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Hello everyone. I hope your week is starting off well. We have a busy week ahead of us.

Spelling- We are working on long and short /u/ sounds and content words from our literacy block. Our words are lunch, thump, bug, such, thunder, fiction, predict, characters, author and traits.

As part of our computer science unit, we are still working on coding. The students are working on understanding our new vocabulary word “algorithm.” We want them to understand that it is a series of steps done in a specific order over and order to accomplish a task. This ties into our new math unit as well.

Math-Students brought home their math tests from the elapsed time unit. Overall the students made some great progress from their pre-test but we will continue working on this skill all year. Telling time is often difficult for students and it gets harder as more analog clocks are replaced by digital clocks. This is a great skill to work on at home! We are starting our new unit which focuses on addition and subtraction of numbers under 100.

Science-Our forces and motion unit is running smoothly and we will be using sports outside to create force and motion drawings this week. Ask your students to draw a picture with force arrows and ask them what they stand for. It is a great review!

Reading- Students will be turning in their book bags on Wednesday unless they are in the middle of a chapter book and I will be getting them new books. They will be getting their bags back on Friday as the old books need to be returned and the new books checked out. If you have any books that are not in the bag at home, please make sure they are placed back in the bag by tomorrow.

Writing-We are working on the writing process with a focus on narratives.

Have a great week!

Hello everyone,

I apologize for the late weekly post. This week a fundraising packet came home to raise money for the entire building and through the P.T.O. This fundraiser and money need to be returned by 10-17 if you wish to participate.  Our week :

Spelling: We are working on long and short /e/ sounds. Our spelling words are each, meet, feet, met, best, motion, friction, force, magnet, and pulling.

Math-We are finishing unit 1 and students will have their test Thursday or Friday. They will be bringing home a study guide tomorrow. This test is on elapsed time and bar graphs. The students have been talking about practicing time at home which is wonderful!

Reading-We started our book clubs this week. Each student has been assigned a book they will be working through with their book group members. We will start changing strategies soon but to start of, all students are working on the strategy of “Check for Understanding.” They need to read a few pages and stop and answer “who- who the characters are” and “what-what happened on those pages.” If they can’t answer the questions, they need to back up and re-read the text. They will be recording their answers in their reading response journals. If you see lost Dojo points for being unprepared for book club, this means they are not completing their reading assignments.

Social Studies-We are focusing on different types of maps of Michigan. We are also looking at Michigan’s climate. Ask your students about lake effect precipitation!

Writing-We are working on the writing process and breaking it down into small chunks. They are working on a personal narrative.

Science-We are continuing forces and motion. We are also starting a new computer science challenge where the students will be learning to do computer programming and coding. This will be a very exciting launch for us and they will be working on it each week for the next few months.

Have a great week!

Good evening everyone! Our week is off to a good start. Today we had our PBIS kick off assembly to remind kids that they earn something special every month by earning positive Dojo points throughout the building. Our class did a skit showing the school what good sportsmanship looks like. They did a great job! Book orders for October and picture day packets came home today with the students. We are working really hard on having each student know their reading level and picking good fit books. We are starting our reading groups later in the week and we are continuing to get into our Daily 5 routine. The PTO generously donated a wonderful rug for our classroom that the students can use during Daily 5. If you get a chance, please stop by to see it after school and let the PTO know that we all appreciate it! Thank you to all of the members!

Here is our week:

Spelling: This week we are looking at long and short /o/ sounds. Our words are poke, below, lock, broke, spoke, Dearborn, Michigan, lakes, location and symbols. We are working on proper nouns so please remind the students that Michigan and Dearborn are proper nouns and must be capitalized.

Math: We are finishing our studies on telling time and will be moving into reading and creating bar graphs.

Writing: We are starting a district writing prompt that will have the students writing a narrative about “a really bad storm.” It would be great if you could brainstorm and discuss some of the storms your child has been in and some of  the things that happened. We will start it tomorrow and it will be finished by the end of the week.

Social Studies: We are looking at the physical features of Michigan this week and on Friday we will have our second Michigan Made Friday. Mrs. Clough is donating the Michigan Made snack this week and we are looking for a volunteer to donate for next week. Please send me a Dojo or comment on here if I can schedule you for the donation next week.

