Field Trip Tomorrow!

Science City
Please remember to arrive at school tomorrow at 8 o'clock for the field trip. Bring a disposable lunch and drink with your child's name on it. Do not bring a backpack or any electronic devices along. The bus ride is fairly short to KC, and a book is okay if your child would prefer something to do. If you must bring a cell phone to school, it will be locked in the principal's office while we are gone.

Reading
With the recent interruptions to our regular reading schedule we did not have a novel response notecard due today. There will be one due on Wednesday though, followed by a quiz over chapters 3-4 for City of Ember, or chapters 3-5 for Tuck Everlasting. Hegeman's class and King's class tied for having the highest number of weekly charts handed in this week. Please remember to make sure your child has completely filled out their weekly chart before you sign it at the top!

Writing
We started a new project today based on teaching both persuasive writing and proper dialogue use. Kids are expected to chose a topic to have two characters debate over, and then make a pros/cons prewriting chart as I modeled in class to hand in on Wednesday morning. I wanted to pick a topic that the students wouldn't chose, so my example ended up being toddlers vs. pets. In the rough draft that I modeled today, I had two characters debating whether it was "better" to have kids or pets. Since we don't have writing on Wednesdays, we will write our rough drafts on Thursday, and self edit and revise them on Friday while keeping in mind the rubrics that they will be graded by.

Science Test
The field trip tomorrow was selected to support what the kids have been learning in science class about levers and pulleys. A science test is scheduled for next Monday 11/23.

Math/Mrs.Minor/Maternity Leave
Mrs. Minor expects to begin her maternity leave shortly after Thanksgiving. We are fortunate to have two mathematicians stepping in to fill her shoes while she is out. Her substitute has taught math before, and Mr. Koerner, who has been co-teaching reading with me, will move to math now for most of the 2nd trimester. Dale Koerner taught 5th grade math at Langston Hughes just last year!

Index cards
The supply of notecards that I began the year with looked as if it would last us the entire year. I guess I didn't think about how we go through 180 on an average week! If you happen to have a stash of indexcards/notecards gathering dust, please donate them to the fifth grade class.

Thanks for reading another post about your fifth grader's class. Please do not hesitate to send email me if you have any questions or comments about what is going on . Also, don't forget to read the other two teacher's posts. There is a link to the right to see their blogs.