Hello Families,
I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends. I have been off the radar for a bit due to having pnemonia.  It has knocked me off my feet and am recuperating.  I was too weak to post before the holiday, so I hope you enjoy this week's blog.
The week before Thanksgiving was spent reflecting upon all that we are grateful for.  The 4th graders worked on a variety of activities and listened to many stories about Pilgrims and Native Americans.

 During circle time we did an activity called the gratitude game.  The children chose a various pipe cleaner and based on what color they had they shared what they were most grateful for.  The children were so eager to share with their classmates.








The children also disguised Tom the Turkey and did quite a good job at it.  There were ballet dancers, Santas, Native Americans and Superheroes just to name a few.  The were really creative in changing his appearance .

The hung on the wall hoping they wouldn't be discovered.

 The projects are coming along for the literature circle groups.  The children have been working hard and putting in a lot of effort to make the projects the best they can be.  There is a gameboard coming along for The Tiger Rising, a diorama is also coming along nicely for Stone Fox.

 It is great to see the children working cooperatively to create these amazing final products.  Hopefully they will be able to present them to their classmates before the end of the week.

Summit News

 Our 5th Grade Summit Open House went nicely.  The 5th graders presented to their parents the day in the life of a 5th grader.  They were able to show their parents the platform, take part in a scavenger hunt, demonstrate a mentoring session and hold a student panel with questions and answers.  The children did a fantastic job and hope that there is now a better understanding of Summit and what it involves.  We had students from the high school as well as some of the parents and the assistant principal attend to inform our parents. 

The 5th graders have been working on Poetry, last week's focus was Haiku.  They created this tree and is displayed right outside of their classrooms.  You can also see some Acrostic poems hanging up as well. 

 5th graders will be getting homework on key terms that they will become familiar with and help them out with their next content assessment. 


Overall, it was another productive week and I am sure there is more to come as the weeks creep by. The holiday season is just around the corner and many activities will revolve around the theme of kindness and giving.

Honoring all those who have served, both past and present!  Thank you for your service.



The past week was yet another fun filled week of learning and activities.  Let's start out with the 5th graders.  They have completed their first project and the week was filled with presentations of google slides, videos and posters.  I am so impressed with how they all turned out.  Many of them put in so much time and energy and their final products shined.

 These are just a sample of the ones that were presented.  The children stood up and very confidently discussed what they did.  The graphics and text were amazing.  The posters turned out just as well.  One student even created a video.  I cannot get over what a terrific job these amazing students did. 



I enjoyed listening to their reflections of the whole project.  Even though some were a bit nervous and felt they couldn't get through the whole thing, they were able to put in a lot of effort and skills which they were practicing through all the weeks of working on this.

 The Venn diagrams, the story elements and images added to the projects were very well displayed.  I am so pleased with how these turned out and am looking forward to many more wonderful creations.  They worked hard and it payed off.  It was great watching the children progress through this process.  Kudos to the 5th graders on a job well done!!!

We will be working on Poetry in the next few weeks.  I am eager to see how creative they will be in analyzing, writing and sharing poems.

I know these students will take these skills and apply them throughout their life.  The learning that I have seen is sure to take them places.  They are becoming life long learners, which has always been my philosophy.  I want all my students to learn something new everyday and be able to apply it to their everyday life.  I hope to make an impact on these students, so they can reach for the stars.







Now onto the 4th graders.  Literature circles have begun and it seems like the students are really getting into the books they chose.  They have been reading through the books and summarizing, making connections and great discussions are underway.

 The choice menu to the left is what they will be choosing from to do their final project on the book.  They will choose which activity they will want to do and present it to their classmates.  Some of the work is already underway. The children are working cooperatively and know what their goal is for the final product. 


I love to see how engaged they are in working as a group.  Yes, there are some bumps in the road, however, they are working it through and know that in the end, they will have to work together to reach their goal.  I am confident that in the end, they will shine like the stars that they are!




You can see with the images to the right how engaged
they are in what they are reading and focusing on getting the job done.

I am learning so much from these students just by listening to their conversations.  During circling up, I enjoy hearing the stories that they tell.  These discussions all stem from the question of the day that they answer.  The conversations tell me so much about their personalities, likes and dislikes.  I look forward to learning more and more about them in the upcoming weeks. 

We accomplished so much this week.  The children continue to work hard, show great effort and display a positive attitude.  

Literature circles are well underway and the children seem to be glad with the book choices they have made.

Each group is on task and very engaged in their reading.  Every group member has a role; time keeper, question director, and materials manager to name a few.  

Students enjoy working on their chrome books, especially, with the library specialist.  She plans many fun and engaging assignments for the children to take part in.  It is great to see them focused in the lessons.  Each child was working on coding this week. 

 Students in 4D have been working on Types of Sentences.  They worked on determining if the sentences were Declarative, Interrogative, Imperative or Exclamatory.  I love planning many hands on activities for the students.  The conversations in the groups are also great to hear.  The cooperation and helping out students is something that makes it all worth while.  These students also worked on Halloween Stories.  They really have great imaginations and created some wonderful stories.

Our #Bookaday is growing.  We are continuing to do daily read alouds and discussing the themes and lessons that the books have to offer.  Our questions of the day, also are a favorite in the classroom.  As the children come in, they head right over to the easel and answer what the question is.  

Our 5th graders finalized their first English projects.  They really worked hard and I can see their success in the wonderful google slides and posters that they created.  There were also some wonderfully written essays to conclude the comparing and contrasting of short stories

The children have begun to present them to the class.  I am so proud of the work that they put into them.  I say it was a successful project. 

Hard work really does pay off and it is apparent in the slide presentations that I have seen already.  I am looking forward to seeing more of them next week.  The students viewing the projects were so engrossed in hearing them.  It is apparent that the students really put in a lot of time and energy.