The culminating event for our unit was a huge success! I was so proud of the students and the work they did during this unit! Many students continue to write powerful poetry. Please take a look at your child's blog and leave a comment about their writing. Enjoy the video that was shown the evening of our Expressions of War Art Gallery. Add Comment Flag Performance
 The fifth graders were enthusiastic cheerleaders during the Homecoming Game on Friday. We enjoyed cheering on our Senior Mentors!  -Curriculum News- Unit Of Inquiry We finish up our How We Express Ourselves unit this week and will begin How The World Works, a unit about Matter. Literacy Reading-I am conferencing with students about the war themed novel they read during the unit. Please ask your child if he/she can answer the guiding questions for the novel. *Who was the main character? How was this character affected by the war? (3 ways) *What war is this novel centered around? Where was this war? What was it about? *What was the author's message? Writing- Poetry Unit is wrapping up, we will continue to focus on figurative language, word choice, and sentence fluency. Math We are reviewing place value and subtraction strategies. Ask your child to show you at least 2 strategies to solve subtraction problems. Look for the Unit assessment by the end of the week. *Check out the Blog- "Math Tutorials 2" for subtraction strategy explanations It has been an incredibly busy few weeks. Thank you so much for attending Parent/Teacher conferences. There were some questions about the MAP testing so I am including a link that will give you more information as well as some helpful websites for your child to visit. http://www.nwea.org/support/article/930/parent-toolkit The Sqworl Website on the top of this page also has some math websites for students to visit. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Students enjoyed getting a sneak peak into our Middle School this afternoon. They were greeted by Mr. Rentoule, the Middle School principal, and Ms. Omori, our head of student activities. Students got a little preview of the types of activities, clubs and classes offered at LJA's Middle School. Ice cream treats topped off the afternoon activity! Ask your child to tell you more about their experience today.  Important Upcoming Events October 29th from 6:00-7:00 Expressions of War Art Gallery Your child will act as a docent as you visit our Expressions of War Art Gallery and look at photos and read poetry. This is our summative assessment for our unit. Hope to see you there! October 30th Field trip to Pearl Harbor has been rescheduled October 31st Halloween Parade & Celebration November 2nd All School Open House/Check out the Middle School November 13th Art Academy Field Trip _ _ _ _ _ __ __ _ _ Last week we had a presentation by representatives from the U.S.S. Arizona. We heard about the history of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, saw different maps that showed the attacks and saw photographs from this eventful day in history. The highlight was the guest speaker, Uncle Jimmy, who was a fifth grader at the time of the bombing. An amazing storyteller, this "witness to history" kept students mesmerized as he retold the bombing from the perspective of an 11 year old boy. Students learned so much from his heartfelt presentation. We are looking forward to our visit to the U.S.S. Arizona next week!   Happy Birthday to Jonah and Ethan! We enjoyed the birthday treats!
Inspired by nature to write amazing poetry! Unit Update "War, Huh, What is it Good For?" After, learning about the Revolutionary War and the different perspectives from King George to Paul Revere, students are designing their own propaganda posters. Step inside our classroom and you will see a room full of poets practicing their craft. We are studying poetry and how words, carefully chosen, convey powerful messages. Next week we look at war themed photographs and write poetry that captures the feeling/mood of the photograph. The summative task for this unit is to choose a photograph, reenact the photograph, write a poem that captures the feeling, and orally recite the poem with fluency needed to convey the message. The projects will be on display at the Expressions of War Gallery on October 29th.  Global Read Aloud Students are enjoying Sharon Draper's book, Out of My Mind. This book is part of the Global Read Aloud Project that is bringing schools together through one book. Melody, a young girl, with cerebral palsy is telling her story of the challenges she faces daily trying to communicate her thoughts. Find out more about the Global Read Aloud at The Global Read Aloud Project. We held our second Mystery Skype Session Friday. Students cooperated, communicated and were committed to finding the school's location. We were thrown off by one of their answers but got back on track and persevered until we inferred Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Students were excited to learn that this school is an IB school. As students met each other they shared something they liked about being an IB student. A few student comments about why they liked IB- - it has themes that we study every year so we know what to expect - the projects are fun -we work on traits that will help us in life -every IB school no matter where it is in the world has units and common things -I get to be creative and have choice in how I show my learning -our teachers push us to do even more -we are becoming international learners We are looking forward to a year long partnership with this IB school from Alabama.
Field Trip Update- Our field trip to the U.S.S. Arizona has been canceled due to the Government Shut Down. Wednesday morning we will have guest speakers from the U.S.S. Arizona come to speak to us about their experiences during war.  I am looking forward to Parent/Teacher Conferences this Tuesday! |   Mrs. ThomasTeacher, Book Lover, Swimmer, Exercise Enthusiast, Quilter, Traveler & Mom. Student BlogsMrs. Thomas/Assignments
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