Miss Biolatto's Weekly Message

Week 37-38: 6/1-6/12

Week 37-38: It's the last week of school. I am so proud of the work we have accomplished. Last week was a difficult for me, thank you to everyone for your understanding. I'm hoping I am will be on the mend this week as we finish a historic, and memorable school year. Congratulations to the 5th graders as the culminate on June 12.

Week 36: 5/17-5/22

Week 36: Last week we finished the book Sylvia and Aki and this week will complete tasks that demonstrate understanding in the areas of character analysis, citing text evidence, and plot analysis. We will also begin to wrap up geometry with volume (5th), coordinate planes (5th) and area and perimeter (4th and 5th) and dividing fractions.

Week 35: 5/17-5/22

Week 35: Last week Aden drew a pizza on zoom and this week I will be using it as a story starter for a math problem. Last week we struggled to get all the tech working appropriately. If any parent that is able & cleared to come to campus and help me I would greatly appreciate it! This week we will finish Sylvia & Aki and do a culminating task for the book Next week.

Week 34: 5/10-5/14

Week 34: Last week was filled with tech upgrades, geometry, and a new book, Sylvia & Aki. We received new monitors with speakers that make watching videos in class a breeze. Additionally, we began our discussion of angles, symmetry, and attributes of plane shapes. Emery's solution to a measurement problem in the virtual session was projected for the class to see in the morning. The students found an error in their calculation using Emery's example.

Week 33: 5/3-5/7

Week 33: Happy May Everyone! Wow how far we have come! There are only six weeks left of the 2020-2021 school year! We will be exploring Geometry, including perimeter, area and volume for 5th grade. We will read a novel together and complete a culminating portfolio.

Week 32: 4/26-4/30

Week 32: During In Person (hybrid) learning we have started to post math during class time and it has been a great way for students to collaborate while staying physically distant. It has been great to continue to integrate the technology we learned during At Home (online) learning.

Week 31: 4/19-4/23

Week 31: Poetry Month has gotten off to a great start. The students have learned about poets and tried three or four poem structures. This week as we transition to hybrid learning we will have time to understand new procedures while continuing to revise our informative essays, write poems and deepen our understanding of measurement. The poem "The Sunset" was written by Jackson Broutt. Click on the image to see more poems by the students.

Week 30: 4/12-4/16

Week 30: Our 3rd trimester will have a major shift in routine soon. I plan on keeping the students' social emotional needs at the forefront of my planning. For content areas Math Measurement, Data Analysis and Geometry will be our focus. This week we will begin our Poetry Study. We will explore the Gold Rush (4th) and American Revolution (5th). We will also begin to support the students a some of our students shift to the hybrid model of instruction. Students have a Jamboard where they can ask all their questions. Here you can see a sample of a student's essay outline.

Week 29: 4/5-4/9

Week 29: Welcome back to school. I hope you all had a restful break with your families. As we return to school we begin our 3rd trimester math studies specifically Measurement, Data Analysis and Geometry. We we conclude our informational essays. We will explore the Gold Rush (4th) and American Revolution (5th). We will also begin to support the students a some of our students shift to the hybrid model of instruction. Students have a Jamboard where they can ask all their questions.

Week 28: 3/22-3/26

Week 28: Last week we concluded our science unit and began the Gold Rush for 4th grade and the American Revolution for 5th grade. This week we will review math concepts and students will be working on 2 and third body paragraphs for their informative writing assignment. Christopher's first draft about Apes

Week 27: 3/15-3/19

Week 27: Last week students modeled waves (4th) and matter (5th). We have been completed our science tasks virtually in a digital notebook. We have keeping big concepts in the forefront of our studies. What actions does a scientist engage in as part of scientific inquiry.

Develop a model

Measure & Graph

Make Observations

Conduct/Analyze

Demonstrate understanding of Cause and Effect, and Scale & Proportion

Week 26: 3/8-3/12

Week 26: Last week we began our study of Women's History. Students have been learning about the contributions of women to the various parts of our society. Click the image to see the comments the the students students have left to demonstrate their knowledge of these historical figures.

