March 17th

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Blog written by the students in room 14.

Reader's Workshop

In Reader's Workshop this week we have been trying to break up large informational text into smaller bite size pieces.  We then look for the important information in each bite size piece.  Mrs. Faley just finished reading "The Honest Truth."  With Mrs. Athan we have been getting into the book "Materminds." We started to realize Serenity is a little screwy.  Ask your fifth grade child about the book "Masterminds."

Writer's Workshop

This week we have been focusing on writing an informational piece about The Boston Tea Party.  In our piece we needed to include a strong introduction, cause, definition and effect.  We also worked on adding nonfiction text features to enhance our writing.

Math

In math we have been working on multiplying and dividing decimals.  We have also been using what we know about multiplying and diving fractions to solve area and volume problems.  We have been working in pairs on multi-step tasks.

Science
In Science we have been working on our unit called Variables.  We have made catapults. In this activity we found the difference between potential and kinetic energy. 

Social Studies
In Social Studies we have been talking about the Revolutionary War.  We have been discussing the advantages and disadvantages of the two sides of the war.  This week we covered many different battles.  We also learned about Valley Forge and the Treaty of Paris.  Ask your fifth grader what they have learned about the American Revolution.


Reminders

• WLE Charity Volleyball Game: Friday, March 18th 6:30 p.m. at Geisler Middle School
• Please remember to turn in the new Permission to Attend camp form as soon as possible.
• Sarah Banks Elective Course Selection sheets are due, Wednesday March 23rd.
• 5th Grade Graduation parent meeting Wednesday, March 23rd at 7:00 p.m. in the Media Center

CAMP UPDATE

Good news!  We have new camp dates.  We will be going to 5th grade camp April 11-13th.  Please mark your calendars with these dates.  There will be more information to follow.

Thank you for your patience with this matter.  

Camp Update

At this point, we are still working on rescheduling Camp. Rescheduling Camp is a very complicated process due to blocked out dates like M-Step testing and a full schedule at The Walled Lake Outdoor Center.  

We know your children are disappointed.  We want you to know that we are doing everything we can to work flexibly with the situation.  The moment we have definite information, we will let the students know and e-mail you as well.  We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs. Faley and Mrs. Athan

March 3rd

*Blog written by the students in room 14.

We are extremely sad that 5th grade camp had to be rescheduled.  We had a lot of upset 5th graders walking into Walled Lake Elementary this morning.  The bonus is that hopefully our camp will be rescheduled and it will be warmer than it was this week.  At this time we do not have new camp dates set.  We will let you know as soon as the dates are set.  

Reader's Workshop
In Reader's Workshop this week, we having been working on using graphic organizers.  The organizers we used this week included: the web, T-chart, and Venn diagram.  We are working on reading text and organizing the information into graphic organizers.

Also, we have almost finished our read aloud book The Honest Truth.  We are excited to see how it ends.  We also started another read aloud book.  It is called Masterminds.

Writer's Workshop
In Writer's Workshop we have been working on a performance task to help us prepare for the M-Step.  We have been learning to organize information that we read.  Also, we have been asking ourselves what the question is asking.  Another thing we have been learning is to plan our writing with a claim.  We learned to use the information from the sources in our opinion writing.  The topic of our performance task was "Should all service animals be allowed in public places?"  

Math
In math this week, we finished out Unit 5 benchmark assessment.  It took forever!  We also started our next unit on investigating measurement and multiplying and dividing decimals.

Social Studies
This week in Social Studies we finished up our BA on the events leading to the American Revolution, as well as important people of the revolution.  We also started our next unit on the American Revolution.  We learned about the Second Continental Congress.  We learned about the Battle on Bunker Hill.  

Science
In science this week we are working on the Variable Unit.  Right now, we are making AIRPLANES.  The three kids of variables are independent variables (what you can change). Example: if you water a plant and do not water another plant that is an independent variable.  The other one is a controlled variable (what you keep the same).  Last is the dependent variable (what you observe).


Important Dates
March 7th: PTA Meeting
March 7th- 11th: Book Fair
March 16th: Kindergarten Orientation in the Media Center 6:30 p.m.
March 18th: Charity Volleyball Game at 
March 25th: NO SCHOOL

WLE VS. HICKORY WOODS

 Staff Volleyball Match 

Where: Geisler Middle School

 When: Friday, March 18th 

Time: 6:30 pm 

No Charge 

Donations Will Be Taken at the Door
All donations go to Team Joseph
helping children with Duchenne muscular dystrophy 

Refreshments Will Be Sold 

Go Slammer Jammers! 

