October 14

Hello Families!

Happy Friday.  

This 4 day week flew by, but students worked hard while they were here.  We continued to reflect on the reading goals we made last week and started a focus on fluency.  We discussed what fluency is and studied a rubric to help assess ourselves.  We'll be working in Reader's Theater skits to help us practice these skills, and some students will also be participating in fluency groups.  And finally, students received their reading logs today!!  They should have brought them home with their "just right" book.  They should be filling these out each time they read both at home and school.  Please check in with your child about these reading logs. 

In writing we continued to work on opinion pieces by doing a few "flashdrafts."  We wrote about the election, and we wrote about why we love ice cream.  Students were introduced to the "boxes and bullets" essay structure.  

In math we focused on factors and products by studying area models.  We created posters for products that show the factors of that product in area models.  We also worked on improving our partner talk.  

In Science students received an assignment via Google Classrooms (created by me) in which they had to study the different Biomes and take notes on them.  They can show you the NASA link they used at home!

Please check out the SeeSaw posts this weekend for more information.(I had some technical difficulties this afternoon, so SeeSaw probably will not be posted to until Saturday or late tonight.)  

Other Important info and dates:

• Photos will take place the week of the 24th.  Forms came home today.
  
• UA Curriculum night Thursday 10/20 - 6:30 pm in the C-Wing
  
• No School - Friday 10/21
• Our conferences will take place in about a month.  Please see the sign-up sheet  if you still need to sign up or change your time.  

Have a great weekend.  Stay in touch!

Cara

New 9/23

  Dear Families,

  WOW!  This week really flew by!!  We're getting used to these 5 day weeks I guess.:)  The students had a great week with Fire Prevention, intro to Chorus, our field trip to Shelburne Farms, and lots of cool science!!  

We are continuing to work on our stamina and engagement in reading.  Next week I hope (key word - hope) to send students home with their own reading logs so that they can track themselves more closely.  We've been using the reading they record on their goal sheets to reflect on their weekly reading.  Each Friday students will be expected to complete a reading reflection so that they can focus on their reading goals and their reading growth.  

We officially started unit 1 in Bridges math.  Students learned how to set up a problem string page and we focused on different strategies that can be used for solving multiplication problems.  Some are: ratio table, number line, and area model.  It seems as though many students have a decent grasp on their multiplication facts, but if you see a need at home, please support them in memorizing their facts.

 

In writing, we're continuing to collect entries in our writer's notebooks and to write in our dialogue journals.  We'll move on to an opinion unit by October.  

We officially started our science unit this week, focusing on Plant and Animal Structures and Function.  We'll focus mostly on plants, but will also connect what we learn to animals and of course, biomes and specific animal adaptations.  It is a fun unit!!  We explored a bit of it with plants from the gardens at Shelburne Farms yesterday and got to get wet and dirty here at school today with plants from OUR gardens.  The students were very engaged while dissecting and investigating plants from the garden.  We tried to get specimens that had all parts (root, stem, leaf, flower, fruit, seed) and did careful observing of each part.  It was so cool to see the variety of leaves, flowers, roots, and fruit!  Students got really into it and we didn't want to stop (that's why they didn't do See Saw today....).  Of course, we connect these structures to their function and think about how they help the organism survive, grow, behave, or reproduce.  I wonder if you'll see your child dissecting plants from your garden at home?!?!  

Today we also participated in our first community service activity together as we brought all the food you sent in for the food drive down to the Shelburne Food Shelf!!  Thank you!  What a great way for us to help our community and it's people in need.   Speaking of, I will NOT be attending the Hike for Hunger tomorrow, but Vasanthi and some of her students (and her whole family) will be there if you plan to go.   

And finally:

       * check out the SeeSaw page for posts (from me) that show more about our work this week.  Please let me know if you need help getting in. 

       * Next week is our Open House! Thursday 9/29 at 6 pm.  Students should come to show you around our classroom and share some of their highlights so far.  We'll           have informational handouts for parents regarding curriculum.    

That's enough for now.  Keep in touch!!

Spirit Week!

We would love to invite you for a Potluck Farewell Breakfast on Wednesday, June 8th at 8:00 AM to 8:30 AM.  We just wanted to gather one last time as Team Endeavor before the last day of school.  Please bring something to share- fruit, donuts, muffins, juice, bagels, etc.  We will have napkins, plates, cups.  We hope you can come!

Stargazing night

Stargazing night was a HIT!!

Special thanks to

Shelburne Farms and Vermont Astronomical Society for making this possible!

March 13

Hello Families,

I will see all of you in the next two weeks at conferences, but wanted to remind you to check out the class SeeSaw page for posts from your children about what we do each week.  Of course, you will also get a chance to see some of their work in person at conferences.  Students are encouraged to join us.  You can find a copy of the schedule through the googledoc, on the blog page, and/or on our SeeSaw page. 

I hope you heard about how successful and meaningful the 1st annual Disability Awareness day was this week.  Students got to hear from a panel of people living with disabilities, and then participated in simulations in which they had the opportunity to experience what it might be like to live with a physical or mental disability.  Very powerful stuff!!

