Oops!

Hello Everyone!  I had a very challenging weekend without access to the internet, so I missed a post on Friday.  I'm back online, and I'm very happy about it.

We officially closed out first term by placing all of our assignments and work into our binder portfolio.  Your student should have brought home their binder today to show you the graded assignments from last term.  The only subject not in the binder is ELA.  I have individual assessments for each student in a writing folder in the classroom.  I also have additional reading assessment information available in the classroom.  Please remind your student to bring home their binder tomorrow if they forgot it today.

Many students forgot to get their math homework today because we were handing out report cards and other information.  They should be completing the multiplication problem set from math class today.  

This week in class we will be working on a lot of things.  Here are the highlights!

Science - We will continue to work on microorganisms and cell structure.  Our bread was not quite moldy enough yet, so we are going to wait a few more days to see what kind of growth we can get!  We will also be collecting a variety of samples from around the school to test for bacteria.  Our animal cell studies will begin tomorrow.  Students were thoroughly grossed out today when we learned that yogurt and cheese are made with bacteria.  We also spent time discussing the harmful impact of microorganisms.  Next week, we will be building candy cells.  Check out my email for a list of materials we will need to complete this activity.

Social Studies - We are continuing our study of the causes of the American Civil War.  We are finishing up this part tomorrow, and we will begin to discuss the timeline of events leading up to and through the war.  It is a very intense period in history, and we will be having some discussions about how people were treated during that time period.  Students need to be reminded to remain serious about these topics.

Math - In Math, we are working on multi-digit multiplication.  Students have also been working on order of operations.  These Math lessons will quickly build to multiplying multi-digit decimals within the next week.

ELA - We will begin working on research projects in class based upon the American Civil War.  Our grammar studies will be focused upon comma usage, appositive phrases, conjunctions, and compound sentences.  Students will be taking a grammar pre-assessment tomorrow in class.

Reading - We are working on recognizing the main idea in expository text.  We are focusing on implied main idea during our studies this week.  Students are also still working to develop vocabulary and fluency.

Important Dates
September 29 - Report Card Day
October 2 - Individual Picture Day
October 21 - Students received a permission slip for our field trip today to the Atlanta History Center on October 21.
October 31 - Biography Project Due
November 11 - Parent Meeting Tybee 6 pm - 7 pm

Important Info
Math Practice - All students received their math login information for www.scootpad.com.  This is a math practice site to help students fill in skills that may be missing.  If your student does not know their username and password - please send me an email.

Let me know if you have any questions.  Have a great night.

Mrs. Prophet

Recap Term 1/Term 2 Introduction

Hello Everyone!  I've been very busy preparing for the second term, so I'm running late with my Term 1 recap.  Here is a short recap of Tern 1!

Term 1 Recap
Reading:  In Reading, we spent a lot of time discussing the different types of reading, and specific elements of non-fiction text.   We also started working on vocabulary development, and built reading stamina.

Science:  In Science, we spent the entire term working on classification of plants and animals.  Students will finish and submit their presentations from our field trip tomorrow!

S.S.:  In Social Studies, we had a great term learning about the process of laws and the procedures our government has in place to protect citizen rights.  Students need to review the AMENDMENT process.  We struggled on the assessment because many students have a misconception that the President can veto an amendment.  The amendment process does not include vetoes (that is the process of creating a law).  We will have some more time to develop this knowledge later in this term as we discuss the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments.

Math:  Math was an investigation of our number system.  We studied rounding, comparing, ordering,  powers of ten, and operations with decimals.

Writing:  We worked on personal narratives, and developing compound sentences.  Students also learned the writing process, and are showing great improvement in the editing and revising of their work.

Term 2 Introduction
Welcome to Term 2!  This week we will be launching our new Unit of Inquiry - Who We Are with a series of different activities.  I will also begin our new class read aloud - Wonder by P.J. Palacio.  Our Reading unit will begin by focusing on implied and explicit main ideas, vocabulary development, and research.  Students will receive a copy of the weekly kids publication - Time for Kids to use during reading workshop.  We will also begin evaluating the causes of the American Civil War.  In Science, we will begin an inquiry into microorganisms (students LOVE this unit because we will be creating bacteria cultures this week).  Our writing focus this term will be the research process.  As promised, word studies will begin this week.  Students will be working on prefixes, suffixes, Greek and Latin roots.  This should help with both vocabulary development and spelling!  In Mathematics, students will begin this term by working on the vocabulary terms for the operations.  Many students do not know the mathematical definitions for product, quotient, difference, and sum.  Please review these words with your student this week (they will have notes!).  We will also be working on developing our mental math skills this week.

