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Spelling: Students completed their Words to Learn lists today by correcting words they missed on the last spelling test. This will be your student’s customized spelling list for the next test.

Cursive: Ten cursive sentences of seven or more words each are due on Fridays.

Reading: Today was a reading day in Literature Circles. Some groups worked on asking open-ended questions.

Writing: Today was a work day in writing. A personal narrative is due Friday, October 15. Students should be drafting at this time.

Math: Students played Factor Captor to review factors and products.

Science: Groups showed their design for a “creature,” and explained how the creature used water, food and oxygen. From this exercise, here are some questions the class had:

• How are the lungs and heart related?
• Does oxygen move from the lungs to the heart, then to the blood?
• Why are some veins blue?
• What do the kidneys do?
• How do nutrients move from the intestines into the rest of the body?
• How does oxygen move around the body?
• Why does a human or animal need to breathe in oxygen?
• What is the source of the carbon dioxide that is breathed out?
• What happens to oxygen after it reaches the lungs?

Social Studies: Students made their own “winter counts” using events from their own lives to create a pictograph history. Homework is to finish Notebook p. 13 if not done in class.

Behavior Update:

• Yellow magnets: 0
• Orange magnets: 0
• Red magnets: 0
• STAR Awards: 0
• Magnets moved this week (goal: 10): 0

Check your student’s Personal and Social Growth grade at SnapGrades to see if your student moved their magnet. Need help with SnapGrades?

Notes:

• The Fun Run is Tuesday, October 5. Pledges will still be accepted next week.
• View or edit the “Paper and Coffee” juice volunteer list
• Check out our class calendar to stay up-to-date.
• View grades, assignments, and attendance at SnapGrades.

Our Mission:
Every student in Room 130 leaves improved and prepared for 6th grade.

Spelling: Today was a continued preview of upcoming spelling words.

Cursive: Ten cursive sentences of seven or more words each are due on Fridays.

Reading: Students received their new Literature Circles books and we planned the number of pages each group will read per day. Here are the books for this cycle:

• The Great Gilly Hopkins
• Tuck Everlasting
• The View from Saturday
• Horrible Harry and the Dead Letters
• Charlotte’s Web
• Keeper of the Doves

Writing: We reviewed prewriting conferences and how to give and receive questions and ideas about a writing topic. Students also completed their prewriting conferences today.

A personal narrative is due Friday, October 15. Students should be ready to start drafting tomorrow.

Math: Students completed a math test over these ideas:

• Prime and composite numbers
• Square numbers and exponents
• Factors and prime factorization

Science: We reviewed how our body systems are crucial to keep us healthy, and how people who ingest drugs (alcohol, tobacco and other drugs) can overwhelm their body’s systems designed to remove toxins. We talked about how important it is for students to make good choices to keep their body systems and their bodies healthy.

Social Studies: We learned about how the geography of American Indians affected their lives and what they recorded for their history.

Behavior Update:

• Yellow magnets: 0
• Orange magnets: 0
• Red magnets: 0
• STAR Awards: 0
• Magnets moved this week (goal: 10): 0

Check your student’s Personal and Social Growth grade at SnapGrades to see if your student moved their magnet. Need help with SnapGrades?

Notes:

• Fun Run Pledges are due this week, if students would like a pedometer at the time of the run.
• Need to update your contact information or send in your email address or phone number? Do that here.
• Check out our class calendar to stay up-to-date.
• View grades, assignments, and attendance at SnapGrades.

Our Mission:
Every student in Room 130 leaves improved and prepared for 6th grade.

Spelling: Today was a preview of upcoming spelling words.

Cursive: Ten cursive sentences of seven or more words each are due on Fridays.

Reading: Today was a preview of the new Literature Circles books.

Writing: We reviewed types of details today:

• Character action
• Setting
• Dialogue
• Thoughts
• Physical description

A personal narrative was due into portfolios today. Student writing portfolios were also due today. Our next piece of writing, also a personal narrative, is due Friday, October 15.

Math: We reviewed for tomorrow’s math test about these ideas:

• Prime and composite numbers
• Square numbers and exponents
• Factors and prime factorization

Homework is to finish Journal pp. 25.

