Settling In: Week 3

It was so great to see so many of you at Parent Information Night on Tuesday.  It was a night of sharing information and the year's curriculum, along with the digital tools we'll be using throughout the year.  If you were not able to attend, and happen to have any questions, please feel free to email your student's teacher. 

This week, we were able to finish a large majority of district testing.  The Performance Series Test for the subjects of reading, math, and science were given, and the new iReady Diagnostic Test was given, as well.  These tests give us a multitude of data that will help guide our instruction throughout the year.  The Performance Series Tests will be given two more times this school year, and the iReady Diagnostic Test will be given at the beginning of every quarter.

iReady Diagnostic Test

Student's Aidan and Ian diligently working on their iReady Diagnostic Test.

The iReady Diagnostic Test is just a portion of the iReady program that we will be utilizing in our classroom.  Our 5th grade classroom will also be using the iReady Instruction piece, too.  Each student will be practicing their reading comprehension, phonics, and fluency skills through leveled lessons on the iReady program.  Each student's lessons are geared directly towards what each individual student needs. 

This week we progressed nicely with our units of study.  In math, we are working with factoring numbers and making arrays.  In science, we continued our work with the scientific method and understanding the tools we use in science.  Our ELA block this week consisted of our testing times, and we were also able to discuss small articles from Scholastic News and start writing our thoughts in posts on Kidblog.  Students are becoming more comfortable with publishing their ideas for their classmates to see.  Their second blog posts show how they've already progressed with sharing their thoughts online.

We were also able to start our first spelling unit.  Each week we will take a pretest on Monday that will level the students with a list they are comfortable with for that week's spelling patterns.  The list will go home and will need to be studied throughout the week.  Their final spelling test will be given on Fridays.  On shortened weeks, we may discontinue spelling until the following week.  For example, next week, we will not be at school on Monday and will have a field trip on Friday, therefore, we will not have a spelling list for next week.

We were able to spend some time today celebrating our August Birthdays.  Thank you to everyone who has contributed so far to our birthday fund.  We were able to celebrate with ice cream today.  It was a nice cool treat on this warm August day. 

Our August Birthday Girls:  Destiny and Evelyn

Next Friday, we will be attending Radical Challenge for one of our field trips this year.  Students will need to wear tennis shoes, comfortable clothing, and bring a sack lunch with all throw away items.  In other words, everything that they bring for lunch must be able to be thrown away in the trash. 

Important Dates
August 30:  Club's Choice Fundraiser Begins
September 2:  No School - Labor Day
September 6:  Running Club 8am
September 6:  Field Trip - Radical Challenge

It was another fabulous week in fifth grade!  Thanks for all you do at home!  :)

~Mrs. Rhea

Scenes from the Second Week

What a fantastic week in fifth grade!  Our fifth graders are so excited every day when they walk through our doors, it brings the biggest smiles to each of our faces.  How great to get to work in such an amazing learning environment with truly phenomenal kids.

Last week, we ended our week with a school wide spirit assembly.  Each grade level team had to introduce themselves to the rest of the school using a skit, song, cheer, etc.  Our fifth graders helped Mr. Baldwin, Mrs. Porter, and myself rock it out to our version of "Ice, Ice, Baby" called "5th Grade Baby!" Control your laughter, as you view our YouTube Video of our part of the assembly.  :)  Click HERE to see the video.


Bullying has been a main theme within our classroom this week.  We, as a fifth grade, are standing up against bullying.  We have focused on the types of bullying and how to not be a bystander.  We can and should stand up for one another.  Listen as AD 5th grade takes a stand against bullying.  Click HERE to see the video.

Along with learning about Bullying, the students also created our door decorations for the school wide door decorating contest.  A lot of patience, teamwork, and creativity was involved in the process of creating four different door covers.  They did such a great job!

We are working on building up our repertoire of digital tools.  This is a process that must be taken slowly, so we become experts on the tools that we are going to use during our studies throughout the days.  Our fifth graders, this week, increased their knowledge with Symbaloo, Edmodo, and Kidblog.

