Projects In Our Classroom
Math: We will continue our studies of the world of decimals, to include addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division this week. Congratulations to Ashley, Kyle, Dustin, and Josh who solved the POW for this week. The Problem of the Week (POW) is designed for those students looking for an extra challenge in Math to test their skills. All POWs are grade level and will require some effort. Parents are encouraged to help, but the work turned in must be the student's. All correct weekly winners will receive an extra credit "A" and a special treat. This week's POW is an anagram.
Spelling: Spelling tests are ALWAYS FRIDAY. Your child is welcome (and encouraged) to bring home their spelling list each week to study. You may also check out our Spelling page to print the weekly list at your convenience.
Science: Your children will be learning Science this year with Mrs. Baic.
Social Studies: Your children will be learning Social Studies this year with Mr. Hilts. Next up for us will be the study of the Constitution and early government.
Penmanship: Many of our children come to 5th grade with a WIDE VARIETY of penmanship skills. Even though Middle School requires this, I expect our children to write their lessons legibly. Any work submitted in cursive is worth 5 points extra.
Language Arts: We will spend the next several weeks reading the novel "The Kid Who Ran for President". Our studies will include daily reading, quizzes, and several comprehension/writing assignments.
We utilize the Open Court Reading Series. This is quite different from what we have used in the past and I found it benefited many of our students of every level. Each story lesson takes a week to complete and combines, Spelling, Vocabulary, Comprehension skills in a manner that effectively teaches each of the Language Arts concepts. As such, journaling plays a very big part during our school year. Each child will be responsible each Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday to complete journal pages from their readings honing their skills in Prereading, Skimming, Scanning, Characterization, Setting, Plot, Inference, Conflict, and Resolution. They will also identify and define new words learned in each selection and later will identify metaphors and similes. This may seem like an awful lot, but believe me this is a fine series that produces excellent results.
This is probably the most comprehensive program in all of 5th grade. We utilize the Open Court Series of Language Arts. All of our Spelling, Grammar, Reading, and Comprehension work is based on this series. We work hard with reading comprehension skills, phonics work, decoding, vocabulary, and writing projects within this series about 2 1/2 hours each day. This includes a variety of Workshop Projects that change weekly according to skills development and need.
I ALSO UTILIZE SUSTAINED SILENT READING (SSR) FOR 15 MINUTES IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING LUNCH RECESS.
Six Trait Writing: This is a wonderful series that we have used for several years now. We teach each trait (Ideas, Organization, Voice, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency, and Conventions) as a separate unit concentrating of one trait at a time over 3-4 weeks. Each unit finishes with a fun project that the the children always love! Writing Sample scores from our school have increased each year for the past 4 years.
Accelerated Reader is a mandatory program our class takes part in each year. I will continue to challenge each child's reading level throughout the year in order to improve their skills. Remember, outside reading is mandatory in our class. 20% of each child's reading grade depends solely on the Accelerated Reader Program. Ask your child to show you their assigned book some evening. The current selection for each child depends on their current level at this point. Depending on the results of each child's test scores after completion, I will assign them the next appropriate reading selection to strengthen their skills. You can now download or view the entire Accelerated Reader Catalog when you are helping your child pick out a suitable grade level book! Click on our Main Page and select from the menu.
I place a lot of weight on the learning of reading. My classes have ALWAYS scored in the top 22% of Accelerated Readers in our building. FOR THE 2ND YEAR IN A ROW WE ARE THE DEFENDING CHERRY STREET ACCELERATED READER CHAMPS!