Week 25: 3/1-3/5

Week 25: Last week we shared strategies for this fraction division problem. Students used the annotating tool to share represent their thinking while the class watched. This kind of sharing feels like the kind we used to do in class.

Week 24: 2/22-2/26

Week 24: Last week we continued our study of African American History. Students are using a Jamboard to share our reflections. Students are exploring the similarities and differences between fraction and decimal notation as well as continuing to work on two writing assignments and one reading assignment that are due February 26

Week 23: 2/15-2/19

Week 23: Last week the students were tasked with creating 100 equations that equaled 100. Here is Johnene's assignment. This kind of creative math task allows students to demonstrate their understanding in multiple ways. This week we will be ordering, comparing, and converting fractions and decimals. We will also be revisiting figurative language through popular music, movies and TV shows. Footage for the Walgrove report is due February 16th. Two writing assignments and one reading assignment is due February 26

Week 22: 2/8-2/12

Week 22: Happy Valentine's Day Week! This week the students will have a virtual space to place Valentine's for their friends. We will continue our study of African American History culminating the week with the story of The Lovings who helped legalize interracial marriage.

Week 21: 2/1-2/5

Week 21: Happy February! Here is a photo of our "graffiti wall." Here Students demonstrate their understanding of their choice book by quoting accurately and thoughtfully. Activities such as this can take the place of traditional reading logs as they provide students with choice and are quickly completed.

Week 20: 1/25-1/29

Week 20: Unofficial Start to African American History Month. Students will continue to develop our understanding of decimals and how to add them. Students will need have chosen a book by Friday.

Art by Izzy Shapiro

Week 19: 1/18-1/22

Week 19: No School on Monday. Understanding the history of Inauguration Day. Reminders of expectations of collaboration were needed this week. Students must be able to share space on Google Documents. Additionally, we learned about ways to manage big emotions.

Week 18: 1/11-1/15

Week 18: This week we will re-establish our community norms, give time for visiting with friends and processing the feelings surrounding the pandemic and civil unrest in our country. This week will have fewer independent assignments.

Week 17: 12/14-12/18

Week 17: We have officially begun creating content for our student run news show! The Walgrove Report will feature stories that are researched, written and presented by the students in Rooms 22 & 23. We will be collaborating with Mr. Donzell on this interdisciplinary project! This project is rich with opportunities to meet Language Arts, Drama, Science and History Standards. Reading Informational Text, Listening and Speaking, and Writing explanatory text are just some of the standards we are engaged in while creating The Walgrove Report. Look for a trailer coming soon to a email inbox near you!😉 Art by Ella

Week 16: 12/7-12/11

Week 16: December! The end of 2020 is upon us. This will be a year we will always remember. The next two weeks of school continue to have 3 main foci. Number 1: As always I am prioritizing engagement fraction drawings, games and interactive math. I will be going over some of these the week a CGI Family Math Night. Please join me as I explain how CGI creates mathematical flexibility and more. Number 2: Completing tasks assigned up to this point. The following assignments are major assignments due in DEC. Narrative Writing, Trimester 1 Math Check out, Front Desk One-Pager. These assignments help me gage student understanding and plan next instructional steps. Focus 3: Social Emotional Support. The holidays can bring up many feelings. I am hoping to make a space for Holiday activities that although different from typical our celebrations, can be creative, fun and help us feel a bit more normal. If you would like to help me plan activities for the last week of school before winter recess please text or email me.

Week 15: 11/30-12/4

Week 15: I hope you all enjoyed a restful Thanksgiving Break. The next three weeks of school will have 3 main foci. Number 1: As always I am prioritizing engagement with activities such as the fraction drawing seen here. This task is creative and engaging as well as full of mathematical opportunities. Students demonstrate math understanding across multiple standards when they create an equation that matches a fraction drawing. Number 2: Completing tasks assigned up to this point. The following assignments are major assignments due in DEC. Narrative Writing, Trimester 1 Math Check out, Front Desk One-Pager. These assignments help me gage student understanding and plan next instructional steps. Focus 3: Social Emotional Support. The holidays can bring up many feelings. I am hoping to make a space for Holiday activities that although different from typical our celebrations, can be creative, fun and help us feel a bit more normal. If you would like to help me plan activities for the last week of school before winter recess please text or email me.

