Reaching for the Stars

Fourth Grade News

We had another great week.  The students presented their informational slides, they read their stories  to the class and they accomplished many of their goals.

 

 
They did a great job presenting what they researched.  Some of the topics included, Red Pandas, Ocean Life, The Alphabet and even Theatre.  They were very confident speakers and enjoyed sharing what they learned with the rest of the class.

 

 
These students were so enthusiastic about reading out the stores they created using the vocabulary words from The Family Under the Bridge.  They really came up with some creative pieces. 

 
Our authors love sitting on the stool and reading to the class.

The students show great effort and pride in their work.  

 

As they generate ideas for their stories, they begin to develop great stories that they are eager to share.

 

No matter where they sit around the room, the children are engaged and focused.  They know what they need to get done and set out to accomplish their goal for the day.
                 
                                                             Fifth Grade News

Our fifth graders are into their second project.  They are listening and reading speeches and analyzing them to complete their checkpoints.  They will be creating their own in the upcoming days and presenting them to their classmates. 

 
There are great conversations going on around the room.  They are asking each other for ideas, they are giving their opinions on certain topics and they are collaborating with each other to get the assignment done.  The class runs smoothly as they begin to create their speeches and learn what they need to do to make it a powerful speech.

 

Here the students are listening to some speeches from Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, and even John F. Kennedy.  They analyze the speech, answer questions from the checkpoint and discuss their opinions with one another.

A lot of great things are happening in ELA and the students are engaged and on task.  Learning from each other and myself- they are becoming life long learners.  They will be able to apply these skills no matter what direction they go in.
If you set your mind to it, you can do whatever you set out to do.  The sky is the limit. 

Our Busy Week

Fourth Grade News:

This week the fourth graders in 4Z were introduced to Keyboarding without Tears.  It is an online program that teaches the children how to place their fingers on the keyboard.  It involves various lessons which the children work on and progress through the program.  I will be introducing it to all the other classes as well, as the week progresses.

The children have also been working on Informational Writing.  They have done research and are creating slides to present to the class.

  

They are working with their writing partners and creating presentations for all of us to view.

 
The students in 4th grade also worked on various activities about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  We read books, watched videos and they even did a research packet in Social Studies.

 

We also watched the video about Ruby Bridges.  The children were so attentive and asked many questions.

 

Hatchet will be the next novel we will read in 4Z.


 4D will read The Family Under the Bridge.


This  week we will be welcoming my Student Teacher, Miss O'Neill.  She is coming to us from Rhode Island College and we are very excited to have her.

Fifth Grade News:

 

Our fifth graders are busy on Summit listening to speeches from many famous people like, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela and John F. Kennedy to name a few.  The 5th graders will be writing and presenting their speeches to the class.  For now they are learning what it takes to make a memorable speech, taking notes on the speeches they listen to and taking content assessments in various subjects. 

 

They are very focused and on task.  They work diligently and set goals in order to meet them in a timely fashion. 

Many great things are happening in our classes and the children are passing content assessments.

Success 101

Our first full week back was successful.

Fourth Grade:

 

The students worked on their Informational Booklets.  They will be reading them to other students in other classrooms in the next few weeks.  We will continue to work on informational pieces throughout the trimester. 

 

The children love the opportunity to work in the different rooms.  They have the choice to work in the Enrichment room, on the rug or just at their table.  It gives them the choice of moving around and finding the right spot.

 

They also enjoy partner work.  They can get ideas off of each other or just have the opportunity to have someone there to ask questions or get feedback.  Our writer's workshop is in full force.  They are working on many wonderful pieces and love to share out their work. 

        

There is always something going on in our room that involves partners or group participation.  They love being part of decision making and having input.




Fifth Grade:
  

The fifth graders have been introduced to their next Summit project.  This week they listened to many wonderful speeches given by Dr. Martin Luther King, and Nelson Mandela, just to name a couple.  for this project they are going to write their own speech.  We have discussed what it takes to give a good speech and what not to include in a speech. It is great that they can view these famous people giving the speeches that made them famous or took a stand for what they believed in. 
Throughout the coming weeks, they will get more opportunities to listen to the speeches and begin writing one of their own. 

Our Informational Booklets were done by the 4th and 5th graders.  I cannot wait to hear them present. 

 

Overall, the children are very busy and productive throughout the week.  They are able to meet the challenges and push through.  Lots of learning and collaborating has been going on in all the classes.  They are doing a wonderful job and cannot wait to see them grow and become lifelong learners. 

These are some of the books that we read this week and will be displayed on our book a day board.

We continue with Kindness as our trait for the month.  Many wonderful acts of kindness are being displayed throughout the school.  We are lucky to have such amazing children that always try to help each other out. 
As you look at the pictures in this blog, you can see the kindness that they display to one another.  Looking forward to many more acts of kindness and happy students.