I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your support of Grade 5 chapel and Korea Days. These are important events for the school and the class and without your support, they would not be possible. I have to say that I was very proud of the class during the chapel which went off without a hitch. We tried very hard to make it a student led event and upon reflection, we did succeed. I have placed pics in a folder and you can find them here. Please feel free to download all you want.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/18SE0HTyK8aMIrZMW4kqESgonA9lWyDuO?usp=sharing
We are well along in our research report unit. This week we took the time to begin looking at outlining our writing and I was very impressed with what the students came up with. It was more a brainstorming session since the topic of matter is so large, the students cannot possibly cover it all and they are not expected to. I anticipate that we will complete our research on Monday or Tuesday of next week and then it is on the first draft of their actual report. We will be using Google Docs to write this report. It is the first writing they have done this year on the computer and I used this since I want to have lessons on adding in graphs, tables and diagrams. All of these will need to be properly labeled and also cited. We will also begin to look at putting our bibliography together from all the research we have done. While important, it is an abbreviated version we use just to get students use to making sure they cite their sources.
Our reading unit continues to look at complex non-fiction. We used a special article on the Mantis Shrimp this week to continue our look at main ideas and supporting evidence. We also started to look at asking questions and giving our own thoughts about the reading as well. There are articles on deep water lakes, air vents in the ocean floor, historical people and native Americans that will continue to stress these features of complex non-fiction.
We will complete our math unit this coming week with the final math assessment on Tuesday. While the basic arithmetic does not seem to be a problem, when the math is turned into words, I have noticed that many students continue to struggle. We will continue to work through this over the next few chapters of the math program. We have also started to look at the math practices and what they should look like in class. They are designed to give students a framework to work within as we go through our math studies. We should complete these next week. I will also be continuing to have students teach the concept learned on Seesaw each time we finish one. I am really enjoying this as a way to see what they have really understood about the math concept.
Our UOI unit is still working on explaining the results of an experiment. Students should be getting close to finishing this and then we will post the completed project on Seesaw. We also started looking at the Scientific Process this week by reading the first of 6 books. This will continue next week with the last two books and then integrate with reading as there are two graphic novels on the subject they will read. This process is what they will use as they design their own experiment based on one that we have completed in class.
Next week we are fortunate to have a reading specialist in the school and I will be attending several reading labs, learning about reading workshop and also active read-a-louds. This last one really interests me as I fully believe that students learning to read need to be reading out loud. It is the only way that anyone can really tell if learning its happening and also greatly improves fluency in reading. These are areas I am looking for in the reading in my class. We are reading Manic Magee by Jerry Spinelli in class and looking deeply into how it was written and what affect this has on the reader. Doing it all out loud has really been a good way to see what students are getting out of the book.
If you have any questions, please let me know.
