Curricular Update (Week of 2/27-3/2 and important reminders

Hey 5V Families! Here's what we're up to this week. Can you believe it's already March?!

Reading:

• The students will study more comprehension strategies and take some reading assessments from which I will analyze and help them further.
• They'll be reading their traditional literature and will be reading for purpose in an effort to understand the story's message or lesson.
• The kids are also reading to make connections and think broadly about their world and how what they read relates to it.
• In addition, the kids will write another proper essay using the strategies we're studying.
• I'm getting the kids to think about what messages or lessons they could put into their own stories that they write in an effort to write to inform/influence.

Writing:

• We're wrapping up our research this week and the kids are learning strategies from the BIG SIX research strategies and this week they practice extracting information and then citing the information! Do you think dodge ball should be banned in elementary schools?
• The kids have worked so hard on their Young Author stories! They should be so proud as they've worked through the writing process :) They'll continue writing their OWN student produced pieces again within the next week or so.
• During writing time we'll also be studying social studies and the events leading up the American Revolution!
• Our 5V newspaper is starting to heat up. Our writers and photographers have been busy. I'd like to meet with them a couple times this week.
• We're going to start brainstorming our traditional moral/lesson like stories that we'd like to write for the purpose of citizenship, maybe for other children in our school.
• Oh and there will be an opportunity for ANOTHER opinion debate/topic writing. This one will be quite fun and meaningful!

Math:

• Please see 5V Math Blog

Social Studies:

• We have some exciting learning moments in social studies. The kids are learning about the events leading up to the American Revolution as well as its causes.
• They'll be doing a lot of opinion writing this week and next week as they play the role of American colonists.
• The kids will get a chance to immerse themselves in history with role play and writing.

Citizenship:

• We are continuing to practice acts of kindness and reciprocate greetings.
• In addition, we are thinking about how we can write citizenship stories from our genre study for our friends in school.

Important Reminders:

Monday, February 27th-Vaid helpers in the morning, Young Author's writing due, Harriet Tubman story telling experience from 2pm to 3:15pm for 5th grade.

Tuesday, February 28th-Vaid helpers in the morning

Wednesday, February 29th-Late start Wednesday, Vaid helpers in the afternoon

Thursday, March 1st-Vaid helpers in the afternoon

Friday, March 2nd-No School-Institute Day!

Debate Research Topic: Can Animals Show Empathy?

Last week the kids debated whether animals can show empathy or not. We defined empathy as understanding how one's self feels, how others feel, and being able to problem solve. They did a little research, formed opinions, and supported their opinions. What do you believe? Answer our poll question. Here are the results of the debate question "Can animals show empathy?

YES: 100%

NO: 0%

Here's what the kids said:

"My dog Dutchess jumps on my lap and lays on me whenever I'm sad or upset. When she does that, I feel even better."

"I don't believe scientists are right. I think that animals should be treated like humans."

"In the text Unlikely Friendships, Koko showed her empathy through sign language when her friend cat dies. He showed the zoo keeper his sadness..."

"I think that the scientists who criticize other scientists for giving animals human traits should research their topic more thoroughly."

"I feel like pets have feelings like humans and can help us in our own lives."

Curricular Update (Week of 2/22-2/24and important reminders

Hey 5V Families! We have a short week of school but we're not short on learning. Here's the update for this week:

Reading: This week in reading the kids will be studying the traditional literature genre and reading for purpose. We have very in depth questions to ponder while we read our literature. In addition, the kids will practice vocabulary strategies through our skits and practice using context clues. We'll end the week with a reading comprehension check and essay. With the comprehension check we will have a strategy lesson.

Writing: Our research on dodge ball continues and then wraps up next week. We're debating whether dodge ball should be banned from schools or not. We're forming opinions through research and using the BIG SIX strategies to also support our opinions. We're also going to play dodge ball as part of our field research.

