Weekly News for March 8th!

Spirit Day Volunteers Needed!

I know as it's currently snowing that thinking about June seems so far away! However, we are actively planning this year's Spirit Day at Village and as you know, this requires parent volunteers to help everything run smoothly! If you would be interested in signing up to help run a station, the link is below. This year's Spirit Day will be Friday, June 14th....hopefully the snow is gone by then! :-)

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090b4da9a623a0ff2-spirit

Important Report Card Information

Good Morning Parents! Report cards will be live on Infinite Campus Friday, March 8th. Below is additional information for you!


Dr. Rudd's parent blog has information regarding how families can access the report card :

 https://drbrudd.blogspot.com/2019/03/elementary-report-cards-available.html


Additionally, the parent blog also includes information regarding the MYP Criterion Grading for students at grades 5/6:

 https://drbrudd.blogspot.com/2019/03/information-for-village-5th-and-6th.html

Weekly News for March 1st!

Take a Peek at Our Week!

We had a great week back to school! I hope everyone had a restful and enjoyable winter break (and didn't blow away in the wind storm!!). In language & literature, we continued our work with analyzing argument texts. This week, students worked on evaluating the strength of an author's claim by identifying strong and weak points presented through the evidence. This will also carryover into our work during writing as students research and select supporting evidence for their chocolate milk essays!

In writing, we've become more comfortable referring to our argument writing rubrics to keep track of the expectations related to our organization, development, and language. We have already identified several skills that we can already do after our informational writing unit (this gives us a lot of confidence as we enter a new genre!).  Students identified that elaboration and using a variety of transitions are still areas needing growth, but we are working hard towards those goals! This week worked on our conclusion paragraphs for our first argument essays. We focused in on the "final thoughts" portion of the paragraph working to make this piece memorable for the reader. We discussed how the final thoughts are the author's last chance to convince the reader and pull them in the direction of the author's claim. The students did an awesome job...you'll be able to view their progress on Google Classroom-Argument Writing.

Just before break, we discussed the branches of government in individuals & society using our jigsaw strategy. Students were given one branch of government to research and were responsible for reporting out and teaching their group members. Next, we will be learning about balance of power and how our laws are made!!

This week we began our second round of WIN! As you can remember, WIN stands for "what I need". The fifth grade teachers meet prior to each round and place students in groups across the grade level in order to receive extra practice, reinforcement, or extension of skills. Students loved our last round because they were able to work with different fifth grade teachers during our morning block (8:40-9:15). Your child should have brought home a goal sheet from their WIN teacher indicating who they will be working with and the focus of the group (ELA, math, both). Discuss WIN time with your child this weekend and ask how it helped them last round!


Have a wonderful weekend!! :-)

Take a Peek at Our Week!

In language & literature, we continued our work of analyzing multiple accounts of the same event/topic in order to compare/contrast the authors' point of views. Groups explored topics such as The Boston Tea Party, The Boston Massacre, and Theodore Roosevelt. Students used the evidence provided in the articles to infer how the author felt about the topic which led them to identifying the point of view or perspective. As a culminating activity, students used the "circle of viewpoints" strategy to extend their thinking on the topic they studied. "Circle of viewpoints" involves students jumping into one of the points of view they read and explaining what they would think, feel, and wonder. What a fun way to end the week!

In individuals & society, we finished up our research on our expert explorers! Students studied the Columbian Exchange and investigated how and what their explorers traded. Students also mapped out exploration routes for their explorer!

In writing, students received feedback based on our informational rubric for their second essay! We are definitely making growth!! As you can remember, students chose and researched their own topics prior to writing their essays. We had a group discussion about common areas needing growth. Students also had the opportunity to go over their individual areas of growth and edit their essays accordingly. They also set goals based on their feedback for their informational writing assessment.  Student essays and rubrics were sent home for your review!

Finally, students completed their informational writing assessments using their expert explorer research. I was SO proud of the hard work I witnessed!! I will be grading their assessments and expert explorer research. You will receive a rubric score for both. However, their actual essays will not be sent home since they need to be collected for writing portfolios. If you would like to see your child's work, you can read your their essay on Google docs (Informational Writing Google Classroom)!

Have a great weekend!!

Weekly News for January 25th!