5V News

It's been another busy week in 5V!  It was great to meet with so many of you during parent conferences. Hopefully you've had a check to check out some photos and videos of our time with Jeff Warner on our flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/msvalentisclass/

A few reminders and upcoming dates:

• Report cards go home today
• CMS guidance counselors visit SMS- Tuesday, May 8th
• Trip to CMS- Monday, May 21st
• Boston Freedom Trail field trip- Tuesday, May 22nd (more info on this soon)

Have a great vacation!  

5V News

We are having a great time with Jeff Warner this morning in our classroom!  We have been singing songs, playing instruments and learning about our country's history.  Check out http://www.flickr.com/photos/msvalentisclass/ for the latest photos and videos. You can also check out Jeff's website to learn more about him: http://www.jeffwarner.com/

We are learning about:

• Fractions
• Persuasive essay
• 13 colonies
• Matter
• "Reading" characters

Some activities we did this week:

• Looked critically at magazine advertisements with Mr. Fosher during Life Skills
• Enjoyed singing and learning with Jeff Warner. 
• Played "Fraction Action, Fraction Friction" during math
• Practiced adding and subtracting fractions
• Experimented with calculators and fractions
• Worked on our glogs to persuade colonists to move to our colonies
• Watched a Bill Nye video on the phases of matter
• Built our schema for matter
• Continued writing our persuasive essays 
• Experimented with different leads for our essays

Notes and reminders:

• Jeff Warner evening sing-along- Thursday, April 19th at 6:30
• Jump Rope for Heart- Friday, April 20th
• Report cards go home- Friday, April 20th  

5V News

Parent conferences:

Parent conferences begin the week of Monday, April 9th.  Please check out our class wiki for available times and to sign up.  You should have received an email invitation.  You can also request to join the wiki or email me with a time you would like and I can sign up for you.
http://msvalenti.wikispaces.com/April+conferences


We are learning about:

• Fractions
• New England, Middle and Southern colonies
• Persuasive essay
• "Reading" characters

Some activities we did this week:

• Decided the purpose and audience for our persuasive essays
• Chose three reasons to support our opinion
• Began researching to find evidence to support our three reasons
• Reflected on the third quarter by self-assessing using our report cards from last term
• Selected a colonial region to study more in-depth
• Started designing a Glogster on our colonial region
• Reviewed for and took our unit 7 math test
• Played "build it" during math to practice ordering fractions 
• Noticed how other characters treat the main character during read aloud and reading workshop
• Enjoyed the fifth grade band and chorus concert
• Played wiffle ball with the whole fifth grade to celebrate opening day 
  

Notes and reminders:

• Parent conferences begin the week of April 9th
• Jeff Warner (our fifth grade artist in residence) evening performance: Thursday, April 19th at 6:30
• Report cards go home Friday, April 20th   
• Jump Rope for Heart- Friday, April 20th 
• April vacation- week of April 23rd