Math: Please see 5V MATH Blog

Social Studies: We are excited to host the Harriet Tubman storytelling experience on Monday, February 27th. To prepare, the kids are getting a good dose of background knowledge about slavery and Harriet Tubman through the week. There will be a fair amount of reading and homework this week in social studies. We'll study the beginnings of slavery, slavery in America, the Underground Railroad, and leadings into the Civil War.

Citizenship: Our class and school are earning gold tickets that we can put into a raffle. We're also continuing to practice good etiquette. We've always practiced this through the year. We practice reciprocating greetings in the morning, at lunch, and at the end of the day!

Important Reminders:

Tuesday, February 21st: Parent Teacher Conferences (Select conferences)-not for everyone. 1pm to 8pm

Wednesday, February 22nd: School Resumes on late start Wednesday @ 9:05am

Thursday, February 23rd: Family Science Night @ 63opm.

Friday, February 24th: End of the week

ISAT Information 5th Grade

February 2012

Dear Parent(s)/Guardian(s):

During the two-week period beginning Monday, March 5th and ending Friday, March 16th, Indian Prairie Community Unit School District 204 students enrolled in third through eighth grade will be completing the Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT). Alternatively, students with significant educational needs will complete the Illinois Alternate Assessment (IAA) within the Wednesday, February 22nd through Friday, March 16th window.


The ISAT is a group-administered achievement test designed to assess the extent to which students are meeting the Illinois Learning Standards. As mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002, the collection of this assessment information is required and used to determine whether the district and schools are maintaining Adequate Yearly Progress.


Students in third through eighth grade will be assessed in the achievement areas of reading and mathematics. Additionally, students in fourth and seventh grade will be assessed in the achievement area of science.


Assessment sessions will likely be scheduled during the morning and distributed across multiple school days. Please contact your child’s school directly should you have specific schedule or assessment questions.


Given the critical importance of optimal student performance on these assessments, please encourage your child to demonstrate his or her academic skills and knowledge through these tests.
Thank you for your positive support of our district during the administration of these important assessments.


Regards,
Patrick W. Nolten, Ph.D.
Director of Assessment, Research and Evaluation Indian Prairie Community Unit School District 204


5th Grade ISAT Schedule




TUESDAY, MARCH 6


Session I Reading 45-55 minutes
Session 1 Math 45-55 minutes

WEDNESDAY MARCH 7
Session 2 Reading 45-55 minutes
Session 2 Math 45-55 minutes

THURSDAY, MARCH 8
Session 3 Reading 45-55 minutes
Session 3 Math 45-55 minutes

Curricular Update (Week of 2/6-2/10 and important reminders

Hi 5V Families! Here is what we'll be up to this week:

Reading:

• The kids will continue writing essays. They are getting a good feel of what it's like to write a formal reading essay in an effort to prove an idea or answer with different kinds of support-evidence from the text and from background knowledge.
• We'll continue to have our reading think aloud strategy lessons and use the strategies we study during our reading time and vocabulary skit practice.
• The kids are also performing skits with political vocabulary words from our Time for Kids magazine and they are using context clues to show meaning.

Writing:

• During our grammar lessons this week we'll be studying punctuation usage, prepositions, and other obscure grammatical rules. When I look at the student work I make a checklist of skills for us to work on and we base a good amount of our grammar work off this list.
• Blogging: As you have probably seen, the kids are on full blast with their blogs. I'm teaching them some sentence fluency lessons and organizing idea lessons with these. Check out the blogs of your child's classmates!
• We're doing some research writing as well, in the form of short burst persuasive/argumentative essays. In one essay we'll ask ourselves if animals can have have/show empathy.
• The kids will also be working on their Young Author drafts and learning more grammar/writing craft skills as a result of writing conferences.
• The newspaper writers will also meet with me for their first assignments!

Math:

• Please see 5V math blog! (In links section)

Science:

• A busy week in science, we study more organs of the digestive system: small intestine, large intestine, liver, and rectum this week.
• We're going to study these parts of the digestive system by trying to re-enact, or rather, act out their functions. We'll use odd ball supplies like plastic bags, sponges, and straws.
• The kids will have a quiz on the digestive parts and another quiz on functions this week, Tuesday and Friday.

