Thank you

Dear 5W families,
Thank you for an incredible year with your children!  This was an amazing class and I truly loved coming to work each day because of your children.  It was a special year and we had so much fun while learning from each other.  They are an exceptional group of kids that I will never forget.

Thank you for your support throughout the year and your generous class gift.  The flowers are beautiful, I've already been using the bag and I can't wait to use the Exeter gift certificate!  Thank you again for your thoughtful gift!

Please pass along this link to your children.  It is a slideshow I created about our year that can be found on Youtube: 5W 2014-2015   All photos from the slideshow can also be found on my Flickr page as individual photos: Flickr 5W 2014-2015 

Please stay in touch and thank you again!
Jessica

Last few days!

• Tomorrow is track and field day for fifth graders!  Our class should wear green and be prepared to be outside most the day!  
• We hope to see you Thursday at 11:30 for our play performance in the classroom and bridge judging.  
• The fifth grade celebration is Thursday at 6:30 in the cafeteria.  Students should arrive at 6:15 in the library.
• The final parade walkout will be Friday at 2:45

5W News

Happy Friday!  Has your child talked to you about our play, Revivor: Philadelphia? We have already started practicing and singing songs!  Next week we will begin our bridges project where the students will be put in construction teams with the goal of building the strongest toothpick bridge.  

Here are the events for the rest of the year: 
June 1- Grandparent lunch
June 4 and 5- Nurse Lily talk on puberty
June 8- CMS guidance visits us
June 11- Field day
June 12- Odiorne Point field trip (all are welcome to attend and meet us there- we will be there from about 9:30 until 2:00) 
June 15- Field trip to CMS
June 18- Play and bridge presentation 11:30 in our classroom
June 18- 5th grade celebration 6:30 cafeteria
June 19- last day and final walk out of the school at 2:30

Have a great weekend! 

5W News

Thank you to everyone who joined us yesterday on our Boston field trip!  It was an awesome day!

The end of the year is upon us and we are busier than ever!  We are still uncovering the events of the American Revolution, reading for our book groups and writing an informational piece on the American Revolution.  We will have our last math test next week on multiplying and dividing fractions.  We will also try to squeeze some ecology in there, too!

As June begins we will begin working on our class play- "Revivor: Constitution" as we learn about our nation forming a government.  We will also be forming construction teams to construct toothpick bridges to see who can create the strongest bridge!

Here are the events for the rest of the year: 
June 1- Grandparent lunch
June 4 and 5- Nurse Lily talk on puberty
June 8- CMS guidance visits us
June 11- Field day
June 12- Odiorne Point field trip (all are welcome to attend and meet us there)
June 15- Field trip to CMS
June 18- Play and bridge presentation 11:30 in our classroom
June 18- 5th grade celebration 6:30 cafeteria
June 19- last day and final walk out of the school at 2:30

Boston Field Trip

Good Morning!  We have two parents- Robyn Gillis and Heidi Bunnell that were chosen by lottery to join us on the bus for our field trip.  All other parents are welcome and encouraged to attend and meet us in Boston!  If you are driving and plan on bringing home your child from Boston you must fill out a form in the office before we leave- no exceptions will be made.  

Here is our schedule for the day:

7:45 Students arrive at SMS
8:00 Leave SMS
10:00-11:00 Boston Tea Party Museum
11:00 Walk to Boston Common and eat lunch
12:00-2:00 Meet docent for two hour walking tour (Freedom Trail)
2:15 Board bus on Commercial Street near skating rink
2:30 Arrive at Bunker Hill Monument
3:30 Board bus back to SMS
4:15 Arrive back at SMS

Parents meeting us there will have to pay separate admission to:

Boston Tea Party Museum
Freedom Trail  (the docents collect the money and actually never really check but...maybe bring cash for a tip? They are usually pretty amazing...)
Bunker Hill Monument (only if you want to climb)

Let me know if you have any questions!  Thank you!

5V News

Happy May!  We are back at it and fully immersed in the American Revolution (and fractions!).  I love this time of year leading up to our field trip to Boston!  We are reading historical fiction novels in book groups that take place during the time of the Revolution, we are studying the events and people of the time and eventually we will be writing about a topic of choice within the American Revolution.  Our overarching question is, "What is the story of the American Revolution?" and we are starting with a blank timeline on the back wall.  Students will be exploring the different perspectives of different people using text sets- primary sources, podcasts, photos, songs, trade books, videos and making their own meaning of The American Revolution.

Boston field trip:
Thank you for getting those permission slips back!  We will do a lottery next week to see which parents will be joining us on the bus!  All parents are welcome and encouraged to attend by meeting us in Boston.  I will give more information about the itinerary as it gets closer.

