Friday, December 30, 2016

As we begin the New Year...


Happy New Year!!
I pray you had a blessed Christmas and that your New Year's is equally wonderful.

This blog will serve 2 major purposes.
1.  One last announcement about late work for second quarter.
2.  Some thoughts looking ahead to third quarter.


Second Quarter:  I have almost everything from second quarter graded and recorded.  I have been diligently working over break to get that done. ( I will be finishing 5th grade Explorer reports in the next few days). Any assignment that I do not have is now marked with an M for missing and a 0.
I cannot send out personal statements for each student, so please take some time to visit Educate and check for missing work.  Everything listed is work that was due before break, and the importance of turning it in was discussed in class.

If your student has missing work, I will accept it for a late grade on Wednesday, January 4th.  
After that it is an automatic 50% or remains a 0, if report cards are complete.  If your student completes and assignment on Google classroom they will need to notify me by email so I can grade it.

Third Quarter:

Just a clarification about the grading system that I use for the classes that I teach.  All work is graded on a point system.  Which means that a test worth 25 points is entered as that, just as a homework assignment worth 25 points is entered as that.  I do not weight the tests.
**However all assignments are grouped into a category.  Homework, Tests and quizzes, or classwork.  At the end of the quarter Educate separates the categories, figures a percentage for each and then averages those together. 
This is a great system, because while not weighting tests, it gives emphasis to tests, which there may be less scores for than other work.

My categories include the following:
Homework:  These are any assignments assigned in class, that need to be completed for the next class.  Students may finish it during class time but it is assigned as homework.
Classwork:  These are things done completely in class.  Many of the social studies workbook pages fall under this, or a group activity that we only work on in class would fit here.
Tests and Quizzes:  Any test or quiz given for a subject, even if it is open note/book.

5th grade English grade is made up of 2 homework scores and 2 test scores every week.  I am removing the classwork category, even though we complete a great deal of it in class.
Literature:  This is a combination of all 3 categories.  There will be less test/quizzes scores most quarters, so studying for those is important.
5th grade social studies:  This is also a balance of the three categories.

Hopefully that clears that up for those of you trying to figure out points at home.

Third Quarter Book Report:
It is time!!  We will be completing a book report this quarter.  We will spend some time when we return focusing on reading interest inventories and how to pick a book on a certain reading level.  Students can read anything they want, any genre, as long as it is on their reading level.  It can be a book they recently read - within the last month or two, or a new book.  They will be receiving time in class everyday to read.

I will be giving them several choices on a report type, so that they can hopefully match something to their learning style.
All the directions and due dates will be posted here and on Google classroom the second week we are back.

If they received a new book for Christmas or have one they want to read, they can get started.  I will be checking books after we discuss them a little.


We will not have Spelling and Grammar that short week that we return.  We will begin again January 9th.
Both Lit classes will be working from the textbooks for a while before reading another novel.  6th grade will be doing Historical Fiction, and 5th grade Fantasy.  Both grades will watch the movie that corresponded to the novels we just finished when we return.

God bless your remaining days of break.
Mrs. Brown

Saturday, December 10, 2016

Twas the weeks before Christmas


We have 7 days left of school before our Christmas break and the end of the quarter.
Again, we have much to accomplish in that time.
Thank you for your diligence in helping your child stay on top of the work we are doing.

**I have tried to post on Educate all remaining assignments and due dates for the quarter in each subject.  I will post grades as they are completed.  Remember, as well, the 5th and 6th grade Literature calendars are also posted on this blog and Google Classroom.  Your student should refer to those to make sure they are caught up on reading chapters.

5th Grade Language Arts:
One last normal week of Spelling.  Pretest is Monday, pages and final test on Thursday. I will collect Spelling books on Thursday for the last 3 weekly book grades for the quarter.  Make sure your child turns in their spelling book, completed.

Grammar:  We will work on Verbs again this week.  I requested a few students redo last week's quiz, to help with understanding, but none were corrected and returned.  If your child scored below 70% on that page, check with them about the corrections. There will be a Proofreading page on Thursday and quiz on Friday.

**We will not have Spelling or Grammar the 19th-20th, unless it is review.

Literature:  We are enjoying Sign of the Beaver.  We are about half way through the book.  Students should be reading through chapter 13 for Monday.  We will read the majority this week, and finish the book Monday and Tuesday, Dec. 19-20.
Again, there will not be a final test.  They will have 2 quizzes, 2 journals, the cabin sketch and their vocabulary folder for grades.  Check Educate or the calendar for due dates. 

