Just a reminder that the Band and Chorus concert will be at 9 AM tomorrow: Wednesday, December 23rd. There is a full day of school on Wednesday.
Hope families are enjoying the holiday season and have a relaxing winter break!
Molly
Hello,
Just a reminder that the Band and Chorus concert will be at 9 AM tomorrow: Wednesday, December 23rd. There is a full day of school on Wednesday. Hope families are enjoying the holiday season and have a relaxing winter break! Molly
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Just about one week until Winter Break. Hope all are enjoying the winter holiday season! Announcements: 1. Math Test FRIDAY! A practice test will go home Wednesday night and a Study Guide will go home Thursday night. 2. Report cards will be coming home on Wednesday! 3. The Band & Chorus Winter Concert will be on December 23rd at 9 AM! Look forward to seeing you there! Academics: Math: We are finishing up Topic 7 this week. Student are working hard on dividing decimals, which are really above grade level skills! As noted above, the assessment will be on Friday and many study tools will be available: practice test, study guide, classwork, and links on the math page of this blog! Next week we will spend a few days practicing all of the decimal operations we've learned so far this year. Reading: Walk to Read groups are wrapping up as well. Students are finishing their books this week. Next week's focus will be a Chris Van Allsburg author study. We will read a number of his books and practice inferring and finding theme. Writing: Many students have completed their biome research! Ask your child about their biome - they have learned a lot already! We will begin composing our informational essays in the time we have before break. Science: Our weather unit is wrapping up with fronts, precipitation, and severe weather. The intention is to have a quiz on the unit before winter break, but we will see if we fit it in - I don't want to rush to finish! There will be a class period of review and a study guide before the quiz. Below is a photo of our recent science experiment. Ask your child how a thermometer works! Enjoy the holiday season! Molly Hello! Hope everyone had a relaxing and thankful holiday weekend! Announcements: 1) Math Test - Topic 6: Friday. There will be a Practice Test and Study Guide this week. 2) Our class is going to the holiday store on Wednesday afternoon. Please send money in a labeled envelope if your child is going to purchase anything. 3) Trimester 3 is ending on Friday. Report cards will be sent home on December 16th. 4) Our Winter concert will be December 23rd at 9AM - both Chorus and Band will be featured and the students have been working hard! 5) As mentioned last week, students will be keeping track of their clip chart colors this week. Students will have a calendar in their homework folder to write down their color at the end of the week. I would encourage you to check this chart daily to see how your child is doing and engage in a conversation if the color is not as expected. I appreciate your support at home! Below is an example of what our clip chart looks like: Academics:
Math: We are wrapping up Topic 6 this week on Multiplying Decimals. The assessment will be on Friday. A practice test and a study guide will be coming home this week. Reading: Jerry Spinelli book groups are going well! Ask your child to tell you about their Walk to Read book! Our regular reading classes this week will focus on informational text and note taking for our research projects. The class is very excited to get their research started this week! Writing: Again, we are working on our research papers by starting book and online research this week. Students will be taking notes that paraphrase the text to answer the research questions we developed in class. Each student is researching a biome on Earth. Science: We are continuing our weather studies with temperature and air pressure this week. Molly Hello!
We have been working hard these past few weeks! Announcements: 1. No Vocabulary this week! There will be a grammar quiz on perfect tense on Wednesay, and we will practice this each day this week in class. 2. PJ Day is Tuesday!! No onesies, and you may bring slippers in your backpack but cannot wear them to school/recess. 3. Half Day on Wednesday - Dismissal is 11:45. 4. Trimester 1 ends on December 4. Students may be taking work home over the upcoming week if it is late and needs to be completed before the Trimester ends. 5. Chorus has begun again with Ms. Asztalos (from 4th grade) taking over to teach a few songs. the students are doing a great job learning so quickly and will definitely be ready for the Winter Concert! 6. Our class has started a new independent behavior management system. Each student has their own clip chart in which they can move up or down. As a class, we came up with many things we could do to move up or down. The goal is to move up throughout the day and get an Awesome Card for our raffle!! Many students already did this on Thursday and Friday!! However, consequences for moving down include owing time and a note home. The students suggested tracking the color they are on at the end of the day. Starting December 1st, each student will have a blank calendar to record their color each day in their HW folder. Feel free to check up on this and to offer praise for a job well done, or have a conversation about improving behavior, if needed. Updates: Math: We are beginning Topic 6 this week, which is focused on Multiplying Decimals. This test will be the last Math Assessment for the Trimester. Reading: Students are really enjoying their Walk to Read groups and it has been fun to compare the books we are reading. We have also been working on main idea and details and will continue that work this week with summarizing. Writing: We will begin our research project this week. Rather than researching an animal (as previously planned) I am going to have students research a biome. I wanted to do something a bit different than third grade! Examples of biomes include desert, coral reef, rainforest, and wetlands. Students will be researching where they are located, their climate, plants and animals that live there, and threats to the biome. Students will have lots of options for presenting their research! Science: We are continuing our weather unit. We have discussed the water cycle (ask your student about it!), the layers of the atmosphere, and types of clouds. We will continue this unit with weather instruments and forecasts, fronts, air pressure, and severe weather! Enjoy the wonderful holiday weekend with friends and family! Molly Hello!
