Today was the day we have been waiting for....STATES TEST! Many kids let me know after they finished that they sang the song to themselves the whole time they were taking the test. Students had the entire period to work on the test and anyone who was unable to finish in the period I told to come back during WIN period and finish it then. Good job!
0 Comments
We started class by taking the quiz on the IXL skills- overall everyone did well! Nice job! After they finished their quizzes I surprised each class with donut holes from The Cookie Jar- I was quick to let them know that this wasn't going to be a regular occurrence, but just a special thing I wanted to do, particularly because I felt guilty for assigning the IXL quiz and states test on the same day!
After our donuts we watched a funny youtube video for Fun Film Fest Friday and then spent our last few minutes of class reading aloud from Home of the Brave. Hope everyone has an awesome weekend- make sure to keep reading those books each night! I introduced the kids to KAHOOT today- it is an online resource that allows teachers to create quizzes that we project up on the board and the kids are able to answer the questions on their ipads- they get points for how quickly they answer and for being correct. (check out the article the NYT did on the resource last spring). Today we used it to study the states- the kids had a BLAST playing! In fact, many of the Arbour/Ely homeroom students asked if they could skip recess and stay in to continue playing the game (don't worry- I told them they needed to get some fresh air and get outside and PLAY!). Hopefully all of these in class games and singing in combination with their studying at home has the kids fully prepared for tomorrows test on the states.
Next week we will begin reading out of the textbook and taking notes about geography- focusing specifically on how: where people live impacts how they live. Homework: study states We began class reading more from Home of the Brave. In today's reading Kek, the main character, started 5th grade at his new school here in America and was introduced to his ESL (ELL as we call it here in Cape) teacher and the other students in his class. We see the school through Kek's eyes and his amazement and wonder at all the resources and delicious cafeteria food...the kids got a kick out of Kek asking his new friend if the fries he was eating grow in the America ground.
Homework: we will have a quiz tomorrow on the IXL skills- it is a good idea for kids to spend some time reviewing each of the 5 skills tonight. Read for at least 20 minutes We started class by singing our states song...and then we even tried to sing the song without the lyrics or the video...and it went AWESOME! I think many of the kids were pleasantly surprised that they had the song memorized! After singing we moved into playing our states game- it was a lot of fun and I am really noticing a huge difference in how quickly they know their states and the locations!
Homework: study states! Today we read more of Home of the Brave and had a great discussion as a class about refugees and why people sometimes have to leave their home country. It was so interesting to hear the students personal stories that they shared about friends or family members who immigrated here and what their experience had been like.
After read aloud I shared on google drive the graphic organizer that students will be using to write their book talks- due to technological difficulties (faulty internet this morning!) this did not go as smoothly as I had hoped! However, we were able to look at the organizer and talk about how we are going to use it starting tomorrow. Homework: Read 20 minutes; IXL: CCC1, DDD1 &2, GGG1 & 2 Quiz Friday on the IXL skills Today was such a fun social studies class! We started off by singing our states song- a number of the kids have memorized it- which will def. help them on Friday's states test! After we singing we played a new game that I came up with...I projected a large blank map up on my board- the class was split in half (boys vs girls) and then each team sat in chairs facing one another. One kid from each team had to stand in the center of the room and then I would name a state and they had to race to the board and be the first to point to the correct state. If both kids were incorrect the next to people had to run up and attempt to identify the state. Super simple game...but man did they get into it!!
Homework: Make sure kids are studying each night for Friday's test- I highly recommend the Sheppard Software game (link on the "Important Info page") as long as you have a computer. Once they master the states by region, they need to then practice "All states- National" because the test will be the entire map, not just regions :) Today we began working on our first book talk of the year. The beginning of class took a bit to get started because, despite me telling them multiple times, most of the kids still forgot to have their summer reading book in class today...so this meant a trip to the library for them to check out their books. Once everyone was back I had the kids sit with other students who will be using the same book for this book talk- that way they can work together and help one another find quotes/examples from the book.
