4th 6 Weeks

2-12-19

Whoa! It's been several weeks since an update! So much awesome learning has happened as we closed out January and are now halfway through February! We spent several weeks studying literary nonfiction, which culminated in reading and gathering information from a biography/autobiography about a person of interest. We learned about a lot of fascinating people, and it was great to see each student step into the presenter spotlight. They did great, and really had fun building dodecahedrons, or creating posters or PowerPoint presentations.

Following literary nonfiction, we moved into drama (plays). Each student was given a speaking part in a play with their peers, which we performed in class and critiqued each other. It was fun to see them get into character to perform for others. From there, a play about Paul Revere's Ride was a good practice drama to see how they are written and how test-makers write questions tailored to them.

Since finishing with drama, we have been working really hard on persuasive texts, as well as writing persuasively a piece of our own. We started out by reading a few picture books, then chose an article that interested us, and are currently writing an opposing argument piece. It's been interesting to see the different tools each student is utilizing to persuade their audience. We apologize for any strength this gives to future endeavors they may have (we DID discuss the line drawn that separates persuasion and begging... so hopefully they don't bug you too much for something in the name of language arts!)

1-11-19

Welcome back McCall Cats!

January has already been an exciting start, with a fabulous assembly this morning. So excited to celebrate our character award winners, as well as showcase those readers that have already surpassed the halfway mark for our 30 Book Challenge!

We've started off the grading period by studying Literary Nonfiction, which includes genres such as biographies and autobiographies. After reading two about two influential men involved with the Civil Rights Movement (John Roy Lynch and Martin Luther King, Jr.) each student will be choosing one person to do a small research project on using a biography or autobiography. We will begin this together in the library on Monday, and will continue our work throughout the week to make an awesome visual display of all of our people. I look forward to seeing the finished projects completed!

As we are into the middle of the year now, we will be taking our second round of MAP testing next week. This is not an assessment your child can study for, and it is really more to inform our instruction. It is NOT for a grade, so please encourage your child NOT to stress about it.

We're very excited to be back with our kids, and look forward to lots of fun learning this semester!

3rd 6 Weeks

12-3-18

We are full swing into our Informational Text unit! We have taken a look at some text features specific to informational (also known as non-fiction) texts, as well as reviewing and studying the variety of structures authors choose to write their work in to convey information. We've had several daily assignments to check progress in both of these skills, and we will continue the first part of this week with the same, followed by a summative test on Wednesday over both. The notes are included below, and we encourage you to help your child study tonight and tomorrow in preparation for the test.

We will end the week writing our own informational essay to convey meaning. Students will be given a selection of informational prompts to choose from, and will be tasked with identifying the appropriate structure, as well as the appropriate thinking map to organize their thinking on that topic. We will take that thinking all the way to a multi-paragraph essay for a grade early next week.

Next week, we will finish up our review of everything informational in preparation for our Informational Common Assessment the week of the 17th. We are pushing hard towards the end of the 3rd grading period, as well as the close of this first semester of 5th Grade! What a great half we've had so far!

Virtual Field Trip LINK

10-15-18

This week we will begin our Poetry unit by discussing poetic devices such as similes, metaphors, and alliteration. We will be taking a look at song lyrics as a fun way of introducing elements of poetry. We will also be taking some notes in journals, and analyzing poetry for it's meaning and purpose.

The rain caused quite the excitement this morning, and we got off to a bumpy start, but we are beyond thankful that all of our kids are safe, and maybe cherished them a little bit extra today. Thank you is not big enough to show our appreciation to you for sharing your child with us daily!

Below is Mrs. Burton's modeled writing comparing a character from Esperanza Rising to myself. You are welcome to use it as a model, but MAY NOT plagiarize the writing.

You need to have at least one piece of text evidence that is directly from the text! Please include quotation marks so I know it's word-for-word from the book.

10-2-18

This week has been full of a lot of reteaching and making sure students know concepts we've gone over this six weeks. There have been a significant amount of corrections completed in efforts to improve grades in ELAR, since grades will be finalized at the end of this week. We completed the first round of one of our MAP tests, and have the second one next week. The first one was covering Language Usage, and included things like grammar, punctuation, and other ways we form coherent thoughts. We will take the Reading portion next week, and will be using this data to inform instruction moving into the coming weeks. We are excited to wrap up this first six weeks, and are very excited to jump into the next one! We're looking forward to even more development using the Write From the Beginning and Beyond and Thinking Maps.

Narrative/Fiction

9-24-18

We have A LOT going on this week in ELAR! Our weekly library visit, a pretty challenging Folktale quiz Monday, morning work all week, learning about summarizing a text or portion of text, followed by a few assessments. One will be Wednesday and will review summarizing best practices. Thursday we will be administering the district-wide ELAR common assessment, which covers the standards we have taught this grading period. Friday we will be catching up from the fast-paced week, as well as having our third morning work quiz. Like I said, it's a BUSY week, so please encourage your student to stay on top of assignments, and be checking their planner for reminders and updates!

9-15-18

Within Fiction are fairy tales, fables, myths, and tall tales. We will be reading some of each, as well as learning how and where to locate them in the library this week. Ms. Ramos is continuing the read aloud of Because of Winn Dixie, and Mrs. Burton is continuing Esperanza Rising, and all the kids are enjoying the learning that is going along with each! We've jumped into morning work, which we take about 5 minutes to complete, and follow it with about 5-10 minutes of going over it with instruction, notes, and discussion of the covered concepts. This morning work is cyclical, so concepts will be revisited multiple times throughout the year, allowing for a stronger understanding of each. The kids are excited to be checking off books for the 30 Book Challenge, and it's been so fun to see! Several 5th grade teachers are competing with them, so it's exciting to see who may get to the 30 book mark first!

Whooo's Reading quizzes will be due Friday, October 1st, so please help your child stay on top of those! They can take a quiz over any book read aloud to them, read independently, that they listen to via audiobook, or something you read together with them! So many options!! #30bookchallenge #allthebooks #bookaweek

Our reading focus for the 1st grading period is narrative/fiction. Our writing focus is narrative. We have read several picture books, as well as beginning our first class novel. Students have decorated their notebooks to represent themselves and their interests, and we have done several activities on brain development and growth mindset throughout this first week. Half of the grade has already spent some time in the library, with the other half going Tuesday through their ELAR block. Ms. Ramos and Mrs. Burton have challenged each student to a 30 Book Challenge, that we will continue to encourage throughout the school year. It's going to be a great adventure in reading a variety of types of books!