Is there really one week left until THANKSGIVING?! Wow! Announcements: 1) Math test Wednesday - Topic 5! 2) New Word Work - see below! Updates: Math: We will be wrapping up Topic 5, which focuses on 2-digit division, this week. The assessment will be on Wednesday. Students took home a Practice test Monday night for homework and will have a study guide for homework on Tuesday night to prepare. We will move into Topic 6 on Thursday. Reading: We have been working on sequence of events with fiction texts. We read a historical fiction story titled Satchel Paige about an African-American baseball player last week and created cartoons to illustrate the story! We are continuing our sequence work on this week with nonfiction texts. Writing: Following our narratives will be a nonfiction research piece. We will be researching an animal using sources from the library and some internet sources, We will practice taking notes, paraphrasing our research, and citing sources. Word Work: I have changed the format of our Word Work. Instead of focusing on spelling with a long list of words, I would like to do smaller spelling lessons throughout the year. I have assigned students vocabulary work this week, which will continue weekly moving forward. Students are responsible for knowing the definitions each Friday and the homework does a great job allowing students lots of practice with definitions. These quizzes will go under our vocabulary standard. I feel very strongly that students will get the most benefit going into middle school from the vocabulary work. These words are ones they will surely encounter in reading, but also Science and SS content areas this year and next. There is a link to practice here on the Reading & Writing page and you can also download a free flashcard app that has all of the word lists - I'd highly recommend! Science: We have started a new unit on weather. We started our studies with a review of the water cycle, and will continue this week with layers of the atmosphere and instruments we use to predict weather. Hope all is well! Molly Hello!
Seems like the past two months have flown by! Now, it's on to November... Announcements: 1) Math Benchmark (1-4) on Friday! Students will get a study guide and list of topics on Wednesday. 2) We will have a quick Quiz on one-digit division instead of a Topic 4 Assessment, due to the benchmark. The quiz will be Thursday. Updates: Math: We are finishing up Topic 4 this week. It was a shorter topic on one-digit division. Instead of an entire Topic 4 Assessment, there will be a short quiz on one-digit division on Thursday. On Friday, we will have the Topics 1-4 district-wide Benchmark. On Wednesday students will get a list of skills that will be on the benchmark and a practice test to use as a study guide. Reading: We have completed our study on Number the Stars! Students wrote a short essay on one of two themes, bravery or friendship, that are found in the text. We will have a new format for reading until Winter Break. All 5th grade students will be in reading groups during Walk to Read and each group will be reading a different novel written by Jerry Spinelli. Reading HW for each night will be assigned by the Walk to Read teacher. In our usual reading class/literacy block, we will be working on reading skills - this week we will be learning about cause and effect. Writing: We are STILL finishing our narratives, but they are almost finished and are entering the editing process this week! Look forward to reading great stories from your students! Science: We are learning about rocks and minerals this week. Students have been reading articles about things like Earth's structure, erosion and weathering, the rock cycle, and types of rocks. These topics should be review of 3rd and 4th grade skills. We will review all topics next week and take a short quiz. Happy November! Enjoy this unseasonably warm weather before the frost hits! See below a few photos from last weeks Halloween "play" for Ms. Pires' class!! Molly Hello,