Citizenship:

• This week we will study what cyber bullying is and ways of counter acting it.
• In addition we will review our lesson on gossip.

Important Reminders:

• Monday, February 6th: Morning helpers
• Tuesday, February 7th: Morning helpers
• Wednesday, February 8th: Late start Wednesday @ 9:05am, Digestive parts quiz, small group meeting after school.
• Thursday, February 9th: Afternoon helpers
• Friday, February 10th: Fieldtrip to Robert Crown Health Museum.

OPEN HOUSE REMINDER TUES JAN 31ST

Dear Parents and Students:

You and your family are cordially invited to attend May Watts School’s Open House on Tuesday, January 31, 2012. We are holding only one Open House this year. To alleviate being overcrowded, we are asking families whose last name begins with “A thru L” attend from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Families whose last name begins with “M thru Z” are requested to attend from 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

This is an excellent opportunity for you and your family to see your children's work, meet your child's teacher and see your school. All members of our support staff will also be available for you to visit. Please be sure to stop by and visit with them. Due to the informal nature of the night, it will not be possible to conduct parent/teacher conferences. Our next conference date is Tuesday, February 21st, or you can call the teacher anytime to schedule a meeting.

There will not be a Book Fair during Open House this year. We will be holding the Book Fair in March and more information will be forthcoming.

Please remember to check our "Lost & Found" which will be on display in the Office hallway during the evening. Any items not claimed this evening will be donated to a charity.

We will open all outside building doors in order for you to enter the building so that you may park in the rear of the building. Come on in. We are looking forward to your visit.


Sincerely,


May Watts Staff

Curricular Update (Week of 1/17-1/20 and important reminders

Welcome back to the new year! Here is an update for the upcoming week. The 5th graders as usual, will be productive:

Citizenship: Students will study empathy on Tuesday during our empathy lesson. We will study this in context of classroom/school wide events that we can apply to our learning.

Reading: 5th graders are understanding the rationale for why inventions are created. We have examined videos and literature and had discussions as a part of this. We continue to study vocabulary and practice reading comprehension and fluency strategies as part of think aloud lessons. We learned the word "rationale" last week as part of our challenging vocabulary lesson. Students will also continue the reading and writing connection through our read and respond Blackboard posts. Our short think aloud lessons for vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension instruction provide students with the framework for attacking their reading just before they read silently.

Writing: We are doing a couple of things in writing. One project involves using A LOT of writing crafts that we are studying. We are studying how to elaborate, how to use diverse voices in our writing, and the other craft includes using figurative language. You'll see the project at open house! We are also going to continue our debate topic writing and blogging but that will be next week or the week after-so stay tuned for that. Actually, our essay writing will resume later this week and next week and we'll build upon some of the skills we've already learned in class. Grammar will continue to be a focus with parts of speech and good practice with our sentence fluency and sentence parts.

Math 5V:

Regular math: Students in regular math are finishing unit 6 this week and will study sample size data, probability, fraction computation, and more fraction strategies with how to find common denominators.

Accel math: Students in accel math have finished unit 5 and will begin unit 6. There is a test on Tuesday. Unit 6 involves concepts such as orders of operations, computation with positive and negative numbers, as well as studying number sentences, and algebra concepts.

Both groups will have lessons in real life math and study concepts and strategies that can be applied to everyday math outside of school (think calorie counting, shopping, gas mileage, etc...) and both groups will continue to study math essays and how to write a math essay in order to describe the thinking process behind the problem completed.

Science: Students in science will study some concepts of electricity including how series and parallel circuits are made and how they work. We will study words like current, resistance, and short circuit as part of our lessons.

Important Reminders:

T: 1/17: Vaid helpers before school, no after school Vaid activities, yearbook group photos for clubs and band/orchestra, accelerated math test-unit 5. Robert Crown fieldtrip note will go home today.

W: 1/18: Late start Wednesday. Vaid helpers and small group reading after school till 420pm.

Th: 1/19: Vaid helpers after school.

F: 1/20: Report cards come home.