Normal Schedule, Here We Come!

As you can see from the title of our class posting on Friday, we are all very excited for what tomorrow has in store for us - a normal schedule!! Not only was I feeling that last week was very hectic, but from the title 5C chose for our posting on Friday, the students were evidently feeling the same thing - that we had a very busy and disrupted week. Hopefully the fog will not be a factor this week and MISIC testing is behind us until spring, so bring on the normal schedule!

In the little bit of regular class time we had this week, we pressed on in all subject areas. In reading class, students continued to work on building their "Read to Self" stamina and were introduced to "Read with Someone". We are also continuing to work on making connections while we read. In writing, students continued working on writing their stories, paying close attention to their voice as a writer. In math, we took our unit 1 test and finished up odds and ends with the unit. This week, students will be bringing home "Unit 1 Notes to Parents". This will include a little note from me about how your student is doing in math and their mid-quarter grade. We will begin working on unit 2 in math tomorrow. In social studies, students spent time learning about Dr. Norman Borlaug and are also continuing a unit on Patriotism. In science, students are still working with erosion and from what I hear from 5C students and Mrs. Halverson, it sounds like science class gets pretty messy some days! 

Our field trip on Friday was a great learning experience for all of us. Despite the weather, we made the best of our day and huddled under each others umbrellas to try and stay dry. The day was very informative and a nice change to get out of the classroom for a day of learning. I hope some of you saw the video clip of all Crestwood Elementary 5th graders singing the Norman Borlaug rap on the news Friday night. For those of you who missed it, I happened to check You Tube this evening to see if by chance someone posted it to the site, and I found it!! I tried to include the video below, so hopefully it works! Check it out!

Don't forget, Friday is our Book-It kick-off jamboree! I am excited to have our 5C families join us for an afternoon of books and breadsticks!

Crammed and Crazy

After a crammed and crazy week, here are the thoughts of some of 5C students about our week of school...

We went to the Norman Borlaug farm. We saw scorpions. - Chaise

We saw Charlotte (Dr. Borlaug's sister) at the farm. - Spencer

Our week was just like the title of this post! We saw a tarantula. - Cameron

We held insects at the Borlaug farm. - Austin

We visited the Borlaug farm and it was fun. We saw a dog named Rusty. - Jordan

Totally insane week. Mrs. Kuhn cannot spell today. - Katie

Hissing cockroaches are cool! - Dawson

We had MISIC this week. We had fun at the Borlaug farm. - Haley S.

We had a math test this week. - Alexis

We got to be on TV at the Norman Borlaug farm for singing the rap. When we were eating lunch a dog came on our bus - Haley M.

It was a fun Friday! - Dalton

It was the best Friday in the whole wide world! - Nathan

We learned about Norman Borlaug at the farm. - Lilly

We didn't have to eat the lasagna for lunch. - Abbey

We got to view the inside of Norman Borlaug's house. We got to see a replica of Dr. Borlaug's congressional medal of honor. - Trevor

We saw Norman Borlaug's childhood bedroom. - Mathew 

Mrs. Kuhn is the best teacher ever, and she rocks. - All of 5C

Here is a link for the "Norman Borlaug Rap" we sang at the farm today that was recorded for TV!! :)

http://www.agbioworld.org/biotech-info/Borlaug_Rap160.mp3

Get Your Umbrellas Ready

Well, we are halfway through another crazy week and I am happy to say that the craziness is coming to an end! We take our final MISIC test tomorrow and then our schedule can return to normal! I am VERY ready for things to return to normal and I think the students are, too. We were discussing our schedule for the day this morning and several students commented that they thought the days feel long when we have different schedules than normal, although a few thought that the days feel shorter! Either way, we are ready for normalcy!! 

I hope you all had a chance to read the note that came home with 5C students on Monday. If you haven't, please make sure you read it before Friday, as there is some information about our field trip that 5C students and families need to know. As the letter stated, we are going rain or shine! I'm not sure if anyone has seen a weather report for Friday, but the last time I checked it showed high temperatures in the 60s and a 70% chance of rain. So.... please make sure your student is dressed for the weather. As the title of this post suggests - bring an umbrella!! 

