Hello 5B parents,
Here's a snapshot of what's going on in 5B this week. Remember, Monday night is the May Watt's Ice Cream Social from 6:00-7:30. I will be there. I hope to see you!
Language Arts: This year, we are fortunate to have a good chunk of time which will allow us to do many things with reading and writing. We plan to read 40 chapter books! Yes, that's right. We will be focusing on many different genres in hopes of inspiring the students to read, read, read! This will give the students the opportunity to choose their own books (with the help of me and Mrs. May) and conference with me on a regular basis. Also, the students will be keeping a reading journal in which they will write "letters" to me about their books. Forty books is just a goal. Some students will surpass it, and others may not reach it. Other things we will be doing during this time will include skill practice, read alouds, silent reading, grammar focus, and guided reading groups. This will begin next week as we will be checking out books from the library this Wednesday. THIS week in language arts, we will be making a couple of class books related to some read alouds that I will be doing during class.
Spelling: We will begin spelling the week of September 10th. This is due to the short week next week.
Spelling pretests will be given on Monday mornings. If you get more than two words wrong on the pretest, you will be on the base word list. If you get no more than two words wrong on the pretest, you will be assigned the alternate list. Both lists will be posted on my blog weekly. Base words will be on the left, followed by the alternate word on the right. I will go over this with the class before we start on September 10th. Tests are on Friday mornings. We will have a spelling activity each morning to start our day. Students should be expected to study their lists nightly for at least 15 minutes. I have found the 5th grade words to be somewhat challenging and some students who have never studied for spelling in the past, find themselves studying this year. If you find your child struggling on the base list, please let me know and I will modify their list.
Science/Social Studies: In 5th grade we alternate between science and social studies throughout the year. As a team, we have decided to start the year teaching science and our first unit will be weather. We will begin discussing types of weather which will lead into the layers of the atmosphere. We will watch a couple of weather videos this week on the SmartBoard and then begin a project on the layers. We will discuss weather for 4-5 weeks, and then begin our first unit in social studies.
Math Accel.: Mr. Vaid and I will be teaching Math Accel. this year. Mr. Schumann and Ms. Happy will be teaching regular 5th grade math. We will begin switching for math this Wednesday. Math will not look the same as it has in the past. EDM (Every Day Math) will no longer be taught daily, it will only be used as a resource, along with many others. Our district has adopted the Math Common Core Standards. This means that teachers have been given a list of standards that we will be teaching and using a variety of different resources to teach each skill. Do not expect to get homework on a nightly basis as before. We will be pretesting and then using the information from pretests to design our instruction for guided math groups. We will still use quizzes, tests, exit slips, study guides, etc. for math assessments. Mr. LeCrone will be going over this in more detail at curriculum night.
I know that this is a lot of information. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me.
Thank you and have a wonderful week!
Mrs. Bennick
