Home Learning

Home Learning

Timeline link

http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/timeline_2/

Home Learning - Next Six Weeks - April 22 to end of May

As we get ready to write our story for our milestone project to mark not only the end of elementary school years but the students' growing global competence*, all our home learning will focus on reading and writing stories that matter. This week we will kick off the six week focus with many activities. Look for a parent letter coming home soon that will give you more information. This letter will also serve to get permission to have your child's work published in the book as well as their picture. We are very excited for this project to take shape. You will be very impressed with the writing you see. Students will be asked to do a lot of writing at home and they will also be reading stories, all why learning "Why Stories Matter" Later this week (Thursday) we will watch the Ted Talk, "The Danger of a Single Story", the foundation of the milestone project and a wonderful talk that illustrates the need for all children to share their stories as no one story can really tell the story of our collective group of fifth graders.

*Globally competent students are curious about and engaged in the world. They are increasingly able to investigate the world beyond their immediate surroundings, understand their own and others' cultural perspectives, communicate across differences, and take action to improve conditions. From the article How to Be a Global Thinker by Veronica Boix Mansilla, Educational Leadership, 2016 see link here (I am the teacher referred to in the article and the concept for the Milestone Project was developed in part by the author of the article.)

Home Learning - April

Week Two - reading and responding considering perspective.

Monday: Read 30 min

Tuesday: Read 30 and write 15. Pick a perspective of a character in your historical fiction book use the step in perspective routine. Use this link to guide your writing. https://docs.google.com/document/d/18jGnH4hbO-Q83g8KhKRwdGA2clEGateeOhNml3FM-SI/edit?usp=sharing

Wednesday: Pick a different character from your book and do the same activity from Tuesday.

Month of April - This week we will focus on getting up to date with our Social Studies. Students will be working on Footstep 2 and 3 of Learning Journey 2. See Social Studies page for further details. Students also brought home a packet of detailed instructions. Please spend time with your child looking at an object 30 years or older.

Additionally, Poetry writing and reading will be our focus. Please look at student pages for inspired writing.

Home Learning Slice of Life Challenge - Month of March

See the home page for Slice of Life. Try to write for 31 days in a row. Instructions and ideas can be found on that page.

Enjoy. Don't forget to hit publish when you are done.

Home Learning Feb 25- Mar 1

We will be beginning a unit in historical fiction. Students will be checking out a book of historical fiction from the library on Wednesday. Reading will be the only home learning this week in either a fiction book or a historical fiction book. By Wednesday every student will have a historical fiction book for their book club or a historical book for independent reading.

Also look for a note about parent conferences. I will be conducting a survey. For the past six years, I have had students do an in home interview and I've done a home visit for conferences as well as cover a few things such as concerns for next year. I'm looking to see what the majority of parents want to do and will proceed from there.

Home Learning Valentine's Week

Make Valentine's for your classmates and decorate your box for the exchange.

Home Learning February 4-8

Home learning this week will be focused on completion of outstanding items. The essay is now due and home learning should focus on finishing it using the writers checklist. Additionally, class learning that is incomplete (math) will be sent home each evening. For those who have finished both math in class and the essay, creative writing will be an option for home learning along with nightly reading of 30 minutes (minimum).

Home Learning January 28-Feb 1 (How can that be?)

This week we will wrap up our second essay. We are inserting research into our opinion essays to back up our thinking on important topics like the environment, education and safety in playing sports. The students are working on mastery of the 5 paragraph essay (intro, 3 supporting paragraphs (one for each reason with research embedded) and a strong conclusion. All of our home learning time should be devoted to this writing. Friday we will present our essays and also have a mini debate for those writing essays with opposing views.

Home Learning January 22- 25

We will continue our focus on fractions. Students are mastering the idea of converting to like units before adding or subtracting. We will focus on figuring out multi-step word problems. We will continue with Lesson 7 in Eureka on Tuesday and then have a mid module assessment review day Wednesday with the assessment on Thursday. Home learning will focus on the review Wednesday night. Thursday will be a fee day - free to read, write or practice math for 30-45 minutes.

