Ms. Quesenberry - Over the Rainbow

After the Break...

We hope everyone has a wonderful break!  We can't wait to see everyone back at school and hear about adventures!

Coming up after the break...

Writing- We will continue our opinion writing unit.  We will be reading some opinion articles on various topics and begin planning for our opinion pieces.  We will practice some strategies such as making a pro/con list and thinking about our audience when planning our papers.

Reading-While we read our Extended Text (Shades of Gray) we will also be studying informational books and articles.  We are going to focus on Main Idea and supporting details this week.  We will be reading Civil War related pieces to support our Social Studies standards. 

We are also going to get an early start on a Quarter 2 reading incentive.  Instead of a traditional reading log students will get a "Bingo board" where each square represents a different reading challenge.  For example, some of the squares say:  "Read a biography", "Write down 3 facts you learned while reading" and "Read 2 books with the same author".  Students will have until December 16th to work on this board.  The idea is to get a full blackout and earn the class prize of a pizza party!  Students can use books they read at home or at school to complete the board.

Math- We will continue practicing division strategies after the break.  Here is a link to a video that shows an example of the partial quotients division strategy.  

Social Studies- We finished up our battle presentations this week!  Next week we will focus on Reconstruction and life after the Civil War.  By the end of the week we will begin a big summative assignment known as an IDM.  This stands for Inquiry Design Model.  Students will be given the big question: Does Location Matter?  We will look at articles, maps and graphics to determine if location mattered to civilians after the war.  

Don't forget that your classroom directory forms are due back the Monday after break!

No homework!

There is no homework this week (September 19-September 23) due to testing!  Students should still read a book of choice for 20-30 minutes each night.  As always, they are welcome to get on frontrowed.com (Class code: buschk) to practice math!  

Constitution Day

Today all of Cobb County celebrated Constitution Day in honor of the anniversary of the signing of our Constitution back in 1787.  One of the activities we did was take a "Which Founder Are You?" quiz.  It's just a fun quiz that asks some personality questions/learning preferences and then tells you which Founding Father you seem most like.  Ask you student which one they ended up most like!  You can also take the quiz and compare results at: http://constitutioncenter.org/foundersquiz/

There are many more Constitution activities on that same website if you want to take a look!

P.S. I was most like George Mason!  

Next Week: September 19-23

Tomorrow we start ITBS testing.  It will last until Wednesday, September 21st. Our lunch will be 12:06-12:36 during testing so we will have our snack earlier in the day.  Make sure your child is going to bed early and eating a healthy breakfast those mornings!  In the afternoons we will be doing math every day and alternating the other subjects.  Next week will be a lot of review of what we have done this year as we get ready for a week off. 

Reading: We have finished The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.  We will be watching the movie during our lunch and after testing some days to compare and contrast the plots, setting and characters.  We will also do a few summative activities focusing on character traits and change in character.  

Writing: Our opinion unit is going well!  The students have done a great job on their advertisements and book reviews.  Next week we will be writing letters to share our opinions with our audience in mind!  After the break we are going to look at some opinion pieces and work on creating pro/con lists to prepare for their own opinion essays.  Some issues we will look at are: Is it safe to play Pokemon Go?  Should children be allowed to play football?  Should school cafeterias serve flavored milk?  Are zoos helpful or harmful for animals?  

I will post some of the articles we read to the blog.  You can also stay up to date on Twitter by following @yellowbrick5th !

Math: We have worked on many different multiplication strategies this week (lattice, area model, partial products, and standard algorithm).  We will be moving on to division strategies next week. 

Social Studies: Students have done a great job researching different battles and events during the Civil War. The fifth grade standard says students should know Fort Sumter, Battle of Gettysburg, The Atlanta Campaign, Sherman's March to the Sea, and Appomattox Courthouse.  Groups will be presenting on each of these events next week.  We are also going to study some famous people during The Civil War.  We will move on to Reconstruction after the break.

 

Next Week: September 12-16

Writing: We will continue opinion writing.  Students will study advertisements and book reviews and get a chance to create both!  We will really focus on the strategies authors use to share their opinions and persuade! We will be studying conjunctions in Grammar. 

Reading:We will be finished the Wizard of Oz and doing some activities with the character's and their traits.  Some groups will begin a novel study of their own.  We will read these novels in sections and discuss them together.  The next whole class book we will read is Shades of Grey. This is historical fiction about a boy during the time of the Civil War.  Feel free to get a copy and read along with us!

Math: We are moving into multi-digit multiplication and division next week.  Some of this will be a review and students will also be exposed to new strategies. 

Social Studies: We are continuing the Civil War next week.  This past week we have looked at the causes of the war so next week is all about the battles and events during the war.  Students will work in groups to become "experts" on a specific battle.  They will then create a script and act out the scene for the class. 

Friday we start the ITBS standardized test, so we will collect homework on Thursday, the 15th.  Make sure your students get a good night's rest and have a healthy breakfast!  Lunch will be a little later during testing days to make sure we aren't rushed. 

Progress Reports

Our first fifth grade progress reports went home this afternoon!  We decided to go ahead and send home the Thursday folder a day early and let you look at everything at once.  All the grades on the progress report are broken down on Parent Vue.  Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns after seeing the report!

Twitter Update

Happy Labor Day!

I hope everyone is enjoying their 3 day weekend!  This is just a quick update that our classroom now has a twitter account. If you are already on Twitter you can see new messages by following @yellowbrick5th 

We are looking forward to using this tool to stay connected and send out updates and reminders!

Next Week: September 6-9

Next week is a 4 day week--no school Monday due to Labor Day.  Enjoy the 3 day weekend!  

Writing: Students will get their narrative writing back and have a chance to look over the rubric and any feedback.  We will also look at some fifth grade writing samples from the Department of Education website.  Students will get the chance to grade these samples and see what a "meets", "progressing" and "needs work" writing piece looks like.  At the end of the week we will be introducing Opinion writing.  Students will realize opinion writing is all around them as we look at advertisements, book reviews, editorials and opinion books! 

Reading: We are continuing our extended text of The Wizard of Oz and really focusing on making predictions and summarizing.  Students will be practicing these skills with their own independent reading book throughout the week.  We have also started studying some nonfiction science texts in small groups.  

Math: All this week we talked about powers of 10 and place value.  Today students had a challenge where they had to manipulate digits from one number to make a new number using a few rules.  See if they can tell you about it and maybe try their own!  We will continue this work next week as well as work on fluently multiplying multi-digit numbers. We want to make sure students have a solid understanding of decimals.  When you see opportunities to point out decimals (at the store, getting gas, at a restaurant), take advantage of the moment!  For example, if something was priced at $3.47 you could talk about what the 4 really means in that digit.  Ask them if 40 cents is more or less than a dollar or what the 7 is really worth in the price.   

Social Studies: We are moving back into Social Studies next week!  We are kicking off our Civil War unit by looking at the causes of the Civil War.  As we study here is an online resource that you can click through to get more information:

http://interactivesites.weebly.com/civil-war.html

Let us know if you have any questions!