Newsletter 6/21/18 Last Day of School!

Happy Summer Everyone!

We had a wonderful week together.  Here are some highlights:

Baseball Day:  We made words by gluing balls into mitts and everyone on Team Henry signed their autograph on one another's bats.  We wrote in our journals for the last time today, made cards for our Room Moms and recorded the June weather data.

Beach Day:  We used magnets to spell beachy words today, passed around a beach ball while sharing kindergarten memories and then read outside in the shade with sunglasses! We also prepared our summer reading/writing journals and celebrated our amazing year together.

Wipe Out Day:  We read our Just Right books for the last time and then began to pack ourselves up!  We talked about summer safety and enjoyed the 5th Grade Clap Out

Last Day:  The whole school enjoyed a slide show in the morning and then gave Mrs. Valenzano a special goodbye for her retirement.  We reflected on our Leadership Campaign and added the last stars for the day (see photo). We said good luck and good bye to our 5th Grade Buddies and enjoyed a recess together.  We read Oh!  The Places You'll Go and then shared hugs and high fives!

Thank you for a wonderful year together.  It is such a blessing to work with your children and see them grow as learners.  I am so proud!  Please keep in touch and enjoy your summer!

With much love, 
Sandy Henry

5th Grade Buddies...

... and more Buddies!

Signing team autographs

Amazing readers!

Our Leadership Campaign was a huge success!

We're FIRST GRADE ready!

Bye bye!  

Newsletter 6/15

We joined new character clubs in Reading Workshop this week.  The students enjoyed meeting new character friends and comparing their books together.  Discussions such as "I notice that Tiny the Dog is small in my book, but then bigger in your book!  What about the other Tiny books?"  or, "Fly Guy is really gross in my book.  Is he gross in your book? Where?" could be heard all around the room.

Towards the end of the week, we packed up our character books and read about ladybugs and pirates!

We finished our last writing unit and packed up all of our published pieces.  We can't wait to look over them all with you on Tuesday so we can all see how we've grown as authors!  Like Reading Workshop, our daily writing is now connected to our theme for the day, imagining that we're pirates, etc.

We are doing addition and subtraction in our themes as well!  We're adding ladybugs and finding hidden equation treasures around the room.

We're celebrating 7 summer birthdays and we're all set for Father's Day!  Gifts and cards were sent home on Thursday.

News and Notes:

• Book sleeves are due on Monday.
• Congratulations to our class!  We were the 3rd class in the school to return all of our library books!  We earned a star on the wall!
• Class Celebration, Tuesday 6/19 from 2-3.  
• Please let me know if your child will not be in school through next Thursday.
• Remember to send your child to school with a backpack every day.
• Check the Theme Day schedule for next week.  Baseball Day is Monday!
• The last day of school is a half day, so the cafeteria will not be selling snack.

Making equations with ladybug stories

Visiting First Grade

Newsletter 6/8/18

We made character clubs in Reading Workshop this week!  Every child joined a group which was studying a literary character.  Each student within that group studied a different story about the character.  We examined the pictures and what the characters did and said.  Then, we got together in our "character clubs" to compare our stories and thoughts about the character's traits.  Lastly, we made a word web about each of our club characters.  Ask your child about his/her character!

We also read a story called Mole's Hill multiple times.  This was a science based story, demonstrating how an animal can change it's environment to fit it's needs.  Each time we read the book we learned new things. 

In Writing Workshop, we learned that now that we are expert authors, we can tackle even the hardest of words!  We practiced tricky words on white boards.  They don't need to be spelled perfectly, although each should have a vowel, but we do need to try our best!  We also learned about DIALOG within stories and some of us are experimenting with quotation marks.

We embraced subtraction this week.  First, we looked a the difference between addition and subtraction.  One is putting two sets together and the other is separating from a set.  We used manipulatives to begin, then we learned about equations and the symbols involved (-), and lastly, we wrote equations ourselves.

We went back to our Second Step studies this week and we learned the most effective ways to calm down.  It's okay to feel strong feelings, but we need to be able to calm them down before we make a bad choice.  Ask your child the "Calming Down Steps"  (put your hand on your belly, say the stop signal, name your feeling, take a belly breath).

