Week 4

Students discovered that scientists are not just old men with crazy white hair who wear a lab coat and work in a laboratory. Students found out that a scientist can work in the forest, desert, laboratory, space or even in the arctic. They became aware of the fact that a scientist can be from any nationality, culture or race. 

We had our first fire drill, which was quick and painless. You can't tell by the looks on their faces but it was fun to get outside even for a few minutes. 

We finished up our first unit in math this week. In our downtime the students played a fun and interactive game called roll 6. We have been working on memorizing our facts with the games Safety Zone, Shake Rattle and Roll and Roll 6, which is pictured below. 

In class we do a lot of movement activities and one that the students like is musical shares. The students walk around the room while listening to music, when the music stops they stop, they find the closest person and pair up and then have a discussion. I am out of the loop as to what music 5th graders like to listen to, so I thought to ask the students to help me create a Youtube playlist. The students searched for their favorite songs on Youtube and shared the title and link with me using a Google Form. I now have a 26 song playlist to share with the students. They can listen to and enjoy their music while learning. 

Week 3

This week we were busy learning new math games, bus safety guidelines, behavior guidelines, what real reading is, checking out good fit books from the media center and finishing up our first read aloud book.

As we finished up the book The Tiger Rising, by Kate DiCamillo, students were on the edge of their seats waiting to see what would happen to Robb, Sistine and the tiger. It is a wonderful story about friendship, loss, and finding strength within ourselves. The students participated in a Cats and Fishes discussion activity where they were able to share their thoughts and ideas about the characters, events and themes in the novel. I was amazed by the insightful and smart comments that these bright young minds shared with their classmates.

Our reading time this week was filled with learning about  "real" reading (text + our thoughts = real reading), schema, and our frame of reference. The students created their own frame of reference using Google Drawing. They shared their experiences, thoughts, feelings, beliefs and culture.


The students continued to work on their reading stamina and found comfortable places to read every day. The last few pieces of our new furniture arrived on Friday! The classroom looks great and we can't wait to enjoy our new set up.


The students worked together on a shared Google Doc to show their knowledge about the behavior tiers. Students worked to put the correct behaviors in the appropriate tiers.  The students were able to collaborate and communicate while learning about our Alice Smith behavior tiers and expectations.

During math we were busy learning about prime and composite numbers, rectangular arrays, and factors of a number. Ms. Bonnie, a senior volunteer, came in to meet the students on Wednesday, she was so impressed with their respectful behavior and strong work ethic. She will be volunteering in our classroom two days a week during our math time. She has worked with me for the past 4 years, is a retired teacher and a valuable part of our class community.



It wouldn't be the start of school if we didn't involve bus safety training. Even though many of the students have heard the bus rules and procedures numerous times they sat and listened respectfully.

Week 2

Our second week of school just flew by, the 4 day week felt much shorter than our 5 day first week, that is for sure. We continued this week getting to know our classmates as they shared their Get To Know Me Bags. We even learned that one student's sister went to high school with Miss Yesnes, our student teacher. It truly is a small world. Each student created a personality swirl which highlighted their artistic ability and their positive attributes. Their wonderful creations are hanging on our wall and have added a lot of                                                      color and personality to our classroom.

The students spent a lot of time on the chromebooks and computers using Google Classroom and Google Drawing. They created their own binder covers and constructed what their successful student looks like.  We continued to build our reading stamina and are now up to reading 25 minutes uninterrupted. Miss Yesnes and I have been interviewing the students and learning more about their reading likes and dislikes along with their feelings about reading and them as a reader. Now that we have our binders the students are able to start their 20 Book Challenge. Each student has a chart that will be filled in each time they complete a book. They write in the title and author. If the book is over 250 pages it counts as 2 books! The 5th Grade Book Challenge is to read 40 books by the end of the year. So we want to have 20 books read by January, that's why we are asking that they read every night at home for homework.

We jumped right in to Unit 1 in math and the students have impressed us with their work ethic, math skills and questions. We took a multiplication facts test on Friday and will be working on making sure that everyone has those facts memorized.

The students were given the opportunity to complete the Cup Tower Challenge and the Marshmallow Challenge again this week. They thought about what worked and what didn't the first go around. They then came up with solutions and new ideas to help them be successful. Every group was able to accomplish the Cup Tower Challenge and 4 out of 7 groups were successful at the Marshmallow Challenge. The first time only 1 out of 7 groups were able to make a tower out of spaghetti that would hold a marshmallow up top. It was a great way for the students to learn that we don't always succeed on the first try and that some things take numerous tries before we are successful.

We ended the week with an all school assembly where we learned more about the Alice Smith Behavior Basics and about Being Brave. Their own Mrs. Beaverson stood up in front of the entire school and gave a pep talk about being brave. I challenged the students to be brave by sharing their ideas, trying new foods at lunch, standing up to a bully or thinking outside the box, etc. I am okay talking in front of 30 students but 600 students frightens me to death, so I was showing them how to be brave. We will continue to
                                                      check in with the students to see how they are being brave.

First Week!

Week 1

Our first week of school was filled with various activities that helped us get to know one another. We completed Figure Me Out Posters and learned about each others' numbers. We had many students share their get to know me bags and we started creating personality swirls on Friday that highlight our positive personality traits.

In addition to getting to know one another we started working together to complete different challenges. The students saved Sam, the gummy worm, from drowning, they created free standing towers using spaghetti, tape and a marshmallow and finally the students invented creative ways to recreate a solo cup tower using a rubberband and string.

 

Our new furniture came early Friday morning and the students were very excited to help set up the room and sit in the various new comfortable areas. Two of our new tables were missing some hardware, so we look forward to getting those this week and putting the final touches on our classroom.

We started day one building our reading stamina. It was apparent that this class has worked on read to self and building their reading stamina. We reviewed the Alice Smith's 3 R's, respectful, responsible and ready to learn behavior and will continue to work on what it looks like, sounds like and feels like in school when we practice the 3R's. This week we will begin Unit 1 in math and finally put together our binders. 

Thanks for a successful first week!

Mrs. Beaverson

and

Miss Yesnes