Fall Conferences

I was so happy to meet so many parents at Back to School Night last week.  In the stack of papers I shared, one of them was a questionnaire for you to complete about your child before we meet for our fall conference.  I've made this form digital!  Please feel free to use this or the yellow paper version.

Also, if you did not yet get a chance to sign up for parent conferences, please use this link to do so.  I look forward to meeting with you this fall.

2015-2016 School Year Welcome

Welcome to our website for the 2015-2016 school year.  This is the spot to find information, notes about upcoming events, assignments, important announcements, photos and anything else about our days at Westmere.  Feel free to leave a comment below and share what you're looking forward to this year.

Mrs. Hart's Summer Welcome Letter 
(assignment for the 1st week of school at the end of the letter!)

Parents, please take a moment to fill out the following parent questionnaire as soon as possible.


  

Don't forget you can drop off your supplies in your locker at the walk through night, Wednesday, September 2nd from 5-6:30. See you Tuesday, September 8th for your first day of 5th grade!

Catching Up

A little bit of snow fun this past week.

Each year, after the holidays have wound down, the month of January races toward us with lightning speed and really, from now until June, it never slows down.  So when I needed to look up something on the blog and realized how long it's been since I last updated it, I panicked!  So consider this a bit of a catch up for you and hopefully, it won't be so long until my next one!

Math-  We just finished the 3rd module centered around adding and subtracting fractions with a heavy focus on operations with mixed numbers.  The students felt confident overall with this subject as it was review from 4th grade.  The module was relatively quick as will the next one, multiplying and dividing fractions.  We hope to finish and have the assessment before February break.

Remember, there are some awesome online resources that can help your child in supporting homework in each lesson of the modules as well as reviewing previously covered material to keep it fresh in their minds.  I also can't endorse practicing Math facts enough.  Knowing them fluently and quickly is literally half the battle in our Math class.

Homework Help videos for the Modules we are using
IXL for spiral practice (user name and password are both student ID)
Reflex for fact fluency (hartcheri)

Reading-  We are wrapping up a book club unit on Keeping Track of Characters.  Students chose and read a book with their peers and their challenge was to apply the skill of paying attention to characters and their traits, noticing when those traits began to change in the story and why and then finally being able to re-identify the traits the character took away from the story and why.  This often tied into the theme of the story as well.  This kind of close reading can be hard because our voracious readers just want to read.  I can say that more than a few lightbulbs have been turned on because as we are reading other shared texts like The One and Only Ivan, they are noticing important spots or times of change and shout it out.

One way you can help is to add the question, "What are you reading?' to your dinnertime conversation but don't stop there!  Add in questions like, what is your character like?  Do you relate to him or her?  What's the major problem he or she is going through?  Have you noticed anyone that has an influence on your character?  How is the character changing?  And finally, read what they are reading!  It's fun to be able to talk about the books your children are reading (and there many good ones!)  Here are a few favorites floating around our room (just to name a few).

• The Land of Stories (all 3!)- Chris Colfer
• The Maze Runner- James Dashner
• Bystander- James Preller
• A Week in the Woods- Andrew Clements
• Lucky: Maris, Mantle and My Best Summer Ever
• The One and Only Ivan- Katherine Applegate
• Harry Potter- JK Rowling
• Don't Feed the Boy- Irene Latham
• El Deafo- Cece Bell
• A Tiger Rising- Kate DiCamillo

Writing-  We've been studying how to be journalists!  The students self selected a topic they wanted to know more about and we spent a large portion of time learning proper research skills, including how to cite a sources and note taking (using Google Docs).  From there, we used National Geographic Kids as our model to write interesting, informative paragraphs that worked hard to keep the reader's attention.  Using Google Drawings, we then learned the dos and don'ts of graphic design and worked to create eye catching, gorgeous but informative articles ready for publication.  The final week is coming up.  All articles are due this Friday, February 6th.  Ask your child to show his or her article in their Google Drive.  Next up...opinion writing!

Science-  We are at the end of studying the digestive system (quiz on Monday!) and will be spending the next two weeks working with partners to dream up and design a digestive system game.  The object, of course, is to get through the digestive system without getting "hung up" along the way.  The students have already researched 10 healthy and 10 unhealthy things you can do for your digestive system along with 5 diseases or disorders.  From there, they will write "situation" cards that will be used in a fun, cooperative game.  Stay tuned for photos of the final projects.

Other

• A final fundraiser (through Krause's candy) will be coming home Monday.  All orders will come in by March.  Please be on the lookout for that information.
• Our NEW book club selection is Number the Stars by Lois Lowry.  The meeting date to follow soon!  Check out the write up in the Altamont Enterprise of our last selection, Wonder.
• Bronx Zoo commitment letter is due back to school Monday.  We need to make some financial decisions based upon how many chaperones are attending.

Wonder Book Club Update

Quick and Dirty Research

When I announced to the class that we would be doing some "quick and dirty" research during Reading Workshop, they were clearly surprised by the name of the task!  However, they soon caught on what I meant!  The students had two days to work with their reading partners to research and create an informative poster about an assigned topic from our new shared text, All the Way Home by Patricia Reilly Giff.

The story is set in 1941 and centers around two children, Brick and Mariel who are struggling with growing up and learning more about who they are to themselves and to those they call family.  The historical topics include FDR, polio, Dr. Jonas Salk, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Brooklyn Dodgers, Pete Reiser, and many others.  The kids are always fascinated by the information they find and love when their topic gets mentioned in the story.  The posters also serve as a reference for all of us when the topics come up.

This was also our first time presenting in front or class and all of the skills that come with that sometimes stressful task.  Everyone is doing great!  If your child isn't pictured in the slideshow, they probably haven't presented yet so check back for more pictures this week.

Dividing Decimals Video

Our Math class learned an interesting way of proving the various steps of division...especially as we are learning about dividing decimals.  This is a new concept for our students this year and it can be challenging.  Not only do they need to know the steps of division, they need to understand why they are doing a particular step.  Hopefully, this video will help with tonight and tomorrow night's homework...Lesson 14 and 15.  Happy dividing!

Scholastic Book Orders

One of the best parts about my job is talking about books and reading with my 5th graders.  There are so many amazing books out there for middle readers.  Reading is one of my passions and I'm constantly on the look out for more titles to read and add to my classroom collection.  Here are a few of my favorite.

A fantastic books with life lessons for adults and kids. More to come on this book!

An excellent intro. to Sci Fi while giving us something to think about.

Action, adventure, magic, relationships...this series has it all!

Makes us all think about the role of animals in our world.  Told from a gorilla's perspective!

An amazing story about the fairy world that you didn't know anything about!

Fantastic historical fiction book about a boy who gets to hang out with Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris!

If your child is in need of some great new reads, the Scholastic ordering catalog is open!  Simply click on the Scholastic Reading Club icon on the right side of our blog.  This will take you to our class ordering page.  Shop any catalog you choose and pay online!  Paper catalogs will be going home next week.  Our first order will be placed on Monday, September 15th.  Happy reading!