9-28-12

Bram homework:
pb47 Classifying volcanoes: you may use your book
Science worksheet: use your foldable

Haugen homework:
Science worksheet: use your foldable
Atlas/volcano activity

EVERYONE remember to read!  RC #2 is due when you come back to school on Monday.

9-27-12

Homework tonight:

Read 30 minutes

pb47 Haugen's homeroom

Write one paragraph about somewhere you'd like to go on vacation.  Make sure it is at least 5 sentences, double spaced.

9-26-12

Homework tonight: Study for vocabulary test tomorrow!

30 minutes of reading, we are reading 10 here at school, at least for the next couple of weeks.

Some students have late subject and predicate work to do!

Science links

Some of the kids were asking to have the links to a couple of web pages we did this week.  Click on the links below to find out about the layers of the earth.

Mr Lee Rap of the layers of the earth

Dig through the earth

Layers of the earth video

9-25-12

Homework:
Study for tomorrow's spelling test
Study for Thursday's vocabulary test
Subject predicate worksheet
If you didn't do so hot on the last assignment, you also have a redo of the subject predicate worksheet from Friday!

Next RC quiz is due on Monday!

Email issues:  We are having some issues with our school email.  If I don't respond to an email that you sent, within 24 hours, please resend it!  I always respond as soon as possible, so if I don't, I probably didn't get it.

Counselor Johnson visited us today.  She talked to the kids about "filling up people's buckets".  Ask them what that means. 

Haugen's book orders came in today.  The kids took them home, so look for them.

9-24-12

Read 40 minutes tonight!

Spelling test: Wednesday
Vocab test and Subject predicate test: Thursday

Learning objectives for the week of Sept. 24

Reading: Categorizing and classifying information in a nonfiction text
     Independent reading stamina

Grammar: Subjects and predicates (quiz Thursday)

Writing: How to write an informational paragraph

Vocab/spelling: What information can you find in a dictionary entry

Science: Layers of the earth

9-21-12

Have a great weekend!  We sure had a busy week.  Hard to believe it is Friday, already.

Reading:  Please continue reading your books.  The next RC quiz is due on the last day of September.
This book must be in your lexile, or it doesn't count.
HOMEWORK: pb51 on root words struct and rupt

Spelling and vocabulary:
Spelling test Wednesday and Vocabulary test over volcano words on Thursday.
Some students have to do their rewrites yet from our last spelling test.

Language arts: Subject and predicate packet.

9-20-12

Read 40 minutes!  That is it for homework tonight!

Spelling and vocabulary words for the week

New words are posted on the wiki.

9-19-12

Read 40 minutes tonight!  Remember, not all students are logging their time, but they are all required to continue reading!

Rewrites are due tomorrow.  Anyone who didn't get an A or B on their test needs to rewrite words that they missed 10 times.

Haugen's group:  Subject/predicate packet is due on Friday.


WANTED:  Be on the lookout for a few things our classroom needs.  If you have extras of these items at your house, or see a cheap used one at a garage sale, we'd really appreciate your donation.
* digital camera for taking pictures of experiments, field trips, etc....
* distilled water
* gallon sized plastic baggies
* plastic tablecloths
* plastic silverware
* books your kids are done reading
* AAA batteries

Thursday's special speaker
On Thursday afternoon the fifth and sixth graders will be able to hear a Belmond policeman speak about stranger danger.  Please ask your kids to talk to you about it tomorrow night!

Other speakers
If you know of someone, or if you yourself have a job that you think would be interesting to a fifth grader and would like to come and speak, please let us know. We would also like to invite anyone with a special talent or hobby to come and speak to the kids.  We like to have contact with our community and with our limited field trip budget, we are trying to build in some learning events here in our hometown.

Storm chasers in the classroom!

As an inferencing activity today, we had one student from each classroom pretend to be famous storm chaser, Warren Faidley.  The rest of the students on the classroom were in the audience of the talk show "BRONCO BITS".  They asked questions to "Warren Faidley" dealing with things they learned about him from the story.  Warren then had to answer the questions as Warren Faidley would.  It was amazing to see how deeply they understood the story and the characters!

Playdough in science???

Yes, you heard that right.  We played with playdough in science today.  Well, not exactly.  We built models of the layers of the earth.  It was really fun, and incredibly memorable.  When the kids bring their models home tomorrow, ask them to tell you the layers of the earth.  We will be learning a lot about the layers over the next week or so.

9-18-12

Sorry for the late post.  I got delayed after school.

Homework for tonight:

Due Thursday- spelling rewrite for anyone who got a C or below on their spelling test

We will be getting new spelling and vocabulary words tomorrow.

Reading logs:  Update on the reading logs.  All of the students who have passed their first RC quiz will not have to keep reading logs for the next 2 weeks. They will still need to keep reading each night.  Students who don't have to keep logs got a note to take home to their parents tonight, for "proof" :)  If your child has the note, they don't have to write their minutes. The next quiz is due Sept. 30.  Anyone who has 2 quizzes passed, in their level, will not have to do logs for 2 weeks after that.