Science: Students are looking at different types of forces. We will be spending some time investigating magnetic force and we will be having balloon rocket races later in the week to study how the amount of air in a balloon changes the amount of motion in the balloons.

Daily 5: Students are working on picking out good-fit books. If you would like to know how to pick a good-fit book, open any book to a random page and have your student read aloud. If there are 5 or more words they do not know or read incorrectly, the book is too hard for them. We are working on the students being able to do this by themselves because it is a very important skill. All of the students want to get to reading big chapter books but if the aren’t at that level, it will hinder their reading growth. Students need to be reading 20 minutes from their book bags every night. If you can ask some of the questions that are on the sheet in their book bag, you will be helping them increase their comprehension skills. We are also working on the strategy “Check for Understanding.” Students need to be able to tell you the “who” and the “what” on each page or they are not comprehending and need to back up and reread. I appreciate all of your hard work at home continuing on working on their reading levels.

We will be previewing the book fair in the lobby this week and the students will have a chance to buy on a different day.

Have a great week!

Hello Everyone,

I hope everyone enjoyed the weekend. I am excited to get into our first full week of school! We are finished with NWEA testing and we will be starting to get into our normal weekly routines. We will start a new part of our social studies on Friday. The majority of our social studies this year is about Michigan. For this reason, each Friday during our social studies time we will be doing what I call “Michigan Made Fridays”. We will have an edible product that is produced or made in Michigan. Before the students get to try it, they will research the location and history of the company. They have a map they will record each company on and the historical details they find interesting. Students will have a few minutes to sample the product and then they will have to record sensory details about the item. They will record things like how it smells, how it tastes, how it sounds and others. It will tie in our social studies and our writing/reading into one lesson. This week I will be providing the Michigan Made item for each student but I am asking that if you would like to donate an item for a Friday, please let me know and I will schedule you. I will send home the Michigan Made bag early in the week with a list of items the students have already tried. I appreciate all offers to send the bag back with enough of the food/drink item for each student to have as a snack. Thank you in advance for helping with this project.

This week:

Spelling: Students will be studying words that have long and short /i/ sounds. Our pattern words are stick, pie, polite, spin, kick and our content words are number, count, chart, solve, estimate. As always the students will also be given 5 words they haven’t been given ahead of time on the day of the test. They can practice all of the words by visiting the link for Spelling City on the side of the blog. The students should know how to get to the website. For homework students should complete 3 different spelling menu items off of the menu and they should be all turned in together Friday morning.

Math: We are continuing to work on telling time and we will start looking at elapsed time. Students will be learning to think of the clock as a number line to help with elapsed time. You can help at home by asking students to use both digital and analog clocks to tell time for you.

Writing: We are finishing our first writing piece this week and students will begin writing narratives. We are continuing to work on using the writing process and students will be learning to hold writing conferences with myself and other students to get suggestions on their work.

Social Studies: We are working on using map skills and tools to describe how two areas of Michigan relate to each other. An example of this is saying that Traverse City is north-west of Detroit.

Science: Our unit on forces and motion continues as we start exploring magnets. Students are also working on the idea of what causes an object to move a greater distance. They looked at surfaces last week like ice, carpet and wood to explore movement. Ask them about their findings!

Daily 5: Students are going to be coming home with book bags this week of leveled books. Students need to read every night for 20 minutes, weekends included. We will start working in our book clubs and small groups. Students will each have a strategy they are focusing on to help improve their reading. I posted some information on reading at home on Class Dojo in the class feed.

Have a great week!

Good morning everyone,

I hope everyone enjoyed the day off yesterday. We are jumping right back into our routine this week. We have Open House on Thursday as well. Here are our objectives for the week:

Spelling: Students are looking at spelling words that have either a long or short /a/ sound. They also have 5 word from our content area. Our words are: hot,lane, trap, tape, ate, cane, genre, setting, theme, problem, and solution. Students need to only complete 2 activities off of the spelling menu this week. They need to be turned in on Friday.

Math: Students are taking their math NWEA tests. We will begin looking at our first unit which is telling elapsed time.

Science: Students are looking at the difference between a push and a pull. They will be bringing home a sheet to record force observations on.

Writer’s Workshop: We are working through the writing process as a refresher for the kids. They are writing letter’s to themselves that they will open at the end of the year. Our first unit will start soon and they will be writing a narrative.