Parents - I also did not get the login information completed for the math practice website (www.scootpad.com).  I will have that information for you in the Thursday email.

We also need to ensure that ALL students have their binders at school on Wednesday (9/24).  We will be creating our portfolios for first term on that day.  All students will bring home their binders next Monday (9/29) with their red folders.  This will include all their graded assignments from the first term.  We will store these binders at school once they are returned.

Rubrics for biography projects will be posted in the handouts section of this blog Monday afternoon (9/22).  

As usual, let me know if you have any concerns, comments, or questions.

See you soon!
Mrs. Prophet

End of the First Term!

We made it to the end of the first term!  This morning was our first Village Gathering.  We celebrated our learning, and students were recognized for action in the community.

As part of the IB action cycle, students are to reflect on the local and global consequences of their learning, to make choices based on these reflections, and act in responsible and meaningful ways.    If your student chooses to perform meaningful and responsible actions, please let me know.  As teachers, we often know what students do during the school day, but they often do things at home that are not shared.  I would love to hear about what your students are doing!

 It's been a great start to the school year, and I hope that everyone has a safe and enjoyable break.  Students received a rubric for their project today.  I've had some questions about turning in electronic assignments.  Students will be able to turn their projects in using Edmodo, but I will share more information about this in mid-October.  Please let me know if there are other questions about this project.  

Parents - Be on the lookout for an email from me this week about online Math practice.

Be sure to check out the blog on Monday to see a recap of our first term!

Thanks for everything.  

See you soon.

Mrs. Prophet

Assessment Week

We made it to the last week of the term.  We have a lot of assessments this week.

The assessment schedule is as follows:
Tuesday:  Science Assessment; UOI Summative Assessment
Wednesday:  UOI Summative Assessment
Thursday:  Social Studies Assessment; Personal Narrative Final Copy Completed
Friday:  Math Assessment

Parents - I am moving the Social Studies assessment to Thursday due to our walking field trip on Wednesday.  

We also set up our first Science experiment today.  We are investigating how vascular plants use xylem tubes to transport water throughout the organism.

Students please remember that xylem tubes transport water from the roots of the plant to the leaves, and phloem tubes transport food throughout the plant.  Also, make sure that you understand the difference between vascular and non-vascular plants.  If you are confused, be sure to make sure you remember that vascular plants can grow very tall (trees, flowers) and non-vascular plants grow in moist areas close to the ground (moss). 

Parents - I forgot to send home the red folders for students who are car riders, walkers, and bike riders.  Please look for those folders tomorrow.  

Have a great night!  See you in the morning.

Mrs. Prophet

Fascinating Friday

Hello Everyone!  We had another great week on 5th Avenue.  This week was jammed with lots of activities and learning.


In Science this week, we were introduced to the system used to classify plants.  We also discussed the different kingdoms of classification in our world (which is a preview to next term).  The students are very excited to be taking their first field trip on Wednesday to the community garden.

Creating our vascular plant diagrams.  

During our Social Studies investigations this week, students were given a fictitious amendment proposal.  They had to create videos to propose their amendments to our classroom congress.  Next week, we will vote to see if any of the proposals will be ratified.  The students seemed to enjoy this activity, and it really helped us to practice our compromise and negotiation skills.

Amendment proposal charts

During Reading Workshop this week, students continued working on non-fiction text features.  We practiced identifying these features in textbooks.  We will continue looking at non-fiction texts next week.  Students will be required to use non-fiction texts to support their statements.  Also, we started our first project.  Students should have received a copy of the biography project (due October 31).

We continued working with decimals this week in Math.  Students learned how to round, compare, order, and add decimal fractions.  Next week, we will have Operation Decimal Computation.  During this time, students will learn how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide decimals and whole numbers. I also implemented several math games and centers this week.

Thanks again for all the support.  We will be doing a lot of assessments next week.  Finally, I know the students are excited to finish reading The Giver.  Many of them are asking to read the other books in the series, so this might be a great item to donate to our classroom.  Please make sure to complete the study guides for Social Studies and Science this weekend.

Have a great weekend.  

Mrs. Prophet