Book Fair Fun & The Missoula Children's Theater

A Week in Review

November 18 - 22

 

 

Not only were we focused and working hard in class, we had the Scholastic Book Fair and The Missoula Children's Theater, too! Through it all, the students remained focused and diligent!! I know that we are all looking forward to Thanksgiving break next week.

 

Virtue Awards:

Dylan B. has earned a Virtue Award for demonstrating the virtue responsibility. Dylan is working to ensure that he has ALL of his class work and homework completed on time! Keep up the good work!

 

Serene Z. has earned a Virtue Award for demonstrating the virtues of respect and commitment. Serene is a very focused student who treats everyone with kindness and care! Thank you for being an amazing 5th grade leader!

 

 

 

Reading:

For our Journeys selection we read an excerpt from the classic book, Old Yeller by Fred Gipson. We analyzed the main character's thoughts, actions, and words in order to deepen our understanding of the characters. We discussed whether or not we thought the author created believable characters and supported our thinking using evidence from the text.

 

 

 

 

Writing:

We brainstormed, organized, wrote rough drafts, revised, and edited to produce final drafts of another memoir piece. This piece was written completely and independently by students. It is their final writing assessment before report cards! I'm proud of how focused they were on trying to use all of the strategies we worked on in class: vivid verbs, elaborating with specific detail, starting with a hook, etc.

 

Math:

Unit 3 Addition and Subtraction of Whole Numbers and Decimals wrapped up this week! We took a practice test to help us prepare and focus our studying on what we need to work on and then took the end-of-unit assessment, too! The pre-tests for Unit 4 Circles, Polygons, and Angles and Unit 5 Addition and Subtraction with Fractions was given, too! We will start Unit 4 on Monday!

 

 

Science:

Students conducted an experiment as a part of a science assessments. The investigative question asked students, "How does increasing the flow of water affect the length of the delta?" Students worked through the experiment with their group and will write their conclusions next week.

 

Social Studies:

In Chapter 6 Early English Settlements, students read about Roanoke (the "lost colony"), Jamestown (the first successful English settlement), and Plymouth (where the Pilgrims settled). Students analyzed what hardships the colonists faced and also discussed why they thought Jamestown and Plymouth  were successful settlements, while Roanoke was not.

 

 

Well, we're closing the books on another busy week! We only have THREE more days until our Thanksgiving Break! I know students are looking forward to their days off and they deserve it!

 

Enjoy your weekend!

Go Seahawks!

~Mrs. Hatlestad

Upcoming Events:

23 Nov - Missoula Children's Theater (Shows at 3:30 and 6:00)

28-29 Nov - No School, Thanksgiving Break

13 Dec - Chinook (@Ringdall) Field Trip: Band/Orchestra/Choir Concert (10am)
13 Dec - Class Store (time TBD)
21 Dec - 5 January - Winter Break

20 Jan - No School in honor of MLK Jr.

27 Jan - No School, Teacher Professional Development Day

15-23 Feb - No School, Mid-Winter Break 



Questioning, Verbs, Equations

A Week in Review

November 11 - 15

 

Our four day week has zoomed by and we were busy bees in room 210! Here is what we've been up to this week:

 

Virtue Awards:

Sanjita R. has earned a Virtue Award for demonstrating the virtues of DILIGENCE and RESPONSIBILITY! Sanjita works hard to complete all of her assignments with quality work! Keep up the good work!

 

Sandy P. has earned a Virtue Award for demonstrating the virtues of JOYFULNESS and COOPERATION! Sandy always has a positive attitude and works well with her classmates! You are an excellent 5th grade leader!
 

 

Reading:

Our main selection in Journeys this week was Interrupted Journey: Saving Endangered Sea Turtles by Kathryn Lasky. We worked on deepening our comprehension by using the target skill, cause and effect. We also used the questioning strategy to clarify what has happened in the story, make predictions, and determine cause and effect.

 

Writing:

We identified main verbs, helping verbs, and linking verbs this week. We also looked at incomplete sentences and revised them. Students finished the final drafts of their memoirs as well.
 

 

Math:

In math this week, we examined situation and solution equations, as this is an important foundation for algebra. We focused on how situation equations match the action story problem, but aren't necessarily the equation a mathematician would use to solve the problem. We also worked through two-step word problems.

 

Science:

Students wrote their own conclusions this week for their group experiment. Their group experiment focused on one changed variable, a change that the groups decided upon. For example the slant of the delta, adding rocks, or loosely compacting the soil.

