Dear parents,
I cannot believe our year together has come to an end! Oh what a year we have had! Thank you for your consistent support during our hybrid and full remote days and every day since we have back to full in person! You have been amazing partners with me this year, and it made things so much easier for me and the kids! We had a fun final week together! Started the week with a complete drenching at our Field Day. I don't think I have laughed that hard or been so wet in a very long time. It was great to see the kids just having tons of fun together ! The PTO went above and beyond by bringing an ice cream truck for us to have a treat after our hour of fun! Tuesday we put on our creative hats and designed kindness rocks to leave as a class gift to our Cole Community! It was great to see them working together on this fun project! On Wednesday and Thursday, we finished up our year end assessments and had some fun on Wednesday with Spirit Day and even more fun at our Luau/Class Picnic! Once again, the PTO went above and beyond and made this special for us. We had pizza brought in, had a COLE School Bingo game with prizes, received our yearbooks and had time to get friends' signatures and also had some fun playing with beach balls and hula hoops. The day was complete when the KONA shaved ice truck showed up for an additional treat! It was so fun to see the cars decorated and big smiles as you all entered the Middle School last night! I hope the kids enjoyed watching the videos when they got home, we watched the pass the ball yesterday and will watch the class video together today ! To say I am going to miss this class would be an understatement. They are my heroes for this year. Their smiles and grit are what got ME through each and every day! Thank you for the opportunity to teach your child! Have a wonderful summer! Keep them reading and working on math facts! Cheers! Maura
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Happy Friday all!
I am so glad the heat gave us a break at the end of the week! Students in Room 15 were absolute Rockstars this week! They took the Math MCAS on Tuesday in the extreme heat and conquered it with confidence! They stuck with it and worked through, and I couldn't have been prouder. On Wednesday we had a visit from the Middle School Guidance Counselors, Mrs. Sailer and Mrs. Sifflard, along with Principal Sulc. They answered any of the questions we had after watching a great slide show they had put together for us! On Thursday, their same determination attacked the Science MCAS! They, once again, took their time and worked through their tests dealing with the a lot less heat but happy knowing this was their LAST MCAS for the year! Their "brain juice" and "genius juice" seemed to do the trick! We finished reading Because of Mr. Terupt and had some great conversations around this book. The sequel, Mr. Terupt Falls Again would be a great summer read for many students - possibly a book club? We just started to read Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper, be sure to ask your child about this book! I have to say the conversations we have had as a class this year about the many social issues presented in our read alouds have been incredible. I think back to our first book of the year, The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise and how empathetic they were when we learned about each character. The only thing that changed this year is that they are even more empathetic! They continually amaze me with their insights and thoughts about how we should teach others. These children truly are our FUTURE! We did a great job with our second Egg Drop Challenge - please see the photos, but this was a record year! EIGHT eggs survived! We also had some fun reviewing Science with some Kahoots as well as a hands-on session to look at animal adaptations. We looked at migration vs hibernation, how feet/claws impact the types of food animals eat, predator vs prey relationships and how beak shape impacts animal feeding habits! Check out the photo gallery for some pictures of our scientists at work! As we finish out our year together, we will have some fun with some review Kahoots and other hands-on activities (So happy we can do this now!). Students need to realize how much they have learned and just how prepared they are for grade 6! We have a great week planned for them next week (see below). I look forward to seeing you all on Thursday night! Cheers! Maura Grade 5 Spirit Week!
Happy Friday!
