Important Information Regarding DARE Graduation

Hello Parents!

Friday is DARE Graduation @ 1:30. If you plan on signing your child out to take them home after the ceremony, I will need a written note by Friday morning informing the office who is taking your child home.

Additionally, classroom teachers will be signing out students who are leaving directly from the ceremony. We will make an announcement at the ceremony, but I wanted you to be aware ahead of time so that you will know what to expect:

1. Please see me at the end of the ceremony so I can sign your child out.

** Please do not take your child to the front desk to sign them out.

2. You will receive a "DARE" sticker after signing out with me.Please put this on your shirt as this will inform the front desk that you have signed your child out properly with me and they will not stop you.

Thank you!!!

Two Schools, One Book Annoucement!

Please click the link below to find out what book has been selected:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrXKWd1Q83Y

Also a reminder that tonight is Night at the Village-students who attend will receive their free books! Food will be served starting at 5:30 and activities begin at 6:00! 

Take a Peek at Our Week!

It was so good seeing the kiddos after a long break! As usual, they jumped right back in and didn't skip a beat! In Lang & Lit this week we practiced making inferences. Inferring involves combining text evidence with our schema/what we already know in order to draw conclusions or figure things out that are not directly stated in the text. Making inferences helps us to think deeper about a topic and understand the topic better. We practiced by using a series of pictures and our "see, think, wonder" strategy to draw conclusions about what happened in each scenario.

We also had a little competition to see which groups could sort statements by identifying if they were an inference or direct statement. They LOVED this.....especially the sweet candy reward at the end! :-)

 We practiced this skill further in reading groups using shorter texts. We included accountable talk statements connected to inferences as well (I wonder, this means, it could be that, this connects to, I think, I predict). Next week, we will resharpen our annotating skills and apply making inferences while reading longer informational texts. We have some interesting topics to investigate like the coldest place in the world and "weird" Olympic sports that no longer exist! That should give us a lot to discuss!!!

In writing, students selected topics for our second informational essay, determined three categories related to their topic, and completed their research. Next week, students will independently write their essays and peer edit on Friday. After peer editing, I will give students feedback using our informational writing rubric. This essay will not be a formal assessment, but instead serve as a gauge to help students determine what they still need to work on and what areas have improved!

Finally, here are the students who achieved their December reading goal!! Keep up the great work!!!

Have a wonderful weekend!!!

Holiday Shop Reminder!

We will be visiting the Holiday Shop on Friday, 12/14! :-)

Take a Peek at Our Week!

In Lang & Lit, our group discussions focused on identifying the author's specific purpose in writing the article based on the evidence presented.

Later in the week, we used our RACCE strategy once again to write how the text structure reveals or supports the author's purpose. The students are becoming rock stars with this strategy and could effectively answer the question and connect text evidence to prove their answers. We will take a formative assessment on text structure and author's purpose on Monday and then revisit summarizing informational texts next week!

In Individuals & Society, we used the "see, think, wonder" strategy to analyze various artifacts representing exploration. After our artifact activity, students answered the debatable question-"Is all exploration positive?". We will revisit this question throughout the planner as we study different aspects of exploration. Next week we will focus on what motivated explorers and begin our expert explorer research!

Have a great weekend!!!

Weekly News for December 7th!

D.A.R.E. Essay Information

We discussed the information below in class today, and a paper version was sent home. I posted it here as well for your reference!

D.A.R.E Essay Homework:  DUE DATE January 4th 2019

Dear Families,

Our D.A.R.E class is ending soon and with that comes the anticipated D.A.R.E essay. Every year, fifth graders complete an essay before D.A.R.E graduation to show how much each student learned over the past several weeks. We will choose a winner from each class and they will have the privilege to read their essay at graduation.

We are asking that the essay is completed at home for homework. The due date for the essay is January 4th. Unfortunately we do not have the time in our day to work on the essay in school but we are happy to support students if needed. Students should use the organizer attached and their D.A.R.E. book as a resource. Students will choose three of the topics that they learned about in D.A.R.E class.  There should be no need to do research as they should use what they learned and any information in their booklet.  We also would encourage them to include some personal stories and an inspirational quote at the end. 

Please make sure this is an independently written essay but we encourage you to assist in editing (spelling, punctuation, grammar).  Have your child reread their own writing.  The essays that are always most enjoyable to read are clearly written by the child and also include personal touches (examples from their own lives, for example).  They can type their essay on the Chromebook on Google Docs and then share it with us so that we can print them if you need us to.  They can also hand write the essay but please be sure that it is NEAT!   Also, please keep the essay to about one page typed (12-14 font).

We look forward to seeing the end result! If you have any needs along the way, please reach out.  In order to partake in DARE graduation, they MUST complete the essay.  We would never want a child to be left out for avoidable reasons.  Please don’t hesitate to reach out.  Happy writing!