Happy September!

The Labor Day holiday is over, and that means that school is in full swing now.  We have been working hard and have accomplished a lot already!  Thank you for having your students here on time and ready to go!  This year's class has the best attendance and punctuality that I have seen in quite a few years.  Kudos to my students and their parents!
Math
      We have finished Topic 1 with great results!  We started Topic 2 this week, and it will continue next week.  Topic 2 focuses on rounding, adding, and subtracting whole numbers and decimals.  Each day as part of the lesson the students write steps used to solve the problems in their math notes, so they should have access to step by step instructions at home if they need them.


Reading
      Finishing the class novel The Homework Machine was bittersweet for most of the students.  They enjoyed the novel and writing style of the author, Dan Gutman.  We will be starting literature circles and guided reading groups later this week.  I truly believe that my students need to not just know how to read, but to develop a love for it, as well.  As a result, I immerse them in as many good books as possible throughout the year.  Your child will be reading a wide variety of books during our literacy time.  Be sure to ask about what's going on in the group reading!

Writing
      Writer's Workshop is getting underway as well in Room 18.  Writer's Workshop is a time devoted to practice and improvement of our writing.  Each of the students has met with me and set a specific writing goal to work on.  There will be mini-lessons, but mostly lots of time to practice writing.  I will continue to have mini-conferences with each student to check on individual progress, as well as instruct the students on how to effectively run an Author's Support Circle, in order to get feedback from each other.
      We will be writing a chapter book in 5th grade.  Your child is the main character, and has started the introduction this week.  As we learn about US history this year, your child will be writing chapters about traveling through time in order to be a participant, or meet a historical figure who was a participant in some of the important events we learn about.  It is a lot of fun.  If your child wishes to have his/her stories typed, and then glue the pages into the book, I am fine with that.  My goal in this activity is to have your child blend writing with social studies and use his/her imagination.  Your child will need to have a rough draft, and go through the editing process, but you can help with the typing.

Spelling
     We are working on Week 3.  Hopefully you are seeing a copy of the list brought home on the first day of each week.  Last week, the kids did amazingly well.  Keep up the good work!

Science
      Plate tectonics are cool!  The kids have been having a lot of fun learning about how mountains and volcanoes are created, what causes earthquakes, and mapping recent eruptions and earthquakes on our map.  Next week we will learn about erosion and weathering, and how they effect the surface of our planet.  We are tentatively planning a field trip for Tuesday, September 27.  We will be heading up  to Cedar Mountain where we will venture into Mammoth Caves (which are old lava tubes) and go to Cedar Breaks in order to observe weathering and erosion up close.  More information will be included on the permission slip which will go home as soon as we've gotten the bus arrangements confirmed.