Welcome to week 5! Remember that we have Curriculum Night on Thursday the 30th. 4th through 6th grade classrooms will be presenting from 7:30 to 8:00 and of course the PTA will have information booths setup in the cafetorium beforehand.
On to the week:
This week in writing we will be continuing to work through our new writing curriculum. The kids have truly enjoyed working through the first few exercises of this curriculum. We can already see that the kids are more interested and excited to be writing down their thoughts.
This week in reading we will be continuing to move our way through Maniac Magee. We will continue to work on summarizing, questioning, and learning how to discuss those topics within small peer groups. In addition, we will be starting our investigation into the history of language. We will be learning about how the English language has come about from pieces of the latin and romance languages. With this investigation we will begin to grock each day, which means we will be learning the meaning of roots, prefixes, and suffixes. It should be very eye opening!
This week in math we will adding and subtracting numbers with decimals. In addition, we will be beginning to pull small groups of students during our afternoon periods to work on some of the holes that they have in their learning as well as teaching students math fact strategies. We are very hopeful that this extra effort will help all of our students become more confident and successful in math this year.
That's it for now. Remember curriculum night on Thursday is a great time to come and meet us and ask any questions that have come up during our first month of school.
Thanks
Allyn Woods and Alaina Therriault
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Week 4: Our New Writing Curriculum, Adding and Subtracting Whole Numbers and Decimals, and Reading Comprehension in Maniac Magee
Welcome to week 4! We apologize for our late post. We were not able to post over the course of the weekend. Here we go:
Over the next four weeks, students will begin using our new writing curriculum, Being a Writer. In the first unit, students will begin to see themselves as contributing members of a writing community. We will hear and discuss examples of good writing and begin to learn about the writing practices of professional authors. They will explore pre-writing techniques and write freely in their writing notebook about things that interest them. They will also learn cooperative structures that they will use throughout the year, as well as discussion prompts to help them listen and connect their comments during class discussions.
In reading we are going to continue working with Maniac Magee. We are practicing four main reading comprehension strategies: predicting, clarifying, summarizing and questioning. Through group discussions, students are learning when to use the three strategies and why they are valuable to good readers. They are also learning how to identify a theme within a book and how their personal experiences will impact their understanding and connection to that theme.
In math we are going to be investigating adding and subtracting of whole numbers and decimals. This week in particular we will be focusing on mental math, rounding whole and decimal numbers, and estimating sums and differences. These topics begin to get more complicated as we move along. Please be prepared for students coming home with math work to completed. If you ever have any questions about these problems please feel free to email Mr. Woods at allyn.woods@shorelineschools.org.
In addition we are going to continue our team building activities on Friday as well as reward our students' outstanding behavior and excellent work ethic with reward Fridays.
Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.
Allyn Woods and Alaina Therriault
Over the next four weeks, students will begin using our new writing curriculum, Being a Writer. In the first unit, students will begin to see themselves as contributing members of a writing community. We will hear and discuss examples of good writing and begin to learn about the writing practices of professional authors. They will explore pre-writing techniques and write freely in their writing notebook about things that interest them. They will also learn cooperative structures that they will use throughout the year, as well as discussion prompts to help them listen and connect their comments during class discussions.
In reading we are going to continue working with Maniac Magee. We are practicing four main reading comprehension strategies: predicting, clarifying, summarizing and questioning. Through group discussions, students are learning when to use the three strategies and why they are valuable to good readers. They are also learning how to identify a theme within a book and how their personal experiences will impact their understanding and connection to that theme.
In math we are going to be investigating adding and subtracting of whole numbers and decimals. This week in particular we will be focusing on mental math, rounding whole and decimal numbers, and estimating sums and differences. These topics begin to get more complicated as we move along. Please be prepared for students coming home with math work to completed. If you ever have any questions about these problems please feel free to email Mr. Woods at allyn.woods@shorelineschools.org.
In addition we are going to continue our team building activities on Friday as well as reward our students' outstanding behavior and excellent work ethic with reward Fridays.
Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.
Allyn Woods and Alaina Therriault
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Week 3: Revising Rough Drafts, Comparing Values of Decimals, and Beginning Maniac Magee
Welcome to Week 3! Already the weeks are flying by.
The past two weeks have been fantastic. The kids have reacted to the large class size with great excitement and an amazing level of maturity. It seems as though the instructors are the only ones fazed by the larger number of faces in the crowd. As a result, we have been able to coast through all of the beginning of the year assessments and now we are ready to get into our curriculum.
