Fall festival

Update 10-27

Thanks to everyone who came to conferences tonight, it was great meeting with everyone.  I look forward to next week too.

FYI- No school for students next Tuesday, November 3 on Election Day.  We teachers will be completing some professional development that day.  :)

In writing, we continue to work on narratives.  Students completed their own "roller-coaster" plot line to plan out a story they will be writing for our book that we are creating.  Each class is also writing a story starring their teachers.  Those are very interesting and quite funny!

In reading, we are reading folktales this week that explain natural occurrences.  As a class, we read one called "Coyote and the Salmon".  In small groups, they are reading a different folktale.  We are going to use these two folktales to compare and contrast the characters, problems, etc.

Friday is the next weekly ten.  Reading skills that are our focus are:  summarizing, theme, setting, comparing and contrasting parts of a story, and answering questions.

Reading Counts goals have been set.  I wrote them in each of your child's planners and students can see their goals online through the program.  They just have to click on check your progress.

Reading Logs can be completed online through Google classroom if your child wants to.  Just send me a quick email to let me know you are okay with it.

Legend or Fable?

Check out our legends and fables that we performed in class.   The Lion and the Mouse group from my class be performing Monday...


Mrs. Will- Sleepy Hollow

Mrs. Will- Lion and the Mouse

Mrs. Stoyle- Sleepy Hollow

Mrs. Stoyle- Lion and the Mouse

Mrs. Skeels- Sleepy Hollow

Mrs. Skeels- Lion and the Mouse

Update 10-22

We have moved on to writing narratives!  This week, kids have created their own characters to star in their own stories.  They also had a chance to write these stories.  Next week, we will look at specific parts of stories and continue to develop our craft when practicing writing these.

Report Cards go home tomorrow so be on the lookout for these!  Reading Counts reports for the second quarter will be going home in these too.  Also, reading summative grades and grades for the American Symbol articles will go home tomorrow.  Ask your child to see it.

As far as reading counts goes, everyone met their goals!!  Students will be creating their own goals for second quarter.  Look for these soon....

We made a cool Capture the Flag project.  Check it out here:  Capture The Flag

Fictional reading continues to start this quarter.  This week, the kids read about legendary characters and what made them a legend.  Tomorrow, they will be writing to compare and contrast those characters.  I was out sick, but they seemed to enjoy them with the substitute teacher.

Today, we discussed the difference between fables and legends.  Kids were able to choose to act out one of these.  One is The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and the other is The Lion and the Mouse.  Look for videos of those too-we present soon...

Remember that this quarter, kids have the option of completing reading logs online as long as I get a note or email from you.  Thanks!

Capture the flag display

Check out our capture the flag display! It's hanging above our lockers in the fifth grade hallway.

Update 10-12

We finished Capture the Flag!  We are working on a fun project related to that this week.  The kids are in groups and each has a main plot event from the story.  They have the job to illustrate it.  We will be hanging these in the hall to have a picture walk of the story.  I will share pictures of them working this week!

For writing this week, we are working on comparing/ contrasting characters and settings from the book Capture the Flag.  We will also be sharing our American Symbol articles with each other in class!   I came across a cool project where we can as a class choose a topic and each person can write something for it.  We can send away our writing and get it published in a hard-cover book.  Thursday each class will pick a topic for this.

There is a reading summative Wednesday that covers fictional characters, setting, plot, summarizing, and theme.  We have been practicing so it should be okay for them.

Reading Logs are due Thursday this week because of no school on Friday.  Starting second quarter, students will have the option of completing reading logs online through the online classroom.  If your child is interested in doing this, please just send me a quick email letting me know you are okay with this.  This would be for the log given out this Thursday in class for next week.  When they are online, there is no need for a parent signature anymore and no more paper will be exchanged.  It will all be completed online on a Google Document and I will electronically give your child a grade.  Starting in January (second semester) all reading logs will be completed online.

Reading Counts-20 points are due by this Thursday.

Thanks for your support!

Update 10-5

We are in the middle of Capture the Flag and the kids seem to be loving it!  Our goal is to finish it this week.  Your child should be taking it home and reading it nightly.  For this week, students can choose 3 of the 4 reading log entries to complete because I gave them some homework tonight that may have taken some extra time.

Next week will end our quarter on October 15th.  Your child should have at least 20 reading counts points by then.  Capture the Flag is on there and is worth 12 points.  :)

Reading skills we are covering are:  (fiction)- characters, setting, plot, summarizing, vocabulary and we will be getting into theme later this week.    Wednesday, October 14 will be a fictional summative over these skills with two passage and questions.

Students are finishing their symbol articles and will be conferencing with me again before they finish their final draft.  We typed them on Google Classroom.  Ask your child about it and to see it!

Just a reminder that conferences are coming soon.  If you haven't signed up yet, please contact your child's homeroom teacher.

Reading and writing in class!