focus on division and place value. Students will be dividing whole numbers that are a four digit by a two digit.

We are finishing our book report movie poster presentations this week.

I hope everyone has a great week!

Hello Everyone! I hope each of you has had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends. It is going by quickly! I wanted to send a quick reminder that students have brought home their new reading log work and they should be completing it each day. We also encourage the students to practice Mobymax each day over break, if possible. It works on tablets and even smart phones. The students are doing well mastering objectives that they have missed in other grades and I would like to see their progress continue!

Secondly, for those of you who have heard of or participated in the events for Lexys Lamp from DuVall Elementary, I have some news on a pancake dinner to help her family during their time of need. Lexys was a 1st grade student at DuVall who was diagnosed with DIPG. She recently passed and to help assist her family with the mounting medical bills a pancake dinner will be held at DuVall on Wednesday, December 2nd from 5:30-7:30. If you are unable to attend the dinner but would like to support this local Dearborn Public Schools family, donations can be made at https://www.gofundme.com/LexysLamp

I hope you have a wonderful weekend and we will see you on Monday!

Mr. Hawkins

Thank you to everyone who has already sent in food, donated or pledged for our Thanksgiving dinner. You allow us to keep doing these activities in our classrooms and we are very thankful for each person involved in our rooms!

Yesterday a sheet came home about a math morning and some of the information was not updated. There is a new sheet coming home today in each classroom that has the correct information. Please ignore the first sheet.

Coming home today is also a field trip sheet for the Lansing trip. Due to the high level of interest, we are going to try to add some of our students to the field trip but we require a $20 deposit to be turned on Monday, November 30th. We have to reserve the space on a bus so no late deposits will be able to be accepted. Thanks for your help.

Have a great Thanksgiving!