Can you believe we are in JUNE? It feels like the last few weeks have just FLOWN by! So much continues to happen in Room 15 as we begin to wind down our year together. This week we FINISHED our ELA MCAS. So proud of students for their focus and the time they spent organizing their thoughts. On to MATH on Tuesday and SCIENCE on Thursday of next week! It was a proud moment for me to hear kids saying "it wasn't that bad, I just created an ACE and found some good evidence!" #HappyTeacher! In Math, along with our work on conversion of measurements and decimal operations, we have been working with some math games to review many of our skills to remind students just how much they know. My advice to them will remain, to take a deep breath, work slowly, use graph paper and ask yourself, "Does my answer make sense?!" They have all come so far this year, I know they will do just fine if they relax! In Science, I am so impressed with the work they have done so far on their Ecosystem Research which is due next Wednesday, June 9th. They are asking some great questions and finding some fun facts to share with classmates! This week we also had so much fun with the annual EGG DROP CHALLENGE. On the first trial, students were put on randomly generated teams and given a "budget" to buy items from me to build their contraption. We had 3 succeed out of 5! That's a record for my classes ! Today, I let them choose their own partners and challenged them with a twist. I gave each team the exact same materials to build a new contraption, using what they learned from our drop earlier this week. Stay tuned to see how we do when we drop next week! In Social Studies, we are continuing of study of the Civil War. Students are working in groups to look at some political decisions on slavery which led to the Civil War erupting. Some great discussion as always! Proud of the empathy they consistently show as we learn about the history of slavery and the abolitionist movement. Today we watched a slide show that was put together by the Middle School. We spent some time talking about next year and I answered as many questions as I could. Next Wednesday, the Middle School Guidance Counselors and Mr. Sulc will visit with us to answer any further questions students may have. A reminder, on Monday, we are having our class picnic to celebrate the filling of our GEM JAR! We will play a few games outside as well, so please be sure you child is wearing sunscreen and has water to drink as the forecast is for a hot and steamy day! Thank you for all of the paper towels, baggies, kleenex, balloons, pipe cleaners, cotton balls etc! We had so many I was able to do the second round challenge without having to bother you again! I really appreciate your constant generosity to our classroom. Friday folders are coming home today with the last comment of the year! I will have comments on student report cars which will go home on June 18th, but I can already tell you all how much I am going to miss this special, special class! As always, any questions, please let me know! Have a wonderful weekend - looks like we may get some beach weather1 Cheers! Maura Important Dates to Remember
Happy Friday all!
What a week it has been! So very proud of how the students dealt with the tech craziness that happened as we attempted our first MCAS today. They were nothing short of amazing, and I could not be any prouder! Thank you for sending in the notes of encouragement, their smiles were a mile wide as they read them this morning! We will try again next week after we get some more information about the glitches and how we can provide a more stable testing environment. Right now the makeup is tentatively set for next Thursday, June 3rd. In Math, we continue to work with metric measurement and review topics from earlier this year. We had some fun with a Metric Relay Race where students worked in teams to make metric conversions and then got directions to draw a figure - it was a child playing in the rain. It was lots of fun and gave us a chance to review in a creative way. We have also been digging into the context clues and inferences again, remembering that we can find clues to help us make inferences and how inferences can help us with our comprehension. We took this work outside on a beautiful day at Cole - be sure to check out the photo gallery to see us at work. We have also been really enjoying Because of Mr. Terupt. Be sure to ask your child about all of the characters in this fantastic book! Lots of crazy events happened this week, and they heard how different kids dealt with difficult challenges! In Science, students are doing a great job gathering needed information for their Ecosystem research projects which are due on June 9th. I am excited to see what they uncover as they learn about the plants, animals, human impact, climate and fun facts about a specific ecosystem. In Social Studies this week we were focused on the differences between the North and the South just prior to the Civil War. We also had some great discussions about slavery and abolitionists. Students are now working with small groups to looks at some political decisions made during this time period in history! Proud of their work so far! Students filled their gem jar this week and earned an afternoon with some fun activities. We are planning on having a class picnic next FRIDAY, JUNE 4th (We need to watch the weather). Rain Date will be the following Monday, June 7th. Students all need to bring in a towel and a picnic lunch, and we will go outside and have lunch together and then some extra time outside to play a few games. They earned this time, and I am very proud of them! ON Tuesday, we begin our planning for our EGG DROP CHALLENGE! I can't thank you all enough for all the supplies! I am one lucky teacher! Stay tuned for some great pictures as this activity unfolds! Enjoy the long holiday weekend and pray with me that the weathermen are WRONG! Thanks for the continued support - we are in the home stretch! Cheers! Maura Important Dates to Remember:
Happy Friday all!
