Area and Perimeter

We finally finished our fraction unit! Students really have surprised me in math.  We do 2 math classes in the morning, and there are many times that the students ask me to continue to teach during snack so we can continue to learn! This means that we do around 2 hours of straight math!

With that being said, we are currently refreshing our knowledge of area and perimeter, as well as learning patterns in multiplying by 10, 100, and 1,000.  This will help us in learning how to multiply larger numbers, as well as divide larger numbers.  So, it is more important than ever that students practice and recall their multiplication facts!  I will be posting ideas and activities as I find them here on this blog.  

This will be a quick unit, but it has necessary skills to help students be successful in life.  Pretty soon, students will be able to multiply numbers such as 145 X  34!  Let's get ready for a fast paced, but fun unit! 

Point of View, Plot, Figurative Language, and Grammar.

In ELA the past few weeks we have been working hard on understanding the Plot of a story, as well as the different vocabulary and parts that go along with it.  Students learned about the introduction in the plot, the rising action, the climax, the falling action, and the resolution.  Students also took a small quiz on it a week ago.  It is important that students know these terms and can identify them in a story because we are also using these terms in their own writing!  It is amazing and extremely beneficial when they can connect their reading to their writing.

We are about to switch to learning about Point of View.  Students learned this a bit last year, but now, it is even more important that they understand what it means.  Point of view is connected to the narrator, who tells the story.  A narrator can tell a story as if they are a part of the story and in it (first person), as if they are telling their audience, reader, or another character the story (second person), or if they are overlooking the story (third person).  Students are identifying the narrator in stories, learning that there can be several narrators, and we are about to start learning about how perspective also affects the story!  There is a lot to a narrator, and since students are writing their own stories as narrators, they need to learn the ins and outs of being one!


On top of learning about plot and point of view, students have also been learning about similies, and students are even finding similes in their writing, as well as in their reading.  We are about to start learning about metaphors soon!

Students have even been learning about independent and dependent clauses during morning meeting.  We have also learned about subordinating conjunctions, and we are about to learn about coordinating conjunctions and how to combine two independent clauses.

There is a ton of learning going on here in the 5th grade!

Wordy Study 12/5 to 12/8

This week I tried to split the word study time to include vocabulary learning and spelling pattern learning.  Well, as they say, mistakes are also learning opportunities, and this splitting of the time did not do well.  So, I am going to start doing a rotating schedule of spelling for a week or two, then vocabulary for a week, then spelling, then vocab, etc.

This week, students continued to finish their learning on their spelling patterns by sorting their words, going on a word hunt, and learning how to play Follow the Path as a review game for our spelling assessment.  We are also starting to remember to use the spelling patterns in our day to day work.  Students are taking their assessment on Friday to see how they did with their words and patterns!

Math Week of 12/5 to 12/9

In math this week, we finished our module on fractions!  Fractions are certainly not gone yet, however, we will be taking a small break from them in the next few weeks to learn how to do multi-digit multiplication and division.

Students played Jeopardy on a really neat website called  Jeopardy Rocks (might be a cool website to check out sometime and create your own Jeopardy Game for a family night!).  There was an amazing comeback from a team that had lost $300, and they ended up winning the game! After that, we started our End-of-Module Assessment, which is a little lengthy.  I gave students 2 days to do that assessment.  It will be graded and posted on MMS within the following week. As usual, I do allow retakes after some reteaching.

Next week, we are going to take a Post CFA for this unit for the district, then take a pre CFA for the multiplication and division unit!  Then we will get moving on that unit!

Core ELA Time

Since our focus is on Narrative writing, we are reading books and stories that are also powerful narratives to back up our writing conversations and learning.  We are  learning skills that will help us with our own narrative writing as well.

The skills we have learned so far are:

• How to infer Character Traits using background knowledge and text clues to support our inferences.  I usually use a formula called BK+TC = I (Background Knowledge + Text Clues = Inference) to help students with making inferences.  Inferring means reading between the lines.  It is a tough skill, but students can do this very well! 
• What the 5 Story Elements are: Plot, Character, Conflict, Theme, and Setting. 
• What Plot even is- it is the action in the story.  There is an introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, and conclusion.  These are all vocabulary terms that students need to learn and know.  We talked about mapping the plot of a story using a map, and how stories may not always follow the map, such as our chapter book, Because of Mr. Terupt.  The more complex a story, the more it does not follow that generic map.  The typical plot map is pictured here: 

Books we have read this week: 

• The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson to help us with plot mapping. 

Where we are going next week: 

• I am going to be exposing students to other forms of narratives, so I will show them blogging, podcasts, video stories, Reader's Theater, and more.  
• We will continue to learn about plot and mapping. 
• We will start talking about perspective and Point of View - 1st, 2nd, and 3rd.  Also who the narrator is and their relation to the story. 

