Party on Wednesday!
The class voted to have a campfire themed read and relax party on Wednesday that will begin with some tasty s'mores. Kids requested to bring a pillow or a stuffed animal to relax with. If anyone has the fixin's to make a fake campfire, let me know!

New Teacher
Dale Koerner has returned! Staff and students are delighted to have Dale joining us as a half time teacher. He will work partial days from Monday through Thursday. He spent his first day today travelling with a class of students and observing how we have been doing things thus far. We are still designing our new schedule and should be implementing it within a week.

Reading
We started our new mystery-suspense novels today. I am excited to see if the students love the books as much as I do. Homework note cards are due on Thursday and we will have our first quiz then too.

Writing
Students are practicing using the writing process on their personification pieces. We are going over the differences between edits (capitalization, punctuation, spelling, grammar) and revisions (adding, reordering, or deleting words or sentences to improve fluency or meaning).

Thursday 9/24

New Help
I was given word today that our hunt for a half time teacher is over. I am told that Dale Koerner will be coming out of retirement to rejoin our fifth grade team starting Monday! Dale is an outstanding educator and we feel very lucky to have him helping us out.

Reading
We start our Mystery/Suspense novels on Monday also. Both books are fantastic and are sure to stir the wonderment in any fifth grader. There will be plenty of books this time - enough for everyone even if a few kiddos forget to return a book they check-out from the classroom. (Books can be taken home on Tuesday and Friday nights with the understanding that they will be returned the following day.)

Writing
Students are now on thier culminating project for personification. They are asked to show an understanding of this type of figurative language in a piece called "A Day in the Life of ______", in which they describe the day of something non-human using personification. Their rough draft for this is due on Monday morning.

After some counseling from the tech-wise, Mrs. Minor, during collaboration today, I am finally off and running with this blog thing. I hope you find these posts informative. Feel free to email me if you have any questions or concerns and I will get back to you as soon I can catch my breath and go through my messages!

Reading
In about a week and a half we will be finishing our author study of Andrew Clements. After a few days of reviewing the two novels we studied, we will begin a new genre - Mystery/Suspense. With Autumn in the air it seems appropriate to explore some great stories with a touch of chill. Peppermints in the Parlor and From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler will be our next featured novels. Students will continue to be responsible for studying the book as scheduled, responding to in on a note card that should be handed in every Monday and Thursday, and taking a brief quiz on those days as well. When students are not reading and responding to the assigned novel readings, they are practicing reading non-fiction magazines, or meeting with me in a small guided reading group to practice skills and strategies. If all else is done, kids are encouraged to work towards (or beyond) their independent reading goals, and record the details on their weekly charts.

Don't Forget...
*Students interested in running for Student Council will be giving a brief speech to their classmates on Friday
*the Sally Foster school-wide fundraiser begins this Friday
*Please look over your child's weekly chart for reading every weekend and sign it (IF it is completely filled out)