Home Learning January 14-18th.

This week's focus will be on our unit in fractions. Look for the new workbook labeled Succeed filled with home learning for each night. This workbook should go back and forth nightly all week (good practice for the middle school). The home learning this week will begin with Lesson 2 and run consecutively through Thursday ending the week with Lesson 6. Additionally, students can work each night on research for their second essay. The focus our our reading unit of study is researching debatable issues and in writing we are finishing our unit on the research-based opinion essay. I'm also tying this into a mini unit on The First Amendment for our social studies unit. Please look for an update January newsletter from me as well. I'm going to assign students to get it signed and to return it so that I know you got it. Within the newsletter I will update you with other news from ClubSmith!

Home Learning January 7-11, 2019

Focus this week will be on math. All students will be working on mastering specific skills. Some students will be working on multi-digit multiplication or division or individual math assignments.

January 2-4, 2019

We will be working all week on our writing reflections about 2018 and our thoughts about 2019. See ELA page for more details about the writing.

Week of December 17-21

This week: Two things:

One- finish your research for your essay (you need three resources)

Two- please conduct your interview and write up the information you learned

Now its your turn to share a new story with your walking partners.

● Your task this week is to talk and listen to an adult who lives or works in your local area. This person could be someone you have never spoken to before or someone you already know. It does not need to be someone who has lived in the area for a long time.

● Ask the person for a story or memory about your local area. For example, how did they come to be in this place? How have they seen the area change over the years? What are some of their memories about the area? Do any particular events in the area stand out in their mind?

● Write up the highlights of your conversation or recreate a story that they told you. Include a short description of the person you talked with – for example, how you know them, the setting where you talked, what they look like, and what they were wearing.

These are both to be published by Wednesday or Thursday. Also please read other interviews and post your responses to at least two different students from two different schools.

Week Dec 10-Dec 14

Wednesday:

We are working on finishing the assignments from Mon and Tuesday. In addition, tonight research into your topic can begin by finding articles that support your opinion (and the other point of view too). We have been learning about note taking in reading. Please take notes on your research about your topic of interest.

Tuesday:

Please bring in your list of five items if you did not complete it last night. Additionally, work on your list of possible ideas for your opinion essay. Speak with others in your home about ideas that matter to them. After compiling a list of five topics, have some fun writing. Please write up three things that you've done. Two truths and a lie. Each one should have great detail so that the reader has a hard time deciding which is truth or fiction. I'd like three paragraphs minimum.

Monday:

Let's get back to writing. Tonight write down a list of five things you would bring with you if you had to leave your home in an emergency (and might not ever come back). Why did you select these five things? What do they mean to you?

Week Dec 3- Dec 7

Reading for pleasure is one of the most rewarding past times in the world. This week students will self select one or two stories to read each night for a minimum of 40 minutes. On Friday a summary of the reading will be do. I will send home a template on Thursday evening to assist in the summary writing.

Week of Nov 26-Nov 30

Monday - write more on your Thanksgiving story

Tuesday - Thursday - we will be reading non fiction articles and taking notes.

Week of Nov 13-16

Writing will be our focus as we wrap up our journalism unit in the next couple of weeks. We are focusing on writing stories of interest based on the CNN Hero Nominations. Students are writing their own piece about why the hero is notable and why their charity might be best suited for the 100,000.00 donation. All articles must have a good lead - grabber statement along with the info about the 5 W's and a H (how). See writing page for more (under ELA tab)

Week of Nov. 5-Nov 9, 2018

This week we will return to writing every night. For this evening (Monday night) , please write a story in google docs that takes place in your neighborhood.

This link will help you. https://learn.outofedenwalk.com/party/801/activity/2/

On Tuesday, Wed and Thursday I will have students work on some writing that is related to our study of journalism. This is our new unit and lots of fun. Students can choose to write about topics commonly found in newspapers and magazine.

