Hello Heroes' Parents!

You may have already heard, but the winning table was the Radical Readers! They chose for the classroom to receive an aquarium as a reward. They will also have the opportunity to name the fish and tend to their needs the first week of having them in our classroom. Hurray! They are a little bit scared from the trip, but I guarantee there are 3 Tetra in the aquarium :)! Throughout the year table-groups will have the opportunity to win more fish or a venus fly trap!

The students have been working very hard in Animationish creating their Rube Goldbergs. It has been a fun and tedious process! Ask your student how energy transfers are used in their Rube Goldberg!!

We are continuing to work on reading skills and strategies, such as, re-reading for understanding, writing summaries, and practicing fluency. Check out our new bulletin board to help us keep track of our goals and identify our strengths and areas of improvement. 

In Math, we are still going over methods of adding, subtracting, and estimating. Create opportunities for your student to estimate at home. For example, you may have students measure favorite objects around the house. Then ask your student to round to the nearest, ones, tens, hundreds, or hundredths! 

Have a Happy Wildcat Week, I know we will!!!

Scholastic Book Orders

I have already sent out an email regarding this information. Here is another reference for ordering Scholastic books online! Online orders are greatly appreciated. However, I will accept backpack orders as well. Thanks :-)

Scholastic Book Clubs Ordering Information
www.scholastic.com/bookclubs
Class Activation Code: LH82B

Ordering online is fast and easy:

•  REGISTER at www.scholastic.com/bookclubs
•  ENTER the Class Activation Code in red
•  CHOOSE from thousands of print titles, value packs, and Storia eBooks
•  SUBMIT the order to your child's teacher
•  EARN FREE Books for you and the classroom too!

Dear Families,

     
           Can you believe a month of school is already finished!?! October 1st students will discover who wins this month's fish/venus fly trap prize. The students are ecstatic! There is a speed race to the finish. Radical Readers and the Funtastic Wildcats are in the lead.

           In grammar, students are practicing their learning by writing letters to their friends. Besides writing letters, we are learning how to write a complex sentence, or a sentence that includes a conjunction, such as, before, while, although, since, or when. The students have a test on this weeks grammar tomorrow. However, students will have many opportunities to practice their new grammar skills in WEX, reading, and grammar assignments as the year progresses.

          To illustrate energy transfers, students are creating Rube Goldbergs with a program called "Animationish." Many students showed interest in making Rube Goldbergs at home. Watch this video to see what a real-life Rube Goldberg could look like! Wow!!

          For math parents, students are working on estimation and computation. Look out for a family letter from your student tomorrow.

          Thanks again for all your help and support. Feel free to leave comments or email me with any questions.


                                                                                    Sincerely,


                                                                                    Ms. Hasan

                                             

       

A wonderful week!

In Science, we continue to explore energy. We have been conducting Heat Energy Transfers. Ask your student what experiments they conducted this week!

Through WEX, we have been having a ton of fun expanding our writing. This week we learned the difference between a "telling" sentence and a "showing" sentence. I've been encouraging students to expand their writing by focusing on a single moment and using showing sentences to express information.

We wrapped up this week's Reading and Grammar lessons and began reading Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan. Esperanza Rising is a historical fiction that tells the story of a young girl growing up on her family's vineyard in Mexico in 1920. As a series of unfortunate events unfold, Esperanza's family ends up having to move to the United States to work in crop fields. The story discusses issues of equality, social issues, and justice. Along with giving a picture of what life was like during the Great Depression. 

In Math, we are wrapping up Unit 1. This week we discussed squares and square roots, factor strings, and prime factorization. 

Have a wonderful weekend!!

Edmodo

We have begun using Edmodo as an education tool. This week, I taught students how to upload a word processing document (word, pages, etc). Now students have the option to finish their homework as a word document and attach it to Edmodo. If word documents are not available at home, students have the option to turn in homework by writing the information directly in the Edmodo text box. Next week all grammar and vocabulary homework assignments will be handed in through Edmodo!

We are all Scientists!

This week we learned that we are all scientists! Students usually depict a scientist as a man, wearing a lab coat, and carrying a beaker. We discover, we wonder, we think, we try, we observe, and we record. Therefore, we are all scientists! Please encourage your child to discover the world around them by asking questions.

Today we experimented on various energy transfers:

In Math, we have been learning about factors, factor pairs, and divisibility. Today we took a quiz to celebrate what we have learned thus far in Unit 1 of Everyday Math.

In Langauge Arts, we explored the tall tale of Davy Crockett, By Rosalyn Schanzer. We discussed such strategies as analyzing text structure, cause and effect, and think and compare. In addition, we have been working with subject and predicate in our grammar lessons. Our vocabulary words are advertisement, commenced, elected, fireball, impress, original, sauntered, and wring.  Encourage your student to use these words in a sentence.

The 5th graders will be going to Mrs. Conway's a.m. Kindergarten class every first Friday of the month to help with reading and various projects!! Today we had a blast! The Kindergarteners read to us and we read to the Kindergartens! Ask your student what books they chose to read!

Happy Friday!!!!