Upcoming dates:
May 21- Boston field trip
June 1- Grandparent lunch
June 8- CMS guidance visits us (date change)
June 11- Field day at Stratham Hill Park
June 12- Odiorne field trip
June 15- Field trip to CMS
June 18- parents invited to classroom (time TBD)
June 18- 5th grade celebration 6:30
June 19- last day and 5th grade parade (final walk out of the building) 2:30

5V News

Happy vacation!  I hope you enjoy a wonderful week with your families!  It's hard to believe how little school there is left but we have a lot to do with a lot of exciting things happening!

Upcoming: 
After we get back from vacation we will be getting back into American history by watching "The War That Made America" to explore The French and Indian War and then it's on to the American Revolution!  

We will be immersed in the American Revolution in reading, writing and social studies.  It's one of my favorite units of the year and our Boston field trip is a perfect experience to complement this learning!  

Dates:

May 21- Boston field trip with Ms. Hodgdon's class
June 1- Grandparent's lunch
June 8- CMS guidance visits us (notice revised date)
June 11- Field day at Stratham Hill Park
June 12- Field trip to Odiorne
June 14- Visit CMS
June 18- 5th grade celebration/graduation and parent visit during the school day
June 19- last day of school 

Thank you!

Dear 5V families,

Thank you so much for helping your children throw me a surprise bridal shower!  I was taken aback by the kids' thoughtfulness, attention to detail and careful planning.  It was such a fun time and I truly felt the love from all of them and all of you!  Your children have helped add another whole level of excitement to this time in my life and I appreciate every single one of them.  You have amazing kids!  Thank you so much from both me and Kevin.  

5V News

Happy Friday!  This week we have been busy with Smarter Balanced testing and Jeff Warner.  Thank you to those of you that have returned the Student Work Release Form for my work with Lesley University and Mary Ann Cappiello and Erica Dawes.  It would be great if I could get those back by next week.  Please let know if you need another copy.

Just a reminder that your child's memory book page is due by next Friday, April 24th.

Please join us next Thursday evening in the library at 6:30 for a Jeff Warner sing-along.  It's a fun time every year!

Thanks and have a great weekend!

Research Study

Dear parents,
I am excited to let you know that I am part of a group of teachers at SMS collaborating with Lesley University Graduate School of Education professors Dr. Mary Ann Cappiello and Dr. Erika Thulin Dawes, focusing on the use of text sets, collections of print and digital resources for literacy and content area study.  Dr. Cappiello and Dr. Dawes are writing a book tentatively entitled Teaching Writing with Text Sets. Together, we have been exploring a variety of texts to consider for use in our classroom and designing projects for students. This joint effort not only provides us with direct professional development, but deepens the work that we do with your children.

As part of our collaboration, Dr. Cappiello and Dr. Dawes will be documenting our classroom work. They may record or view recordings of classroom discussions in order to capture student questions, discussions, and knowledge-building; they may also photograph classroom activities and scan student work samples. The evidence of student learning will become an important piece of the work that they will share in their forthcoming book. Dr. Cappiello and Dr. Dawes may also write journal articles and / or do conference presentations about our work together. 

Next week I will send home permission forms requesting your permission to have your child’s work included, under pseudonym, in their book, journal publications, and / or conference presentations. Additionally, the form requests your permission to allow photographs of your child to appear in their book. Your child will not be identified by name in any publication or presentation.

You are not required to grant permission for your child to participate in this classroom based research study. There will be no penalty to you or your child if you choose not to participate. You may also choose to withdraw from participating at any time by notifying me.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. Thank you!

5V News

It has been wonderful meeting with all of you during parent conference time!  We have started Smarter Balanced testing and the students have been doing so well working hard during that time.  I've had a lot of questions about end of the year activities and dates because we have so much going on!  I've included a list of important dates that we know so far- I'm sure there will be more to come!

April 15- Early release

April 23- Jeff Warner evening sing-along 6:30 pm in the library

April 27-May 1 Vacation

May 14- CMS guidance counselors visit us

May 21- Boston field trip with Ms. Hodgdon's class

June 12- Field trip to Odiorne 

June 14- Visit CMS 

June 18- 5th grade celebration/graduation and parent visit during the school day 

June 19- last day of school 

Have a great weekend!

5V News

Parent Conferences:
I am looking forward to meeting with you!  You can find the final schedule here:  SPRING CONFERENCES 

Smarter Balanced Testing:
5th grade begins testing next week.  Here is the schedule of testing:

4/8- 9:00 ELA (English Language Arts)
4/10- 9:00 ELA, 1:30 ELA
413- 9:00 ELA
4/14- 9:45 ELA
4/16-8:45 MATH
4/17-8:45 MATH
4/20- 9:30 MATH
4/21- 8:45 MATH

Upcoming dates:

• Early releases Wednesday 4/8 and Wednesday 4/15
• Evening Jeff Warner sing-along Thursday 4/23 at 6:30 pm in the library
• Jump Rope for Heart Friday 4/24

Have a great weekend! 