Symbaloo is a computer "Home" or "Start" page.  It allows us to all have access to the same websites with just a click, without searching for sites or typing in URLs.

Edmodo is the digital tool we will be using for our classroom planners, collaboration, and for finding most of their homework.  Not all homework will be on here, but most will.

Kidblog is a classroom blog.  Each of our students has their own personal blog page.  It is connected to a teacher blog page to keep their writings private from the rest of the world.  Kidblog will be used primarily during our ELA (Reading, Writing, Spelling) Block, but will also be utilized in our other subject areas as well throughout the year.  Students showed such excitement as they set up their blog pages and published their first blog today on "Bullying."

Sometime this weekend, ask your child to share with you the ends and outs of these new digital tools. 


In your child's Friday Folder this week, you will find permission slips for our first field trip coming up on September 6th.  We will be going to Radical Challenge to work on team-building.  This is such an amazing trip that our fifth graders enjoy every year.  We are in need of 16 parent volunteers (We can only take the first 16) who would be willing to help and be group leaders on our trip.  Find the handouts in their Friday Folder and return it to us next week. 


Today, we had the opportunity to work with our Kindergarten Buddies for the first time.  All AD Kindergartners came down to our classroom.  We got to know one another, talked about the parts of a book, and read to our kindergarten friends.

Next week, we will continue dressing in colors to help our kindergarten friends review their colors.  Here are the colors to wear next week.

Monday:  Purple
Tuesday:  Pink
Wednesday:  Black
Thursday:  Brown
Friday:  White

Because this is a Pilot Classroom, our team of teachers created a Professional Blog for reflection and sharing of the progress of the program for other teachers, administrators, or anyone who wants to follow our journey.  If ever you would like to read the professional blog, you may do so at http://behindthescencesatad.blogspot.com/.

Finally, here are some upcoming dates to put in your calendars for the next few weeks. 

August 26:  Skate Night at Northland Rolladium Skate Center - 6-8pm. 
August 27:  Parent Information Night - 6-8pm  K,1,2 6-7pm and 3,4,5 7-8pm
August 30:  August 5th Grade Birthday Celebration
August 30:  Club's Choice Fundraiser Begins
September 2:  No School - Labor Day
September 6:  Running Club 8am
September 6:  Field Trip - Radical Challenge


Thanks for all you do at home!  We appreciate you!

~Mrs. Rhea

New Beginnings

What an exciting first three days of school!  Mrs. Porter, Mr. Baldwin, and I truly enjoyed seeing all of your students in class this week.  The typical back-to-school activities took place, as they would in any other classroom.  We found homes for all of our school supplies, learned classroom expectations, practiced drills, and got to know one another.   We also had a team-building activity where the students helped to create our classroom expectations.  Students decided what our normal behaviors would be and what being "Responsible" and "Respectful" would look like within our walls.

Along with these activities, we also dove right in with technology. All Chromebooks are up and running in our classroom!  Here are a few snap-shots of our students learning about the basics of their new device, logging in for the first time this school year, and composing an email to their teacher. 

 

 

Next week, we will utilize more digital resources on our Chromebooks and work on building our knowledge with using our new devices. 

 

 

Here are some important upcoming events to put in your calendars. 

• August 27 - PIE Night (Parent Information Evening) 
• Grades K,1,2 @ 6-7pm; Grades 3,4,5 @ 7-8pm
• September 3 - PTA Meeting @ 7pm in the LMC
• September 6 - Running Club Starts @ 8am

 

One more thing, we are buddies this year with Kindergarten, and they are studying their colors next week.  We are asking that fifth graders wear the color of the day to help out our kindergartners.  See the schedule below.

• Monday = red
• Tuesday = orange
• Wednesday = yellow
• Thursday = green
• Friday = blue

 

Thanks for a great first week of school! 

 

 

~Mrs. Rhea