Week 14: 11/16-11/20

Week 14: As we conclude our 1st Trimester of Distance Learning ( wow I can't even believe I am saying that) I am blown away by the diligence, and flexibility of all the students in Room 22. We will continue to persevere and gain new content understanding each week of school. Fourth and Fifth graders spend a lot of time on fractions and we will continue to deepen our understanding of fractions into the 2nd Trimester. Informational Reading/Writing and Poetry will also be a part of our next Trimester. Thanks for all you do to support your child(ren)'s education.

Week 13: 11/09-11/13

Week 13: The photo to the left shows the student to student conversation that can take place on Padlet. Distance Learning makes collaboration challenging, but it is possible for students to engage with each other ideas. I am so pleased to see students having academic conversation by commenting on a digital platform. The picture below shows how we share our understanding of concepts in real time.

Week 12: 11/02-11/06

Week 12: Halloween Week in Room 22 was such fun. The students were dressed and in good spirits. On Halloween we learned about Yayoi Kusama and drew pumpkins. Here is a great picture of Ella holding her Yayoi Kusama inspired pumpkin. This week we will begin our informative writing unit. We will begin by contrasting theme and main idea. THE STUDENTS NEED HANDS ON EXPERIENCES with Fractions. Here are just a few ideas: Use 1/4, 1/3, 1/2 measuring cups to created full cups, ordering pizzas uncut and cutting them as a family and naming the fractions as you cut, and noticing sections that make up a waffle just to name a few ideas.

Week 11: 10/26-10/30

Week 11: Last week we wrote narratives with figurative language in groups. Writing together will give us practice when we write own narratives. Click the picture of the team writing slide to see our work. This week we will be writing full narratives in teams and receiving a narrative assignment. Please help your child complete this culminating task for our narrative unit. It is due December 11, 2020. This week we will continue to multiplying fractions by whole numbers and by other fractions in order to get ready to add and subtract fractions. THE STUDENTS NEED HANDS ON EXPERIENCES with Fractions. Here are just a few ideas: Use 1/4, 1/3, 1/2 measuring cups to created full cups, ordering pizzas uncut and cutting them as a family and naming the fractions as you cut, and noticing sections that make up a waffle just to name a few ideas.

Week 10: 10/19-10/22

Week 10: Last week we wrote narratives with figurative language in groups. Writing together will give us practice when we write own narratives. Click the picture of us playing "Giant, Goblins & Wizards" to see a slideshow of our narratives. This week we will be learning about theme and drafting the middle (rising action) of our stories in our October Notebooks. This week we will continue to multiplying fractions by whole numbers and by other fractions in order to get ready to add and subtract fractions. Please continue to engage your child in hands on activities for fractions. I need your help in this area. Hands on activities will help students understand the value of fractions which is critical for using them in equations. Here are just a few ideas: Use 1/4, 1/3, 1/2 measuring cups to created full cups, ordering pizzas uncut and cutting them as a family and naming the fractions as you cut, and noticing sections that make up a waffle just to name a few ideas.

Week 9: 10/12-10/16

Week 9: Last week we had fruitful conversation about characters traits and feelings. The chart here is an example of how we would do this activity in class. Click the chart to see a Jamboard where the students created a poster like this with a character of their choice (use arrows at the top to scroll through). The students did an amazing job demonstrating their understanding. We will use the skill of understanding characters to develop their own exposition this week. Students will be tasked with writing an exposition for a narrative where the establish the exposition for the story. This week we will spend time multiplying fractions by whole numbers and by other fractions in order to get ready to add and subtract fractions. These concepts are very abstract. You can help your child by having them engage in hands on activities like using 1/4, 1/3, 1/2 measuring cups to created full cups, ordering pizzas uncut and cutting them as a family and naming the fractions as you cut, and noticing sections that make up a waffle just to name a few ideas.

