5V News

5V Photos:
Have you checked out our Flickr site lately?  We are always posting the latest photos of what's happening in our classroom.  Here it is: http://www.flickr.com/photos/msvalentisclass/

Science:
Has your child told you about Science Companion yet?  We are piloting a new science program and we just started this week.  There is a great online component that goes along with our inquiry lessons in class.  Ask your child to log in and show you the work that he or she has done this week.  We had a great time investigating the properties of matter!

IXL:
IXL has been a great resource for us to practice our math concepts and now we are doing a free trial of the language arts component.  Ask your child to show you the topics we have been exploring in both subject areas!

Current curriculum topics:

• Measurement
• Reading nonfiction
• Writing persuasive essays
• Properties of matter

Have a great weekend!  

5V News

We participated in our second Mystery Skype this week! The class was from Iowa and we guessed their location in only 7 questions!  The best part was after we guessed the location we learned several facts about Iowa and we shared important facts about New Hampshire.  It was interesting to see that they were also a class with 1:1 Chromebooks.  This class is now on our blogroll and we have already started commenting on their blog posts.  Ask your child about his or her job during this Skype session!

Curriculum topics:

• Measurement
• Persuasive essay
• European explorers
• Reading nonfiction 

Some activities we did this week:

• Practiced measuring using US customary units
• Converted between customary units 
• Found supporting details for main ideas in our nonfiction texts
• Problem solved unknown words in nonfiction
• Explored the five most common structures of nonfiction text 
• Continued drafting our persuasive essays 
• Met in small groups to help each other revise our persuasive writing
• Finished our explorer information sheets using Google Docs and templates 
• Worked on the first pages in our altered books

Notes and reminders:

• The second quarter closes today, report cards go home Friday, January 31st 
• Spelling bee: Monday, January 27th 

Have a great weekend!

5V News

Happy New Year!  We had a busy week in 5V getting back into the swing of things!  Be sure to check out this week's blog posts- they are definitely our best yet! 5V Kidblog site

Our curriculum topics:

• The metric system
• European explorers
• Reading nonfiction
• Persuasive essay

Some activities we did this week:

• Practiced measuring using the metric system and the customary unit system
• Converted between units in the metric system 
• Continued writing our persuasive essays
• Watched for shifts in verb tense our writing
• Looked at students' blog posts and graded them with our new blogging rubric
• Participated in the Geography Bee with Mr. Fosher 
• Began reading nonfiction in reading
• Followed the steps of previewing a section, predicting the content and activating our prior knowledge in each nonfiction section 
• Determined main ideas after reading a section of nonfiction 
• Chose our books for altered books and began the project! 
• Continued learning during our Genius Hour 

Notes and reminders:

• Second quarter ends Friday, January 17th 
• No school- Monday, January 20th 

Have a great weekend!