It has been a happy week at Cole School as we have been able to have RECESS again as a grade level! Nothing better than seeing them playing with their friends, seeing their big smiles and hearing their laughter!! Check out our photo gallery for some pictures! Students did an amazing job on our Westward Expansion Assessment. What I loved most about this unit was their discussions about how Native Americans were treated and how we believe we all need to lead with kindness and empathy! Proud of their maturity as we discussed some heavy topics! They learned a great deal about our history and the Gold Rush, and we had some fun along the way. We have moved into a unit on the Civil War and already some great discussions have begun. Through these units we have continued to focus on many of our 5th grade reading standards such as cause/effect, compare/contrast and points of view! So proud of the critical thinkers they have become! In Math, we have continued our work in decimals, while also doing some review of geometry, fractions and word problems. Students were beginning to "panic" saying they forgot how to do certain things, but once we worked on a few problems and talked about all the strategies we have been using all year, they kicked it into gear and realized just how much they have learned. We will be continuing this review for the next few weeks, playing some math games they played at the beginning of the year while at the same time learning about measurement conversions. They are doing great work! In Science, to say I was completely FLOORED by their Vertebrate/Ecosystem projects would be an understatement. I actually heard a few of them saying they had "FUN" doing it! Now we begin our final writing/Science project for the year. We are all choosing one Ecosystem to become an expert about. Students have been given a template for a Google Slide show to help them organize all the required information. They can either present it in a research paper, Google Slide presentation or use a presentation board to display what they have learned. We have talked about budgeting our time and agreed if they got 1 page of the organizer done each night they would have 2 extra days to put any finishing touches needed before turning in their project on June 9th. I have attached a copy of the graphic organizer to my weekly email, so you can see what is being completed! I can't wait to see the results. We talked a great deal about this time of year getting busy and that they needed to put the time aside on the nights they don't have baseball etc. and crank out a few pages if needed. There should be no stress with this as they have been given plenty of time to accomplish the needed tasks. If you have any questions, please reach out to me to discuss! Thank you to everyone who sent in the supplies for the Egg Drop Challenge! At this point what we need are just some newspapers and plastic grocery bags. We will need some paper towels for our classroom as we finish out the year, so if we could get a few rolls that would be incredible. We will begin the Egg Drop challenge on June 1 with our planned launch date being June 3rd with the help of Mr. Thayer. Be sure to check out our photo gallery as I will update with pictures from this fun event! As you all know, we have started the "PASS THE BALL CHALLENGE"! Thank you to the families that have already completed this challenge! I will send an email to the 3 families that are doing it each day, so you will be reminded that the ball is coming home and needs to come back! Please be sure COLE SCHOOL TSHIRT is worn for this challenge! I am sure the kids (and you) will have some fun watching this video when it is all complete! Next Friday is the ELA Math MCAS. After watching the kids take the practice version today I am so confident they will do just GREAT! Remember, if you would like to have a note on your child's desk next Friday, simply send it in or email to me and I will print and put on their desk with the note from me! As a reminder, no candy or snacks can be eaten during MCAS this year. I am allowing them to chew gum, but that is the only thing allowed! We will have the Math MCAS on June 8th and Science on June 10th! As always, thank you for all you continue to do to support your child and our class each and every day! I can't believe this year is winding down! I am determined to squeeze every last minute out of it! Have a great weekend! Cheers! Maura Important Dates to Remember:
Good afternoon!
Can you believe it is already mid-MAY! We are working hard in Room 15 and have lots to share! This week we worked more with decimals in Math. Our focus this week was on dividing decimals. We worked with patterns, looking at dividing by 10, 100 and 1,000 and since the weather cooperated with us, we were able to go outside for a task card activity to end the week reviewing these concepts! Check out the photo gallery for some pictures of us at work in Math! Next week we will be doing some review work of the many concepts covered so far as well as continue to dig deeper into decimals! Proud of student effort so far. Keep working on those facts at home - fluency is KEY! In Reading, we finished our reading of Front Desk and students are choosing an activity from a choice board to show some of what they learned from this fantastic book! We had numerous great class discussions about the challenges the main character Mia faced as a Chinese Immigrant in the United States. She taught us all about acceptance of others and in believing in your dream! The sequel is called Three Keys by Kelly Yang, and she actually just announced another book in this series called Room to Dream which will release on September 21, 2021! I already pre-ordered for next year! These books would be great for independent reading at home. We started our next read aloud Because of Mr. Terupt which is also a part of a series, so I am hoping this will spur on some great summer reading as well! We also continue to work on finding evidence in texts and using our ACE strategy to answer open response. These kiddos are feeling more and more confident as we talk about how far they have come using these strategies! In Social Studies, we have also been doing a lot of good reading and research work! We have learned so much about the early frontier and how advancements in communication and transportation impacted Westward Expansion. Students looked at causes and effects of the War of 1812, goals and results of the Expedition of Lewis and Clark after the Louisiana Purchase, how and why Texas became part of the US and even discussed the Indian Removal Act and the Trail of Tears. We also learned a lot about the Gold Rush and how this time period in history impacted relationships all over our country. We will begin our unit on the Civil War next week! In Science, we have been working hard to learn about Animals and Ecosystems. We started the week focusing on the many characteristics of vertebrates and then began a deep dive into 6 different types of Ecosystems. Students are becoming "experts" on at least 3 and will choose one of those 3 for their final research project of the year. We will go over the requirements and choices they will have for this final project next week. In the meantime, they should be working hard on building their vertebrate models. Their model and poster of the ecosystem where their vertebrate can be found, along with labeling of producer, consumer and decomposer should be in school by FRIDAY, MAY 21st. Students also need to draw and label one food chain their vertebrate is a part of. Students have indicated they have chosen their animals, and many have started to build their models which is great! They should be spending some time each day working on this . We don't want to wait until next week to get this done! If they finish early, they can bring them in! In writing, we have continued to look at different types of poetry and how we can infer and authors purpose from the word choice in their poems. This week we created Diamantes and used this type of poetry to review synonyms and antonyms. Great, creative work done by all! We are also reviewing theme, context clues and inferencing to remind us of the hard work we did with these skills earlier this year! Thank you for your support of our classroom. The kids are really excited about the Egg Drop Challenge which we will do the first week of June! I appreciate your help with the supplies. I received all the supplies that needed to be purchased, now we just have to save some items at home (remember to keep saving newspapers, cardboard toilet paper and paper towel rolls, and plastic grocery bags for us!)! All supplies should be sent in by May 28th, so we can get our materials ready for this fun challenge! Enjoy the beautiful weekend! Cheers Maura Important Dates to Remember:
Happy Friday!
