Thank You

Dear 5V families,
Thank you so much for your generosity this holiday season.  I am filled with gratitude after our holiday party knowing that our class has helped so many families in need through the NH Food Bank.  Thank you for your donations.  Also, thank you for the beautiful tree.  I will find a special place to plant it.

Thank you for all that you do for your kids and our classroom, including our holiday party.  I feel truly fortunate to be a part of such a wonderful community.

I hope you all have a great vacation with your amazing kids!  Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

5V News

Holiday Celebration:
We will be having a holiday breakfast on Thursday morning, December 20th.  There will be a book swap and each child should bring in a wrapped book.  Students are welcome to start bringing in books.  Please let me know if you would like help contributing a book and I'd be happy to help- I have many extra books!

Secret Santa:
The students were really interested in doing a "Secret Santa" with the class.  They each picked a name and they are NOT supposed to purchase anything.  They can make or create whatever they'd like and we will reveal on the same day as our holiday party.

Altered books:
Our altered books project is underway and the students are loving it!  It's amazing to see the time, creativity and effort they are putting into this art project.  I am proud of their attention to detail and work during this time.  Ask your child about it!

IXL:
Have you seen IXL yet?  We now have a subscription and students are having fun practicing different math skills.  Ask your child to show you around the site- there is a lot of great information under the "reports" section.

We are learning about:

• The circulatory system
• Geometry
• Personal narrative
• Mystery

Some activities we did this week:

• Reviewed for our unit 3 math test
• Practiced geometry skills in IXL on geometry
• Looked at a real boar's heart and identified the parts 
• Used a thesaurus to find new words for our personal narratives
• Discussed and read examples of red herrings
• Enjoyed latkes, played dreidel and learned a little about Hanukkah 
• Played the headband game to review our circulatory system words
• Created a mystery skype video for an unknown class in the world
• Enjoyed a visit with Ms. Valenti's dad 

Don't forget to check out Flickr for the latest photos and our blog!  

5V News

Tech demo:
Thank you to those parents and students who were able to attend our tech demo on Wednesday.  The students were awesome!

New class books:
Thank you to 5V families for purchasing new books from the book fair for our classroom.  The kids have enjoyed reading all of our new books! 

Holiday book swap and celebration:
We will have a holiday book swap and celebration on Thursday, December 20th.  Our 5V room parents will be contacting you regarding how you can help if you'd like.  I'd also like to do a book swap as part of our celebration.  I'm hoping each student can bring in a new or nearly new wrapped book (without a name) to share with the class.  Each student will leave with a new book to read over the vacation.  As always, feel free to contact me if you are unable to contribute a book and I'd be happy to help.  Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.  

We are learning about:

• Geometry
• Personal narratives
• Mystery
• The circulatory system

Some activities we did this week:

• Practiced setting up dialogue in our narratives
• Read Mole Music to look for words to use to signal time passing
• Began our mystery unit in reading
• Discussed the roles of protagonist and antagonist
• Listened to our heart beats with stethoscopes
• Walked the path of blood through our heart with our 2D heart made of tape on the floor
• Experimented with how exercise affects heart rate 
• Found the sum of degrees in different polygons
• Played "Polyon Capture" and "Angle Tangle" 

Notes and reminders:

• Early release- Wednesday, December 12th 
• Holiday celebration- Thursday, December 20th 

Technology Demo by Students

Please let me know if your son or daughter is able to attend the technology demo for tomorrow night's (Wednesday, December 5th) meeting with the School Board and Financial Advisory Committee.  Any students involved in Chorus will NOT be able to attend as it is the same time as the concert.

The meeting begins at 6:30, so students should try to get to SMS around 6:15 in order to set up. We should be done around 7:00.   Thanks!

5V News

IXL:
We just began using the online math program called IXL in the classroom and students should have logged in from home at least once.  We began on Thursday and already our class has completed over 5,000 math problems!  I encourage you to log in under your child's name to check out their progress.

Here is a student's blog post that has a great description of IXL from the student's perspective:

We started IXL math, and it’s more fun than you think. You get your own log in and password, after you log in you can do many things, like math or games! If you practice 5 minutes or more, you get awards. The awards can be icons or new fun games! I practiced on IXL 5th grade level and I got tons of awards, and I won games! The levels go from preschool to 8th grade, and you can pick any level, not just your grade level.I think IXL is a fun way to practice math, not like xtra math.com which keeps on doing the same math problems over and over again. IXL lets do what ever you want, and you can go onto higher levels when ever you want, you don’t have to pass a special test. Lastly, it lets you create your own user name icon, so that is always fun!

We are learning about:

• Geometry
• The circulatory system
• Personal narrative
• Inferring

Some activities we did this week:

• Practiced measuring angles
• Learned about adjacent and opposite angles 
• Created "a movie behind our eyelids" during writing
• Experimented with three different leads for our personal narratives 
• Put "said to bed" and came up with more effective words for said
• Began Zach's Lie as our new read aloud  
• Practiced inferring using magazine articles
• Inferred character traits based on evidence and our schema
• Watched a Bill Nye video on the heart

Notes and reminders:

• Student helpers needed this Wednesday, December 5th at 6:15
• Chorus concert this Wednesday, December 5th at 6:30 
• It was great to see so many of you at the Book Fair.  Thanks for all of your help!