Summer post #5

I'm sitting here on this rainy, thundering day working on activities for school. I went to school this week and got our room all ready to go. The desks are arranged and the bulletin boards are set up. This is always an exciting time for me. Each year is like starting a new job. I am so excited to meet all of my new students and see all of the students from last year. Next week, Mrs. Dickman and I are going to the "teacher store" in Ankeny to buy some new stuff and do some planning for fall!

Reading update: I hope you are all reading like crazy in your free time. I know I am. My son made fun of me the other day. I was laying in bed at 6:30 a.m. reading a book. Once I get into a good book I can't put it down. Remember to bring back that summer assignment I handed out at the end of last year. If you read the number of books on your sheet, you can trade it in for a new book for you to keep! I've been buying them here and there this summer and have a good selection for you to pick from!

One more month of vacation to go. Enjoy yourselves and I look forward to seeing you all soon!

Summer post #4

Wow...the things you find on the internet! I have been doing lots of "blog" reading this summer. There are so many ideas out there that others are willing to share. I've been participating in different chats dealing with reading and fifth graders. One of the cool things that I discovered was a group of videos about books. They are kinda like a sales pitch for different books. This site is put on by Scholastic. If kids are looking for an idea of what to read next, these book commercials might be a good place to start. These books are for all levels, so the kids would have to weed through the "little kid" books to find the one appropriate for them. Some of the videos that would be good for fifth graders to check out would be...39 clues, A Crooked Kind of Perfect, Deep Dark and Dangerous, Maybird, Percy Jackson...and others! To access these videos, follow the steps below!

Click here first to open the Scholastic web page
Then click on Exploring books and flip through the videos to find books that might interest you!
There is also a place to click to watch author interviews. These are also pretty cool!

Keep reading and having a great summer! June is nearly over!

Mrs. Haugen

Summer post #3: fun and games

I hope all of your are enjoying your summer and reading like crazy. I know I have been doing quite a bit of reading. I finished the series on the "Shadow Children" and am going to start the Hunger Games next. I have also been working on some fun science activities and units for next year. I haven't taught science in the past, so this will be a new, fun experience for me! I will also be teaching reading/language arts as I have for the last 6 years. I have also been working on my hobbies of gardening and FISHING! I just got back from a really fun walleye fishing trip on the St. Louis River. It is a river that flows into Lake Superior. I posted a picture so you could see my "BIG ONE!"


Instead of putting more information about books to read, I decided to post some good online games and activities to do over the summer. Click on the link to take you to the pages.







Fifth grade reading/language skill builders: http://www.internet4classrooms.com/skills-5th-langbuilders.htm





Science fun: bone practice http://www.abcya.com/skeletal_system.htm


Keyboard practice: http://www.abcya.com/keyboard.htm


Book reviews for kids by kids: http://www.spaghettibookclub.org/


Cool things to make and do at home: http://www.education.com/activity/fifth-grade/

Summer post #2

I just got back from my vacation to Wisconsin. It is time to start working on two of my favorite things....gardening (flowers and veggies) and reading. I get to start my things to read list! I'm going to start with the Shadow Children series. Margaret Petersen Haddix wrote a series about a world where families were allowed to only have 2 children. The children that were born to each family after number two had to remain hidden (Shadow Children). The first in this series is Amoung the Hidden. The link to the author's website is http://haddixbooks.com/books.html, in case you are interested in reading this series as well. These are GOOD fifth grade level books. Happy reading!

5-28-11 Finding summer reading material

First post of the summer...
Ahh...you are all breathing a sigh of relief now, I'm sure. Summer has arrived! Time to take a break, sleep in late, and...READ :) Want a way to find books in your (or your child's) reading level? Check out the link below. Barnes and Nobel offers a way to find books with in a lexile range. It is a great site.

Summer books

5-22-11 Last post

This will be the last post of the year, due to the crazziness of this last 4 days of school. I just want to take this time to share with all of you what a joy it has been teaching fifth grade this year. Fifth graders are a unique group of people who are trying to decide if they are still little kids...or preteens. They have great senses of humor, and they still enjoy learning. Good luck to the fifth graders as they become sixth graders...you'll do GREAT! Have a terrific summer everyone. I'll be posting once a week to the blog with ideas for summer reading and learning, so check back every so often!

You're a very special person,
And I want you to know.
How I loved to be your teacher,
How fast the weeks did go!
Come back and visit me
As through the grades you grow,
Try hard to learn all that you can
There is so much to know.
The one thing I try to teach you
To last your whole life through,
Is to know that you are special,
Just because you are you!

Things to know about this week:
Monday: last spelling and vocabulary test
Grades are due
Tuesday: track meet in the morning
Wednesday: Reading relays in the afternoon
Throw water balloons at Mr. Thompson if you are the grade's top reader
Thursday: Awards in the morning
Last day of school

5-19-11

Meyer's group: backpack
Haugen's group: no homework tonight

Tomorrow: We'll be playing a vocab study game. The test will be Monday, as well as the spelling test. We'll be taking our last skills test tomorrow. We are finishing our last story is the basal reading series. Tomorrow will be our last day with the series. Next week we will be working with the Genre of plays. It will be the perfect way to end our year.