September 3rd through 7th

Keenoy Kardinal’s Newsletter                            9-7-18

Dear Families, 

    Thank you to the families that were able to attend Get the Scoop night on Tuesday. If you were not able to attend, your child brought the packet home on Wednesday. Please let me know if you have any questions.  I really feel like our classroom community is coming together nicely.  Students genuinely seem to enjoy each other, and we have a lot of fun together. 

Mini– Courses

In the Friday Folder is a bright pink sheet of paper.  This paper is about Comet Mini Courses. If your child plans to participate, the completed form and money are due no later than Wed., Sept. 12.

    

Book Orders

Scholastic order forms were sent home recently.  If ordering, please include an order form and a check made out to Scholastic by Wednesday, September 12th.  You can also order online with the code that was written on the order forms.

Class Blog

Class Blog – “Keenoy Kardinals 18-19”

Follow the link to our class blog/website. 

https://keenoykardinals.blogspot.com/

Comet Carnival-Classroom Basket Raffle

In the Friday Folder you will send a flyer about a raffle basket for the Comet Carnival. Each classroom is contributing a basket to the raffle. The theme for our basket is St. Louis Blues Hockey.  If you are able, please send your donations to school with your child. All the baskets will be up for the silent auction at the carnival on Friday, October 12.

Science

Students will be making a closed ecosystem (terrarium) early next week. This model will allow students to see how the four systems (geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere) interact.  Students already demonstrated a lot of learning on their pre/post (Earth’s Major Systems) written responses. 

Math

*Students discussed the benefits of using unit cubes to measure volume.

*They measured volume by counting the number of cubes it takes to fill a rectangular prism.

*Students related volume to multiplication and addition by thinking about layers to find the volumes of prisms.

*Students explained and applied two different formulas (v = B x h; v= l x w x h) for finding the volume of a rectangular prism.

*Students will have an assessment over unit one next week.

Reading

Students really seem to enjoy listening to the book, Jackie’s Wild Seattle, by Will Hobbs.  I’ve continued using this book to model my own comprehension strategies when I read.  I will then ask students to practice these skills during independent reading time and at home.  We will be focusing on Story Elements for the next few weeks, and the standards that I will teach include:

*how characters in a story or drama respond to challenges

*compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story

*explain the relationships or interactions between two or more individuals

*compare and contrast the overall structure (e.g. problem/solution) of events, ideas, concepts, or     information in two or more texts

Writing

Students are starting to show good understanding about what personal narratives are.  We analyzed the similarities and differences between memoirs and personal narratives by reading, Up North at the Cabin, by Martha Chall.  Students realized that both genres are written about past experiences, but personal narratives focus in on a specific moment that stands out.  We have continued working on collecting ideas in our writer’s notebook.  We will continue working on the list of strategies below.

1)        Listing special people and moments with them.

2)         First times, last times, and a moment they realized something important.

3)         List of Special Places and Moments at the place.

4)         Recent Moments That Stand Out

5)         Other authors’ ideas helping spark my own

Next, I plan to have students analyze several past student writing samples of personal narratives.  We will score these 5^th grade narratives by using a rubric.  This is the same rubric that their own narratives will be graded from.   I enjoy these activities because they give students a much better understanding of how their own papers will be scored.  

Social Studies

This week I spent time reviewing mapping skills, continents, and oceans.  Students are creating/labeling a world map that will be displayed in the classroom. The basic knowledge of a world map will greatly help their understanding of upcoming social studies content. 

Upcoming Important Dates

Sept. 12 Fundraiser Orders due

Sept. 24 No School / Teacher Collaboration

Oct. 6 Pumpkin Fun Run

Oct. 12 Comet Carnival (5:00-8:00)

Have a wonderful weekend!

Dan Keenoy