The second part of the note talked about Book-It, the reading program sponsored by Pizza Hut. We have having our kick-off jamboree on Friday, October 2 from 2:45-3:15. We've invited only one guest per student because we simply don't have space in our classroom for more. There will be more events throughout the year where our families will be encouraged to join us. 

Check out our new wordle that I posted to our blog this morning. Kids...please tell your families what a wordle is and how we created it. I will explain more about our wordle in my post on Friday. Have a great evening and I'll see you all tomorrow for yet another crazy day!

Classroom Wish List

Every year I have parents ask if there are any items that I need in our classroom. So, if you are at all interested in donating items to our classroom, here are some suggested items:

• crayons, colored pencils, markers
• scissors
• Clorox Wipes
• Glue sticks/glue bottles/rubber cement
• Hand sanitizer - pump bottles
• Books (old or new) for our classroom library
• Large erasers or small pencil top erasers
• Wide ruled notebooks
• 2 pocket folders

Thank you in advance! We are not picky - if you have any of these items taking up space around your house and you want to get rid of them, we'll take them! Thanks!!

Fantastic Week

Wow! What a busy week. Our week was full of changes to our schedule between our early dismissal on Wednesday, bus evacuation drills and MISIC testing. And, just as I predicted, the change in our schedule threw a few students for a loop and we had a few "off" moments of chatty behavior, but overall we had a fantastic week! Here is our weekly update about what we did in school last week.

This week in reading, students worked on increasing their stamina in "Read to Self" and they also worked on making connections while reading. In writing, Mrs. Sorenson introduced the writing trait of voice and students began working on writing stories. In social studies, students have been working on parallel timelines and are still studying erosion in science. This week during word study, we studied the sound of "long e" and the different letter combinations or spelling patters that make that sound. In math, we learned about square numbers, square roots, factor strings and prime factorization.

In addition, we also started our MISIC testing on Thursday. So far, we have taken our tests for math and language. Tomorrow we will take our science test and on Thursday we will take our final test in reading. 5C students have been doing an outstanding job of taking their time and doing their best on these tests. They have also done a super job of being respectful when they finish and others are still testing. This was awesome to see, 5C! Thanks for being so thoughtful of your classmates!

You also may have noticed our class "Wordle" that I posted to our blog. A wordle is a tool used to generate "word clouds" from a text that you provide. The clouds give prominence to words that appear more frequently in the text. So, on Friday, I asked 5C students to reflect on the school year so far and how they are feeling about 5th grade. Some students wrote a single word, some students wrote a sentence and some students wrote multiple sentences. As you can see from our wordle, most of us are feeling pretty "awesome" about 5th grade and that is "awesome" to hear!

Have a great rest of the weekend! I'm looking forward to another awesome week of school!

Fun Friday!

Here are the thoughts and comments from 5C students about our week of school...

We are learning about mentoring. - Haley S.

Mr. Sickles started Guidance class with us today. - Dawson

There have been many injuries during this week. - Trevor

Many people want to be mentors. - Spencer

We are doing parallel timelines during social studies. - Alexis

We learned the "Big Booty" game in literacy. - Katie

We played a soccer game in P.E. - Austin

We were asked to be munchkins in the high school musical the "Wizard of Oz". - Haley M.

The teachers rock! - Jordan

We played zip-zap-zop in literacy. - Mathew

I think I broke my finger at recess. - Chaise

We learned about square roots. - Lilly

We had a fun science experiment. - Nathan

We were VERY noisy in science and social studies class today. - Cameron

Yesterday at lunch a grape popped in Josh's face. - Haley M.

We started MISIC. - 5C

Tomorrow is my mom's birthday. - Dalton - HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO DALTON'S MOM!!!

