Recognize anyone below?  J

We’re working on getting the kinks worked out. I have a lot of them. J  My learning curve this week: I need the students ACTIVE when I give instructions, so we are standing up frequently. Don’t be surprised to hear about doing jumping jacks or running in place next week. I also have them “repetir despues de mi, por favor” to try to ensure they have the information correct. And finally, we have ASSIGNMENT NOTEBOOKS.  I am going to require they have them signed the first month of school.  This will begin next week (Tuesday).

5^th Graders:  Overall, we’re on a good path to understanding each other. The girls are getting along well and supporting each other, encouraging each other. There are only 7 of them (in both grades). The boys, because there are more, are still trying to find that friend or group. I’m hearing of some disagreements on the playground, but I’m also seeing a lot of students offering to engage others in games or just “hanging out”.  Don’t worry…we’ll get there!! Keep in mind: These students have kind hearts.

6^th Graders:  WOW! They are so helpful and supportive, both of the 5th graders and me.  I’m sure some of the question answering and practice of routines is not their favorite part of the day, but they are troopers and are patient with us. I have really appreciated ALL of them and their extensions of support, in many ways, to the 5^th graders.

Blue or black pens:

Please send these to school if your child does not have one. They wrote it down in their assignment notebooks if they needed it.

Absences:

Please let the office know when your kids will be gone even if you told me verbally, by email, or over the phone.  I sometimes get busy during the day and forget to relay the message. J Muchas gracias!

NWEA Schedule

Monday, September 10^th: 1-3 PM                LANGUAGE

Thursday, September 13^th: 8:30-11:00      READING

Monday, September 17^th: 1-3 PM                MATH

If you would like to provide a healthy snack on these days for the entire class, email me. In the past some parents have brought: half bananas, granola bars, trail mix (please provide cupcake papers; I can divide them up), Chex Mix, orange halves, or anything that your child likes.

Thursday, September 6^th: Open House, Book Fair, Ice Cream Social from 5:30-7:00  I will do a general informational piece for parents @ 5:30. 6^th grade parents: I will ask you to stay after the general one so that I can explain what happens with 6^th graders at Poly Drive. They have some special events as the year progresses. Mrs. Reitz talked to them today (Friday) about this.

Wednesday & Thursday, September 12^th  & 13^th : All BPS 5^th graders take a writing assessment. We will do this part in the afternoon. It is an idea-generating session. The actual writing will be on Thursday.

PINK SLIPS: These are purely a communication between you, me, and your child, letting you know that there was an “OOPS” moment. For example, if you did not sign your child’s assignment notebook indicating that your child spent at least 20 minutes on the challenge math paper, then they would (in the future) receive a pink slip. My expectation is that you have a visit with them about why things were not done, sign it, and have them return it to me the next day.

The following is a brief summary of the lesson plans I have for next week. If you need more specific information that you are not getting from your child, please call.  J

Reading

I will be assessing students and grouping them with our new reading series.

Language

We will be doing expository writing and discussing the difference between expository and narrative writing. We also have a poem we are working on.

Latin Word Root (LWR) ALL students received a 100% on their first LWR quiz!  J

Next week’s words & definitions are at the end of the blog.

 Cursive practice sheet: Students were given a practice sheet on which to trace cursive letters today. If your child learned cursive at their home school, this is just a reference sheet. If they did not, they should practice these 5 minutes-5 days/week.  Cursive writing is an expectation on spelling tests in my class.

Spelling

words & sentences are listed at the end of the blog

Personal spelling words will begin this week. These are words that the students misspell throughout the week (or use the incorrect form: there, their, they’re). They receive these the first day of the week (Tuesday for this upcoming week). They are expected to study them. On Friday, I will give the regular test. Then I will give the personal spelling words or pair them up and have their partner give the personal spelling words to them. Not everyone will have them, but IF THEY DO, they will be taped in their assignment notebooks on TUESDAY.

6^th grade: Unit 2 (words below)

5^th grade: Week 2—Words and sentences were handed out on Friday, August 31, 2012.

Math

Geometry Quiz: Wednesday It is on terminology. They have the words/definitions/examples in their books.

