Oh my goodness!!! What an amazing day!! These kids are so much fun! After a wonderful bus ride we unloaded and started making our way to camp. We hit the ground running! Students did a picnic lunch with their counselors and their cabin group. We then made our way to field study. Today we were on the forest field study and hiked WAY up to one of the most amazing views I've ever seen! On the way we identified plants, talked about the forest, saw a quiet lake with animals, and had a blast. We came back hungry and had a great dinner. Our campfire tonight was full of reflection and song. We can hardly wait to spend another day on this adventure tomorrow!
Thank you for the great week, 5th graders! We were so excited to meet our buddies at the end of the day today! Students were so kind and thoughtful as they read books with their new buddies. The only homework this weekend it to READ and mark think notes! We found 4 important clues that authors give us when we are reading--- clues to tell us when we might be getting hints on the theme, about conflict in the book, or that might help us make predictions. Ask your students about contrast and contradictions, Ah Ha moments, Tough Questions, and Words of the Wiser. As they read this weekend, students should note these and mark them in their books.
Today we talked about how numbers changed when we multiply by 10s, as represented with exponents. Below are the notes we took as we explored the concept.
Today students had time to free write, in order to get their brains going as writers. It also allows us to get to know each other better, as we share our writing. Our other goal is to build endurance, since we have a big year of writing ahead of us! In math we practiced finding patterns and asking questions to make the patterns more interesting- We watched this video on why patterns are important. We also talked about seeing patterns outside of math- that by becoming strong mathematicians we will be better thinkers no matter what we do. Our class work took a look at Pascal's Triangle and we looked for patterns- and we found them everywhere!
We have been focusing on our math brains and what the latest research says about math learning. This is all to get us ready for a great year of math learning where every student feels challenged and successful in the math we do. Yesterday we watched this video: And today we worked on a paper folding challenge. As much as the challenge was about finding the answer, it was also about digging deep to justify it. Students took turns being the "skeptic"- asking questions forcing the "convincer" the answer was correct. All students should have brought home the sheet in their math journal, but it's attached below if they forgot it. Questions like, "How do you know that's a triangle?" or "what proof do you have it's 1/4 of the original area?"- and then playing really hard to convince- will help deepen thinking. We worked on 1-3 as a class and shared ideas, so I asked all students to work on 4 and 5. These are challenging! If students are not finding success, I asked them to come ready to share what they tried and how they knew it didn't work. If you have a chance to try some with your child tonight, these are a lot of fun-- if maddening! Finally, the All About Me paper is due Friday. Many students have already turned it in or shared it with me on google drive. If they are struggling to finish, just encourage them to write a little about themselves, even if it doesn't follow the exact format of the packet. These are some of my favorite papers to read all year!
We are getting into the year fast and furious. After specials we had our first math period. We are starting by developing a growth mindset about math through problem solving. We watched a video to help us set our first norm: Everyone can learn math to the highest level. Afterword kids put down evidence from the video that we all can learn and improve math to the highest level. In order to practice this we took on the Four 4's challenge- students can share the challenge with you, they should have their notes in the newly made "math section" of their binder. It was fun to see students try out math group work with their new classmates and start to get a feel for the community we are creating. Before we started writing we continued our goal of MOVING more with some stretches from GoNoodle. In writing today students continued to work on the All About Me writing sample. I've asked they have 2 (of the 5) rough draft paragraphs done when they come in tomorrow. Finally, this afternoon, we started looking at the class library. Students started a "Wish List" of books that look interesting and that they may want to get into as the year goes on. We had about 10 mins of reading time- everyone wanted MORE! It was great to see each student engaged in a book. Planners today should have the following information- please make sure you child is getting it filled out, as the year goes on I will not be updating daily and the planner is the best communication between school and home.
We started by getting all of our THINGS in order- we had a lot to sort! Students did a great job helping each other as they got our classroom in order. Our day starts with specials and today students went to music and PE Later in the day we did some dancing and watched a video explaining some of the reasons we are going to try to MOVE a lot more in class this year. Bonny Slope is part of an exciting program to increase learning through activity. The video below is what we watched together. Of course, we had a lot of school supplies to organize and get put away. Students did a great job unpacking and getting this sorted. We will organize binders over the next few days. I enjoyed getting to know the kids a little with a few games and some class activities. As the week goes on we will settle more into our routine. Today I assigned some writing- a paper called "All About Me". I'm asking tonight students just finish the outline portions of the packet- there are three outline sections, one for each body paragraph. The picture below shows sentence starters I gave kids to use if they were struggling to get started- hopefully it will help guide any work they do tonight. Every day we will fill out the planner together as a class. Below is what the planner should look like today. The 30 min of reading can be ANYTHING! This week we are just reading for pure fun- no logging, think notes- just read! Kids asked if it could be non-fiction, comics, books they read before and the answer is yes yes yes! Our goal is to read 30 min every day outside of school. Finally, if you have not signed up for Remind, I would encourage you to do so. I'm getting ready to start using it. Directions to sign up can be found on this website.
Great first day! Thank you to all the students for showing up ready to be a part of our community. If you are here checking out the blog- chances are you just got an email welcoming you to 5th grade and with the news that Mrs. Chandler will be your teacher this year. Hooray! I can't wait to meet you and begin our year of learning together.
I hope I will see you Thursday, September 3rd between 4:00-6:00 for meet the teacher. And of course, we'll all get a chance to come together as a class Tuesday, September 8. Come ready to talk about a favorite book or a great book you read this summer. |
AuthorMrs. Chandler and the students will work together to publish this blog ArchivesCategories |