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

Holidays

Boy did we have a great day today!!!  Students did a FANTASTIC job with their Cultural Holiday stations!!  We started in Vasanthi's room this morning and learned about 6 holidays and then continued in our classroom this afternoon.  Students enjoyed books, crafts, songs, and treats!  All students worked together to make this a success and boy was it ever!!  The stations were engaging and interesting.  The students loved it!!!

We ended our day in music class sharing our musical talents!  This group of students is truly talented in so many ways!!!

Happy Holidays everyone!!

December!

Dear Families

  Hello and Happy Friday!!  I hope I will see many of you tomorrow at the Craft Fair!! Endeavor is ready with over 20 pies coming in and over 40 cement "Peaceful Creations"!!  This will also be your last chance (for 2015) to get SCS clothing!!!

The week has flown by!  We've been doing a lot of World Geography, focusing on 2 main things (so far): the 5 Themes of Geography (Location, Place, Human/Environment Interaction, Movement, and Regions) and Landforms.  I bet you heard about our awesome new National Geographic Atlases!!  

Students also continued their work with fractions.  One focus this week was on how to use equivalent ratios to help figure out the "Better Buy".  Students could use ratio tables to find a unit price for a pricing scenario, or two compare prices for equal amounts of items (like granola bars).  It was pretty cool to see students using this strategy to compare prices.  Take them grocery shopping with you this weekend!!! :)

And of course, we worked hard in writing again this week.  Students continue to make their first drafts better by improving evidence and finding places in their writing to include quotes.  We are making our arguments stronger!!

And i'm sure you heard about the great trip to the Flynn!!! Students were really excited about the performance of Percy Jackson!!! I hope to see many of them reading this series now!! (if they haven't already...)

Don't forget to check out See Saw!  

Thank you for all of your support with the Craft Fair!!  What a fun way to support our school!

:)

-- 

Cara Crowther
5th Grade Teacher
Endeavor Team
Shelburne Community School

Statement of Confidentiality

The contents of this e-mail message and any attachments are confidential and are intended solely for addressee. The information may also be legally privileged. This transmission is sent in trust, for the sole purpose of delivery to the intended recipient. If you have received this transmission in error, any use, reproduction or dissemination of this transmission is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please immediately notify the sender by reply e-mail or phone and delete this message and its attachments, if any.