Weekly Newsletter

On Friday, we had the second of three Friday sessions of a team academic switch. Throughout the day, students attended two reading, one writing, and one math class from all four teachers on our team. Besides teaching essential skills aligned with the Connecticut Mastery Tests (CMTs), students had the opportunity to learn from other teachers. This will continue one more time this week. Thank you for letting me know if your child will not be here this week. At the time of this writing, we will have 16 kids in class this week.

Wednesday, February 22

Team Academic Switch

Thursday, February 23

6th Grader for a Day (Students should bring a big snack. Since they are following a sixth grade schedule they will be eating much later than they usually do.)

Friday, February 24

All-School Read-In (Students can wear pajamas and bring pillows, sleeping bags, blankets, etc. They should bring plenty of material to read including books, magazines, eReaders, etc. They can also bring in healthy snacks.

Students have been working on their American Revolution Famous Person Speech for a few weeks. Each student was assigned a famous person from the 1700s and they will give a 3-5 minute speech in class during the last week of February. The tentative speech dates are Wednesday, February 29 and Thursday, March 1, but this could change based if we have a snow day. Students will give the speech acting as if they are actually the person. For example, if a student was assigned John Adams he could begin by saying, “Hello. My name is John Adams…”

Upcoming Events

Academic Switches - Fridays (2/10; 2/17; 2/24)

Sixth Grader for a Day- Thursday, February 23

American Revolution Speeches - Wednesday, February 29 and Thursday, March 1

Last Day of School - Friday, June 15, 2012

Math – Students took the Unit 11 Test last week. Students are in the final year of the Everyday Mathematics program in Avon. I offer math extra help on Wednesday mornings from 7:30 – 7:55 AM. Your child can attend regularly, once in a while, or even just one time. Do not think of this as remedial help or even enrichment – it’s basically whatever the students need who show up. My two requirements to attend are as follows: 1) Parents should send me an e-mail by the night before letting me know their child will be attending. 2) The student should have some idea what he/she needs help with. If their answer is, “I don’t know. My mom is making me go,” that’s not going to cut it. It may be absolutely true, but if students have no idea what they need help with then it’s not always useful time. This year we are using the 2012 edition which does a much better job helping teachers focus on the new Common Core State Standards, but for students you most likely won’t notice anything drastically different from fourth grade. Basically, these standards are an effort to get all 50 states teaching the same curriculum. It doesn’t mean the same program even town-to-town – it just means that in the past a student in California and a student in Montana might be learning very different skills. This is an effort to tighten that up and within a few years the CMTs will disappear and be replaced with national tests. On most nights (except Fridays) students will have homework and the vast majority of the time it will be a Study Link worksheet. Again, probably very similar to fourth grade.

English – Writer’s Workshop continues with activities tied into Writer’s Notebooks. We have been working on the revision process (for all types of writing) as well as more intensive planning of expository (using webs). Each student chose his/her own individual writing project. With the website and blog students have been customizing their own websites and most students have his/her first official post on the website. Writer's Notebooks will serve as a major vehicle for their writing activities this year.

Reading- Mrs. Pooler continues with Reader’s Workshop. In our classroom, I am currently reading aloud with students – The Fighting Ground by Avi. This is a tie-in to our Social Studies unit on the American Revolution.

Science - Students are currently working on a variety of material in science. They made the switch-over to science labs with Mrs. Mahar recently. Students are learning about this with in the classroom and in the science lab. Students will continue two science labs a week with Mrs. Mahar. In the classroom (with me) we discussed sound and read literature about how sound impacts their everyday lives. This week we will continue those discussions and also focus on the parts of the ear. At Thompson Brook, students have science twice a week in the science lab with Mrs. Mahar and once or twice in the classroom with me. (During the first half the year they had Mrs. Luddy for science.) For the most part, the implementation of the science curriculum is established by Mrs. Mahar as well as any supplies that students need. If you have questions or concerns I’m happy to pass them on to Mrs. Mahar or you can reach her directly at jmahar@avon.k12.ct.us. Unless it’s a personal issue, please CC me on any e-mails to the science teachers so I can help out, too.

Social Studies – We are currently working on the American Revolution. A few weeks ago students started to work on the American Revolution Famous Person Speech. The speeches are in two weeks. As I told students, I’m not a big quizzer or tester in Social Studies. I do assess my students – just not through a standard quiz or test. I could write an entire thesis on my dislike of rote Social Studies memorization, but I’ll try to sum it up in a few sentences. My students walk away learning about many historical events and some even remember specific dates, but I could care less if students remember that the Boston Massacre took place on March 5. I care very much that they know it TOOK PLACE, they know WHY it took place, and they know the historical significance of HOW that one event helped begin a revolution that led to the formation of our country. If a student can memorize the date and know nothing else about the event except that a few people were killed, what’s the point? After basic geography (because if students don’t know that Japan is not off the shore of Connecticut they will at some point in their lives sound foolish), most of Social Studies in fifth grade is based on history, with a big focus on the 1760s – 1860s.

