Thank you to all of the parents who were able to make it to Curriculum
Night! It was great to connect with so many of you. For those of you
who didn't make it or who would like to see the class video again, here
it is:
We are learning about:
Prime Factorization
Blogging
Gathering "seeds" in our writer's notebooks
Monitoring thinking during our reading
Some activities we did this week:
Made factor trees to find the prime factorization of numbers
Unsquared square numbers
Made factor rainbows
Discussed logical consequences for our classroom
Made "reading salads" during reading- text + thinking = real reading
Reviewed fix up strategies for reading
Created timelines of important events in our life
Searched for model blog posts on other class sites
Explored how titles can bring more readers to blog posts
Spent Friday morning inside doing team building challenges
Curriculum Night Please feel free to come to 5V anytime between 6:15 and 6:30 pm on Thursday, September 27th. During this time parents are invited and encouraged to come to chat, look at their child's work and become familiar with the room before the official curriculum night begins. At 6:30, I will begin my presentation (a movie created by your kids about how 5V works). At 7:00, we will go to the library with all of the 5th grade teachers to discuss 5th grade curriculum.
Global Read Aloud
Our class has just signed up for Global Read Aloud! We will be reading The One and Only Ivan along with thousands of other kids around the world. We will connect with others through blogging and Skype about our read aloud experience. You can watch this video for a little more information:
Comment on our blog!
Every Friday students will be blogging about their week in 5V. I'm hoping this will be a chance for families to get a glimpse of what's happening in 5V from the student's perspective and an opportunity to engage in conversations- either on the blog or at home. I encourage you to comment on your child's weekly reflections as often as you'd like and I invite you to share the link with your extended family! The students love getting comments on their posts. www.kidblog.org/msvalentisclass Home learning:
We are easing into our homework routine (or home learning as we're calling it!). Students should be bringing their binder with assignment book back and forth to school each day. Most weeks students can expect the following activities to do at home:
Reading each night
Everyday Math study link or math practice each night
Weekly vocabulary search for 5 words
Weekly blog post (minimum 2 paragraphs)
Weekly comments on other students' blog posts
Weekly spelling routine (to be added in the next couple of weeks)
We are learning about:
Classroom routines and expectations
Factors and divisibility
Blogging
Google docs
Reading and writing workshop
Some activities we did this week:
Made videos on classroom rules using iMovie on the ipads
Voted on our classroom rules
Found factors of numbers
Played "Factor Captor" during math
Began sharing during morning meeting
Created heart maps in writing workshop
Discussed how readers choose books in reading workshop
Celebrated International Dot Day by creating dot murals
Practiced commenting on blog posts
Reflected on our week by blogging
Created a "wordle" during computer time
Started familiarizing ourselves with Google docs
Notes and reminders:
Early release on Wednesday, September 19th
Curriculum night on Thursday, September 27th at 6:30
We would love donations of tissues at any time during the year!
Have a great weekend and please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions, concerns or feedback!
jvalenti@sau16.org