MMC (Monday Math Challenge): Will be on Tuesday. This is an assignment!  Requirements:

1. Spend at least 20 minutes on it at home!
2. The child will write a sentence in the assignment notebook that says: "_____ spent at least 20 minutes on the MMC." If the statement/signature is on a loose leaf piece of paper, the child MUST tape or staple it in to their assignment notebook.
3. The parent will sign it.
4. The child will bring it back by Friday. I will only accept this as outlined above. 

MY MMC: Finding challenges that keep challenging them! If they solve it in under 20 minutes, it is their responsibility to tell me the next day so I can provide something more challenging. I think we got to 4 different levels of challenge this past week!  :-)

5^th grade Social Studies

Chapter 1: We are reading aloud and filling out workbook pages together.  No project has been assigned yet.

Science—we did not get to science this week. L It’s at the top of my list this coming week.

We will be reviewing (or introducing, depending on the student) the scientific process through activities. Robotics software is installed.  J

  

LWR  for the week of Sept 4^th

Focus: arch

Prefix:

an-           not, without

syn-          with, together

tri-            three

Root:

arch         first, chief, rule

gyn           woman, female

mono       one

Suffix:

-y              state, quality, act

5^th grade spelling words for the week of Sept 4^th

(We practiced difficult cursive letter combinations in these words, but we did not practice writing out the entire word.)

WEEK 2—vowel sounds ou, aw, oi

BASIC WORDS

3 Dictation Sentences (note the commas!)

1.    The day of the accident haunts his memory.

2.    After a short voyage, the ship returned.

3.    Because Kim is right-handed, writing with her left hand feels awkward to her.

ounce, scowl, announce, coward, pounce, falter, sprawl, author, auction, loyal, destroy, rejoice, poison

REVIEW WORDS             bruise, view

FREQUENTLY MISSPELLED WORDS                     running, bought

6^th grade spelling words for the week of Sept 4^th

Unit 2—Long vowels

BASIC WORDS

3 Dictation Sentences

1.    Can our home team defeat the Bears?

2.    The medal stood for supreme courage.

3.    Borrow my bike, but don’t abuse it.

bracelet, faithful, forgave, terrain, succeed, conceal, delete, exceed, strive, rhyme, rely confine, devote, coax, lonesome, reproach, mute

CHALLENGE WORDS

ratify, serene, refute, appraise, humane

Real World Challenge Writing poetry

imagery, couplet, sensory, haiku, limerick, meter, free verse, stanza

August 27-31, 2012

(click on comic to enlarge)

Update (Sunday, Aug 26)

If you would like to volunteer in the library during our library time (Monday, 11:00-12:00)  and assist with the checking out process, Mrs. Delany, our librarian, would appreciate it. Last year, 2 moms shared the position and one came one week and another came the next week. Send me an email if you think you'd be interested. You would not start tomorrow.

This was a fabulous week for me! I hope you’re your kids are feeling better about school every day.

On Thursday, I had an opportunity to ask 5^th graders how they were feeling about being at Poly. Most of the responses ranged from “OK” to “Pretty good” to “Terrific!” I didn’t have any tears.  J If you are seeing things at home that indicate other feelings, let me know.

I have felt like I have been talking a LOT. However, we are setting routines, expectations, and rules, so there is a lot of explanation and clarifying. You know, we have several of the, “But what if……..happens”-types.

All students received their first A in the grade book! It was for memorizing SLANT, the acronym that defines behaviors for paying attention.

There will not be many grades taken these first few weeks. However, in setting expectations and routines, you may see a few pink slips. These are purely a communication between you, me, and your child, letting you know that there was an “OOPS” moment. For example, if you did not sign your child’s assignment notebook indicating that your child spent at least 20 minutes on the challenge math paper, then they would (in the future) receive a pink slip. My expectation is that you have a visit with them about why things were not done, sign it, and have them return it to me the next day.

Thank you for taking this journey this year. I’m feeling very positive about the kids, their attitudes, and their desire to learn!

The following is a brief summary of the lesson plans I have for next week. If you need more specific information that you are not getting from your child, please call.  J

Assignment notebooks update They are back ordered.

Reading

I will be assessing students and grouping them with our new reading series.

Language

We will be doing expository writing and discussing the difference between expository and narrative writing. We also have a poem we are working on.