5th Grade Social studies:
Monday, December 12th is the Chapter 6 test.  We completed the study guide last week, went over it, and I even handed them the answer page.  On the test there is an essay question that requires them to write a letter.  It  was on the study guide as well.  Students that wrote out the letter on paper or the chromebook, may use that and turn it in with the test. They may want to look over it for errors. If they did not, they can do it at home this weekend and bring it on Monday, or write it Monday during the test.
**The study guide again was a completion grade, meaning points were given for having it complete and at school.  Since I gave them the answers, they cannot turn that assignment in late.  Unfortunately, several students did not complete the guide.  These points cannot be made up.  If your child was absent the day it was assigned and could not get the study guide done before we went over the answers, it will not be a counted grade.

Please make sure your child goes over the study guide.  They may not use their book or notes on this test.
We will begin working on Chapter 7 and continue reading The Double Life of Pocahontas.

6th Grade Literature:
We are in the midst of reading Hatchet.  The author does a great job of describing sights, sounds and feelings in this book.  We have completed one quiz and one journal so far.  We are working on another set of questions as we read chapters 9-11.  There will be one last quiz and journal to close out the quarter.  All of these assignments are on Google classroom, and posted with their due dates on Educate.  Make sure your child keeps up with them.  We are working on Vocabulary in class.  Each student is choosing their own words as we read.  I will not be testing them on the words, so the grade (45 points) will come from the work they do in their folder.  
We are working on our Survival Competition this week. We will present on Thursday/Friday.  Good luck to the groups!

I know this is a crazy busy time of the year.  Thank you for helping your child keep up with their assignments.  Please let me know this week, if you have any questions or concerns.  I will be finalizing 2nd quarter grades over the holiday.
Have a blessed week,
Mrs. Brown

Sunday, December 4, 2016

Week of Dec. 5-9

Last week we accomplished much!
5th Grade completed and turned in their Explorer essay and Coat of Arms.  These will be displayed in the hallway.
We began new Lit novels - The calendar for the rest of second quarter for these novels is posted both on Google Classroom and on this blog under 5th and 6th Literature.

We discussed students looking at where their Lit grade stands after the novels we just finished.  For this next novel there will be 2-3 quiz grades and 2 homework grades and a large vocabulary folder grade.  There will not be a final test or final vocabulary test for either book.  Students should be diligent in completing the work that remains and make sure they turn in their best.


5th Grade Language Arts:
Spelling: Pages 84-87 with pretest on Monday and final test and pages due on Thursday.
Grammar:  We are still working on verbs.  We will work through practice pages 83-85, with proofreading page 86 assigned on Thursday, due Friday.  On Friday we will take the weekly quiz on pages 87-88.

Literature:  We completed two stories on our Treasures book this week introducing the genre of Historical Fiction.  On Thursday we began the novel Sign of the Beaver.  We are all reading this novel together because it is such a great, a wonderful example of historical fiction and parallels our social studies curriculum exactly.
***Again the calendar of Chapters to read and assignments we will do is posted here under 5th grade Lit and on Google classroom under Lit.  If your child is absent they should consult the calendar to see what they missed.
We will be doing much of the reading in class, however there will be chapters assigned for home.  This book is on a 5th grade level, however feel free to read it with your child.  They can also google it on Youtube by chapters and follow along as it is read to them.   **Both of those are perfectly acceptable ass they read at home.

5th Grade Social studies:  We have turned in our Explorer projects.  This was a great project that led us through each of the steps of research and writing a factual account of a historical figure.  We used note-taking, an outline, Step up to writing procedure and editing.  In reading the rough drafts, most were very well done.  I will be reading the final essays and assigning grades.  There will be a grammar grade as well as social studies.
We will spend these last weeks of second quarter learning about the early settlements and colonies in America.  We will continue reading about Jamestown.  I am reading to them the book The Secret Life of Pocahontas by Jean Fritz.  We will then watch the Disney version of that story and make comparison, picking out the facts and recognizing the fiction.
We will do an in class project creating an ad campaign for a colony.  I will let you know about tests.  We will take  a chapter test for chapter 6 and 7.

6th Grade LIterature:  
We have begun reading Hatchet.  This is still in the realistic fiction genre, however it deals with Man vs. self and Man vs. nature plot conflicts, and so exposes them to a different type of story.  Some have read this book before and they were given the option of reading Island of the Blue Dolphin instead.  I have just a couple students reading that.
****The calendar of all the Chapter assignments and class assignments is posted here under 6th grade Lit and on Google classroom.  If your child is absent they will need to consult the calendar to see what they have missed.  Students must stay on top of these assignments, because we will end the book on the last day of the quarter.  There will not be a final test on this novel, so the grades will come from the assignments we do as we read.
We will have a survival competition activity as part of this unit.  Most of the work for that will be completed in class.

I look forward to these next couple of weeks.  They will be busy.  Encourage your child to do their best, and stay on top of their work.  If they are concerned about grades, they will need to see me before the end of the quarter.
Blessings on your week,
Mrs. Brown