Back to School my 5C Turkeys!

Hello, 5C! I hope you all had a wonderful break from school, lots of yummy food and fun with family and friends. I ate so much great Thanksgiving food during our break that you might have to roll me around our room tomorrow! You won't mind, will you? It has been so long since my last post on our blog, I have lots to catch our families up on. Here is goes...

We have finished our ITBS testing! Yeah! 5C did a super job of staying focused and giving 100% effort on all tests! I think they were relieved when they finished their last test. I felt the same way because with our testing complete, we could finally get back to work in the classroom.

We had a wonderful turnout for our American Education Week celebration. Thank you to all families who attended. I hope you enjoyed returning to an elementary classroom and spending time with your 5C student!

We hit mid-quarter a couple of weeks ago! Wow! We only have about three and a half weeks of the quarter left and so much to do! Here is a little run-down of what has been happening in class this quarter. In reading we are finally getting into book clubs. The students seem to all enjoy the books they are reading and are constantly working on their ideas for their "Think Fights". Don't forget 5C - your next "Think Fight" will be a surprise - be prepared! In writing, students are working in various stages of the writing process on their second quarter writing piece, due before Christmas break. In word study, we have been studying various word endings and how they may or may not change the spelling of the base word. We have also been studying strategies that help us spell, such as visualizing the words we write. In math, we just finished Unit 3: Geometry and the American Tour. We will begin working on Unit 4: Division this week! In science, students are continuing their study of rocks and in social studies, they have been working on map skills.

Parents - Some of you have seen a blue "Character Counts Communique" come home with your student this quarter. Mrs. Halverson, Mrs. Sorenson and I have decided to use this form as a tool to let families know when their student has not completed an assignment on time. If your student receives one of these forms and you would like to discuss the problem with me, please feel free to contact me. It is my hope that as the year progresses, our responsibility will continue to grow and these blue forms will no longer be necessary. 

5C - as we get closer to the end of the second quarter and another report card, keep in mind that my expectations for your behavior, both in and out of class, increase. Responsibility has been a problem for some of you this quarter. It is your job to be the best student you can possibly be. Show me that you are continuing to work on this pillar of character.

Enjoy your last day of break! See you bright and early!

Busy Week Ahead...

Hello 5C students and families! I hope you all enjoyed your extra day off yesterday, especially since the weather was so wonderful! A little windy, but otherwise spectacular. Today promises to be beautiful as well, so get out there and enjoy it!!

First of all, I want to say a big THANK YOU to all parents (and students) who attended conferences. It was great to see you all and have the chance to chat about your fifth grader. I truly enjoy working with each 5C student and I enjoyed sharing their accomplishments and progress with you! Thanks again for taking the time out of your busy schedules to meet with me!

With conference week behind us, we look ahead to next week and something many of my 5C students are not looking forward to...ITBS. But, the good news is that this year we have cut back on the number of tests we will be taking!! Mrs. Sorenson, Mrs. Halverson and I sat down last week and scheduled the fifth grade tests. We will be taking three tests this week and three tests next week. So, hopefully 5C, you won't feel like our testing schedule is too draining. When thinking of ITBS, please make sure your student gets a good nights sleep the night before our tests and eats a good breakfast, either at home or at school, the morning of the test. We will have some "brain food" before we take our tests, which is a nice treat from the school! Our first test will be a math test on Wednesday. We will take the science test on Thursday and a "tryout" test on Friday. 5C - I will explain the "tryout" test to you later this week.

In addition to taking ITBS, we will also have a Veterans Day assembly on Wednesday morning. This assembly is just for fifth grade students. We will be listening to local veterans share their stories and memories and you will also have the opportunity to ask questions, so start thinking about what you would like to ask! 

Finally, to top off the week, I will be gone on Thursday morning and all day Friday. On Thursday morning, I will be at a Building Leadership Team Meeting in the building from 8:00-11:30. On Friday, I will be out of town in Chicago. My brother-in-law is getting married on Saturday and we will be heading to Chicago on Friday for the festivities! 5C students are all aware of these days and know that I expect nothing but their absolute best for our substitutes! Right, 5C???

Well, that's it for now. I'm sure I will think of other things I forgot later and will end up making another post, but for now, enjoy the weekend! I now it sounds early, but we're going to hang Christmas lights! The weather is too good to pass up! 

Crazy Conference Week!

Take a look at what 5C had to say about our crazy conference week. The title of our post today was chosen by Trevor!

We had a meeting in Mrs. Halverson's room about the money. - Nathan

My conference is tonight. - Jordan

This is a long weekend! We're having a party on Friday. - Haley M.

Today is my birthday!!! I'm having a birthday party on Saturday. - Dawson :)

Tuesday and Thursday we had an early out. - Mathew

My grandma is having surgery. - Lilly

NO SCHOOL FRIDAY!!! I'm going to a Cyclone game with Amber. - Haley S.

This week was a short week. - Spencer

It's Buzz Day! - Austin And, Sesame Street is 40 years old and one day.

Tomorrow I'm going to Iowa City for the Hawkeye game. - Abbey

We're making flip books. I'm going to the ISU game, too. - Katie

Tomorrow I'm having a friend over. - Chaise

I'm having lots of friends over. - Trevor

Freaky Friday!

We had a busy week in 5C! Here are our thoughts and comments about another week of 5th grade! This week's blog title was chosen by Dalton.

I cracked my tooth yesterday. - Logan

Tomorrow night is Halloween! Boo! - Dawson

The spider was eghhhhhhh! - Haley S.

We did radical reading and shared our pig stories. We do costumes today for the Wizard of Oz! - Mathew

We saw a spider today. - Cameron

I'm going to the haunted house tonight. - Josh

Today is the day before Halloween. - Haley M.