Latin Word Root (LWR) worksheets, drawings, and quizzes will begin this week. Worksheets are due on Tuesday, drawings are due on Wednesday, and the quiz is on Thursday. This is predictable work most weeks. If we have 2.5 or less in a week, we do not do LWRs.

Spelling

6^th grade: Unit 1 (words below)

5^th grade: We do not have spelling books for 5^th grade. The words are contained in the reading series.

I provided the 5^th graders with the spelling  words this week. They are also at the end of the blog. PLEASE have them write out the spelling with you in blue or black ink pen  as I have described below. I am very picky about this. They all practiced some of the words today. The practice sheet is in their assignment notebook.

Math

We are learning Anchor Activities and procedures. Anchor activities are activities that the students can do independently so that I can work with small groups. This week we learned Set, Qwirkle, and Aces, Jumbles, and Zilch. Next week is Muggins Math, Hexagons, and Think It Through tiles.

We will also pretest on the geometry unit.

5^th grade Social Studies

We did get the schedules to work so that the 6^th graders will be with Mrs. Reitz for social studies, and Mrs. Saur’s 5^th graders will come to our room for Social Studies.  J That will ensure that your kids get to know more students here at Poly Drive!

Our first unit will be on maps, latitude and longitude, and physical features. There will be a project, with class time to work on it, with this first unit. You will get information on this, both in the assignment notebook and on the blog.  It will not start until after Labor Day.

Science

We will be reviewing (or introducing, depending on the student) the scientific process through activities.

I am awaiting the installation of the software to begin with the robots. That should happen before Labor Day.

Specialist Schedule:

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Library 11-12	Art 10:40-11:40 Music 2:30-3	PE/Health 9:25-10:25 Buddies 1:30-2:00 (Kindergarten)	Music 2:30-3	PE/Health 9:25-10:25

Upcoming dates:

Tuesday, September 4^th: NWEA testing window opens. When we schedule the computer labs, I will post our class’s schedule here. We typically have a “class snack” that parents provide for the kids to have after each day’s test (there are 3 days of testing). If you would like to provide a healthy snack for 23 kids, shoot me an email.

Thursday, September 6^th: Open House, Book Fair, Ice Cream Social from 5:30-7:00  I will do a general informational piece for parents @ 5:30. 6^th grade parents: I will ask you to stay after the general one so that I can explain what happens with 6^th graders at Poly Drive. They have some special events as the year progresses.

Wednesday & Thursday, September 12^th  & 13^th : All BPS 5^th graders take a writing assessment. Just a heads up. There is nothing for you to prepare for at home.

Thursday, September 27^th: Early out!  J

Spelling Words

FYI:

·     Spelling tests must be written in blue or black ink pen only (no sharpies, etc).  Please have your child bring one if they do not have one.

·     Both grades have 3 dictation sentences each week. Proper capitalization and punctuation, as well as spelling all words in the sentences correctly is an expectation.

·     Students need to skip lines between the spelling words/sentences.

·     If a mistake is made in spelling the word, the student crosses the word out ONCE or TWICE and then rewrites it. I will count it incorrect if they RETRACE over the word or scribble it out. Erasing the word is not an option.

·     I do not move on to the next word/sentence until all students are ready. They may have as much time as they wish.

5^th grade:  Vowel Sounds oo, yoo

Basic Words—16 of them

Dictation Sentences:

1.   My sister gave birth to my first nephew  today.

2.  She enjoyed going on a cruise even though she felt seasick throughout most of the vacation.

3.  Will my leg bruise where the ball struck it?

assume, youth, include, lose, view, souvenir, loose, confuse, accuse, dilute, cartoon continue, glue

Review words—2

plead, private

Frequently misspelled words—2

write, writing

6^th grade: Short Vowels

Dictation:

1.   He mixed a batch of pancake batter.

2.  Did he bluff you into buying his junk?

3.  Spoiled milk has a dreadful odor.

reject, vanish, sloppy, rhythm, blunder, strict, meadow, recover, cleanse, pledge, mystery, expand, promptly, simplify, statue, polish, somehow

Challenge

salary, quintet, magnetic, tepid, intact

Real-World Vocabulary An Archaeological Dig

excavate, artifact, figurines, fragments, catalog, analyze, carbon, era