We had a blast at Field Day this week!

News and Notes:

• book sleeves due on Monday.  We will be getting our last round of books in our sleeves next week, either Monday or Tuesday.
• Please check the Theme Days note on the blog or the paper sent home
• Raz-Kids has been updated for your child to use all summer

Spelling tricky words

Learning math symbols

Forming equations to match subtraction stories

Character Club Fun!

Field Day Fun!

Tug-O-War champions!!

Newsletter 5/25

We continued our reading play dates this week and everyone is enjoying them.  We read a book called Plants Can't Stand Still multiple times, acting it out, learning new vocabulary and discussing all that it teaches.  We also had a short and sweet exposure to poetry.  We learned that poems encourage us to make pictures in our minds and poets get to break writing rules!  Some poets don't even write in straight lines!  We compared poems and story books.  Everyone is excited to have a new bin full of books in our classroom: poetry!

We all enjoyed author Alyssa Capucilli's visit on Thursday.  She was a wonderful speaker and showed us how her books are made.

We shared our persuasive writing pieces with the authors in Mrs. G's classroom this week.  We wrote a few more pieces where students tried to persuade me to go to certain restaurants and vacation destinations.  Those are so much fun to read.  Last, we wrote goodbye letters to Mrs. Valenzano who is retiring this year.

We strengthened our addition skills this week, exploring various equations that make 5.  Then we did equations with sums to 10.  We worked on horizontal and vertical equations, and even a bit of algebra (2 + ? = 5)!

We went on a nature walk, searching for animals, noticing what they were doing and wondering why they were doing it.  Then we recorded our findings in our science journal.  We also studied animals' survival strategies.  We watched a video of animals using their "survival super powers", acted it out, and then recorded our ideas.

We launched our Leadership Campaign in our classroom this week.  We had a class discussion about what leaders do/say/look like and we made a list (see attached).  We're all trying to be leaders in our room.  At the end of each day, we reflect on who was a leader and why.  We count how many leaders we've had that day and we hope for more tomorrow!

We also discussed Memorial Day and why we don't have school on Monday.

News and Notes:

• No School 5/28  Enjoy the long weekend!
• Field Day 6/4  10-11:30 am   Families are invited to attend to watch some or all of the games.  Please send your child to school with a water bottle (with ice) and wearing sunscreen and sneakers.
• 6/19  Class Celebration  2-3 pm.  Join us for snack, a project and free choice time

Aylssa Capucilli

What her books look like after they're printed

This sparrow flew out of this bird box, but is staying close by while we observe.  Why?

Sharing our persuasive pieces with friends in Mrs. G's room

Equation games

Scientific findings

Moving like praying mantises

Reading play date fun

Newsletter 5/18/18

We continued our Reading Workshop play date fun this week, extending our Avid Readers unit in a new way.  Our reading "clubs" are getting much better at taking turns and listening to one another.  This week we learned various ways to play pretend on a reading play date and also different games we can all play with our books.  Each reader gets a turn being in charge of the play date.  S/he decides which play date activity fits his/her book best, then leads the group in the fun.

We published our persuasive writing pieces this week!  We used our writing checklist to make sure it was as persuasive as possible, then edited it alone and with a partner to double check.  Last, we added color. 

We began a unit on addition this week.  We told number stories and transformed them into equations.  Everyone got a lot of practice writing equations and trying to understand what the + and = symbols stand for. 

In science, we are studying what animals need to survive and how they get it.  We watched videos of animals eating, and studied them in books.  We found that some have "super powers" to help them get the food they need!

Thank you to all the parents who helped out with games this week!

News and Notes:

• Book sleeves are due on Monday.
• Author Alyssa Capucilli visits Ox Ridge next Thursday!
• SAVE THE DATE :  June 19, 2-3 pm,  Class Celebration.  Parents welcome for a craft, snack and choice fun from 2-3 pm.

We're off on our field trip!

Sleeping Beauty

Recording our scientific findings

Research

Acting out a book on a reading play date

Playing teacher on a reading play date

Building equations

Comparing similar books on a reading play date