In the first 6 days of the 2106-17 school year, we have been building community, learning expectations and routines, working as a team, and began to learn our subject matter. We are off to a solid start and the students present themselves respectfully and are engaged and I think content. It's good to note we are sharing laughter and the class environment is positive.
In math we have begun the new Eureka curriculum are working with place value, exponents, decimal numbers, efficient problem solving, and applying concepts to word problems. We focus especially on problem set up, cooperative work, and sharing our problem solving strategies.
In reading and writing students experienced read alouds, including from Wonder, and edited stories from Demetri Martin's This is a Book. There were class and partner discussions, and journal writing entries connected with our reading material. One focus has been on reading fiction embedded with multiple perspective, including Martin's "Bee Sting," which students found was very humorous and unique. Today, Friday, students tried their hand at writing their own multiple perspective stories, and this was really more difficult than it at first appears.
Students also read Japanese Tanka poetry and thought about the special qualities and features of our area that they could share with people from other far away places. And last week we shared a childhood story called Guillermo Jorge Manual Jose in Spanish and English as a springboard to connect with how objects and events, and memory interconnect and relate us back to our families.
We have also begun a social studies unit on U.S. geography focusing on hemispheres, continents, oceans, and describing location with latitude and longitude.
Finally we began to explore and organize the class library together and students began checking out class reading materials. Students have begun taking their agendas home and I'm having them begin to write readings in them as this may be a starting point for conversations at home.
Note also that we had a class meeting with our Dancing Classrooms Teacher. We also set the schedule for dance lesson program and we actually will begin Monday at 12:55, and our class will meet in the music portable building for approximately 40 minutes. The students were not privy to the Monday start up time since a meeting to determine the schedule was after school today, Friday.
In sum everything is going very nicely and I feel really good about our start. Please continue to encourage your child to read 20 - 30 minutes a night, and hopefully considerably more at times, depending on homework, home schedules, and everything else our children immerse themselves into...
I have decided to begin my web presence with Blogger given it's ease of use and access, but I may need to use connect for some communications, documents, and privacy. I'll inform you as a useful structure develops. The name of the Blog is HIVE5G, based on Hagstrom IVE 5th Grade and is accessible currently with public access at http://hive5g.blogspot.com/. Next on my list to set up is the Reading Homework on-line Reporting access, which a couple of families have already asked about. Thanks for your patience as I continue to set-up systems in a step-wise manner consistent with instructional priorities.
Additionally, keep an eye out for communications on Curriculum Night, Art Docent Volunteers, and Classroom Volunteers. Several of you have offered help and this is much appreciated.
