friday 5/3/19

Here are a few highlights from the last week:

  • Click here for pictures from March, April, and Early May.
  • We are getting close to the end of reading the book "Flipped"! We are done our focus on Point of View (although we are still talking about it) and beginning to focus on theme. We are using signposts to do this, as well as a few other things. We will finish up in the next couple of weeks and plan a celebration of our work. Our celebration may also include watching the movie and doing some comparisons when we are done.
  • Students are also working on independent reading and signposts.
  • In honor of the end of National Poetry Month (April) we all read and wrote diamante poems. These poems are diamond shaped and are about things that interest them. Some poems are about one topic (fishing), some reflect opposite ideas (night and day), and some show a transformation (chick to rooster). We first wrote one as a class that was illustrated by a few students, then ALL students wrote and illustrated their own. They are all displayed in the hallway, come take a look!
  • On Monday, we took advantage of the beautiful weather and got back to our trees. While we were out there, we noticed changes and wrote letters to our trees with pictures!
  • We continued with math rotations this week. One group is working on the area of parallelograms and classification of 3D figures. One group is is working on multi digit division using the standard algorithm ("long division"). And one group is finishing up with volume.
  • Also in math, students are using the Freckle program to do math fact practice and other skill practice. A 5th grade group is also using a new game called Fogstone Island!
  • Students are well into their road trip project! They all have planned a route, made an interactive Google map, and done lots of reading about places to stay and eat and things to do along the way. This week, students began working on their stop writeups, which are like journal entries from some of the places they went. They're also making visual to go with each writeup.
  • On Thursday, Susan Sawyer came in for a Four Winds workshop. We studied defense strategies. One of the best parts was writing and performing poems, songs, and raps at the end!
  • Also on Thursday, we did our annual Green Up Walk! Our class walked with Ms. Locke's 1/2 Class this year, which was a great success! It was misty and wet, but good to get out anyway.
  • On Friday afternoon, we went to Hardwick to see Vermont Vaudeville! It was a wonderful performance.
  • We took a break from our science unit this week due to all the other work we were focusing on.
  • Students are mostly done exploring ideas and planning for their Passion Projects and have begun working! All students have created a calendar to not only keep track of and plan upcoming work, but also record work done each session.
  • No green sheets this week.


Some upcoming dates, important notes, and things to look forward to in the coming weeks:

  • 6th Grade Class Trip. Wednesday 5/8/19- Friday 5/10/19. A sub will be in to cover the 5th graders during that time.
  • 5/6 Leads All School Morning Meeting- Wednesday 5/15/19. I will help 6th graders share a slideshow and stories from the 6th grade trip.
  • SBAC Testing- Monday 5/20/19- Thursday 5/23/19. Makeups if necessary- Friday 5/24/19.
  • No School- Memorial Day- Monday 5/27/19.
  • 6th Grade Step-up to Hazen- Wednesday 5/29/19: 9-11am. More info coming...
  • Alice in Wonderland Performance at the Barre Opera House- Friday 5/31/19.


  • 6th Graders will go on the 6th Grade Trip. 5th graders will have a sub with them! They will also have opportunities to work with other classrooms...
  • We will continue with our whole class book, Flipped. See above for upcoming plans.
  • In math, we will continue with our 3 units- surface area of prisms and pyramids, multiplication/division with multiple digits, and volume. I will continue to run 3 math groups on a rotation schedule. One rotation is a lesson with me. One rotation is work and games based on that lesson or current math topics. One rotation will vary depending on the day and may include: word work (vocab/spelling), writing, reading response, independent project work, etc...
  • We will continue with the Road Trip project learning about things to do at their chosen stops along the way and begin the narrative writing. We will also finish the interactive map. We are almost done this project!
  • We will do more with Passion Projects, students will have more work and research time.
  • We will continue with the Ecosystems unit looking at either the water cycle OR terrestrial ecosystems.