If you haven’t heard yet, I’m having a boy!  Sasha is thrilled that she won’t have to share her toys and now all her old baby clothes can go to her dolls!

Thank you to all of you who helped out and sent in graham crackers and pretzels for our Book Buddy activity today!  The kids had a lot of fun together!  Also a big THANK YOU to those who have sent in items for our auction! 

Last week interim reports went out for students who are currently struggling in any area.  If your child did not recieve one, he or she is currently achieving on grade level in all areas.  If you have questions or would like to conference, please email me at akaiser@wcpss.net . 

We will be having a geometry math test on Tuesday of next week.  Students should be practicing in the geometry section of Study Island.  Following this unit we will be focusing on fractions.

We will continue to work on our reading skills during the Daily 5 and we will be learning more  questioning skills, fact and opinion and sequencing.  In writing we will be working on a really fun activity to understand and write an persuasive piece.

 TUESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2011 CLASSROOM BOOK SWAP

It is the season of giving, and the students would love to celebrate together! Please bring a new or gently used, wrapped book to class sometime during the next few weeks. We’ll have hot cocoa, cookies and snacks, and then play a game in which everyone will win a book! Parents, please let me know if your child will not be able to participate for any reason, or if you cannot get a book in time (I do have a few extras). If you’d like to send in some cookies, cheese, fruit or other snacks (we’ve got plenty of crackers, vanilla wafers, hot cocoa and marshmallows) please email me what you’ll send in.

This quarter is speeding by!  I can’t believe that interims will go out next week! 

We will finish up our science unit this week.  Our test will be on Friday.  I will post a couple of videos that will help the student’s review, if you are unable to open them, please let me know and I’ll give them time at school to watch them.  Next week we will start switching for social studies with Mrs. Sardiello’s class.  There will be a lot of online work for her for this unit, so again, if there are any problems, just let me know and they can work on it for morning work if necessary.

We are moving into geometry again in math.  It looks like this unit will take about 2 weeks so check your child’s agenda next week to see when the test is.  We will write it in the agenda several days in advance.  After this unit we’ll be focused on adding and subtracting with fractions.

In addition to our Daily 5 routine in reading we will be studying Cause and Effect, Problem and Solution,  Inferencing, Drawing Conclusions and Generalizing.  Students will continue to write their reading response letters to me as well.

In writing we are finishing up our Expository essays on weather.  These are very difficult essays involving a lot of research, revising and typing!

For the next 3 weeks our Team Time will focus on infering.  Ask your child which teacher they are with this time!  The kids really benefited from the extra main idea lessons and we’re looking foreward to more success in inferring!

Please let me know by email or note if you need or would like a conference.  Give me a couple of dates and times that you are available, and I will do my best to accomodate.

And now on the big news .  .  .  As many of you already know or heard, yes, I am pregnant!  John, Sasha and I are very excited!   Sasha is adamant that it is a girl but we will find out for certain next Wednesday.   I am due in April and it looks like we may already have a sub lined up.  I will let you know as soon as everything is finalized.

I hope everybody had a GREAT track out!  I can’t wait to hear about all the adventures that everyone has had over the past few weeks!

Get ready to hit the ground running on Monday! 

During the next few weeks:

• We’ll be starting our new science unit of Motion and Design.  We’ll be working with Kinex to build a car and rubber bands to make it move.  This is an intro to physics.
• In writing we’ll be focused on expository pieces.  Ask the kids to tell you about their “Golden Bricks”
• Reading will have us studying biographies and conducting research.
• We’ll continue with Unit 3 in Math which covers fractions, decimals and graphing

 Something new 5th grade is doing this quarter is “Team Time”.  Students will take a pre-test on a specific objective and then will be divided into groups based on their skill level.  For example, before we tracked out our students took a pre-test on main idea.  Now they are grouped according to how they scored on that pre-test.  Some students stay with me, others go to Mrs. Arbogast, Mr. Roach, Mrs. Kettler, Mrs. Jones or Mrs. Sardiello.  They will be in that teacher’s class from 3:00-3:45 (and be dismissed from there) for 3 weeks, when we will have another pre-test and switch to another objective.  Please feel free to email me if you have any questions.

Olive-Chapel-DC-2-2ivexjn

Need-to-Know-About-Washington-17bipu3

Wow!  Our trip is NEXT WEEK! 

The students will need to print out and complete the following packet.  It is due on Tuesday of next week.  If you are unable to print it out at home please let me know and I’ll print it out here, but it is a large packet and we are trying to conserve paper here at the school.

Washington Field Trip Packet

For you parents, here is the information you will need to help your child get ready for the trip.  Please note that there are no electronics allowed.  This is WCPSS Board policy, and includes cell phones, hand held games and such.  Chaperones will have their cell phones and I will be collecting their numbers and distributing a call sheet so that you or your child can be in contact in case of emergency. 

Need to Know About Washington

We will be having a math test tomorrow!  This is our Unit 2 test that will cover area and perimeter of parallelograms and triangles.  The really should practice “Alien Angles” a game that’s linked under “Quizzes and Assignments”.   They can also practice measuring angles on Study Island.

On Friday, we will also have a retest for those how scored a 1 or a 2 on the Science test.  They should work on the science section of Study Island under Landforms.   They are also welcome to take a Science Coach book home to review.

We are continueing to work on our CROP-QV skills in reading and the Daily 5 is going well.  The kids are enjoying having some choice in their activities during reading time.  We’ve had to take a few days to tweek things and make sure we are doing things correctly, like paired reading and our reading response letters. 

This week in writing we are finishing up our focus on elaborating the main event and will move onto writing strong endings.  Next week we will be putting it all together and writing a complete narrative piece.

If you would like to have a conference, please email me.  I’ll be happy to meet with you, just give me a couple of dates and times and I’ll do my best to accomodate you!

Stay tuned for more information on the DC trip!

Here is the highly anticipated chaperone list!  I will be sending home more information about the DC trip next week, so be ready!  Second payments and chaperone payments will be due Friday, September 2nd.  Don’t forget our trip is Sept 22 and 23, it’s coming quick!

Karen Hogan will have Megan and Yongyong

Lisa Allen will have Caitlin, Lilly, Margaret and Emily

Leigh Ann Cassavant will have Helen, Julie, Madeline and Billie

Abir Dabbagh will have Neda and Sami

Holly Ritch will have Anastazia, Marquita, Jada and Saniya

Bryan Thomas will have Kyle, Garrett, Jack and Jared

Heather Brown will have Wesley and Ted

Mike Evans will have Lucas, Dominic, Michael and Justin

Jenny Ross will have Nick, Jennings and John Hart

Please make sure you have September 22nd and 23rd marked on your calendars!  Those are the dates of the Washington DC field trip.  We do not know right now how many chaperones we will be allowed to take.  If you (parents) are hoping to be a chaperone, please make sure that you have registered to be a Level 4 volunteer with WCPSS.  If you have questions about how to register, please email me (akaiser@wcpss.net) and I will help you out. Click the link below to see a tentative itinerary of the trip.

Olive Chapel DC #2

If you have questions, post a comment oremail me.

What a fun first day this was!  It was great getting to know you all a bit and I can’t wait to see what this year will bring!

Be ready to jump into multiplication review tomorrow, as well as interviewing, writing, and landforms!  It’s going to be a lot of fun. 

We’ll also start our read aloud tomorrow, I’m pretty sure it will be FableHaven.

What did you think?  How was your first day of 5th grade????