Winter Break is Coming Up...

Friday, December 21 is our last day of school before winter break. We will be having a winter celebration on Friday. We will not be celebrating any specific holiday but it is an opportunity to gather as a 5/6 community to appreciate this time of year. My homeroom students may bring in a snack for the end of the day.

Hope everyone has a safe and wonderful winter break!!!

December 17-21

Hello! This week the students are continuing to study the Civil War in Social Studies. We have been getting familiar with our vocabulary through various vocabulary strategies. One of the strategies is vocabulary squares:

In Language Arts we are reviewing summarization and context clues (two of our Big Five Reading Strategies). Additionally in Language Arts, we are finishing our literature circle books (about Asian Folk Tales and culture).

We have also started reading Bridge to Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson, as a whole class shared reading.

This Week... Dec 10-14

Hello students and families! This week the students have been studying World Geography and have begun studying the Civil War. Friday, December 12, the students will be quizzed on World Geography; they will be responsible to label all the continents and oceans on a world map. To start off our Civil War unit the students have been studying the differences between the North and South during that time period.

Culture Fest was a Success!

Thanks for coming out to the Achieve Language Academy Culture Fest! A big thanks to Golden Harvest who donated food and for all the families who brought food! We had a great turnout for the continent Asia!

All the fifth and sixth graders did a fabulous job on their culture fest projects. More specifically, my homeroom students did an excellent job on their kites, the Chinese Shadow Puppets, and the Chinese Zodiac posters.

This Week... December 3-7

In Language Arts we are reviewing synonyms, antonyms, and homophones. The students have been interacting with the content through various means, such as: antonym dominos, synonym "go fish", and homophone jeopardy.

Below is Synonym "Go Fish":

Antonym Dominos:

Additionally, we are continuing literature circles focusing on Asian folk tales and culture in preparation for Culture Festival. The books we are reading are: The Boy Who Drew Cats by Margaret Hodges, The Moon Lady, by Amy Tan, The Crystal Heart by Aaron Shepard, and continuing Dragonwings by Laurence Yep. The student's literature circle groups are differentiated to meet their level.

In Social Studies we are studying World Geography and continuing to stay informed daily with CNN Student News.

Culture Festival This Friday!

Achieve Language Academy's Culture Festival is this coming Friday, December 7 from 6:30-8:00p.m. For the Culture Festival each grade level has received a continent to study and represent at the Cultural Festival. The fifth and sixth graders received the continent Asia. Each homeroom is focusing on a topic of study, either: geography, culture, asian animals, and symbols (flags). My homeroom is learning about the Chinese Zodiac Calendar and Chinese Shadow Puppetry. We will be showing off our projects in the fifth and sixth grade hallways and a classroom on Friday night. We will also have music and food for the event. Hope to see everyone there!

2012 State Fair

The 2012 State Fair was a success! The students proudly showed of their presentation boards and their knowledge of their state! Thanks for all those who were able to come!

State Fair Exhibition This WEDNESDAY!

As you know, during Social Studies class students have been working on their State Fair Project. We would like to welcome families to school on Wednesday, November 28th from 3:15-3:45 to attend our State Fair Exhibition in the Achieve Language Academy gym. Students have been working very hard on gathering information on their state and would love to share what they have learned! Hope to see everyone Wednesday!

Today the students were busy working on their presentation boards...

Conferences This Week!

Fall conferences started last night. Each student has a scheduled time that was sent home last week. If you miss your scheduled time please come anyways!

Conferences are:

Monday, November 19, 5-8 pm
Tuesday, November 20, 5-9 pm
Wednesday, November 21, 9-3 pm

Hope to see you at conferences and have a great 5 day break!

Reading Hall of Fame

The past month the students have been working on the Reading Hall of Fame. After a student reads a book on their level and fills out a book report for the book the student earns a sticker for the Reading Hall of Fame. After the student earns twenty stickers or reads twenty books on their level and completes a book report the student will be invited to our reading celebration at the end of the school year. The students are very motivated by the Reading Hall of Fame and many students have stickers already! The students can find books on their level in the classroom library (below) and once a week the students visit the school's library and can check out two books.

Mid November Check-In: Social Studies

The students have been very busy in social studies the past two weeks preparing for the State Fair coming up. For the project each partnership/group will need to have a large three-sided poster board. We are asking for each student to bring in $2.00 to fund the poster boards.

The students have completed a general information packet about their state, including but not limited to: geography, major cities and capital, symbols, map, people, natural resources and industries, attractions, and interesting facts.