 

Social Studies:

Chapter Five: Routes of Exploration to the New World concluded this week when students took the end-of-chapter assessment. It was an open note test and students were grateful for the support!

 

Don't forget that next week the Missoula Children's Theater will be at Medina! Auditions are after school on Monday for the musical, Blackbeard the Pirate.

 

Enjoy your weekend!
 

Go Seahawks!

~Mrs. Hatlestad

Upcoming Events:

18-23 Nov - Missoula Children's Theater

28-29 Nov - No School, Thanksgiving Break

13 Dec - Chinook (@Ringdall) Field Trip: Band/Orchestra/Choir Concert (10am)
13 Dec - Class Store (time TBD)
21 Dec - 5 January - Winter Break

 



Veterans' Day

A Week in Review

November 4 - 15

 

 

We ended the week with a fantastic Veterans' Day assembly! Anushri and Madison represented our class well by reading a poem, "Home of the Brave" by Roger Robicheau. They willingly gave up recesses to practice for their reading and it showed! Gracie and Nate also participated in our assembly today by presenting the flag for the Pledge of Allegiance and our National Anthem. They did a great job!

 

We have a three-day weekend ahead of us, but before we get to that - here is what we accomplished this week:

 

 

Virtue Awards:

Emily Z. has earned a Virtue Award for demonstrating the virtues of determination and joyfulness. Emily is an extremely hard worker and always has a positive attitude!

 

Jaclyn Y. has earned a Virtue Award for demonstrating the virtues of reliability and kindness. We can ALWAYS count on Jaclyn to meet or exceed expectations! She is also always kind to her classmates!

 

 

Reading:

Our main selection Journeys this week Elisa's Diary by Doris Luisa Oronoz Our target skill was understanding and theme and our target strategy was visualization. We worked to use details from the story (evidence) to identify the theme (author's purpose/message).

 

 

Writing:

It was a big week for me professionally, as I completed my first videotaping session with the District's videographer! The lesson I chose to showcase for my National Board renewal video was on teaching students to write SHOW ME sentences instead of telling sentences. We worked hard to revise our memoirs!

 

 

 

 

 

Math:

Did you know that the singular form of data is 'datum'? That was a snippet of our learning and we analyzed line and bar graphs. We also worked to round decimals to the nearest tenth, hundredth, and thousandth.

 

Social Studies:

We concluded Chapter 5: Routes of Exploration to the New World with an exciting team competition. We used the HUGE class matrix we created to answer trivia questions about the eight explorers we studied. The chapter test is NEXT WEEK - open note!

 

 

 

 

 

Science:

Ms. Keenan and our students ran their second trial experiment on erosion and deposition. Their experiments focused on sites 1, 2, and 3 for the Evergreen Development Company.

Thanks for another great week of learning! I hope you have a relaxing weekend. I know that I am grateful for the sacrifices and commitment that our Veterans have made for our country. I have many family members that have served in the Armed Forces. Most recently, my brother in-law retired in 2012 after 22 years of service in the Air Force.

 

Enjoy your weekend!

Go Seahawks!

~Mrs. Hatlestad

Upcoming Events:

11 Nov - No School, Veterans' Day

18-23 Nov - Missoula Children's Theater

19 Nov - Missoula Children's Theater Workshop with Ms. Keenan's class (1:30)

21 Nov - First Heritage Project assignment due - maps!

28-29 Nov - No School, Thanksgiving Break

13 Dec - Chinook @Rindall Band/Orchestra/Choir concert (9:30 am departure)
13 Dec - Class Store (time TBD)
21 Dec - 5 January - Winter Break



Halloween, PJ Day, Daylight Savings

A Week in Review

October 28 - November 1

 

It is hard to believe that we are already in NOVEMBER! I'm not sure where October went, let alone September, but somehow here we are starting the a new month!

We had another FULL week of LEARNING and FUN! I have to give a special shout-out to Mishele B. (Nate) and James Z. (Emily) for organizing and planning our awesome HALLOWEEN PARTY! Also, thanks to Janet L. (Jacob), Todd B. (Nate), Julia Z. (Emily), Tamara and Paul W. (Danny) and Laura V. (John) for volunteering their time to help supervise the party. The students could barely contain themselves on Thursday as they worked extra hard to focus during Math and Literacy!

The week wasn't just about Halloween and candy though - here's what we were up to:

 

Virtue Awards:

Anushri R. has earned a Virtue Award for demonstrating the virtues of kindness and helpfulness. Anushri is always willing to help whenever anyone needs anything. Thank you Anushri for the kindness you show us each day!