We had quite a week in Room 15! We celebrated our fourth grade teachers by writing notes of appreciation for all they did for us during our Remote Learning last year and helped filled their buckets! We also sent messages to all of our specialists to remind them how important they are to us as well! I, personally, was overwhelmed by the notes the kiddos wrote to me.. their smiles say it all for me each and every day! THANK YOU! We have been working on Decimal Multiplication. Learning to multiply by tens to make all of our factors whole numbers, then move the decimal in the product by dividing by the same number of tens. We continue to work with all three multiplication strategies, Area Model, Partial Products and the Standard Algorithm. What I did notice was some of our fact fluency has weakened, so we are putting more time into practicing our facts in school and students should continue to do so out of school! Next week we begin our work with Decimal Division! In Reading we continued to look at poetry, how we can use our senses to add vivid details. We looked at the structure of poetry by finding the stanzas, lines, meter and rhyme. It is amazing to read some of their poems as they let their creativity flow. We also walked through the MCAS tutorial to remind students of how we access this test and the many tools we will have available. Students also took a practice session on paper, complete with 5 multiple choice and one open response. We talked about eliminating answers we know don't make sense and remembering to use our ACE to help us organize our thoughts for our open response. THEY WERE AMAZING! I told them they are going to be ROCKSTARS and I do believe they are feeling more confident. I keep telling them this is data for me on how I teach. That I just want them to relax and do their best work, so I can learn where I may need to tweak my teaching to be sure students are understanding important concepts. They understand the tests will be much shorter this year, only one session for each! There were definitely some big smiles with that news! Please be sure to reassure your child and remind them of the mindset of YET. There will be things they haven't learned YET, but as long as they show what they know that's all that is important! We are almost done reading Front Desk and students cannot get enough of this book. It has provided great events for us to discuss as a class, we definitely have some strong feelings about the way we should be treating EVERYONE! (Lots of empathy and kindness in Room 15) In Social Studies, this week we learned a great deal about the Oregon Trail. We played a board game that taught us about major landmarks along the way. We also learned about the many challenges these early pioneers faced. We ended the week with an interactive learning activity about the Gold Rush. They learned about the life of a "49-er", Boom Towns and Ghost Towns and the impact of the Gold Rush on women, immigrants and Native Americans. We will be finishing up our work on Westward Expansion next week and then move into the Civil War. I have really enjoyed the discussions that have arisen and the connections being made as we have been learning about these important time periods in our nation's history. In Science, this week as part of study of Ecosystems, we took a bit of a dive into ANIMALS. We are learning about invertebrates and vertebrates and even built models of a backbone. Students are now working to create an animal and a picture of an ecosystem where their animal could be found. They are labeling a producer, consumer and decomposer in their Ecosystem and also describing a food chain their animal would be a part of. This project is due FRIDAY, MAY 21st! I can't wait to see their creativity! Next week we will start to focus on the different Ecosystems and Life Cycles of different animals. Students will then be doing research on ONE Ecosystem. Stay tuned for more project details to come! Happy Mother's Day to all the Mothers of Room 15. We appreciate everything you do to support us each and every day! Have a wonderful weekend! Maura Important Dates to Remember:
Happy Friday all!