After figuring out our new seats I read aloud to them, Home of the Brave- it had been a few days since we last read so it was nice to be able to get back into it. I modeled to the students how I use sticky notes as I read- writing a quick note to myself on the sticky and then placing it on the page- so that when the time comes to write the book talk you have already done the hard work of finding the quotes and don't have to waste time re-reading. We discussed that if they use this technique when they are reading their books at home it will make all future book talks a breeze in comparison to this one we are doing in class. It would be a good idea to remind them of this technique when they are reading at home if you don't see any sticky notes in their books moving forward. On that note, please make sure your child is reading at least 20 minutes each night- they will be doing a book talk every single month so at a minimum the kids need to read at least 1 book a month. IXL Homework: GGG1 & 2, CCC1, DDD1 &2 *Remember they will take a quiz this Friday on these skills- aim for a score of 80 on each to prepare. Students should work for no longer than 15 min per IXL category- if it is taking them longer than that to get to an 80 than it is probably a sign that they need some help and should come see me during WIN the next day. We started off class practicing the States of the USA song- the kids are getting really good- many already have the song memorized! After- I passed out blank maps and the kids are labeling the maps with the correct state name- they are allowed (and encouraged) to use the map in the textbook to help them- we want these to be spelled and labeled correctly. We will be eventually adding state capitals, major landforms, and regions to the maps. In addition, my goal is to continue to use these maps all year- so when we learn about explorers we can add pictures/labels to our maps of where the explorers went, where colonists originally settled, etc... Homework: study states! Test Friday on the 50 states Check out the videos below...I have made them "unlisted" on youtube in order to keep them private, so the only way to watch this video is on this website Monthly Book Talks: Today I passed out to the students the September book talk rubric. Students will typically be assigned a book talk each month, this first one we are doing all in class, but the rest of the year they will be homework. We quickly went over the rubric, and I explained that beginning tomorrow we will be using the class read aloud book to write a book talk together so that I can model for them what how to write a book talk. We will also be using our summer reading books for this first book talk, tomorrow students will sit with kids who read the same book as them over the summer so that they can all work together to write this book talk. It is important that all kids have a free reading book that they are working on at home each day. I suggested to the kids that they have a stack of sticky notes next to them as they read and they can mark their book as they are reading- identifying quotes/passages that they can use in their next book talk. That way when they finish the book and go to write the next book talk they don't have to spend a ton of time searching for quotes and examples. Each month I add a new skill to the book talk rubric, but all the previous skills stay (so by the end of the year the book talk rubrics are much longer than the one I gave today!)...so they know exactly what types of things they should always be looking for as they read. IXL: Today starts the beginning of our weekly IXL homework. Each student was given a letter that explains what IXL is, how to access this program, and their usernames and passwords. Every week I will assign the IXL skill(s) on Monday, providing a mini-lesson on either Monday or Tuesday, and then students will take a quiz on Friday at the start of class on that weeks skill(s). It is very important that students start their practice on Mondays, this way if they are struggling with a skill they can seek extra help from me during W.I.N., if they wait until Thursday night it will be too late to get help from me! I do not want kids to practice the skill wrong, therefore it is really important that if they get 3 or so wrong in a row, even after reading IXL's tips and explanations on the skill, they should immediately stop working on that skill and either move on to a dif. skill or stop for the night and see me the next day for help. Depending on how many students struggle with a skill, sometimes I will give 1:1 instruction, other times small group, or I may just scratch the LA plan for that day and instead do a whole class lesson. Students can also practice the skills at a lower grade level and then after they master the lower levels they can go back up to 5th grade level. We also had a talk about how they should all think about their after school schedules at the beginning of each week- if they know that they have a lot going on one night that week they can plan in advance to work a little longer on their IXL skills the days before/after. Kids should aim to get to a smart score of 80, we have found that when kids can get to this score they typically have understood the skill and will be able to master the Friday quiz. IXL usernames: first initial last name@capeelizabeth (ex: cnewton@capeelizabeth) IXL passwords: this will be their lunch number (they should all know their lunch number, those who didn't I gave it to them today) This weeks IXL Homework: GGG.1 & GGG2 (describing characters) CCC1 & CCC2 (Identifying Author's tone and purpose) DDD1 &DDD2 (sequence of events) |
Archives
April 2020
|