Hope all have had a relaxing weekend. After much rest and tea, I am starting to feel better again! Thanks to parents who volunteered and/or donated to our class library during the book fair this past week. We have 8 new books for our library!! Announcements: 1) Math Test - Topic 3 - Wednesday! Review will go home as HW on Monday night and Tuesday night! 2) Conference rescheduling form will go home today (Monday)! Thank you for your flexibility. My goal is to be as accommodating as possible to your needs, because I know all families have busy lives! I have offered morning, afternoon, and evening slots for the week of November 2nd. Please return the form by this Thursday, Oct. 26th! Updates: Math: Our Topic 3 Assessment will be on Wednesday. Monday's homework will be a practice test and Tuesday's homework will be a review study guide. There will also be Topic 3 games/questions to practice on the blog. Reading: We have finished reading Number the Stars to a mixed reaction by the class. Many felt the ending was sad and were hoping for a happier one! Ask your child to summarize the book for you, now that we have finished! We will be spending the week discussing theme and reviewing our story elements. Writing: We are continuing work on our narratives - students wrote fantastic conclusions in class on Friday! Word Work: This week's spelling list will be available on the blog. Science: We will be reviewing moon phases this week and then diving into a review from previous years of rocks and minerals! Molly MacPherson Hello,
I apologize for any inconvenience that comes from the cancellation of conferences tomorrow for our class. Believe me, it is harder on me to reschedule!! However, my voice is completely gone from a cold and conferences would not be productive with barely any conversation! Look for blog posts and notices next week on the plan for rescheduling. I hope to have parents choose a day and afternoon/evening time from a few options. If your conference was already scheduled for next week - we are still on!! Thanks for being flexible at this time, Molly Hello!
Announcements: 1) There is an early release this Thursday, Oct 22nd for parent-teacher conferences. I emailed parents with their scheduled conference time Friday afternoon to the email the school has on file. If you did not receive that email, please let me know and I will send home a note. 2) Science quiz - Thursday 3) Our class will be attending the Book Fair this week - Friday morning at 10:00. If you choose to send money, please put it in an envelope marked with your child's name! Updates: Math: We are moving through Topic 3. Our end of Topic assessment should be next week. Reading: We have read up to Ch. 14 in Number the Stars. We will be finishing the book this week as we discuss characters, plot, and theme. Writing: We will be working on adding stellar conclusions to our narrative stories. Word Work: There is a Spelling List this week. You can find a copy of the word lists (there are 2 different groups) on the Reading and Writing page of the blog. Students should have one page of HW each night Mon-Wed. Thursdays are spelling practice night. Our grammar lesson this week is on the perfect verb tense. Science: We are finishing up our studies of the seasons and day and night this week. There will be a short quiz on Thursday on this material. Students will complete a study guide on Wednesday in Science class. Please email if there are any questions/concerns - It seems my email was not put on the South website. It should be m_macpherson (at) stoughtonschools.org. I look forward to meeting with parents this week (and next!) Molly Hello!
Hope all had a lovely long weekend! Announcements: 1. IMPORTANT: Conferences are Thursday, October 22nd from 12:30 - 3:30 or 6:00 - 7:30. I only have a handful of conference forms returned. If you would like a conference, please return the form that went home this past Friday. If you need another, you can print it from the South website (Go to the Stoughton backpack, I think), or send a note and I will send home another. We are trying our best to put sibling conferences close together. 2. This Sunday, October 17th is the PTO Pumpkin Patch fundraiser! 3. There is no spelling list this week because of the short week. Updates: Math: We have completed Topic 2 (tests will come home this week) and are moving into Topic 3. The main focus of this unit is multi-digit multiplication. It will also introduce exponents and a few other multiplication concepts. Reading: We are reading the last few chapters of Number the Stars this week. The book includes some great discussion topics and students are really enjoying it! Writing: We are continuing work on our Narrative writing pieces. Students have chosen a memory to write a story about. This week we will be working on writing catchy leads to start our stories and re-writing our first drafts. We will be typing our narratives on google docs. Science: We finished our planets unit last week and took an assessment. That will be coming home Wednesday. We will continue our space studies with the reasons for day and night and the seasons this week, and students will have a short quiz on this material. Have a great week! Molly |
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