During the months of November and December, all classroom teachers were invited to sign up for a lesson with Mrs. Gregory using the Blue Bots. Blue Bots were purchased last year by the SCA, and they are used to help students learn and practice early computer coding skills. Students LOVE the bots, and now that we have our own set teachers can check them out from our library any time.
Throughout November, the fifth grade Language Arts group worked with a set of nonfiction science material called "Brain Bank." Students self-selected texts from a variety of choices and completed activities designed to build higher-level comprehension and vocabulary. In December, we began a unit on Greek mythology. Students are learning about the concept of mythology while reading about the various gods, goddesses, heroes, etc. Once students have gained some basic understanding, we will narrow our focus to study the monsters of Greek mythology and literary allusions.
It was such fun spending time this month in every fifth grade class for enrichment! Students were introduced to a fake language called "Nurtz," and they worked to translate a story using the language. Critical thinking skills were called for as students had to piece together the clues in the illustrations and the number of letters in the words to figure out what made sense. Some students were even inspired to create their own fake languages, so be on the lookout for coded messages in your house!
We have concluded our first novel, Danny Champion of the World. Students were assessed on their written responses to the novel, and our focus was on providing evidence to support their opinions. We are now beginning a unit on nonfiction reading skills and strategies through the use of a resource called Brain Bank by Scholastic. This includes small leveled readers, and we are beginning with science topics. Students will provide written responses designed to build skills in comprehension, vocabulary development, and writing within a variety of texts.
Our focus for this year will be on integrated Language Arts. We are beginning our first unit with a novel study of Roald Dahl's Danny, the Champion of the World. In addition to more advanced expectations for reading comprehension, students will be developing stronger writing skills with a focus on high quality written responses. Students are enjoying listening to the chapters being read on Audible, especially because of the reader's British accent!
This week, we went over possible solutions for the Hink Pinks students had been working on before the break. Students also continued working on their blog posts at kidblog. They also complete a new fact find activity called “Marathon Legend.” Ask your child to tell you about the ReWalk robotic suit. It’s pretty fascinating!
Some of the fifth graders have had some free time on the computer as they waited for a few classmates to catch up with them and finish solving the Hink Pink riddles we began a couple of weeks ago. Last week, we began using a site called kidblog.org. Students posted a biographical paragraph to get started and learn to use the site. Then they read an article called “Tech Breakthroughs Are Giving Animals the Power to Speak,” and you can find it here: http://www.wired.com/2015/12/talking-animals/. Students were asked to create a post with their responses to the article and then comment on some of their classmates posts. Going forward, we will be discussing high-quality versus low-quality posts and comments.
Fifth graders created a Word document to save their responses to our Hink Pinks. Hink Pinks are rhyming words that fit given clues. For example, given the clue "overweight feline," students respond with "fat cat." Not only are these fun, they also help students build vocabulary while thinking about synonyms. We used the computer in order to integrate technology while practicing some basic skills such as saving to the correct drive and opening documents.
Due to the math benchmark on Tuesday, the early release day on Wednesday, and the fundraiser delivery on Thursday, fifth graders were not able to work with me during Tutorial this week. We will begin a new project next week.
Fifth graders seemed to be highly excited about our most recent project---creating picture books using Storybird. The website provides art intended to inspire writing, and it certainly seemed to achieve that goal with these students! The students created 8-10 page picture books which we are editing and then publishing digitally. The stories will be shared with younger students here at Beaverdam. The link for the stories is https://www.storybird.com/parents/kaufmann-2. You will use your child's username, but the password is NOT the one your child uses. Instead, use the following as your password: PAZD5T. Students are encouraged to keep creating stories, poems, and even chapter books any time they like. The site is free, and there is also an app which you can download.
|
Mrs. GregoryMrs. Gregory has been teaching for 25 years. She lives in Montpelier with her husband, two daughters, and two dogs. Archives
January 2017
Categories |