Happy Turkey Day Everyone!

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and a restful long weekend.

Language Arts
We had a relaxed morning: dance celebration, reading buddies, camp under, and a read aloud.

Math
We tested over unit 5 concepts. The kids worked hard!

Science
We tested 3 different variables to see which ones would change the number of cycles. Ask us what we figured out!

Foggy, foggy day!

No language arts today because of the fog delay. Kids came in and went straight to music and gym.
Tomorrow we are having the dance celebration and a camp under as a reward for good behavior. This is a great time to read the books for independent reading. Kids can bring in blankets and pillows.

In math we are having a test over unit 5. We reviewed for the test today. All students should have a unit 5 review and a checking progress to study from tonight.

Welcome back Mrs Woods class. This quarter we are studying variables. Today we made a pendulum and tomorrow we are going to see how we can change the pendulum to get different results.

See you tomorrow!

Monday

I hope everyone had a great weekend.

Language Arts
No homework this week. What a great week to work on your independent reading projects.
Today we reviewed possessive nouns. We also worked on writing and concrete and abstract nouns. We went to IMC.

Our behavior has earned us a camp under. On Wednesday, students may bring in blankets and pillows and we will spread out and read for about an hour.

Math
We reviewed for our math test on Wednesday.

Science
We took a test over variables. My class goes to social studies starting tomorrow.

Thursday

Tomorrow is the last day to bring in canned goods for the food drive. Please consider donating.

Language Arts
Today we review language arts skills. We learned that the Latin root lat means carry or bring and that the Latin root leg, lect means read, law, appoint. We practiced a variety of skills this morning including text features, phonics and suffixes. Weekly Homework is due tomorrow. Book orders have been extended. They are now due tomorrow.

Math
Today we reviewed equivalent fractions, mixed numbers, and decimals. We also practiced rounding and comparing. We learned how to make a percent circle to make a circle graph.
Homework is study link 5.11.

Science
We reviewed important concepts for Monday's test. All students should have notes to study. Test is on Monday.

Tomorrow is Dress Alike Day. Dress like a friend for $1.00. The money goes to Angel's Attic.

DARE to be drug free!

The kids did a wonderful job during DARE graduation this morning. I was so proud!


Language Arts
After DARE graduation we met with our reading buddies. The first graders are just learning how to do AR so the 5th grade pros got to help them take tests. When we came back to the room we read our story with partners and made a graphic organizer to help us write our summaries. Then we practiced our grammar skill of possessives.

Book Orders are due tomorrow!

Math
Today we learned how to use a percent circle to read circle graphs. Tomorrow we will learn how to create circle graphs. Homework tonight is Pages 157-158 and Study link 5.10. Math test will be on Wednesday.

Science
Today we read about how to put together a great science experiment. We talked about how the idea of what to do should start with a question. Be on the lookout for "I wonder" questions. I wonder what would happen if a plant didn't get any light? I wonder why the plant near the window grows faster than the plant on the shelf? A "I wonder" question just might lead to a great science expo project
Science test will be on Monday. Look for a study guide to come home tomorrow.

Tuesday

Don't forget DARE graduation tomorrow at 8:15 a.m. The kids were very excited about it today. They will need to wear their DARE shirts tomorrow.

Language Arts
Today we learned about plural possessives. I was most impressed when a student picked possessives out of our reading material. We also went over our RIT words and problem and solution. We applied what we learned yesterday to our reading story. In vocab vine we learned about uni (one) and form (shape, form). We went to music and gym.

Book orders due on Thursday. Look for a handout that explains how you can get a book free!

Math
Today we began to discuss circle graphes and pie charts. We will continue to work with this concept for the rest of the week. Homework is Study Link 5.9. The math test will be next Wednesday.

Science
Today we ran last weeks experiments again. We got better results today. Science test will be on Monday!

Marvelous Monday

Welcome back to school. I hope everyone enjoyed their weekends.

Thank you so much for your generous contributions to DARE! This is a very worthwhile opportunity for your children to take part. They learn so much about how harmful drugs are and how to make good decisions.

Don't forget that we are now in the middle of a food drive. We are collecting can goods and household supplies to give to needy families in the PHM district. We thank you for your help. We will be collecting through Friday. Friday is also dress alike day. For $1.00 friends can dress alike and the money raised will go to Angel's Attic. A charity run by Penn students for needy families.