We will begin writing a news story about a fairy tale from the perspective of breaking news. (Tues pm) if neighborhood story is not finished, that should also be completed.

Week Oct 22-Oct 26

Book clubs are continuing into this week. Almost every student read a full book last week. Yahoo! The research shows that reading 60 minutes a day will dramatically improve reading skills. We will begin our word study this week, however, that learning will be done at school with the only exception if work isn't completed during our ELA block.

Week of 10/15-10/10-19

Book clubs are launched and we will be looking at finishing two books with our club before our unit is over. Some students will have the opportunity to read three books with their club. For the next several weeks. the home learning is to read for 30 minutes each night in a book club book. Students are to read at the pace their group has agreed upon (no going ahead to keep the discussion without spoiler alerts). If a student is ahead this week only, I have asked that student to read independently until the members in his/her group has caught up. By next week, all students should be reading within the pacing guide set by the group.

Week of 10/9-10/12

I have sent home notes to inquire about the practice of reading nightly for 30 minutes. I've gotten most of the agreements back. Beginning next week student will read for a minimum of 30 minutes nightly. Also, because they are in book clubs, they will be required to bring the book back and forth each day - along with talking points for the book discussion to follow the next day.

Week of 10/1/18-10/5-18

Home learning will no longer be an assignment due for the following day. After tracking the expected assigned learning at home and what was brought back to school, I found less that 30 percent of students were able to complete the assigned learning. Therefore, I was unable to use that learning as a jumping off point for the following days lessons. Moving forward, I would like to suggest at home to be in compliance with the school board expectation of 40 minutes per evening, that student read for that amount of time, work on writing ( I will give prompts for the week/month) or spend the time on Moby Max (Khan Academy accounts to be set up soon). This will allow individual students to improve skills in all the areas mentioned above. As research indicates the best way to become a better reader or writer is read and write. Research also shows mastery of math facts greatly contributes to the ability to compute numbers fluently.

Possible writing prompts for the month:

What is something you want to learn to do? Explain what you would like to learn and why.
Imagine your school closes for the day, and you can do anything you want. What will you do? Write a story about what happens.
Suppose you had the opportunity to travel anywhere you wanted. Write to explain where you would go and why.
Think about something you would like to change about our school. Write to explain what you would change and why.
Think about a special event you experienced. Write to explain the event and why it was important to you.
Think about your best Halloween costume. Tell all about it.
Creatively write a Halloween story. This can be fiction.
Write a poem about the fall, use as many of your five senses as you can to describe a perfect autumn day.
Imagine you get locked into the school one evening, tell a story about how you spent your time.
Write a song/poem about your favorite article of clothing. It can be an ode to new sneakers or a song like New Shoes by Paulo Nutini.

Week of of 9/24-9-28

Each night this week, students will write for 20 minutes and read for 20 minutes. Establishing a nightly routine for reading and writing will set a tone for the coming year. The link for writing assignments all week can be found here .

Reading is to be done in a book of fiction. We are working on a unit of study that explores understanding and interpreting author's message and theme. I will be asking students to log their nightly reading (number of pages) in the reader's notebook. So look for a few things nightly - writer's and reader's notebooks and a book of fiction.

Today I also sent home a math practice workbook. This is entirely optional. If you wish your child to begin with some practice nightly in this program, please feel free. We will work on lessons 1,2,3 and 5 this week in Module 1.

Week of 9/17-9/21

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Qny_4xQ-zFi5O1tsemfPYD0C_ZQmxuZ6QKjjphf04VQ/edit?usp=sharing

Reading is to be done in a book of choice. There is no need to record number of pages read at this point. We will begin a reading log next week.

Week of 9/11-9/13

Tuesday - Family member interview re: 9/11

Wednesday - What's in the Sack activity and reading 20 minutes

Thursday - Reading 20 minutes - Response 20 minutes

In your reading notebook: Please respond to your writing by entering the date, On the next line write the title of the book, the author and pick a prompt from the list to guide your thinking about your book. Please respond with at least one paragraph about your book.