Happy sunny Friday!

Wow! We had SO much fun today! With my wig and my dark eyebrows, I became Ms. DuCharme. The students all had such interesting names, outfits, and backstories, and we all did our best to call each other by our new names all day. Despite the craziness, we actually got a lot of work done today! This class has learned how to have a blast and then get serious again quickly!

Here's a brief update on our academics this week:

Math: The fraction unit is HUGE and we are spending a lot of time on it. In this bend, we are focusing on adding and subtracting fractions. This is easy as long as they have common denominators, but it's a little harder when you have to consider equivalent fractions in order to get to an equation that has the same "units." We are practicing and practicing, and the equivalent fraction piece is coming together!

Reading: This week we have been working hard to deepen our book club conversations. It's easy to get together with your group and retell what has happened or make predictions about what will happen later, but it is much harder to share ideas and analyze the characters, the author's moves, and the themes. We watched 5th graders doing this beautifully on a video, and I think it was good for the students to see, specifically, what they did to have a successful and important conversation. We have another week of Social Issues reading, and I am hoping to hear a lot of fabulous conversations to finish it up!

Writing: After all of our build-up to writing today, we ended up not having time for any of it! We spent some time talking about current events instead, and then we shared, played a game, and had a little lighthearted fun. Who doesn't need some of that on a Friday? We will get right back to our persuasive writing on Monday!

Science: Today we learned the difference between renewable and nonrenewable natural resources (coal, solar, and wind specifically) and what those terms mean. We learned about how wind is made (by the sun heating the land and water) and how coal is filled with the sun's energy. Next week, we will learn more about other energy sources (hydro, natural gas, etc.) and the students will learn the pros and cons of each.

Thanks for sending in all of the chromebooks -- I think we are all set!

New words this week are: minute (as in tiny), initiate, and drawl. Try using all of those in the same sentence! I initiated a discussion with a lady who had a minute southern drawl....

I hope you all have a wonderful, warm weekend.

Hi Everyone. Happy sunny Friday! It feels and looks like spring, and the kids are feeling it too. Today was a fast and chaotic day! Here's the scoop:

Math: We are deep into our fractions unit, and this is hard work! We are spending a lot of time looking at fraction models and trying to decide which fractions are bigger and which are smaller. We are also trying to determine equivalent fractions. I've spent a lot of time teaching the students to understand that the denominator tells us how many pieces to break the whole into -- and we are getting much better at this! The students worked in groups to make decks of fraction cards this week. They played "Capture Fractions" (like War with fractions instead of whole numbers.) We also put a classroom deck onto a number line on the bulletin board, always comparing the fraction cards to landmark numbers like 0, 1/2, 1 and 2. This is a big unit so we will be spending at least 3 more weeks learning about fractions. Stay tuned!

Reading: We are still reading our social issues books and discussing important things like which character has more power and why. We have discussed what "categories" we belong to and the concept of intersectionality. This class is SO in tune with the issues in our world. I am constantly impressed by their thoughtfulness about social issues. They are going to change the world one day!

Writing: We are just finishing up our opinion pieces. We are not having a publishing party for these because they were just a foundational practice to get us ready for out next big writing piece -- a persuasive piece. We will start those on Tuesday. Feel free to talk with your kids about what topics they might want to address and who their audience might be. Every year, it ranges from letters to government officials to letters to Ms. Graf. Sometimes kids write to their parents, so don't be surprised if you get a letter trying to convince you to get a dog, build a pool, etc.  They can be very persuasive!

Word Study: This week we learned about suffixes and prefixes and base words. We learned that the spelling of the base word never changes when you add a prefix, but sometimes does when you add a suffix. So far we have only practiced with base words that don't need any changing, but we will do this same work for a few more sessions, and we will get to dropping silent e and changing an ending y to an i. 

Our new vocabulary words this week were gripe, fatigue, dormant, and frank. Enjoy using those in your conversations this weekend!

Science: We have just started our unit on natural resources. Once again, it amazes me how much this class knows about climate change, energy, and how we use Earth's resources. We will learn about renewable and nonrenewable resources and the pros and cons of each. This will be a quick unit since the students already have a lot or prior knowledge.

Chromebooks: As you know, JES is asking students to begin leaving their chromebooks at school. Thank you to those of you who have already sent in your chargers and chromebooks. Friday of next week is the deadline for students to begin leaving their chromebooks here. Many students have expressed frustration at not being able to connect with friends on their chromebooks anymore, and with the pandemic around us, I sympathize and understand it is hard to feel so isolated. They can certainly get on their gmail by visiting google on any device -- they just need their email addresses and their lunch number. Their password is JES followed by the lunch number. Let me know if you have questions about this.

Folders: Starting this week, I am sending home all completed work in the blue homeschool folder on Fridays. I have not had a good system for this so far this year, and I apologize! When I ask the students to take work home, I often find it in the recycling at the end of the day. I'm hoping the folder system will help get the work into your hands so you can see it and then YOU can decide whether to recycle it or not!  Please help your kids get into the habit of emptying the folder and getting it right back into their backpacks so they can bring it back on Monday empty. Thanks!

I'm off the get my vaccine -- I see happier days ahead! I hope you all enjoy your weekend.