Social Studies: Students are focusing working on reading maps.

Daily 5: Students will be taking their NWEA reading tests this week and they we will be DRA testing to get their current reading levels. Students will start working in their strategy groups during Daily 5 as soon as that is done. They need to be reading a minimum of 20 minutes every night. They do not need to record their reading.

Have a great week!

Hello everyone!

Below are the suggested supplies for my classroom. There are also some supplies that our classroom can always use. Please feel free to let me know if you have questions about any of the supplies or you would like to know why they are being requested. I know it seems like a lot of supplies but the students will use these frequently in our workshop based classroom. I look forward to a great year!

Suggested Supplies

1.Four wide ruled spiral notebooks in different colors

2.Two packs of wide ruled loose leaf paper

3.An one-inch binder (something durable is best because they get used daily for writer’s workshop)

4.Two duo tang pocket folders

5.A pencil box (Staples has these for $1.00 currently)

6.A pack of colored pencils

7.A pack of crayons

8.A pack of number two pencils

9.A small pencil sharpener (not battery powered) (The dollar store has these)

10.A pack of 4 glue sticks

11.A pair of children’s scissors

12.Two black pens

13.A four pack of dry erase markers (Better brands last much longer as long as students do not damage the tips)

14.A four pack of sticky notes (The dollar store has these and they will be using lots of sticky notes as they flag reading strategies in their books.

15.) Recommended but not necessary- A set of multiplication flash cards. (Students will have weekly tests on their multiplication facts so having a set to practice if they finish early is helpful. These are available at the dollar store)

16.) Recommended but not necessary- A pair of cheap ear buds. (Many people do not like their children sharing headphones with other kids so a cheap pair of ear buds can stay inside their desk and only get used by them. Please do not send bulky headphones as there is not room in the desks. The dollar store ear buds work great for what we use them for in Daily 5.)

17.) Recommended but not necessary- A reusable water bottle a top that closes to stop accidents. They are only allowed water in the classroom, no other beverages are because of bugs and stains.

Donations For The Classroom

1.Clorox or Lysol antibacterial wipes

2.Boxes of tissues

3.Hand sanitizer

4.Wide ruled loose leaf paper

5.Dry erase markers

6.Large or medium Ziplock bags

7.Colored Cardstock

8.) Any extra supplies from the suggested list for students who can’t get them.

Hello Everyone! I can’t believe it but the last full week of the school year is here. We are still working hard this week and wrapping up our units in each subject. Tomorrow is the 5th-grade picnic to Levagood Park. We will be arriving there by bus and parents are welcome to come up to the park and join in. Make sure your students bring lots of sunscreen! We also need any items you have signed up to donate, brought to the park or dropped off before the morning bell rings.

This week:

Spelling: Our last spelling list focuses on the word roots “graph” and “fract”. Our words are autograph, photographer, graphite, refraction, phonograph, Preamble, sphere, surface, vertices and magnitude.

Math: We are finishing up unit 10 which focused on single variable equations. The students are able to create the equations and graph the answers.

Science: Students will have an assessment on Thursday to check their understanding of each body system.

Social Studies: Students will have their last test on the three branches of Government.

Reading: Each reading group will finish their book this week.

Have a great week!

Good afternoon,

I hope everyone had a nice weekend. The students are still talking about their fun at camp! Tomorrow is our 5th-grade safety water park field trip to Rolling Hills Water Park. Make sure if your student  has turned in their permission slip and $5.00, that they wear their bathing suit to school under their clothing. There is a $.50 charge each time you open a locker so we prefer if they do not do that. They need to bring a bag lunch and sunscreen. Have them bring towel and sunscreen in a plastic bag with their name on it. Please do not send electronics with them. We will eat lunch at a picnic area outside of the water park. Students will be back at Nowlin before the bell rings so they will be picked up or at post as normal.

This week:

Spelling: We are doing word reviews so there is no new list, test or spelling homework this week.

Math: We are working on graphing basic equations and solving them. They will have a math test next week.

Science: Students are finishing up their units on the human body systems and will have a test next week.

Reading: Each student is getting their final book club book for the year. They are still reading each night for 30 minutes and responsible for their reading homework.

Writing: We are focusing on the science fiction genre and students are writing their own sci-fi pieces.

Have a great week!