As always - Mrs. Kuhn rocks - from all of 5C

TERRIFIC TUESDAY!!

Wow! What a fantastic day! I just wanted to put a quick post on our blog to let our families and friends know what an awesome day we had! We received complements from both Mrs. Sorenson and Mrs. Halverson that we were the "best we have ever been" today! Math class was fabulous as well. So 5C...give yourselves a large pat on the back! You proved to me once again today what fantastic young adults you all are! Thanks for being such great learners! I'm looking forward to tomorrow...let's have another super day!!

Hang on 5C...it's going to be a crazy week!!

Awesome start to the week 5C! We had a fantastic day!  5C students were much more respectful today for both Mrs. Halverson and Mrs. Sorenson, and that was very nice to hear! I told you guys you were capable of being fabulous!! Today you proved it to me once again!! Super job, 5C!

I wanted to post just a little note tonight to let you know that we are in for a CRAZY week!! (Actually, a crazy couple of weeks!) We have a 3 hour early dismissal on Wednesday for teacher inservice and bus evacuation drills that morning. On Thursday, 5C begins MISIC testing. MISIC testing continues next week. This will not only interrupt our class schedule, but the schedules of 5A and 5B as well. So, 5C, prepare yourselves for a few crazy days!

As with any time our schedule changes, students have a tendency to get a little confused and all out of whack. But, their not the only ones - it happens to the teachers too!! We will have to work together and help each other stay focused. I will need 5C to be at their best - both for their testing and behaviors and attitude! 

Thanks for a great day 5C! I'm excited to see you all tomorrow for another outstanding day!

Foggy Friday...Crazy Friday

We officially have another week of school under our belts and even though it was a shorter week than normal, it proved to be challenging week - trying to adjust to the first day of the week being a Tuesday and then the late start Friday morning for fog. Any interruption to our schedule not only affects our classroom, but 5A and 5B as well. So, yesterday morning was a little stressful for 5th grade teachers!! 

I have made many comments on how great our year as started and how the students of 5C have proved many times to be very respectful and responsible. But, as with any new situation, we have set-backs - kind of like the saying, "two steps forward, one step back". And I'm sad to say that yesterday, some of my 5C students took a large step in the wrong direction. During literacy class yesterday, some of my 5C students were being SO disrespectful to Mrs. Sorenson that she had to step out into the hallway to take a little break. Students were blurting answers and ideas, interrupting Mrs. Sorenson while she was talking and giving directions, carrying on their own conversations instead of listening to Mrs. Sorenson, and worst of all making jokes and laughing during an activity Mrs. Sorenson was having the students complete about 9/11. Now, I know that not all of my kiddos would act this way and I now that only a handful were making these poor behavior choices - as some of my students were not even in the classroom at the time, but I was so disappointed by those who chose to act in this way. It's disappointing to me that we aren't showing our best and being respectful at all times. 

Yesterday was not a terrible day - we had some great moments and some not-so-great moments. We will take today as a learning experience and move on. I know that 5C is capable of being a fantastic group!! 

It's Finally Friday!

Today I told 5C students that they will be helping me blog every Friday about our week in school. This will be their opportunity to share highlights from the week - something they enjoyed, something they are learning about - really, anything they would like to share. As you can tell by the comments left today, some of us were more interested in what we were eating for lunch or what our plans are for the weekend, than sharing about school. But, that's okay! It was our first blogging experience and 5C students were VERY enthusiastic about sharing their ideas! :)

We've had a lot of fun in math this week and in literacy we got to play with clay! - Jordan

It's finally Friday! - Haley M. 

I got all sweaty today playing football today. - Austin

Let's hope the Cadets win tonight! - Abbey

It was a fun week! - Dalton

Today we are having chicken alfredo. - Dawson

I like chicken alfredo. - Chaise

All the 5th grade football players are getting ready for a good week of football. - Trevor

In reading class our stamina is up to 18 minutes! - Katie

I didn't care for the chili yesterday because of the chunky tomatoes. - Spencer 

It has been a good year so far! - Haley S.

