Mayberry-McFarland Weekly News

for the week of November 28, 2016

Due Dates / Upcoming Events

Monday, December 5 - reading logs due (Many children need more adult support in reminding them to get parents’ signatures, reminders such as, “Is there anything you need me to look at before school tomorrow…?”  Your involvement in your child’s at-home reading is important to me so that I know that you know how much, what, and if your child is reading at home.  Your signature on the log helps me to know that you’re aware of and are satisfied with your child’s reading habits and quality of work on the log itself.  Please support your child as needed until your child makes it her/his own habit.  That shouldn’t take more than a couple of weeks, especially if you add in something like: “And if you forget without my reminder next week, you’ll lose screens for _____…”  That may or not have happened in my own household last month…)

Tuesday, December 6 - Home Link due

Wednesday, December 7

Thursday, December 8 -  math journal pages: be all caught up

Friday, December 9 - Home Link due

Monday, December 12  - reading logs due

General News and Announcements

Classroom Climate Update

We continue to see an improvement in the productivity in both classes, especially in the morning.  We do still find that a number of students continue to ignore directions on the first, second, or third time.  We will tighten up on providing simple, logical consequences, as needed.  Happily, we are also finding many reasons to recognize students in the way of bucket slips and names in the Awesome Book for being helpful to others, for sharing, and for consistently following directions.

Spelling Instruction

Soon, students in both reading workshop classes will learn the ropes on SpellingCity!  SpellingCity is an online spelling program where students learn and practice spelling rules and word patterns.  We’ve set up each child with a membership, and we’ll use class time over the next few weeks to practice the ins and outs of the program, before the spelling games and practice become a regular homework assignment.  Lots more information to come!

“The Coder Express”

All 4th and 5th grade students will participate in “The Hour of Code” during technology class the week of Dec. 5th. This is an introduction to computer science to help nurture problem-solving skills, logic and creativity.  As an extension of this week, students and their families are invited to attend “The Coder Express” from 6-7 p.m. on Wednesday, December 14, 2016 in the Greely Middle School cafeteria.  Participants will have the opportunity to take part in computer programming and coding activities using iPads. Students are encouraged to wear pajamas and bring stuffies and blankets as they take part in a fun evening of coding. Thanks in advance to our Greely PTO for providing cocoa and cookies.  Please reserve your seat now on The Coder Express!

Holiday Donation Opportunities

Thank you to all who have donated or plan to donate to Native Americans here in Maine through Hayden’s family’s project!  The second and final pick-up date will be Friday, December 9th.

    Also, Mr. Brooke’s 5th grade class is collecting pennies and other coins, bills and checks, in hopes of being able to donate over $1,000 to the Press Herald Toy Fund!  We have collection bags in the classroom for any donations.

Academic Updates:

Reading Workshop

We have made the shift in our focus from books with characters to nonfiction texts.  Mrs. Mayberry and I have combined our collections to provide a wide variety of offerings for our readers.  We will work hard on identifying the main idea of a variety of kinds of texts (including magazine article, video clips, and songs).  We’ll also learn text features (quiz on that the week after next!).  Students will eventually do some research to be able to teach others.

Writing Workshop

This week, our writers conducted surveys and interviews in order to collect different types of evidence to support their thesis statements and ideas.  We are working on building strong supporting idea paragraphs that include a supporting idea sentence with a transition, a mini-story to show personal experience/expertise on the idea (a shrunk-down version of a narrative), and a meaningful ending sentence that goes beyond, “So, that’s why....”  I will show the kids how to incorporate their results from a survey or interview; a quote; a statistic; and a piece of information from research.  I am already way behind schedule for this unit, so I’ll squeeze in whatever “advanced” instruction I can before our holiday break.

Math

This week students continued their fraction work in math. We started out with comparing and ordering fractions and have transitioned to working with decimal and fraction values using tenths and hundredths. Much of the work this week involved using hands-on manipulatives as a way to solidify basic understanding of the relationship between decimals and fractions.

Theme/Content

In theme this week students learned about the lost colony of Roanoke. This was the first colony established in what is now North Carolina. Historians have not been able to determine exactly what happened to this colony, however there are many theories. The students enjoyed hearing about the different theories and debating which one they believed was most plausible.

    We also have started to learn about the first successful colony, Jamestown. I will be reading Blood on the River, Jamestown 1607. While it is historical fiction, the book gives the students excellent insight to the struggles and hardships faced by the settlers.

    This unit will include several STEM projects as students create their own water filtration system, look-out tower, and rock-moving devices.

We are in need of items for these projects. Please see the list below, and if you have anything you can donate, we certainly appreciate your support.

• Small yogurt containers
• Cardboard tubes
• Pipe cleaners
• Small plastic lids
• Straws - not bendy
• Small plastic cups
• Empty spools
• Plastic wrap