9-17-12

BUSY day today!  We got so much accomplished and the kids had terrific behavior!  The good news...No homework for anyone.  That's what happens when we work hard!  Some kids have to read their 40 minutes, but a lot of them finished with that as well!

Objectives for the week of Sept. 17,2012

Reading: Author's use of text structure
     Categorizing and classifying information in a nonfiction source

Vocabulary: Use images to help with new vocabulary acquisition
     Word roots: struct and rupt

Spelling: Letter patterns that make a long o sound and an oo sound

Grammar: Simple and complete subjects and predicates

Writing: Bulding stamina in writing
     Using a topic sentence in your writing
     Rereading your writing to make sure it makes sense

Science: Layers of the earth

9-16-12

Sorry it took me so long to post.  It has been a long couple of days of feeling pretty cruddy!  Hopefully I'm on the uphill climb now.  A couple of days of rest and antibiotics :)

Homework for the weekend:
Get planner and reading log signed

9-13-12

Spelling test tomorrow!

Science open note test tomorrow!

Read 40 minutes.

Book orders due Monday for Haugen's homeroom.

RC quiz will be due Monday since the 15th is on a Saturday.

9-12-12

REWARDS:
Mrs. Haugen's class earned a behavior reward yesterday.  They chose to have no seating chart for a week!  Ms. Bram's class earned theirs today.  They chose to have no homework for a week.  YES, they still have to do the work, they just haven't realized yet that it means they'll have to do more during the class time they have :) So when you read the assignments below you will notice 2 separate assignment groups!

Haugen Homework
Write your news article
Read 40 minutes
Study your vocabulary words for tomorrow's test

Bram Homework
Read 40 minutes
Study your vocabulary words for tomorrow's test

Book orders are due Monday for Haugen's class.

9-11-12

9/11  Click on the link to watch a kid friendly video about what happened on 9/11.  We ran out of time to watch it today.

Reading: Read 40 minutes
PB 31

Vocabulary test on Thursday.  Spelling test Friday.

Science: Agents of erosion worksheet

Writing: Who, what, when, where, why planning sheet for newspaper article

9-10-12

Reading homework: Read 40 minutes
  practice book pages 13, 14, 15

Science: Read water changes the earth's surface and answer questions 1-8

Book orders went home with Mrs. Haugen's class today.  They are due back on Monday.  If you order online, use the code GYXWH and you can get a $5 free book coupon for use on your next book order!

Learning objectives for the week of 9-10-12

Reading: Students will learn the text organization structures that author's use when writing.  Students will learn the different rates that need to be used when reading nonfiction vs. fiction.

Vocabulary: Students will learn what guide words are and how to use them when looking up words in the dictionary.

Spelling: Students will learn several ways to figure out syllables.  They will learn how to use syllables to help spell words.

Grammar: Students will be able to recognize the complete subject and complete predicate in a sentence.

Writing: Students will learn the strucure of a news article.

Science: Students will learn the difference between weathering, erosion and deposition

9-7-12 erosion and weathering

No homework today!  Over the weekend make sure and sign the green reading log AND the planner. 

There is a quiz over the types of sentences on Monday.  There is a cool jeopardy game if you click on the link!  It will help to study for the quiz!

We are learning about wind and water erosion this week.  Click on the two links below to watch a study jam video and play and erosion game.

New vocabulary words

I posted new vocabulary words on the wiki.  Click on the link if you'd like some flashcards to practice your words.

9-6-12

Tomorrow is ISU vs. Iowa day.  Wear your favorite team colors.

Homework for tonight:
Finish pen pal letter
Read 40 minutes and write your pages down as well.
Practice book pb12 and pb21
Basal (orange) reading book: Questions over the story on page 46

RC quiz #1 is due Sept. 15

9-5-12

Read 40 minutes!

Bram's group: finish what you can of your pen pal letter.  Our goal for tomorrow is to have it ready to mail.  This should be in your binder. 

Haugen's group: no pen pal assignment today

Rewrites for kids who got a C or worse on your spelling test.  10 times for each word misspelled.

New vocab words will be coming out tomorrow!

9-4-12

Homework
Pen pal letter: paragraph 1 and 2 We have pen pals this year from Colorado.  We will be writing back and forth all year, via US postal service, as well as sending computer messages!

Read 40 minutes: Some students forgot to have their logs and planners signed over the weekend.  They will be required to do so tonight in order to not have to move their behavior clip tomorrow!

Early out tomorrow!

Friday is ISU/ Iowa day.  Wear your red and yellow.....or black and yellow to support your team!

New spelling and vocabulary words will be coming soon!

Objectives for the week of September 4, 2012

Reading: Students will learn how to use chronological order to aid in comprehension.
Students will begin to recognize different forms of text organization.
Students will read the non-fiction story "Eye of the Storm".

Vocabulary: Students will learn content vocabulary for the story "Eye of the Storm".
Students will learn 2 ways to help study words...gestures and images

Spelling: Students will learn to spell words using long vowel rules as a strategy.

Grammar: Students will continue to recognize the 4 sentence types. Test will be next Monday.

Writing: Students will use Who, What, When, Where, How, and Why to write news articles.

Science: Students will learn the processes of nature's effect on the surface of the earth.