5V News

Parent Conferences:
Parent conferences begin in a couple of weeks.  Here is the schedule so far: PARENT CONFERENCES SPRING 2015  Don't forget to sign up!

Curriculum topics:

• Fractions
• Fantasy book clubs
• Properties of matter

Some activities we did this week:

• Compared and ordered fractions
• Practiced putting fractions in simplest form
• Used pattern blocks to convert between mixed numbers and improper fractions
• Found a mathematical way to convert between mixed numbers and improper fractions
• Met with our fantasy book clubs
• Discussed how our main characters are multi-faceted and have both strengths and flaws
• Tried to uncover what motivates our main characters in our fantasy books
• Finished our read aloud- Something Upstairs by Avi
• Calculated density by finding the mass of an object and divided it by the volume
• Found the density of materials in relation to water
• Began discussing how matter changes states
• Held our own 5V book swap!  

Upcoming:

• Our Smarter Balanced testing will begin Wednesday, April 8th and will continue until April 21st- I will get a schedule out next week 
• Our 5th grade Artist in residence- Jeff Warner- will begin with us on Monday, April 13th.  More information on Jeff can be found here: http://www.jeffwarner.com/

Thanks and have a great weekend!  

5V News

Parent conferences begin the second week of April!  Please use this link to sign up: SPRING CONFERENCES 2015

We are learning about:

• Fractions
• Reading fantasy books
• Properties of matter 

Some activities we did this week:

• Discovered the rule for finding equivalent fractions
• Played "Rolling, rolling, rolling" to practice finding equivalent fractions
• Conducted an investigation to prove that air takes up space
• Experimented to find which materials are denser than water
• Met with our fantasy reading groups
• Discussed how the "dragons" in our fantasy books are often metaphors for something else
• Mystery Skyped with a college class from Southern New Hampshire!
• Began practicing for the Smarter Balanced assessment 

Notes and reminders:

• Next week is Read Across America Week!  Monday is wear crazy socks, Tuesday is wear your favorite hat, Wednesday is wear mismatch clothes, Thursday is dress up as your favorite book character, Friday is drop everything and read day! 

Have a great weekend!

Parent Conferences

Parent conferences will begin the second week of April.  Please use this link: PARENT CONFERENCES to sign up for a conference time.  Thank you!

5V News

What's happening in 5V....

So this is what full week of school feels like!  We've been hard at work exploring properties of matter, using thinking stems to communicate our reading comprehension strategies and understanding the different properties of polygons.

Reading: Book clubs! Next week we will begin fantasy book clubs and students will expected to be reading at home (and at school) and coming to their book club meetings prepared to discuss the planned section of reading.

Blogging: It's time to raise the quality of our blogs!  Students will now have a blogging rubric to accompany their biweekly blog posts for homework.  We have spent a lot of time looking at the rubric and looking at several examples of student blogging so that students understand the expectations.  They should be filling out the rubric based on their blog post and both should be completed by the end of the week.

Math: We are finishing up geometry and we will start working on volume next week both in math and science.  After that will be fractions!

Smarter Balanced: Our Smarter Balanced testing begins mid-April with English Language Arts first and then Math.  This will be our first time taking the test and it will be a learning experience for everyone!  We will begin "practicing" soon so that students become familiar with test taking on the Chromebooks and how to manipulate the different screens of the test.

Thanks and have a wonderful weekend!

5V News

We are learning about:

• Geometry
• Reading strategies
• Writing a research-based argument
• Matter

Some activities we did this week:

• Classified polygons, triangles and quadrilaterals
• Watched and (sang along to!) music videos on geometry
• Activated our schema (prior knowledge) while listening to the song "Rachel Delavoryas" 
• Inferred about who Ms. Valenti's new neighbors are by using their recycling
• Practicing using our schema and inferring during independent reading
• Moved toward finishing our research-based argument essays
• Discovered the differences between solids, liquids and gases 
• Began listing and understanding the properties of matter
• Participated in a Mystery Skype!  

Have a wonderful vacation with your families!  

5V News

We are learning about:

• Angles
• Reading comprehension strategies
• Writing research-based argument essays
• Matter

Ask your child about:

• Measuring and drawing angles
• Playing the game "Angle Tangle"
• Our science website, Science Companion, that we will be using for our matter unit
• Reading the book Don't Laugh at Me
• What a "reading salad" is
• Metacognition 
• Our read aloud book, Something Upstairs by Avi
• His or her final colony commercial 
• The Red Book 
• The electronic field trip we watched live from Colonial Williamsburg- "When Freedom Came" 

Check out our colony commercials!  Here's the link: http://kidblog.org/class/SMS5V/posts?tag=colonycommercial

Thanks and have a great weekend! 

