Thursday, December 29, 2016

December 2016

Highlights from Last Week

Our holiday concert on December 15th was great.  Most impressive was the band who played good music!  They are quite a talented group. 

In the classroom, we continue to work on fractions, the painted essay, and colonization.  Our colonists have made it across the ocean and to the New World successfully.  Each colony will land, when we get back to school.  Landing involves strategically picking the best land to settle.   




5th graders rap for their classmates - explaining when to use Least Common Multiple (LCM) and Greatest Common Factor (GCF)













"Colonists" writing in their journals





We had our first auction of the year on Tuesday.  Some of you may have received an extra special Christmas gift out of the deal!  It was fun.  Students earn Rhoades' bucks by being responsible about homework and other things around the classroom.  In 2017 I will add a new way to earn money!  









We celebrated the last day before vacation with a visit from the high school band and chorus carolers, followed by our Heifer Project raffle, holiday crafts, pizza, and a movie.  Some pictures highlighting that day follow.





Fun with Crafts - 5R and 5B







Thursday, December 15, 2016

November-December 2016

November flew by and we are now into December! With the holiday break
fast approaching I thought it is time to share some more happenings in 5R! 

Sean has been the 5R photographer of the week, for a couple of weeks now!  Below are some photos that he took.   

 Brayden and Taylor reading and responding to the Article of the Day.  We have a class membership to ReadWorks Digital.  Each week there are a series of articles, topic-themed, that the students read and respond to in their digital Book of Knowledge.  The articles are short.  Reading and responding to them takes about 10-15 minutes.  They are also at various reading levels.  Research shows that the more students read on the same topic, the more general knowledge they will gain and remember.  They are also enhancing their vocabulary.




    Just some clowning around!
 Maria, the golden apple, picking our Go Noodle brain break

 We are reading Blood on the River.  This is the story about the first settlers of Jamestown.  This historical fiction book is skillfully written to include vivid and real details of the Jamestown colony and its members.  It fits very nicely with our colonization unit that we are currently working on.  




Students working in the classroom






      Photos courtesy of Sean!


The Painted  Essay  
Small groups worked together to created an organized essay from sentence strips.  They did a great job figuring out if sentences fit in the RED paragraph (introduction), YELLOW paragraph, BLUE paragraph, or the GREEN paragraph (conclusion). There were also a few paragraphs that needed to be trashed!



  Stay tuned... next week you will find out how our colonists are doing on their trip to the New World!