Week of February 1-5

Yeah - A normal week!!
With a normal week we will have lots to do.  We will be finishing up several units and moving on.

All students should check grades this week for missing or incomplete assignments.  Anything missing should be completed at seminar.

5th Grade Language Arts:  Spelling:  Pre-test on Monday.  Pages 122-125.  Pages are due on Thursday and the weekly test will also be Thursday.
***Make sure pages are completed on Thursday.  Several students have had incomplete assignments numerous weeks in a row.
Grammar:  We will begin a new skill on Tuesday.  There will be a proofreading page to complete on Thursday and quiz on Friday.

Literature:  We have finished reading  the Chris Van Allsburg books and have given our presentations on them as well.  So we are moving on....
On Monday and Tuesday we will begin reading The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.  Students will be assigned specific chapters every two nights and they will be keeping a reading journal.  You may certainly read along with them at night.  We will be doing vocabulary and other activities in class.

5th Grade Social Studies:  We will finish our Colonial projects on Monday and present them on Tuesday.  Each student created a colonial character and posted information and comments about their character on a website called Classtools.net/ Fakebook program.  It was a great wrap up to all we learned about Colonial Williamsburg.
We are moving on to Chapter 10, where the colonists will begin to rebel against England.

6th Grade Literature:  Please check Cornerstone for updated grades.  There have been a lot of incomplete and missing work in 6th grade.
We will be taking a unit test this week on Historical fiction, Biographies and Autobiographies.  We will go over a study guide in class Monday/Tuesday.
At the end of the week we will begin reading Number the Stars.  Students will receive a reading assignment each class time to be read outside of class.  They must keep up with the reading and work.  We will be doing a Project-based research project as we read the book.  Students that are behind in work, will not be able to participate in the project.

Remember Book report!  This is the week to finish reading your book.  That will give you time to complete your report!
All directions are on the blog!

Lutheran Schools Week

No doubt there will be much craziness and fun this week, so I want to make sure students are clear on assignments.

5th Grade Language arts:
Spelling pages 116-119.  Pages and test on Thursday.
Grammar:  We will work through pages 115-117 Tues/Wed in class and complete p. 118 for homework on Thursday.  Quiz will be Friday.

Literature:  We will present our Chris Van Allsburg presentations.  Students were assigned to read Weslandia over the weekend.  Homework page on Monday, due Tuesday.  there will be fun assignment given on Tuesday that is not due until the following Monday, but there will be no class time or study halls to work this week.


5th grade social studies:  Study guide is due Monday.  It must be complete and at school for points.  We will review in class Monday and take the test on Tuesday.
Check Cornerstone at the end of the week for updated grades.  We will work on a Colonial project in class the end of the week.


6th grade Literature:  Miss Caciano's class is a bit behind but we will attempt to catch up this week.  We will be reading an awesome historical fiction story from the yellow lit book entitled "The Dog of Pompeii."  We will do some research on this ancient city.  There is homework with the story Monday/Tuesday.  We are also working on writing a personal narrative and will be editing those this week with final copies due next week.
Next week Tuesday/ Wednesday there will be a unit test on historical fiction/Biographies.


Make sure to be diligently reading your book report book.  We will take time to look at examples this week.
We will begin reading our next novel by the end of next week.

Have a wonderful week,
Mrs. Brown

Week of January 19-22

Last week was a great week, full of interesting events and information.  This week will be a continuation of those topics.
By now, all 5th and 6th graders should have a book picked out and checked in to read for the upcoming book report.  Any students that have not chosen yet, will be assigned a book this week.
I have encouraged the students to look at the number of days to read the book and the number of chapters or pages in their book, and set a goal to read a certain amount each day or couple of days.  Check in with your student from time to time and see how the book is progressing.  You may, as always read the book with them.

5th Grade Language Arts:  This is a short week so we will squeeze Grammar and spelling into 4 days.  Spelling pages 110-113 with the pretest on Tuesday.  Pages will be due on Friday along with the test instead of Thursday this week.  Many students took their book home to get a head start this weekend.
Grammar is a continuation of pronouns with a review of abbreviations.  There will be a chromebook assignment on Thursday, due Friday.
Literature:  We have finished reading 8 Chris Van Allsburg stories.  This week each student will be assigned to one of the stories, and create a presentation about the story, including theme, setting, characters and author information.  We watched part of Zathura last week and enjoyed comparing it to the story.
At the end of the week we will read Weslandia from our Treasures book.  It is another great fantasy story.  Look for a special project to come home next weekend for this story.

5th grade social studies:  We have one day left of Colonial stations.  Each student has had a chance to experience school, church, a tavern with games, the shoemakers, the Governors palace and slave quarters, read about them and complete an activity similar to colonial times.  It has gone well, and the students have enjoyed the variety of activities, especially the games and writing with a real quill pen and ink,
After finishing stations Tuesday, we will watch some colonial videos from Colonial Williamsburg about life then, work on a study guide and take the chapter test on Friday.
We will continue next week with Colonial life, creating colonial profiles for each student and interacting with each other.

6th grade Literature:  We have just finished reading "The Red Guards" a memoir about living in China during the Cultural Revolution.  We did some minor research about the time and topic to understand the story.  Students will create a timeline for this story this week.  We will then move on to a great historical fiction story called "The Dog of Pompeii." We will take some time to investigate the ancient ruins of Pompeii and even discuss history through music.
We are working on writing Personal Narratives as well and the rough draft will be due this week.

Have a Blessed week!

Back in the swing of things....

With one week under our belt we are back in the swing of things.  It was great to be back in the classroom with all of your children.  Although it was wonderful having my whole family home, I certainly missed your children.