Weekly Newsletter

The Unit 11 Math Test (Volume) will be on Thursday. Wednesday morning’s extra help math session will be focused on the test. On Friday, we had the first of four Friday sessions of a team academic switch. Throughout the day, students attended two reading, one writing, and one math class from all four teachers on our team. Besides teaching essential skills aligned with the Connecticut Mastery Tests (CMTs), students had the opportunity to learn from other teachers. This will continue for the next three Fridays. Thank you for letting me know if your child will not be here next week. At the time of this writing, we will have 16 students in class February 22-24. In addition to one of our Friday academic switches, we will be switching with a sixth grade team for the entire day so students will attend sixth grade classes for the day (and sixth graders will roll back in time and attend fifth grade classes for the day). In PE this week, students will participate in the second Disaster Preparation class in lieu of regular PE. They will not need gym clothes this week. Given all the chaos in Avon caused by the October snowstorm, this will be a very useful experience for them. Students were introduced to the American Revolution Famous Person Speech a couple weeks ago. Each student was assigned a famous person from the 1700s and they will give a 3-5 minute speech in class during the last week of February. The tentative speech dates are Tuesday, February 28 and Wednesday, February 29, but this could change based on when morning science falls that week (or if we have a snow day). Students will give the speech acting as if they are actually the person. For example, if a student was assigned John Adams he could begin by saying, “Hello. My name is John Adams…”

Superbowl

Upcoming Events

Academic Switches – Fridays (2/10; 2/17; 2/24; 3/2)

Sixth Grader for a Day- Thursday, February 23

American Revolution Speeches - Tuesday, February 28 and Wednesday, February 29

Last Day of School – Friday, June 15, 2012

Math – Students are currently on Unit 11: Volume. They will take the Unit 11 Test on Thursday. Students are in the final year of the Everyday Mathematics program in Avon. I offer math extra help on Wednesday mornings from 7:30 – 7:55 AM. Your child can attend regularly, once in a while, or even just one time. Do not think of this as remedial help or even enrichment – it’s basically whatever the students need who show up. My two requirements to attend are as follows: 1) Parents should send me an e-mail by the night before letting me know their child will be attending. 2) The student should have some idea what he/she needs help with. If their answer is, “I don’t know. My mom is making me go,” that’s not going to cut it. It may be absolutely true, but if students have no idea what they need help with then it’s not always useful time. This year we are using the 2012 edition which does a much better job helping teachers focus on the new Common Core State Standards, but for students you most likely won’t notice anything drastically different from fourth grade. Basically, these standards are an effort to get all 50 states teaching the same curriculum. It doesn’t mean the same program even town-to-town – it just means that in the past a student in California and a student in Montana might be learning very different skills. This is an effort to tighten that up and within a few years the CMTs will disappear and be replaced with national tests. On most nights (except Fridays) students will have homework and the vast majority of the time it will be a Study Link worksheet. Again, probably very similar to fourth grade.

English – Writer’s Workshop continues with activities tied into Writer’s Notebooks. We have been working on the revision process (for all types of writing) as well as more intensive planning of expository (using webs). Each student chose his/her own individual writing project. With the website and blog students have been customizing their own websites and most students have his/her first official post on the website. Writer’s Notebooks will serve as a major vehicle for their writing activities this year.

Reading- Mrs. Pooler continues with Reader’s Workshop. In our classroom, I am currently reading aloud with students – The Fighting Ground by Avi. This is a tie-in to our Social Studies unit on the American Revolution.

Science – Students took the Forces and Motion last week. They made the switch-over to science labs with Mrs. Mahar recently. Students are learning about this with in the classroom and in the science lab. Students will continue two science labs a week with Mrs. Mahar. In the classroom (with me) we discussed sound and read literature about how sound impacts their everyday lives. This week we will continue those discussions and also focus on the parts of the ear. At Thompson Brook, students have science twice a week in the science lab with Mrs. Mahar and once or twice in the classroom with me. (During the first half the year they had Mrs. Luddy for science.) For the most part, the implementation of the science curriculum is established by Mrs. Mahar as well as any supplies that students need. If you have questions or concerns I’m happy to pass them on to Mrs. Mahar or you can reach her directly at jmahar@avon.k12.ct.us. Unless it’s a personal issue, please CC me on any e-mails to the science teachers so I can help out, too.

Social Studies – We are currently working on the American Revolution. A couple weeks ago students started to work on the American Revolution Famous Person Speech. As I told students, I’m not a big quizzer or tester in Social Studies. I do assess my students – just not through a standard quiz or test. I could write an entire thesis on my dislike of rote Social Studies memorization, but I’ll try to sum it up in a few sentences. My students walk away learning about many historical events and some even remember specific dates, but I could care less if students remember that the Boston Massacre took place on March 5. I care very much that they know it TOOK PLACE, they know WHY it took place, and they know the historical significance of HOW that one event helped begin a revolution that led to the formation of our country. If a student can memorize the date and know nothing else about the event except that a few people were killed, what’s the point? After basic geography (because if students don’t know that Japan is not off the shore of Connecticut they will at some point in their lives sound foolish), most of Social Studies in fifth grade is based on history, with a big focus on the 1760s – 1860s.