Language Arts
Today we took our spelling pretest. The words focus on the ou/ow sounds. In grammar our focus will be possessive nouns. These nouns show ownership and aren't the same as plural nouns. Our comprehension skill for the week is problems and solutions. To help us learn about that concept our RIT words all deal with the plot line of a story:
Protagonist - The main character of a story.
Conflict - The problems a main character faces.
Resolution - How conflicts are solved.
Rising Action - The events that lead up to the climax (main event) of the story.
Falling Action - The events that happen after the climax that lead to the resolution of the conflict. Today we used the story of The Three Little Wolves and the Big, Bad Pig to illustrate each of these points.
Our vocabulary words of the week are forbidden, reluctant, irresistible, elegant, blaring, mischievous, and hesitation.
Our story of the week is The Night of San Juan.
Weekly homework was assigned.

Book orders are due Thursday. Be on the look out for a special offer from scholastic tomorrow. If you spend $10.00 online, your child can pick out a free book valued up to $5.00. You will get a letter about this tomorrow.

Math
Today we began looking at percents. We learned that percent means part of 100. By converting fractions to percents we can compare fractions that have different denominators. We used a calculator to help us convert fractions to decimals and then multiplied the decimals by 100 to get our percents. We rounded all percents to the nearest whole number. Homework is study link 5.8 and Math boxes 5.8.

Science
We graphed our results on a grid and discovered that we need to rerun our experiments. Practice leads to more accurate results. The science test will one week from today!

Fabulous Friday the 13th

Thank you everyone for a great day and a great week. I hope you have an awesome weekend! A special thanks to the Art Smart Moms. The artwork is fantastic!

Don't forget that DARE essays and donations are due on Monday.

Language Arts class - Book orders are due next Thursday!

See you on Monday!

Thrilling Thursday

Don't forget that tonight is Dazzle Craft Night from 5:30-7:30 pm.

Language Arts:
Today we read for DARE. Don't forget that tomorrow is the DARE Read-In at 7:00 AM.
We practiced language arts skills.
We finished up yesterday's centers.
And read more about Sam Gribbley's adventures on My Side of the Mountain.
We had gym and music.

Math
We discovered the easiest way to convert a fraction to a decimal is to divide the numerator by the denominator. Fractions are actually division problems. Homework is study link 5.7.

Science
Today we ran controlled experiments and changed one variable in increments.

Wednesday

What a day we've had.....

Language Arts
Today we spent some time doing silent reading for our DARE read-a-thon. (Pledge money is due on Monday) We also reviewed language arts skills. We reviewed all the different ways to make a noun plural and also reviewed spelling definitions. We met with our reading buddies. We had language arts centers today. We will finish the centers tomorrow. We are rotating through 4 centers:
Miss G. - Discuss the main ideas in our leveled readers.
Graphic Organizer - Fill out a graphic organizer to help write the summary of the story.
Word Study - adding ed and ing to the end of words by doubling the final consonant, dropping the e or not changing the word and just adding the ending.
Monuments - researching one of 5 famous monuments on the internet in order to write a paragraph about it.

Math
Today we continued to look at ways to convert fractions into decimals and also reviewed some measuring concepts. Study Link 5.6 is homework.

DARE
Officer Redman talked to us about ways to handle peer pressure. He also explained the requirements for the DARE essay. The essay needs to be done by Monday, November 14. All students need to turn in the essay in order to graduate. Graduation will be held in the cafeteria on Wednesday, November 16 at 8:15 in the morning.

Don't forget Dazzle Craft Night tomorrow evening.

Monday's News and Notes

I hope everyone enjoyed the summer weather over the weekend!

Language Arts
We were very busy today. We warmed up by reviewing several language arts skills. Including titles, moods, and homophones. Next we had our spelling pretest. (Spelling City has been updated for the week.) We reviewed how to make nouns that end in f or fe plural. We dont' have new RIT words this week. Instead we are reviewing last week's words. Today we spent time go over what an appositive is and looking for examples.

Our reading story for the week is "Maya Lin: Architect of Memory." It is a nonfiction article that tells about the architect who made the Vietnam Veterans Memorial as well as the Civil Rights Memorial. Our vocabulary words for the week are dedicated, artifacts, site, exhibits and equality. Our comprehension skill is Main Ideas and Details.

Our writing focus for the week is research. We are researching monuments. Students could take the time to figure out which monument they want to research. It would be great if they could research a monument that they were really interested in.

We went to IMC and picked out books.

Math
Today we looked at ways to make equivalent fractions. What we discovered was that you make equivalent fractions by either multiplying or dividing the numerator and the denominator by the same number. Mathboxes 5.4 and Study Link 5.4 is homework.
*About the math tests: I have been waiting for everyone to finish the tests. That has finally happened. However, I was out of town over the weekend and didn't have a chance to grade. Look for the tests to come home this weekend.

Science:
Today we flew our airplanes and began changing variables in our systems in order to change the results. The science test will probably be two weeks from today.

