Dear Families,

Hello and Happy First Friday of the new school year!!!  It’s been so nice to be back together again!  We are also happy to welcome 2 new classmates: Kaiden and Janson!!

This week has flown by (as the first week usually does….), but we’ve had many great moments together.  Some things we’ve done this week:

• Band orientation - Sign-up came home today!! and is due back TUESDAY!!
• Reviewed and practiced classroom routines and procedures
• Enjoyed some creative team time with Vasanthi’s class
• Explored the changes in the classroom library
• Got BRAND NEW reader’s notebooks and recorded our thoughts about how to make reading the best it can be this year
• Reviewed some of the Math Habits of Mind and Habits of Interaction through our math activities and discussions
• Enjoyed a few read-alouds (Did you hear about Swimmy?!)
• Talked about what we can do to ensure our classmates are feeling safe and happy in our classroom - eye contact, good listening, kind responses, body language, etc.

Of course, our days were also busy with UA, recess and lunch, getting used to the new schedule, catching up about our summers, enjoying our first “Snack Shack”, and so on.  

Students have not yet received any HW assignments, nor have they gotten their reading logs.  I still hope that students are reading regularly at home.  Reading logs will come home next week as will our first goal sheet.

I’ve just been informed that all students were reset on Fasttmath, back to multiplication.  We’ll do additional fact assessments before we decide where students really need the work.  I can switch students to other operations, but all students will have to reassess into the program.  I know that this might feel discouraging your children, but if they were working really hard and really know their facts up to a certain point, that will show when they take the initial assessment and they’ll be placed appropriately.  I won’t start them back into Fasttmath until after we do the classroom assessments (probably by the end of next week).  

Additionally, I’d like to briefly mention the Hike for Hunger. The Endeavor team has signed up to participate in the Hike for Hunger this year to benefit Hunger Free VT.  It will take place on Saturday, September 28 between 9:30-12:00.  Participation is optional.  More details will come home shortly.  In the meanwhile, here’s a link: http://www.razoo.com/story/Cara-Crowther-Fundraising-For-Hike-For-Hunger-2013

I hope you’ve heard from your children about the first few days of school.  Its really good to be together again!!

As always, keep in touch!!

Welcome Back!!

Poppy with her backpack! She's ready!

August 20, 2013

Hello Students and Families!

It's TIME!!!! Time to get ready to come back to school!  

Personally, I'm excited!  I am so happy to be teaching 5th grade, to work with Vasanthi, and to have my wonderful kids back!! 

Summer was amazing wasn't it?  (Well, after a month of rain..).  I'm looking forward to hearing about your vacation, your adventures, new books you read, and any new learning you did!  I had a very nice summer with my family.  

A few of my highlights were: a visit with my sister and her family in GA, a (solo) trip to CA to visit old friends, riding bike with the kids in tow, summer bookclub, and a Crowther family reunion.

Sy getting some help with his slam dunk at the reunion. 

With my sister and her family in GA.

  I  I hope you all are as psyched as I am about the upcoming year.  We have so much to look forward to: 

• Learning and growing together!
• Becoming even BETTER readers and writers
• Being creative and inventive!
• Chorus and (NEW!) Band
• Studying Space, Ecology, US History, and Weather
• More Community Service projects (those Origami boxes were AMAZING!!)
• Fieldtrips to Shelburne Farms, the Flynn, and MORE!

Of course, that's just the tip of the iceberg! 

I am sincerely excited to spend another year with all of you.  I look forward to seeing you at our Open House (before the first day of school) on Monday, 8/28 at 4:30 p.m.  They'll be time to say hello to your friends again, check out the classroom, and start thinking about 5th grade !!!

Enjoy your last few days of summer.  And as always, keep in touch!

Mrs. Crowther

You’re Invited!!

WHO: all Endeavor students

WHAT:   Endeavor Summer Book Club!!

WHERE: Pierson Library

WHEN: Wednesdays (mostly) this summer.

WHY:  to catch up with each other over the summer AND talk about GREAT BOOKS!

First book we will read will be The Danger Box by Blue Balliett.  We’ll shoot to read a book every two weeks so please try to finish this book by our FIRST MEETING: Wednesday, 6/26 4 p.m.

At our meeting we will talk about the book, what we enjoyed, what we wondered.  We’ll also vote on the next book we’ll read!!