February 4th

*Blog written by the students in room 14

We have had a busy week in Room 14. The weather has been crazy.  We were able to enjoy some time outside without snowpants and boots.  It looks like now we are back to winter gear for a least a few days.

Reader's Workshop
In Reader's Workshop this week, we spent a lot of time looking at persuasive and opinion writing pieces.  We worked together to find the author's angle.  We also studied these pieces of writing looking for the shifts the author used to make his or her writing more interesting.

Writer's Workshop
In Writer's Workshop this week, we continued our unit on persuasive writing.  We studied shifts that could be used in our writing and worked to integrate these shifts in our persuasive pieces.  We are now working on completing a persuasive piece on zoos.  We are using our checklist to make sure that our writing has an introduction, three body paragraphs with reasons and evidence to support, and a conclusion that echos our introduction.  

Math
In Math this week, we have continued to work with fractions.  We are working with adding and subtracting fractions.  We have been finding common denominators and using equivalent fractions when needed.  

Social Studies
In Social Studies this week, we continued our unit "Road to the Revolution."  We focused on Committees of Correspondence, Tea Act, Boston Tea Party, The "Intolerable Acts", and the First Continental Congress.  We have been watching "The Liberty Kids" to help us understand what it was like to live as a colonist in the 1700s.  


Reminders:

• All instrument forms are due TOMORROW, February 5th
• All signed math BAs need to be turned in by TOMORROW, February 5th
• All 5th Grade Camp forms and money need to be turned in by next Friday, February 12th
• Mid Winter Break: NO SCHOOL February 13th - 21st 
• 5th Grade Camp: March 2nd - 4th 

January 21st

Blog written by the students in room 14.

Reader's Workshop
This week in reading we have been looking at different character perspectives.  We decided as a class to abandon Across Five Aprils.  We were having a hard time following this book.  Many kids could not understand what was happening in the book.  We are looking forward to starting our new book The Honest Truth tomorrow.  We continued to read The Phantom Tollbooth with Mrs. Athan.  Right now are are at the part where the kingdom of Digitopoles was introduced.  This is another kingdom in the book.

Writer's Workshop
In writing we have been writing persuasive writing pieces.  We have been boosting our persuasive writing.  Today we spent time studying ways to hook our reader in our introduction.  We then tried new introductions to see which ones we liked best.

Math
In math this week we have been doing a lot with coordinate grids.  We also learned how to add and subtract with decimals.  We have played many math games to help our understanding.  We played Decimal Top-It and many more.  Next week we are going to have our next BA.

Social Studies
In Social Studies we are learning about all of the acts that led to the American Revolution.  We learned PSQSTBCTBIFB. This stands for "Please send Queen Stupid to bed cause, Tim baked insects for breakfast."  Today we learned about the Townshend Act and tomorrow we are excited to learn about The Boston Massacre.  

Science
In Science we have been working on creating pendulums.  We also have been working on changing just one variable.  We watched a video that includes independent variables and dependent variable.  Independent variables means what I can change.  Dependent variables means what I observe and controlled variables means what I keep the same.

Reminders:

• 5th Grade Camp is March 2nd-4th.  Camp packets were given out at the camp meeting or sent home today in your child's folder.
• Please return your child's instrument form by Friday, February 5th.
• January 26th: Little Caesars pizza orders due
• February 15th - 19th: NO SCHOOL Mid Winter Break

January 14th

Blog written by the students in room 14.

We completed our second round of iReady testing this week. 

Reader's Workshop
In Reader's Workshop this week we have been looking for claims, reasons, and evidence in our reading.  We have been noticing how authors make a claim and support their claim with evidence.

Writer's Workshop
We have been working on our persuasive writing this week.  We have been focusing our research on chocolate milk.  We have been collecting evidence to determine if chocolate milk is healthy or not.  Ask your 5th grader what his or her claim is on chocolate milk.

Math
In math this week we have been working with the coordinate grid system.  We have been plotting points on a graph and providing coordinates as well.  

Social Studies
In Social Studies this week we started our unit on "The Road to the Revolution."  We learned a new mnemonic to help us remember the order of events that lead to the revolution.  Ask your 5th grader if he or she can recite the mnemonic.


Reminders

• No School Monday: January 18th MLK Day - please join us for a celebration at Northern High School
• 5th Grade Camp and Graduation meeting: Tuesday, January 19th at 6:00 p.m.
• Count Day: Thursday, January 21st