The students are now learning about their state's history by completing a time capsule and a newspaper article about a significant event in their state’s history. Below are students working on their state history time capsules.

Many of the groups had very impressive news articles:

The State Fair will be: Wednesday, November 28^th at 3:15pm in the gym at Achieve Language Academy. We hope to see everyone there!

Mid November Check-In: Language Arts

The last two weeks we have been learning about voice and fluency in language arts. The students have been writing descriptive essays to demonstrate their voice about a memorable moment in their lives. Below is an example of a student's writing process.

To aid in the writing process along the way the students have had mini lessons on: adjectives, punctuation, and the elements of fluency (rate, phrasing, intonation, pausing, stress, and integration). Below is a poster we made during a fluency lesson.

Additionally, we have begun new guided literature circle books: Cat and Rat, Lon Po Po, and Dragonwings. Our book selections tie in perfectly to the Culture Festival coming up; the fifth and sixth graders will be representing the continent Asia at the Culture Festival. My homeroom will be specially learning and presenting the Chinese lunar and zodiac calendar.

The past few weeks the students have been practicing their word work with many different strategies in class and at home. It has been very evident the more they practice and the more they engage in the different guided strategies the better they do on their Friday assessments. Some of the fun strategies the students have been using these past two weeks include: sort, rewrite, rainbow write, sentence please, comic strip, and quiz neighbor. Below is a student's rainbow words and comic strip.

Voting at ALA

Today every student at ALA had the opportunity to vote for the mock election hosted by the 7/8th graders.

The process of the students voting at ALA was very similar to the real election.

The 2012 United States Presidential Election is Tomorrow!

Today in Social Studies the students learned about the two presidential candidates. The students compared and contrasted the two candidates with a venn diagram. The students also looked at the important issues surrounding the election. Tomorrow the students will get to vote for their choice through a mock election at Achieve Language Academy hosted by the 7/8th graders.

The students can seek out further information about their choice at: http://www.timeforkids.com/minisite/election-2012.

This Week...

In Reader's Workshop the students reviewed the fifth element of the Reading Big 5, Author's Purpose. We created a "PIE" to demonstrate Author's Purpose elements further.

The students finished up the Literature Circle book, Frindle.

The students learned a new strategy, Puzzle Search, to practice their spelling words.

The students researched the general information on their state for the State Fair Project. They will continue researching next week, as well.

Grades

Hello Students and Parents. The students received an updated grade for language arts/social studies today. They should be bringing it home to get signed. Please be mindful that most instruction and assessments are differentiated and individualized to meet the needs of each student- so every student can be successful in class at their level. Thanks!

State Fair Project

The State Fair Project was introduced on Monday this week. Each student was assigned a partner and a state. Each partnership is responsible to:

•Write a letter to the tourism department of the state requesting information for the project

•Research general information about the state

•Plan a vacation in their state (using the tourism information they receive)

•Write a paper about a historically famous person from the state

•Write a newspaper articles about a significant event in the state

Each group mailed out their tourism letter on Wednesday. We hope to receive information back! Next week we will start researching our states!

After each component of the project is complete we will have a State Fair where each partnership will present their state. Almost every state will be represented at the State Fair between the four 5/6 language arts/social studies classes.

For the State Fair each partnership will need a three-sided poster board. 

Word Work Assessment Tomorrow!

This week the class learned and practiced a new strategy for their word work. The students effectively quizzed one another using white boards. Tomorrow is their word work assessment.

5 Regions of the U.S. Presentations

Last week all the groups presented their projects to the rest of the class. Every student taught the rest of the class about their region and learned about the other regions from the other groups. Overall, all the groups did very well!

The 5 Regions of the United States Project

The past few days the students have been working on a project of the 5 regions of the United States. Today we finished the project and tomorrow they will present their posters to the rest of the class. The students worked very hard and did an excellent job collaborating for this project.

Daily 5 Friday's

Every Friday we have Daily 5 in Language Arts. Daily 5 includes literacy strategies including: read to self, read to someone, listen read, word work (vocabulary), and writing center. In addition to these 5 strategies I include iReady, a computer program that works on reading skills specifically for that individual student based on previous assessment.

Buddy Read:

Listen Read:

iReady:

Word Work (spelling)

Hello! Every week the students receive new word work (spelling words) to practice. The past three weeks of word work we have practiced many strategies to learn our words. Some of the strategies include:

1. cut and sort
2. rainbow write
3. ABC order
4. story, story
5. sentence, please
6. comic strip
7. sign words

These strategies are practiced in class and the students are encouraged to practice and study at home.