In writing students have been putting together a rough draft of a moment in time during their summer. They are asked to write about this moment of their summer in real time (getting away from past-tense is hard) and include details as well as dialogue. With this writing project we are able to work through the writing process. This week we will be finishing our rough drafts, revising, and starting to publish our work.
In reading we will be starting our very first novel series with Maniac Magee. This is a great realistic fiction that the kids are going to love. It will allow us to investigation the genre of realistic fiction, begin to work in literary circles (discussion groups), and work on the components of strong reading comprehension (making connections, questioning, and visualizing).
In math we will be continuing our investigation into place value. This week we will be looking at numbers with decimals and their value. Students will be comparing and ordering these numbers. In addition, students will get their first chances to work as peer instructors as we prepare for this sections test.
That's it for now. Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.
-Allyn Woods and Alaina Therriault-
The past two weeks have been fantastic. The kids have reacted to the large class size with great excitement and an amazing level of maturity. It seems as though the instructors are the only ones fazed by the larger number of faces in the crowd. As a result, we have been able to coast through all of the beginning of the year assessments and now we are ready to get into our curriculum.
In writing students have been putting together a rough draft of a moment in time during their summer. They are asked to write about this moment of their summer in real time (getting away from past-tense is hard) and include details as well as dialogue. With this writing project we are able to work through the writing process. This week we will be finishing our rough drafts, revising, and starting to publish our work.
In reading we will be starting our very first novel series with Maniac Magee. This is a great realistic fiction that the kids are going to love. It will allow us to investigation the genre of realistic fiction, begin to work in literary circles (discussion groups), and work on the components of strong reading comprehension (making connections, questioning, and visualizing).
In math we will be continuing our investigation into place value. This week we will be looking at numbers with decimals and their value. Students will be comparing and ordering these numbers. In addition, students will get their first chances to work as peer instructors as we prepare for this sections test.
That's it for now. Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.
-Allyn Woods and Alaina Therriault-
Monday, September 6, 2010
Week 2: Introduction to Realistic Fiction, Numeration, Writing, and Communication in Groups
Welcome to Week 2! We had a fantastic week 1 with some beginning of the year assessments, a few small writing assignments, and some great team building activities as well as community meetings. We are going to continue our strong start during Week 2.
Thank you for checking the 5th Grade Blog! We are extremely happy to see parents that want to know what is going on in their student's classrooms.
This Week:
In Writing: We will beginning our first real writing assignment. Students will be writing a narrative about their summer. Students will be using this narrative to work through the writing process from pre-writing to the final draft. We will allow students time during the school day to complete each step, but we do expect students to take their work home if they are unable to finish in a timely manner.
In Math: We will be starting our new math curriculum with a review of numeration. This week students will be investigating place value, comparing and ordering whole numbers, and decimal place value. After our beginning of the year assessment, it looks to us like this will be an easy first chapter for most of our kids (they did real well on this portion of the beginning assessment). In addition, we are looking at starting a daily math fact warm-up to help our students with their confidence on math facts.
In Reading: We will be starting our first novel series with a great book called Maniac Magee. During reading this week we will be learning how to discuss novels in small groups and talking about some of the themes of Maniac Magee (family and nicknames).
Lastly, we will be continuing to build our sense of community in the 5th grade classrooms. This week we will be working on communication. We believe that this will be one of the most important aspects of working as a group. Needless to say, we will be working on this aspect all year long.
Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Allyn Woods and Alaina Therriault
Thank you for checking the 5th Grade Blog! We are extremely happy to see parents that want to know what is going on in their student's classrooms.
This Week:
In Writing: We will beginning our first real writing assignment. Students will be writing a narrative about their summer. Students will be using this narrative to work through the writing process from pre-writing to the final draft. We will allow students time during the school day to complete each step, but we do expect students to take their work home if they are unable to finish in a timely manner.
In Math: We will be starting our new math curriculum with a review of numeration. This week students will be investigating place value, comparing and ordering whole numbers, and decimal place value. After our beginning of the year assessment, it looks to us like this will be an easy first chapter for most of our kids (they did real well on this portion of the beginning assessment). In addition, we are looking at starting a daily math fact warm-up to help our students with their confidence on math facts.
In Reading: We will be starting our first novel series with a great book called Maniac Magee. During reading this week we will be learning how to discuss novels in small groups and talking about some of the themes of Maniac Magee (family and nicknames).
Lastly, we will be continuing to build our sense of community in the 5th grade classrooms. This week we will be working on communication. We believe that this will be one of the most important aspects of working as a group. Needless to say, we will be working on this aspect all year long.
Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Allyn Woods and Alaina Therriault
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