Science: None today due to library.

Social Studies: None today.

Behavior Update:

• Yellow magnets: 0
• Orange magnets: 0
• Red magnets: 0
• STAR Awards: 0
• Magnets moved this week (goal: 10): 0

Check your student’s Personal and Social Growth grade at SnapGrades to see if your student moved their magnet. Need help with SnapGrades?

Notes:

• Fun Run Pledges are due this week, if students would like a pedometer at the time of the run.
• Need to update your contact information or send in your email address or phone number? Do that here.
• Check out our class calendar to stay up-to-date.
• View grades, assignments, and attendance at SnapGrades.

Our Mission:
Every student in Room 130 leaves improved and prepared for 6th grade.

Spelling: Today was a spelling and skill test.

Cursive: Ten cursive sentences of seven or more words each are due on Fridays.

Reading: Today was a discussion day in Literature Circles.

Writing: None today due to technology.

A personal narrative is due Wednesday, September 29 (new date due to the power outage). Student writing portfolios are also due on Wednesday. A second personal narrative is due Friday, October 15.

Math: We reviewed prime factorization (12 = 2 * 2 * 3) today. Homework is to finish Journal pp. 23-24.

Science: Students “created a creature” by drawing a diagram of what types of body systems would be needed for a creature to breathe, eat and drink. This is an introduction to learning about body systems.

Social Studies: We learned that some American Indians recorded their history using pictographs, and the geography of their environment influenced what happened to them.

Behavior Update:

• Yellow magnets: 0
• Orange magnets: 0
• Red magnets: 0
• STAR Awards: 0
• Magnets moved this week (goal: 10): 0

Check your student’s Personal and Social Growth grade at SnapGrades to see if your student moved their magnet. Need help with SnapGrades?

Notes:

• Fun Run Pledges are due this week, if students would like a pedometer at the time of the run.
• Need to update your contact information or send in your email address or phone number? Do that here.
• Check out our class calendar to stay up-to-date.
• View grades, assignments, and attendance at SnapGrades.

Our Mission:
Every student in Room 130 leaves improved and prepared for 6th grade.

Spelling: We reviewed contractions, which will be the skill tested on tomorrow’s spelling and skill test.

Cursive: Ten cursive sentences of seven or more words each are due on Fridays.

Reading: We discussed an article from the Wall Street Journal about why boys reading scores are lower than girls on national tests.  The author put forth two ideas to explain the lower reading scores of boys: too many “gross-out” books and too much time with electronic devices squeezing out time to read. Here’s the money quote from the article:

“One obvious problem with the SweetFarts [gross-out books] philosophy of education is that it is more suited to producing a generation of barbarians and morons than to raising the sort of men who make good husbands, fathers and professionals.”

The entire article is worth reading. Homework is for students to discuss the article with their parents be ready to share ideas by Friday.

Writing: Today was a work day in writing. Students were either editing or publishing their first piece, or prewriting for their second piece, also a personal narrative.

A personal narrative is due Wednesday, September 29 (new date due to the power outage). Student writing portfolios are also due on Wednesday. A second personal narrative is due Friday, October 15.

Math: We reviewed prime and composite numbers today. Students also completed a MiniQuiz over factors, prime numbers, square numbers and arrays.

Science: We finished our review of topics learned in fourth grade, focusing today on magnetism, states of matter, requirements of living things, and space.

Social Studies: None today due to Picture Day.

Behavior Update:

• Yellow magnets: 0
• Orange magnets: 0
• Red magnets: 0
• STAR Awards: 0
• Magnets moved this week (goal: 10): 0

Check your student’s Personal and Social Growth grade at SnapGrades to see if your student moved their magnet. Need help with SnapGrades?

Notes:

• Fun Run Pledges are due this week, if students would like a pedometer at the time of the run.
• Need to update your contact information or send in your email address or phone number? Do that here.
• Check out our class calendar to stay up-to-date.
• View grades, assignments, and attendance at SnapGrades.

Our Mission:
Every student in Room 130 leaves improved and prepared for 6th grade.