5V News

Well...it was a very short week in 5V!  The highlight was definitely Innovation Day!  I was so impressed with the students' work, engagement, enjoyment and enthusiasm!  The photos of the day in progress and the final products can be seen here on our Flickr page.  Look for blog posts next week where we will reflect on Innovation Day.

Valentine's Day:
You should be hearing from our room parent soon about contributing to our class party that will be held on Friday, February 13th.  Students are welcome to bring in Valentines and even candy (but of course I will attempt to limit their consumption during the school day) for all students in the class.  The class blog site (www.kidblog.org/SMS5V) is a great place to get a list of student names in the class.

Once we get back into the swing of things here is what's coming up next...

• Finishing up our 13 colony commercials (look for those on the blog soon!) 
• Starting our next science unit on matter 
• Two dimensional geometry 
• Revisiting some comprehension strategies and then book clubs in reading
• Continuing our research-based argument essays in writing 

A few other things...

• For the remainder of the year our word study/ spelling cycle will last 2 weeks instead of 1 week.  We are finding we are not getting in enough class time with the words and patterns.  
• Vocabulary search- you may have noticed your child now has a vocabulary search as a part of homework.  Each week they will be presented with either a word root, prefix or suffix and students should find 5 words that "fit" the meaning for the week.  The purpose is exposure to these word roots, prefixes and suffixes to enhance their reading but also to expand their writing.  Students are welcome to use any source to find the words but they should understand the definitions if they are writing them down :)  

Have a great weekend!  

Snowshoeing again!

5V is lucky enough to snowshoe again tomorrow!  Students will need to come prepared to snowshoe during P.E. at 10:20 and parents are welcome to join!

Snowshoeing!

What an awesome day!

Snowshoeing on Friday

I hope everyone is enjoying the snow!  5V will likely be snowshoeing during P.E. on Friday.  The kids should come prepared with snow pants, jackets, gloves, hats and boots.

Innovation Day

Innovation Day will now be on Monday, February 2nd.  Thank you!

5V News

Happy Friday! A reminder that Innovation Day will take place next Friday, January 30th.  Be sure to look for a lot of photos and videos that day on our Flickr account:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/msvalentisclass/.  Your child will spend the day learning and creating on a topic of his or her choice.  Many students are planning to bring some supplies from home and those can come in anytime prior to Friday.  Be sure to ask your child what question he or she will be exploring that day!  Here's what we are thinking so far:


Upcoming:

• Our next Mystery Skype on Monday!
• Report cards go home next Friday, January 30th 

Have a great weekend!  

5V News

We are learning about:

• Order of operations
• Reading nonfiction
• Writing research-based arguments
• 13 Colonies

Ask your child about:

• "Colonial Idol" we watched live and voted for the winner
• How cake and icing fits into our research-based arguments
• 13 colony commercials we are researching and creating on WeVideo 
• Self-assessing ourselves using the report card
• Our order of operations puzzles (pictured below)

Notes and reminders:

• The second quarter closes today, report cards go home on Friday, January 30th
• Innovation Day is Friday, January 30th
• 5th grade vs. faculty basketball game is March 5th 

Have a great weekend! 

5V News

Curriculum topics:

• Reading nonfiction
• Research-based argument writing 
• 13 colonies 
• Order of operations 

Coming up....Innovation Day! 
What is Innovation Day?  

For a whole day, students will get to choose what they want to study, decide on what resources they will need for their learning, and design and plan a project that demonstrates what they have learned. Teachers guide students in developing higher level questions based on their interests.  Students will generate a list of materials they will need to bring from home to complete their projects and they will also create a list of resources they need from school. Our Innovation Day will be Friday, January 30th.

During Innovation Day, teachers will facilitate, coach, question and guide.  

The final step in our Innovation Day will be the presentation of projects.  We think that placing students projects on display the following morning for the other fifth graders to view would add to the importance of such an opportunity.  Projects will also be documented through pictures and videos.

How will we grade and evaluate the work?

We won’t!  The purpose and focus of Innovation Day is the learning.  It is not intended to have a rubric attached to it, nor should students be trying to figure out how to achieve an “A”.  

Notes and reminders:

• Quarter 2 closes on January 16th and report cards go home January 30th

Have a great weekend!

Thank you and Happy New Year!

Dear 5V families,
I hope you had a wonderful holiday and vacation with your families!  I would like to thank all of you for the class gift.  I truly appreciate your donation to the NH Food Bank and I know it's such an important time of year to help that organization.  I would also like to thank you for my gift certificate to downtown Portsmouth.  It will be put to good use!  Thank you again for your kindness and generosity.  Happy New Year!
Jessica