This is the week that we are earning money for the DARE program by having a read-a- thon. Please make sure that all donations are turned in by next Monday. Don't forget the early morning reading session on Friday at 7:00. Turn in those permission slips.

Thrilling Thursday

Another learning adventure!

Language Arts
Today we practiced spelling plural words for spelling and grammar. We had vocabulary vine where we learned that super/supra means above or beyond and that son means sound. We practiced using restatements as context clues to figure out words we didn't know. We compared our non-fiction story to a legend. We also worked on finding facts to back up our opinions for our letters to the editor. (We'll type the letters tomorrow during computer lab.) We went to music and gym.
Weekly homework is due tomorrow.

Math
Today we practiced comparing and adding fractions. We used a fraction stick handout as a manipulative to help us. Study link 5.3 is homework.

Science
We made planes today out of straws, craft sticks, rubber bands, and a few other things. We are looking forward to trying to fly them tomorrow.

Have a great night!

What's Up Wednesday!

Lots of things actually :)

Language Arts
Today we practiced spelling word meanings and also practiced the skill of spelling plural nouns correctly. We also practiced finding the main idea and important details of short reading passages. We visited with our reading buddies and had a no bullying pep talk from Mrs. Slater.
Our vocab vine words were chrono (time) and Syn- (with together)

Math
Today we used pattern blocks to help us find the fractions involved in a whole. We also learned about mixed numbers and improper fractions. Homework tonight is S.L. 5.2 (Remember that for problem number 1. The whole shape is ONE.)

DARE
Officer Redman talked with us about peer pressure today. There are many types of peer pressure. Sometimes those people who want us to make bad choices pretend to be our friends.

Spelling City

Look at the next post down for what we did today in class and for homework assignments.

I entered this week's lists into spellingcity.com. Go to the website. Click find a list. Search by MsGrannan. Above the search box you will see my name written in blue, click on it and then scroll down. You will see several choices. Treasures 2.2.A is this week's approaching list. Treasures 2.2.O is this week's on level list. and Treasures 2.2.B is this week's beyond list. You can choose the teach, test, or games. Have fun learning!

Tuesdays fly by!

What a beautiful day!

Language Arts
Today we sorted our spelling words by how you make them plural. Then we played a game on the computer helping us to turn words from singular to plural. We read the story Rattlers with a partner and filled out a graphic organizer about the main ideas and details. This graphic organizer can be used to write the summary for weekly homework. We had music and gym.

Vocabulary Vine learned two new roots today. The first, medi, means middle and the second, terr, means earth or land.

Math
Today we reviewed what we know about fractions. They can be part of one object or part of a collection objects. The top number is the numerator and refers to the part. The bottom number is the denominator and refers to the whole. Homework is studly link 5.1

Science
Today we finished up working with our lifeboat fleets. We tested out other groups boats and tried to predict how many passengers each would hold based on capacity. Next up we turn our attention to planes. No homework.

Monday.....

Welcome back. I hope that everyone had a wonderful fall break!

Language Arts
Today we are back to reading from our purple reader! Our story of the week is Rattlers. It is all about why we shouldn't be afraid of rattlesnakes. Our comprehension skill is main ideas and details. The organization of the story is very helpful because each main idea is in the form of a question and is the heading for each section. Our vocabulary words: species, survive, alert, vibrations, surroundings, prey, predators, and lunging. Our grammar skill is singular and plural nouns.
Here is our Rit Vocabulary and examples:
Appositives - When you are renaming someone or something. This information is often not needed. You put commas around the appositive. For example: My dog, Sadie is at the groomers. Sadie is the appositive.
Bias - A preconceived opinion about something. It is also the point of view you take in your writing. For example: Many students wrote a persuasive paper last week about drugs. Their bias was that drugs are bad.
Epiphany - A sudden moment of understanding that causes a character to change or act in a certain way. For example: After everyone sat with other people at lunch, Fred had an epiphany and decided to be nicer to his friends.
Gerund - It is a verb that functions like a noun. For example: Running is a Mr. L's favorite hobby. Running is a gerund.
Italics - A type of letter that is slightly slanted, usually used for titles and to emphasize special words. For example: We will have a test next Friday. Next is in italics to differentiate from this Friday.
Our writing focus of the week is persuasive letters. Each student is to write a letter to the editor. They need to back up their opinions with facts and may need to do a little research at home. This is due on Friday.

Weekly Homework was assigned and is due next Friday.

Check out the spelling city website. It is a really cool website to practice spelling words. Just type in your list under the batch tool and you can learn, test and play games all about your spelling words.

Math: Today we finished up our unit 4 test and worked on a division packet. No homework.

Science: Today we measured the capacity of a fleet of lifeboats (paper cups) and saw how many passengers (pennies) each boat held. What did we learn?