 

Writing

Writing: 

We are in the middle of learning how to generate ideas for writing narratives right now.  We have an Anchor Chart in our room that actually gives brainstorming strategies for students who are struggling with coming up with an idea to write.  One of those strategies is to think of a person, place, or thing, and list it.  Then, they are to list stories about that person, place or thing.  When students have found a story that they want to write about, they star it, flip the page, and start writing!  Students find a hard time with this because they want to write big, broad stories.  However, we are trying to focus on one story, one moment in time, to really write about.

The other strategy that we have talked about is thinking about Turning Points in our lives.  Turning Points are last times, first times, and important times when we realized that life would not be the same.  We are no longer just writing moments about our lives, but powerful moments.

Next week, we are discussing how to get into the story, and write so that our readers feel like they are also in the story.  This is going to require students to close their eyes, relive the moment that they are writing about, and really be in the story, using words to bring their reader's with them.  It is going to be a challenge, but we have writer's in this classroom, and they are going to do wonderful!

Word Study

Word Study

In Word Study, we have been learning different spelling patterns.  Each student is placed in a group that teaches the skills that they need (as determined by assessments) in order to spell and read words.

The Green Group  has been working on Short and Long U sounds.  For example, this group learned that CVC words will have a "u" that makes a short sound, that "ui" makes a long u sound, "o double o" makes a long u sound, and that VCe words that have the vowel being u, will also be a long u sound.

The Blue Group has been working on ar, air, and are.  We learned that "ar" in a word will make a sound like a pirate, "air" at the end of a word will sound like the word "air," and that "are" at the end of a word will sound like "air."

The Red Group has been learning how to add -ing to words.  Their rules are that, if a base word ends with an "e" then you drop the "e" and add -ing.  However, if the base word is a VCC word, you just add -ing.

The Orange Group has been learning how to hear and spell some tricky letter combinations.  They have been learning the letter combinations for sounds such as "ij" and "j" when the letters are not j's or i's.  They have also learned that "ss" at the end of a word sounds like a snake, as well as when there is a "ce" at the end of a word!

Vocabulary:  We are recently starting this journey.  We are going to be learning more about Greek and Latin Roots each week.  This week, we learned about the roots:  hydr/aqua (water) and ad (to/toward).  We added these to our new Frayer Models which are in our Word Study Binders, and we will be continuing to learn about these words.  Acquiring vocabulary through the knowledge of Greek/Latin Roots, as well as context clues, is very important for students at this age.  Let's work together to support this learning!

Language Arts Week of 11/29 to 12/2

There are many different components that make up  Language Arts in our Classroom.  We have Word Study, which helps with spelling and vocabulary acquisition, we have read aloud time, we have our classroom chapter book, we have writing, Guided Reading, Core Lesson time, and more.  ELA (English Language Arts) is made up of so many different parts that it is hard to categorize it all as one subject sometimes.  However, it is important to remember that it everything needs to connect and support one another so that students can make connections and see the value in learning all of the different information, as well as be able to apply it in different situations!

Math Week of 11/29 to 12/2

I have some very exciting news about math!  Ever since the kids and I talked about having math all in the morning, which means about 2.5 hours of math time, we have been accomplishing our lesson for the day, and then some more for the following lesson the next day! We are really flying now in math, which makes us all so happy.  I refer to your students as mathematicians, which they are.  

Fractions: 

In fractions this week, we really focused on learned how to multiply a fraction by a whole number by using the equation, the associative property, and a number line.  I like to give students multiple strategies to use, and they can choose (unless directed) which one to use! 

We then moved onto learning how to multiply a mixed number by a whole number, using tape diagrams and the distributive property.  Students are starting to work on comparison word problems, and these problems also require them to use the skills learned previously, such as changing improper fractions into mixed numbers.  Students are also learning how to use algebra skills while solving these problems, as pictured in the pictures below. 

An Observation: 

There is only one issue that is holding students back.  Their concept knowledge is amazing, but their ability to multiply and divide is causing students to not get the problem right.  With that being said, we are starting to bring back multiplication facts.  Students made multiplication fact cards on Wednesday, so we are going to start studying their facts for 0s, 1s, 5s, and 10s first.  So be prepared for that next week! It is very important to their success in the rest of 5th grade and future grades, as well as life, to know these facts.  I will be posting ideas to help your student master their facts on this blog, and if you find any games or have any ideas, please let me know! 

Next Week: 

We are going to finish this module, take our final assessment, and take our Common Formative Assessment for the District.  Then, we are moving on!  Stay tuned for our upcoming direction! 

Welcome!

Welcome! 

Well, I have decided to switch things up a little bit!  After attending a tech conference on Wednesday, I was inspired to get out of my comfort zone with technology.  This means trying Bloomz and also trying blogging instead of my usual News Notes!  I am excited to start this journey with you.

Since I am no longer going to be sending home News Notes, I will be writing the weekly review on this blog.  I will also post the blog link to our classroom website, which is lacasse5thgrade@weebly.com.

Again, I look forward to trying this out with you!