In math we continue to focus on a variety of strategies for solving larger multiplication problems, and problems involving fractions or decimals.  Here is a link to the very helpful unit overview. 

Students completed one personal narrative before February break and have just barely started on a 2nd one which we will again work through the writing process.  In April, we will be studying US History and our next big writing piece will be an informative piece related to a US History topic.  

I'm hoping you all saw a copy of the directions for the March share (which is optional this month - but I'm hoping curiosity will win and most kids will do something....).  The share is fully choice - students pick a space related topic and the presentation format!  Students will start presenting these next week.  They've also been working on designing an experiment that will allow them to answer "How does shadow length and direction change throughout the day?".  All partnerships are designing these completely on their own which requires them to apply what they already know and  be flexible and willing to revise their design plans if necessary!  We hope to test out these experiments tomorrow (weather dependent of course....). 

And finally, we are in the process of planning end of the year field trips.  We are considering a trip to Montreal, Quebec to visit the Biodome and Planetarium.  To do this we would need every child to have an original or certified copy of his or her birth certificate.   We would also need a signed permission form - kids from families of divorce will need a notarized permission form and both signatures and contact information for both parents.  If accessing a birth certificate or the required signatures will be a hardship for your family, please let us know as soon as possible. Thanks.

See you all soon!!

March Conference Schedule

 Crowther March Conferences

Here is the schedule for conferences this month. Please let me know if something comes up and you need to reschedule. I look forward to talking with you all soon!

TIME	Monday 3/14	Tuesday, 3/15	Friday 3/18	Monday 3/21	Tuesday 3/22
3:05	Christie Crowe Camilla	Gina and Chad (Riley)	Eliza Pickard Logan	Allan and Joan (Sasha)	Melissa and Dan (Anders)
3:30	Heather (Kassidy)	Cory & Cecilia (Colin)	Saad	April (Caroline)	Chris and Carolyn (Carly)
4:00	Sean and holly macfaden	Naomi & Stan Williams	Christie & Seth Allen(Talulla)	Rebecca Gove Burgess	Scott & Tomi-Marie (Lexi)
4:30	Karen and Jess (Miranda)	Deb and Eric (Jake)	Dave and Lynn (Maddie)	Jen & Rick (Emma Machanic)	Maria and Jim (Max Brumsted)
5:00	Corrine (Luke)			Jen Marx & Scott Smith

This week in Cara Crowthers fifth grade students were introduced to a new signpost in reading. This signpost is titled Tough Questions, a Tough Question appears in a book when the character asks them-self a difficult question that can not be answered immediately. The question we should ask ourselves when a Tough Question pops up when you are reading is, "What does this question make me wonder." Our class has officially learned all six of the signposts and are now trying to find them in our own just right reading books. 

It is a new month February! This means we have a new calendar, on each calendar marker the is a small object that we have to find the length, width, and area of.Some common fractions we use to calculate so far are width, and length are eights and fourths. One common fraction we are using to calculate area so far is thirtysecondths. 

In writing we worked on slowing down the most important parts of our story's. We add emotions, details , and more! Some of us added more in our previous drafts, others started a whole new draft!

We did a lot of hard work this week in all subjects!               

Happy New Year!!

Dear Families, 
  Hello and Happy New Year!!!  

The students transitioned well back into school after our long break.  It was great to be back together!!  As part of our transition, students reflected on their year so far and their goals for the remainder of the year.  We also reflected on our Unit 2 math tests, and did a 3-2-1-2-3 reflection thinking about hopes for 2016 (you can find these on your child's See Saw Post).  

With the new year comes new units!!  We have started Unit 3 in math which focuses on Place Value and Decimals.  We'll be using money to help us think about decimals, but also base 10 pieces as models.  Students were excited on Friday to learn about Exponents for the first time!!  We'll explore them and exponential notation as we work through this unit.  A parent newsletter that gives more info about the unit was posted to See Saw last week.  Also, if you did not talk to your child about their Unit 2 (fractions) math test, please do.  Some students chose to show that they could do better by retaking part (or all!) of the test.  Part of my reflection after that test was that some students still need to memorize their multiplication facts, otherwise finding common multiples as common denominators becomes very tricky!!  Additionally, it is evident some students just need more practice with the strategies.  It was for this reason that we have created a math menu for HW in the coming weeks.  Your child should choose the option that makes sense for them based on their needs.  

We spent our literacy time reigniting our reading stamina and learning about Cultural Geography!!  So far we've primarily used 2 texts to think about how people live differently around the world: Beatrice's Goat and Material World. (We also just started exploring the TIME webpage "What the World Eats") .  We've focused on how the Geography of places impact how people might live, but also how differently people live in underdeveloped, developing and developed countries.  Many students posted something about this on their See Saw accounts this week.  I hope you've had a chance to talk about it at home.  Cultural Geography studies will continue through January. 

This week we'll start a new unit in reading and writing.  We'll be using Narrative fiction to work on strategies for close reading.  The strategies we'll be using are called Notice and Note Signposts.  We'll also start a narrative writing unit.  

Okay, that's enough for now!! As always, don't hesitate to contact me with questions or concerns.  And Thank you again for all of your thoughtful holiday gifts!!!

Cara