Kindergartners walked through classrooms in their costumes. My cousin was spiderman (for  years now, I think). - Dalton

I'm going to a Halloween party tomorrow. - Lilly

The radical readers rocked! I was an alien. - Jordan

I was a radical reader and my name was Crazy Funky Random Dude. I yelled in Dalton's face. - Austin

I was a radical reader too and I was Little Red Riding Hood with some sweet up hair and a dress. - Spencer

I was embarrassed when I read my 3 little big story. - Nathan

In literacy Dawson almost peed himself. (Dawson says - "I drank all of my pop in like 3 seconds.") - Trevor

Halloween rocks! - Alexis

In my story the 3 little pigs the witness was a little cukoo! - Katie

I'm a zombie bride for Halloween. - Abbey

The radical reader's costumes were great! Have a safe and Happy Halloween 5C! - Mrs. Kuhn

Mrs. Kuhn is the best teacher there ever was. - All of 5C

It's Already the End of October?

Where has this month gone? It seems like just yesterday we were creating our goals for the month of October and now it's time to check our progress on those goals and press ahead with our year! This school year is going by so fast - I can hardly believe that in a few short weeks we will be preparing for Thanksgiving and a few short weeks past that, Christmas! Just think 5C, before you know it you will be half-way done with fifth grade!

Lots of things have been happening in the fifth grade classrooms these past few weeks. In reading, all of 5C has been very excited for their turn to be the "Radical Reader". Students have been practicing reading fluently and changing their voice based on the book they are reading and the authors purpose. In writing, students have been busy working through the stages of the writing process - generating an idea, drafting their writing, editing for mistakes, conferencing with Mrs. Sorenson and publishing their piece. All students have a published piece of their writing due Friday! In math, we finished Unit 2, Estimation and Computation, last week. We will begin working on Unit 3, Geometry and the American Tour, this week! We will be exploring polygons, measuring angles, classifying triangles and creating tessellations during this unit! In science, students have been studying rocks and have been very excited about their pet rocks! This week they will be painting their rocks and conducting different experiments with those rocks and Early Americans continue to be the topic of our social studies classes.

Now that the first quarter is past us, my expectations for student behavior and responsibility increase.  I am trying a new behavior/responsibility incentive with 5C this quarter and hopefully it will be successful! Have your 5C student explain "Pay Day" to you!

I'm looking forward to another super week, 5C! This week we are going to be creating a special project for conferences. I'll know that you checked the blog tomorrow if you come to school tomorrow morning and you say, "Cheese". I'll tell you why you will be saying, "Cheese" tomorrow! See you then!

Nose Burning Friday

Wow 5C! Can you believe that another week of school is over? This year is going very fast and I even heard some 5C students say the same thing today, so I will take that has a sign that you are enjoying 5th grade? I hope so! The title of our blog today was chosen by Abbey. Apparently in science class today the students were investigating rocks and one of the activities was to smell them. Some of the rocks had a strong chemical smell and some 5C kiddos thought that it felt like their noses were burning after smelling them! Ya gotta love science!

I get to name the blog today. - Abbey

If we are bad we have to "pay" Mrs. Kuhn. - Nathan

Pay day is today! - Austin

I'm going to a party on Sunday for youth football. - Cameron

My brother is okay from his seizure. - Dalton

It was wacky tie and blue day today. - Mathew

We did an essay in social studies. - Josh

My birthday was Monday! - Alexis

We had a test this week for math. - Austin

The math test was hard. - Dawson

Spencer just fell off of his chair and it was funny. - Haley M.

Alexis didn't seem too enthusiastic that her birthday was Monday. - Dalton

Abbey, Logan, and Trevor didn't get to see the people who were coming. - Mathew

I'm going to my Dad's house tonight and I'm going to a party in Dunkerton. - Trevor

I know who pushed Spencer off of the chair - Fred the ghost. - Haley S.

The play is November 13, 14 and 15. - Katie

5C students are also very excited about their pet rocks for science...

We got to pick out pet rocks in science. - Jordan

I named my pet rock Frank. - Haley M.

I named my rock Louie. - Spencer

I named my rock Peanut. - Chaise

I named my rock Crystal. - Dawson

I named my rock Kchilli Socks. - Katie

I named my rock Sandy. - Logan

I named my rock Aaron. - Trevor

I named by rock Bubba. - Cameron

I named my rock Nosey. - Nathan

My rock's nickname is Stone. - Chaise

I named my rock Hatchet. - Jordan

I don't know what I'm naming my rock yet. - Haley S.

We get to paint our rocks on Monday. - Lilly

Thanks for a wonderful week 5C! Have a fantastic weekend and I look forward to seeing you all again on Monday!

5C Is About To Become A Lot "SMARTER"!!!!

Guess what 5C students and families...We have exciting news in our classroom. Today, after the kids left school an important package was delivered to our classroom!! It was in a very large box, lots of noise was made installing it and it hangs on our wall! Did you guess what it is yet? Yes, it's our SMARTBOARD!!!! I was SO excited - it was hard to stay focused on grades and report cards. However, just because our SMART board arrived today, doesn't mean that we will get to use it tomorrow. Our projector still needs to be mounted and Mrs. Westcott needs to come and install some information on my computer before we can begin using it. We will have to wait patiently. 

In other news - the rest of our week will be a normal schedule! Yeah! Tomorrow for Character Counts week, we will be celebrating the pillar of Responsibility! Remember to wear the color green and sunglasses TO SCHOOL and during RECESS. Let's remember the activity we did today and try to be kids of character at all times!

That's it for now! I hope you all studied for our math test tomorrow! Get a good nights sleep and I'll see you tomorrow!