Isabelle T. has earned a Virtue Award for demonstrating the virtues of responsibility and diligence! Isabelle works extremely hard to complete ALL of her assignments with quality work, turn them in on time, and help others who need it. She is an excellent 5th grade leader!

 

 

Reading:

Our main selection story this week was a nonfiction text, Double Dutch: A Celebration of Jump Rope, Rhyme, and Sisterhood by Veronica Chambers. We used the target skill sequence of events and target strategy monitor/clarify to deepen our comprehension.

 

Writing:

We've begun heavy revisions on our most recent memoirs. We worked to strengthen our lead, to create 'hooks' that grab our readers' attention. We also experimented with using foreshadowing and developing our stories with details.

 

Math:

The decimal journey continues as we worked to use the Commutative, Associative, and Distributive Properties to add numbers mentally. We also practiced adding and subtracting decimal numbers, paying careful attention to lining up the place values correcting and using a second strategy to double-check our work. We ended the week analyzing and using pictographs to solve problems.



Social Studies:
Using the explorers' matrix that we created last week, students made their own versions this week, using their Interactive Student Notebooks. We reviewed the eight explorers and double-checked our work to make sure we were clear on each explorers sponsor, motivation, route, impact, and year of exploration.

Science:
Students wrapped up their science investigation by sharing their conclusions. They revised their own conclusion as well, ensuring that they had included the most important findings.







I hope that you have a relaxing weekend! Remember to "Fall Back" one hour on Sunday, as Daylight Savings Time ends.

 

 Enjoy your weekend!

Go Seahawks!

~Mrs. Hatlestad

Upcoming Events:

4-11 Nov - BOX TOP Collection Week!

5 Nov - PTA General Assembly Meeting, 8:15

8 Nov - Veterans' Day Assembly (9:30, cafe)

11 Nov - No School, Veterans' Day

18-23 Nov - Missoula Children's Theater

28-29 Nov - No School, Thanksgiving Break

13 Dec - Chinook (@Ringdall) Field Trip: Band/Orchestra/Choir Concert (10am)
13 Dec - Class Store (time TBD)
21 Dec - 5 January - Winter Break



Explorers, Decimals, Venn Diagrams, Oh my!

A Week in Review

October 21 - 25

 

Explorers, decimals, Venn Diagrams, oh my! We were busy this week learning and challenging ourselves to find evidence in our texts to support our answers! We had many opportunities for group work and independent work. It was a great week, here's what we've been up to:

 

Virtue Awards:
Danny W. has earned a Virtue Award for demonstrating the virtue of friendliness and kindness. Danny is always friendly and kind to his classmates. He is a great 5th grade leader!

Soha M. has earned a Virtue Award for demonstrating the virtues of responsibility and diligence. Soha has 100% of her class work and homework turned in for ALL subjects! Keep up the good work!!

 

 Reading:

Our main selection in Journeys this week was an excerpt from Gary Soto's book, Off and Running. We compared and contrasted the two main characters, Rudy and Miata to deepen our comprehension. Both students were running for class president, we had an in depth discussion about who we would vote for and why (using evidence from the text). We also discussed who we thought would win. With our own local election around the corner, it had a nice tie-in to real life.

 

Writing:

We wrote drafts for another narrative, focusing on using more description language and expanding our vocabulary. This is such a great group of writers and we are learning a lot from each other!

 

 

Math:

Adding decimals and identifying place value from billions to billionths was our focus this week. The students are grasping these new concepts quickly and applying them to problem solving in math.

 

 

Science:

On Tuesday with Ms. Keenan, students conducted an experiment investigating the question, "How does changing the amount of water affect the length of the delta?" Then students wrote a scientific conclusion with me today using the data they gathered from their experiment.

Social Studies:

Students researched seven explorers and analyzed their background, sponsors, motives, dates, route of exploration and their impact on the native people. We created a giant matrix to organize our findings and to help us learn more about how the "new world" was discovered and developed.

 

Thanks for another great week of learning!

 

 

Enjoy your weekend!
 

Go Seahawks!
 

~Mrs. Hatlestad

Upcoming Events:

25 Oct - 5th Grade Parents Cocktail/Wine Tasting Party (7:30pm-9:30pm)
31 Oct - Halloween Party (time TBD)

5 Nov - PTA General Assembly Meeting, 8:15

11 Nov - No School, Veterans' Day

18-23 Nov - Missoula Children's Theater

28-29 Nov - No School, Thanksgiving Break
13 Dec - Class Store (time TBD)
21 Dec - 5 January - Winter Break