Third Quarter book report:  At the end of the week I gave out the information for the third quarter book report.  Each child will receive a paper copy this week, but it is shared on Google with them and posted on this blog under 5th or 6th grade literature.  If you have questions or need to recall the due dates or instructions make sure to look in those two places.

5th grade is focusing on mystery, fantasy, science fiction.  It has to be a fiction book, not based on truth or real events or people.  I will need to approve the book by Thursday 1/14, however I may ask that you approve it also if it is a book above 5th grade reading and maturity level (such as Hunger Games, Divergent etc...)

6th grade is reading Biographies, autobiographies or historical fiction.  There are lots of great choices out there, especially in historical fiction.  I need to check all books by this week Thursday 1/14.

**Remember book reports take time!!  They are meant to be done at home over the course of several weeks, and should be done with the student's best  effort.  Points are 2-3 times that of a normal assignment.  Most second quarter book reports were well done, however some were never completed and others lacked effort.  We have looked at this closely in class.

5th grade language arts:   Spelling this week is pages 104-107.  Due on Thursday.  Pretest on Monday and final test on Thursday.
Grammar - we continue with pronouns.  We will look closely at last week's assessment before going on this week.
Literature - This is one of my favorite weeks in literature.  We are reading 6 Chris Van Allsburg picture books.  Groups will read one book a day, discuss and answer a few simple questions.  If your child is absent, they must complete what they missed at seminar or study hall.  There is one copy of each book.
We will eventually do a presentation on one of the books, focusing on symbolism and theme/lesson.  We will at some point watch Zathura - the movie.  We will not watch Jumanji or The Polar Express, but you may want to watch them at home for a fun comparison to the books.

5th grade social studies:   Also one of my favorite weeks in social studies.  We will finish chapter 8 on slavery Monday and Tuesday.  If your child did not tell you about our Middle Passage simulation, make sure to ask them.  It was enlightening.
Then we will begin a 3-4 day hands on experience into Colonial life.  I will set the room up in stations and the students will experience what school, church, government, homelife and entertainment were like in colonial times.  Again, they will be answering questions along the way that will be graded.

Absent students will need to make up the stations during study hall time.

6th grade literature:  We have been reading biographies from our Yellow lit book.  Be checking Cornerstone that your child is completing the work for each story.  This week we will move into historical fiction.  We will read 2 great stories from our book.  The second story about Pompeii will include some awesome research and outside reading as well as a musical look at this topic.

I am happy to assist with picking out books for the book report - just let me know.  I have many books on my shelf and Miss Albers does as well.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year and welcome back!!  We begin third quarter this week.
As far as scheduling and policies things will not change, however expectations, especially for 5th grade, will
ramp up a bit.
For instance - 5th graders will be expected to get to class on time.  If the bell rings and I begin teaching students will be counted tardy and need to pull and sign their card.
The same procedure will be followed if they come to class without the necessary materials.

Worked turned in, especially 6th grade, must be typed or written neatly in pencil and show their best work.  Work that does not meet those standards will not be accepted.  All late work will receive a grade deduction.

Events in third quarter:
5th grade will be working on fantasy and fiction literature.  We will read stories from our Treasures book and complete a unit on Picture books by Chris Van Allsburg. Our class novel will be Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe.
We will immerse ourselves in Colonial times and have hands on experience with what life was like.  We  will study the Patriots and Loyalists and hold a character debate (complete with costumes).

6th grade will do an awesome unit on Historical fiction.  Our class novel is Number the Stars.  We will make a connection with a local Jewish school.
As part of this study we will participate in a Project-based learning unit.
We will write our own personal narrative.

Both 5th and 6th grade will have a third quarter book report.  I will go over in depth the second quarter reports this week and then next week give out directions for third quarter.
5th grade will be reading fiction, fantasy, science fiction (no non fiction).
6th grade will be reading Biographies, autobiographies or historical fiction.  I have a list of excellent books in this genre.

This week...

A few students are missing all or pieces of their book report.  Tuesday is the last chance to turn that in for partial credit.

5th Grade language arts:  Spelling will continue unchanged.  We work on pages 98-101 this week and take the pretest on Monday.
Grammar - we will do a verb review and then move on to pronouns.  We will begin working hard on connecting our lessons to our writing.  There were numerous grammar mistakes in the book reports!

Reading - We will introduce fantasy, science fiction and fairytales.  Beginning Tuesday we will read the story "Zathura" from our book.  Make sure your child reads it and can answer questions about the story.  From there we will begin a great unit on picture books all by Chris Van Allsburg.

Social studies:  On Monday we will take time to go over the chapter 7 test.  Even though we took class notes on the chapter and students used notes and their book on the test, overall grades were not where I would like them.  So we will go over the test, and I will teach them how to look up the information from their notes or book.  I will regrade the tests Monday night and adjust the grades.
Tuesday we will begin chapter 8 on Slavery.  It is a difficult chapter to teach.  We will be studying the chapter using a simulation method, trying to put ourselves in the places of people in history.  I will let you know if there is a chapter test or quiz.


6th Grade Literature:  We will take some time to go over last quarter's tests and book reports.  We will discuss "final project form" and expectations.  Overall, 6th grade reports were well done!

We will begin an awesome unit on biographies, autobiographies and historical fiction.  We will begin with reading several stories from our Literature text book.  Students will have assignments on Google classroom for each of these stories.  Make sure to keep up with Cornerstone and check that assignments are completed on time.  This is a great unit with many different components, including research in group form, and a personal writing, as well as a partnership with another school.