Weekly Newsletter

November 28 – December 2

The Parent/Teacher Conferences are on Thursday and Friday this week – students will be clocking in half their hours on both days. If you have not signed up for a conference yet you can now do it online – see the Twitter feed on the right side of the screen for a website link. Our fundraising for the Holiday Bear Project, where we sponsor two kids over the holiday season is discussed in a previous post. We will be making our journey to Walmart after school on Wednesday to buy the gifts for these two kids – any student who is interested can meet us there. Any money that students earned from their odd jobs should be brought in on Tuesday so we can work out a budget. The Powwows will be held on December 6 & 7. The students know which day their powwow presentation is on (and it’s in their packet if they forgot). All presentations will be prior to 11 AM and more specific times will be made available soon.

 

Upcoming Events

Parent/Teacher Conferences – Thursday, December 1 and Friday, December 2

Powwow – Tuesday, December 6 and Wednesday, December 7

Book Buddies – Postponed – Date TBD

Holiday Luncheon – Thursday, December 22

Math – We are currently on Unit 5: Fractions, Decimals, and Percents. 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. With the new website and blog students have been customizing their own websites and last week they started writing their first post about the rare snowstorm. This will be written in their Notebooks first, revised, and then typed so it can be posted. Writer’s Notebooks will serve as a major vehicle for their writing activities this year. This month we will focus a lot on main idea & theme; connections; and making a personal response to the text. In addition, students will learn the importance of a mini-lesson and how it will help shape what writing they do each day in class.

Reading– Mrs. Pooler continues with Reader’s Workshop. This month some of the things that students will learn include: main idea & theme; connections; and making a personal response to the text. In our classroom, I am currently reading aloud with students – A House Called Awful End: The Eddie Dickens Trilogy.

Science – The second science unit of the year is Light and students are learning about this with in the classroom and in the science lab. This unit is coming to a close – students will hear about a test soon. Students will continue two science labs a week with Mrs. Luddy. 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. Luddy and once or twice in the classroom with me. (During the second half the year they will switch to Mrs. Mahar for science.) For the most part, the implementation of the science curriculum is established by Mrs. Luddy as well as any supplies that students need. If you have questions or concerns I’m happy to pass them on to Mrs. Luddy or you can reach her directly at jluddy@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 – The Powwow Project is in its last full week and last week students started building their model shelters. Each student also submitted a plan letting me know what he/she was planning to do for his/her portion of the project. This is a month-long project that will be our introduction to the mid-1700s, especially looking at how the future United States was populated during this time period. The French & Indian War came just before the colonists got really riled up over their treatment from the British. Once the American Revolution was over, the American Indians still lived on the land and this will help us look at the landscape of who was here during that time. The Powwow will conclude with a two-day event on December 6 & 7, (which parents are invited to) where each of the five groups will present foods, games, stories, costumes, and a miniature shelter to the class. The initial two weeks will be mainly research and as it comes together in the second half students will be working more closely with their groups on the presentation and building the shelters. 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.