It's going to be a good weekend. - Josh

5th grade Cadets are going to win on Sunday! - Cameron

P.S. - Mrs. Kuhn Rocks - from all of 5C

5C Remembers September 11th...

This morning we spent some time talking about the tragic day of September 11, 2001. Here are some of 5C's thoughts and comments about that day...

Today is the 8th year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. - Dawson

Today is a sad day because the twin towers went down. - Chaise

A lot of people are really sad today. - Trevor

In memory of the people who died. - Spencer

America did not sit still for the attacking of the twin towers. - Cameron

We were not divided. - Katie

Never ride on an airplane on 9/11. - Nathan

2,819 people lost their lives in the 9/11 attacks. - Austin

Instead of the attack splitting us apart, we got stronger. - Haley M.

Don't joke around about being a terrorist. - Abbey

9/11 was a sad day. - Dalton

We talked about 9/11 today. - Jordan

Every year September 11th is a sad day. - Haley S.

Here is a link to the song "God Bless the USA" by Lee Greenwood. 5C students do not know that I added this link to our post from this morning, but I thought it was very fitting to listen to this song on the anniversary of 9/11.

http://www.brownielocks.com/godblesstheusaWAVE.html

What's Happening in 5C?

I can hardly believe that we have already been in school for almost three weeks! We have been very busy getting into our routine and learning about what 5th grade is all about! We are also trying to get comfortable with our schedule - and the kids are the only ones struggling with this! Wednesdays throw ALL of us for a loop!! Hang in there 5C, we'll figure it out eventually!

I'm sure many of you are wondering what we have been doing in class these first few weeks we have been together. So, here is a little rundown of what we have been learning about in all of our classes.

In literacy, students have been working with Mrs. Sorenson on building stamina for independent reading and choosing "good fit books". They also learned about what writing is and completed a writing activity using the computer program Kidspiration. In math, we took a pretest over Unit 1: Number Theory. I used the results of these tests to put the students into math groups, where they will receive their math instruction in a small group setting. These groups will change for each unit. Some of the topics we have been covering in math include rectangular arrays, factors and divisibility rules. We also started word study (spelling) and so far have reviewed the sounds of the short vowels and are currently working on reviewing the sound of long a. In science, the students have been learning about erosion and from the looks of Mrs. Halverson's classroom, completing some science experiments about erosion. We had our first science quiz today over erosion vocabulary words...I hope everyone studied!! In social studies, students have been talking about patriotism and created some really neat posters about patriotism. 

Students in 5th grade have also been introduced to band during these first few weeks of school. Just a reminder - please return the band paper whether you are planning on joining band or not, so Mrs. Jones can start scheduling "try-outs".

Thanks to everyone who has checked out our blog! I know some of my 5C kiddos are interested in becoming followers with their families, so if anyone has trouble joining our site, please let me know!

Have a great night!!

A Successful Start

We have officially completed two full weeks of school and our year is off to a great start! We are getting into a routine and becoming more familiar with our schedule - which can be a bit tricky on Tuesdays and Wednesdays! Switching classes has been going fairly smoothly, with only a few forgotten planners here and a few forgotten notebooks there. The biggest problem seems to be hanging onto all of our stuff as we move to other classrooms. Some of us are keeping track of who drops their pencil box the most and last I knew, Abbey was winning with a total of 11. But, to be fair to Abbey, she has also been carrying twice the amount of materials, as she has graciously been helping Logan with his things until he is off of his crutches! Thanks for being so helpful, Abbey! And, she isn't the only one. I have a classroom full of respectful, responsible and helpful students! Thanks for a great start to the year 5C!!

Welcome to the 5C blog!!

Hello! Welcome students, parents and family members to our 5C classroom blog! I am very excited to use this blog as our main form of communication between school and home. Please check back frequently for posts and information about what is happening in the wonderful world of 5C!