Please know, You DO NOT have to be able to be present at each book club in order to join us sometimes.  However, you do have to attempt to read the book.   Stay updated on email and through Mrs. Crowther’s Kidblog page:  http://kidblog.org/MrsCrowthersClass/

We look forward to seeing you and READING with YOU!!!

Reading and Writing

        In Reading this week we have been continuing our reading groups with more reading and writing assignments about the book.

        In writing this week we have been continuing through the writing process. Some kids are even on content conference with their self, a peer or a teacher.

Math, Science and Number Corner

In math in this week we have been moving into unit 6. In unit 6 we are going to learn more about fractions and newly learn about decimals. This week we were looking at different sized sections on a geoboard and trying to figure out what fractions they were.  After this, we extended our thinking by making connections with the fractions (for example, 2 1/4’s = 1 1/2). We actually ended up adding and dividing fractions!

In science this week we have been learning more about light and sound. This week we read a book about the subject. We then filled out definitions for words that were mentioned in the book. For example we had to define photon, light and reflection. Also, we did stations about light with prisms!

In number corner we have been recording the trip and mileage of the trip going on in our calendar.

Other Important News and Events

-The Jogathon has been moved to Tuesday the 28th

By: Greta Powers and Juliet Hassenberg

Reading and Writing

In reading this week we have been continuing our survival books and reading groups with more reading assignments and more writing assignments. Although not a lot of groups have been able to meet because of NECAPS groups met and discussed a question about our book.

In writing this week we have been continuing writing first drafts for our fictional writing piece.

Math,Number Corner and Science

In math this week we worked on posters for our data that we did a pretty long time ago.The data that we collected where stuff that people asked your opinion on.We showed our data on the poster by picking something like a bar graph, pie chart and so on. We also had a conclusion on our posters to show what we learned.

In Number Corner this week we have been continuing our record for our calendar. We also have been continuing recording the mileage for the calendar trip. We have to be careful adding this though because if we mess up one mile total, it messes up our whole record of the mileage.

In science this week we had a test. We are also slowly moving into light and sound.

Other Important News and Events

-Jog-o-thon 5/23

Reading and Writing

In reading this week we have been starting reading groups. The theme for the the reading groups is survival. Everybody is reading different books about survival in their reading groups (for example Island of the Blue Dolphins, My Side of the Mountain and Hatchet). Every group has their own meeting day and each group, every week gets a new reading assignment and a new writing assignment about the reading. Also, we went over the reading workshop expectations and rules to make everyone feel happy!

In writing this week we found out that our class is writing fictional pieces. To get our minds flowing with fiction, Mrs. Crowther has been giving us prompts to start first drafts. Also, we have been writing myths about gods, goddesses and explanation for natural phenomenon. After we have written a lot of these first drafts we will pick one to go through the writing process and make our final draft.

Math, Science, Number Corner

In math this week we have been learning about probability by using “mini cards” and pictographs. Mini cards are well, miniature cards that come in a set of 40. The numbers go up to 10 and there is 4 of each card. Mini cards helped us when we had to answer questions about the probability of mini cards getting pulled or drawn (we also had to do some adding and subtracting during this). A pictograph is a graph with pictures. First, we looked at 2 pictographs to compare and contrast them.  Then, we answered questions about the pictograph. Also this week we played a game. This game we had to spin a spinner that had different  sized sections  and numbers in it.  We played  this game  with a partner and after a game we added up  the numbers to see who won. After 3 games, we totaled  our scores and recorded  the info  on a class data  chart  the next day, we made generalizations about the data .

In science this week we  have been learning deeper about our  matter  vocabulary  words and we have been preparing for the Science NECAPS  for next week. To learn  more about our matter vocabulary words we looked them up on the  DE Science  website as a class to really understand them. This week we got our Pre-Science NECAPS back. Some kids also got a rubric  with their scores (Mrs.Crowther didn't get to correct everybody’s assessments). Mrs. Crowther did notice though  that our class hasn’t had any practice with writing steps with a procedure. This meant that we had to practice more with writing steps for procedures and we did.  Our class wrote steps for a procedure to find the melting point of ice cream, ice and butter.

In number corner this week we have been starting to observe our calendar. For this month the days on our calendar are coordinate points from a map. This month we are tracking the travel of a family going across the United States. Each day we record where the family has traveled by using the coordinate points and a map. Also, we record how many miles they have traveled each day by using a key and addition.

Other Important News and Events

-NECAP Science Assessment this week!

- Chorus Concert 5/9 at 7:00pm

- Jogathon 5/23