Week 8: 10/5-10/9

Week 8. Last week we had fruitful conversation about this 100s chart. Students analyzed and discovered patterns relating to multiplication, factor pairs, prime and composite numbers. The students came to understand the meanings associated with each color on the chart and why 1 is the only gray number. Ask your child about prime and composite numbers and be amazed at what they know. Coming up this week we will continue to use all operations in numbers to the millions, and fractions. We will switch gears from Social Studies to Earth Science where we will explore Earth Systems and Earth's Place in the Universe. We will also be beginning our Narrative Unit where we will delve into: Theme, Inferences, Character Analysis, Vocabulary, Comparing/Contrasting & Figurative Language

Week 7: 9/28-10/2

Week 7. Last week we continued to deepen our understanding the order of operations, fractions and place value. This week we will explore what makes numbers prime or composite. I will be assigning a counting collection. Additionally, we will conclude our persuasive unit with real world writing. The students will be tasked with writing me an email and "persuade" me to change a grade. This simulation will hopefully give context for how the persuasive writing skills we've learned can be applied. We had discussions about plot elements and will continue to understand plot as we read Sylvia & Aki (mostly read aloud in class) a couple chapters may be assigned for independent work. Here is a great photo of Bella's Math Notebook.

Week 6: 9/21-9/25

Week 6. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. I felt so celebrated and loved on my birthday. I am reminded how appreciative I am for our Walgrove community. The students annotated this card on screen for me today. It was a lovely end to a week where we spent time understanding the order of operations, fractions and reviewing place value. We had discussions about plot elements, and wrote persuasive paragraphs and essays. This coming week we will continue with all these concepts to ensure we develop a deep understanding of these fundamental concepts. Please watch the video in the weekly news for ideas on ways to help your child with fractions and plot elements.

Week 5: 9/14-9/18

Week 5--- Look alive! Time is flying by. This week we will be using our digital notebook to complete: RWOW (Reading & Writing tasks of the Week). Math Warm Ups & Problems are to be completed in a physical notebook and posted to Padlet. SS projects will begin, as well a PE and Art Padlets! Be sure you review the Independent Assignment with your child. We will continue the fun on Zoom everyday at 9am. Bella and Declan were having a ball during our class on Wednesday!

Week 4: 9/7-9/11

Looking 4--ward to this week! We will build on our understanding of digital documents and receive our first individually assigned digital assignment! Reading and Writing Notebooks are coming this week. This week we will decorate, label and begin to use this ongoing notebook! I am also looking forward to playing Pick and Draw again. Heather McAdams led this game and we had a blast! Just look at the fun drawings we made.

Social Studies

We also began our conversation about Social Studies. We will explore the specific content of each grade ( fourth-CA and fifth grade-USA) using a multicultural lens with particular attention to how the events in the past have contributed to present day in our state and country.

Week 3: 8/31-9/4

We learned how to share live documents, add text boxes, images and photos to our work. We also did live math warm ups and a live read aloud of a short story. A highlight that made me jump out of my chair and dance was doing this True False math warm up. It felt like real school! The students participated using chat and shared their math thinking with the class. We discovered that mathematicians multiply first. This discovery will set us up to deeply understand the order of operations needed for Algebra! Looking forward to this week! REMINDER NO SCHOOL 9/4 & 9/7

Izzy Shapiro's Work

Here Izzy demonstrated her understanding of order of operations, by multiplying first then adding the 67! Way to go Izzy. (photo posted with parent permission)

Week 2: 8/24-8/28

Week Two! Below you will find the weekly message and video for room 22. One of the highlights from last week was making virtual cupcakes for Eleanor's birthday!

Week 2 8_24-_8_28.pdf

Week Two: 8/24-8/28/2020

Link to video coming soon

Week 1: 8/18-8/21

Welcome to the 2020-2021 School Year. I am so happy to be your child's teacher. I know Distance Learning is NOT anyone's first choice but I am confident that together we can collaborate to make this educational experience meaningful for your child. Your mindset and positivity about Distance Learning will support your child and affect their mindset.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse