Welcome to the 2017-2018 School year

Welcome to the new school year.  We have had 3 awesome days and the 5th graders are catching on quite well to the schedule and moving between classes.  Encourage your child to ask if they are unclear or forget anything!

This first full week, we will continue to get our feet wet, and begin diving in full force to our curriculum.  I will explain below some of what will be coming up.

5th Grade Language Arts:
Literature:  We are beginning the first 2 components of literature.  #1 We are working on finding an independent reading book for each student.  We have gone over the books in our classroom.  Books may be brought from anywhere or on a kindle.  It would be great if each student could have a book to begin reading by mid week.  We will be using our Readers notebook to jot down thoughts and ideas about what we read.
#2 We have also begun reading the book Wonder by RJ Palacio together in class.  This will be our read aloud and we will begin to work on vocabulary, writing responses, and comprehension as we read in class.
**This week you should see the Readers Notebook come home with a book and an assignment.

English/Writing:  On Friday we took our Pre-writing assessment.  Students wrote a Personal Narrative for 20 straight minutes.  I have read them and we will use those as a guide for this unit.  At the end of the unit, students will produce a completed, edited, published work and take a final writing assessment.
This week we will begin breaking the writing process into parts.  Again, the Writers Notebook should come home at least once, with a written assignment in it.
**This is a process.  I will not be asking students to compose, edit and finalize a story in one sitting.  Just have them work on the one piece I give them at home.

We will wait and begin spelling next week.

5th Grade Social Studies:  We have begun our first chapter which covers basic Geography terms and maps.  We will be working through some partner Geography challenges this week in our workbook.  Maps will be graded for completion and correctness.  We will be have 2-3 short Geography quizzes.  I will let you know when the first one is and what will be covered on it.  It may be on Friday of this week depending on how the challenges go.

6th Grade Literature:  As  I told the classes, this is my absolute favorite class to teach, because we only have to worry about reading.  How awesome is that!!  Similar to last year, there will be multiple components of this class.
#1.  Each student will be required to have an independent reading book at all times.  This year we will be doing mini lessons and completing assignments based on these books.  We will be working hard to get each student placed in an appropriate book in the first couple weeks. You should see the Readers Notebook come home at least once a week with an assignment. These assignments will be graded.
#2.  We will always have a class book or book club  that we will be working through together.  We have not started this book yet.  We will be reading in class The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by AVI.  It is a fantastic adventure book that covers the elements of literature wonderfully.
We will work through vocabulary, comprehension and reaction writing with this book.
** We plan to go to the Kirkwood Library on Wednesday or Thursday of this week. Make sure you have responded by email or written note that your child can attend.  Children without permission will need to stay back at school.
We are currently working on a collaborative group project that has quite the dilemma in it.  Groups have to work together to find a consensus and back up their reasons.  Ask your child about this activity!



Thanks for sharing your children with me.  I am so excited to get going on our new reading and writing curriculum.  It is quite a change from what we have done, especially the writing portion.  It will take a while for all of us to understand and catch on to this new work.

Please let me know if you have any questions for this week.
Blessings,
Mrs. Brown