Can you believe tomorrow is MAY 1st? We made a fantastic transition from April break , sharing our stories and even writing a bit about our fun! In Math, we continue to work comparing decimals and worked this week on both adding and subtracting decimals. We also took a look at expanded form and place value with decimals and how base ten blocks can be used as models. Next week we will move into multiplying decimals! Great work by all so far! In Reading and Writing this week our focus has been on Poetry. We wrote our own class free verse about 5th grade and then let our creative juices flow to write our own! So impressed by the poets among us! We are looking at the structure of poetry and how we can find ideas everywhere! We also wrote a personal narrative to document our growth since the beginning of the year! I was very impressed to see the amount of dialogue used as well as the vibrant verbs and improvement in transitions! So very proud of these kiddos! We are on the edges of our seats in our reading of Front Desk. So many great discussions based on societal issues the main character, Mia, and her family and friends are facing! Students also did a great job discussing their books in their first literature circles. Gregor the Overlander, The Unteachables and Lunch Money definitely have piqued their interest. I love listening to them question each other and then come up with their plan for reading for the next week! Reminder to think of book groups this summer as they look at summer reading for Middle School. In Social Studies this week we presented our posters on the impact the Westward Movement had on communication and transportation! We learned how it was difficult to hire people to work on the Transcontinental Railroad due to the dangerous conditions and also learned about the National Road, Pony Express, Steam Boat, Steam Locomotive, Erie Canal, and the Telegraph. Be sure to as your child which improvement they felt was the most important to this time period in history. We also looked at the Annexation of Texas. Next week our focus will be on the Oregon Trail. In Science, we continue our work with Ecosystems talking about Abiotic and Biotic factors that impact an ecosystem. We will be looking at Food Chains and how we all get our energy and then be taking a deeper dive into some of the major ecosystems of the world. As part of this deep dive, we will learn about vertebrates and invertebrates with some fun projects to keep our interest high and our creative juices flowing! Thank you to each and EVERY family for finding the time to meet for parent conferences! EVERY family found the time which means the world to me! Nothing makes me happier than having the chance to talk about your child's progress! As always, thanks for your support, our transition back has been seamless because of all of your efforts! Enjoy the weekend! Maura Important Dates to Remember:
Happy Friday everyone and Happy Spring Break!
So proud of the way our class has transitioned back to full in person. We are working hard on remembering to limit the chattiness. I know they are excited to be back with friends, but we have been a little chatty throughout the day and have set a goal in place to earn a fun reward! I know they will settle in after break and we will continue to do great work TOGETHER! In Math, we spent the week looking at decimal place value and comparing decimals. We had some fun at the end of the week playing Jeopardy Math to review reading, writing, comparing and adding decimals. We will be ready to start subtraction after break and then move right into multiplication and division. Keep working on those math facts over break! In reading our focus this week was inferences. These can be tough for some, but students did a great job. We initially started with pictures and discussed what we could INFER from the picture. Then we moved on to sentences and mini paragraphs and continued to use what we know to draw conclusions. We will be continuing our work with inferences and context clues after break. Students have also started their novels for our book clubs. Our first meeting will be after break and kids know the amount of pages they need to have done and ready to discuss. It is always great to hear them discussing great literature so I cannot wait! Our read aloud in class Front Desk by Kelly Yang, is leading us to some great discussions about acceptance of others. Be sure to ask your child what they think will happen to Mia and her family as they continue to deal with the difficult owner, Mr. Yao! In writing, we finished our Opinion essays and will begin our work in Poetry for a few weeks after break before jumping in to a research project on Ecosystems. Speaking of Ecosystems, this week our focus was FOOD CHAINS. We reviewed Producers, Consumers and Decomposers and created our own food chains, realizing we all need the SUN to provide energy to the chain! In Social Studies, we continue our work on Westward Expansion. This week we looked at the Trail of Tears and the Indian Removal Act. Some awesome discussions came from our learnings! We then began digging in to how westward expansion changed our transportation and communication. Students worked with partners to research one topic and will be presenting their posters when we return from break. I love how aware they were during our partner work, to keep their 3 feet. They were so happy to do partner work it was amazing to see! As you can see, we had another busy and productive week! We are heading into our home stretch and I look forward to talking with you all during our conferences the week after break! Thank you for all you continue to do to keep our classroom safe and healthy! Enjoy SPRING BREAK! Cheers Maura Important Dates to Remember Monday, April 19- Friday April 23 - SPRING BREAK Week of April 26-30. Parent Conferences Tuesday, April 27 - Bus Driver Appreciation Day |