Happy Tuesday,

 

Thanks to everyone who signed your students up for track! We had an excellent first practice yesterday, looking forward to the same today at Nelson Middle School. Thursday's practice has been cancelled because of the band concert. 

 

5A will be having its ACRE Religion Test on Friday morning; this is a diagnostic assessment from the Archdiocese to review the efficacy of the religion curriculum in its schools; if your student is stressed, let them know folks are looking at the performance of the SCHOOL rather than individuals!

 

We'll have an Amplify spelling test on Friday. Students have written the words down in their planners.

 

Practice 13.3 is due for Math today, 13.4 will be due on Thursday, 13.5 will be due this upcoming Tuesday. We'll have a retake triangle test on Friday for any/all takers!

 

ELA Workbook Pages 119-120 due on Thursday if not completed in class. Right now I'd say ~40% of the class has turned their paragraphs in. 

 

Science quiz on Thursday like normal. 

 

Thank you!

Mr. Brown

Hello again,

 

Just sharing an invitation for all who are interested and available to join us for the mass that 5A is leading tomorrow! We will be in the St. Anthony Church with the mass starting at 8:45am.

 

Thank you,

Mr. Brown

Hello all,

 

My apologies for missing last week's report! This week we have a few important things happening:

 

Reconciliation/Confession is happening on this Thursday morning for the whole 5th grade. If your student is not Catholic, they are encouraged to take the time to pray or ask for a blessing from Fr. Bryan rather than partake in the sacrament. 

 

Thank you for signing the updated BizTown permission slips. Our date needed to change from April 4th to April 15th due to a scheduling error from Junior Achievement. Please mark in your calendars that students will need to be ready to leave the St. Anthony campus at 8:30, which will mean needing to arrive at around 8:10-8:15. 

 

Time to begin another Independent Writing Project! My uncle wrote a mystery novel during COVID that is aimed at 5-8th graders. We're going to read through the book (The Shanks: An Unexpected Welcome) at our own pace before having a Zoom interview with the author himself in May! By May 2nd, students will have finished a one-page book report outlining their favorite plot points throughout the book as well as a unique and thoughtful question that they will ask the author. 

 

Science Unit Test will be on Friday, with Tuesday-Thursday science classes being set aside for unit review. Review packets are going home with students today (3/31) that they may use to prep for the test. 

 

Looking forward to helping the 4-5th graders out during Track and Field starting next week! 

 

Mr. Brown

Happy St. Patrick's Day,

 

Science quiz on Thursday like usual, Math Tiny Test on Friday to go over our beginning lessons on measuring and identifying angles!

 

No other big things in ELA or SS- we've just begun our new unit on the Renaissance and have been completing classwork in the workbooks. Nothing has been explicitly assigned as homework. For Social Studies, we are working on preparing for BizTown through our BizTown Workbooks. Working on content area knowledge to prep them for their jobs/companies, which will be sent over to myself and Ms. Wright in the next week or so. 

 

Reading Plus (1hr over the course of the week OR all completed suggested lessons, the # differs per student) and Reflex (only for those below 95% fact fluency, all completed lessons) are both standard this week. 

 

Thank you!

Mr. Brown

Happy Daylight Savings,

 

All missing work in all subjects has been printed, named, categorized, and handed to students :) They have until Wednesday to turn printed materials in & until Thursday to turn in digital materials (like IWPs). 

 

Should just be in-class work this week so I don't add to the grading load. 

 

Science quiz on Thursday like usual.

 

Math quiz on Friday, assessing graphing and beginner coordinate manipulation skills.

Hi again everyone,

 

I was able to get caught up in the grade book for all of the worksheets and practices. There was a far larger quantity of different assignments to print than I initially thought, so I will need to spend some time this weekend getting everything sorted! 

 

If a student was the only one missing an assignment, I was able to give them a copy. This was really only relevant in the case of really old math lessons. 

 

If your student has missing work, you will be able to find the required information to complete it in these three places:

 

1. Social Studies Textbook (For all 'review questions' assignments)

2. ELA Workbook (For Don Quixote assignments)

3. Math Workbook (Edited down to all of the assignments that at least TWO students are missing! Check your student's missing assignment report to see if they are one of the lucky few...)

Hello all, apologies about the delay.

 

First, there'll be a somewhat large amount of activities/practices in ELA and Math that I wanted the kids to finish before pivoting lessons at the trimester. The specific lesson and practice numbers can be found in students' planners, but it should be Activities 9.4 + 9.5 and Activities 14.4 and 14.5 for ELA, followed by Practice 11.1, 11.2, and 11.3 for Math. 

 

IWP 4 is due this Friday by 9pm. 

 

I'd like to spend some extra time prepping the Missing Assignment Report so each kid has a copy of the work I need like I did at the end of the first trimester. I'll have that completed on Thursday! Thank you for your patience. 

 

The class was letting me know that Reading Plus doesn't have an on-screen timer to judge the length of a session; because of this, I will also accept completed recommended weekly lessons in any of the categories as indications of student completion.

 

Social Studies Take-Home Assessment is due on Thursday for 5A and Monday for 5B along with their completed Revolutionary Protests packets.

 

Science quiz on Thursday like normal!

 

Please let me know if you have any questions :)

Mr. Brown

Here are the weekly expectations for Reading Plus and Reflex!

 

Reflex: This is to help students with their multiplication muscle memory. Students are aiming to be at 95% fluency or higher, at which point they'll graduate from needing to complete the weekly lessons. One 'green light' lesson is worth a 3, two 'green lights' are a 3.5, and three or more will be worth a 4. Students who have graduated will be exempt from the lessons and it won't affect their grade. 

 

Reading Plus: I'd like students to complete one hour each week on Reading Plus, preferably split up into 4 days of 15 minute sessions. The goal is to increase reading comprehension and automaticity, no specific benchmark we're aiming at to graduate this program. 

 

For this week (2/24-2/28) students only need to complete a half hour on Reading Plus. We'll go for the full hour from next week on. 

 

Thank you!

Mr. Brown

Hello again!

 

For the Science Adventure Lab tomorrow (2/19), all students should be wearing long pants rather than shorts or skirts. I've had students write this in their planners as well, but make sure that they come to school on Wednesday with a pair of slacks so they can safely participate in the lab activities! All other PPE will be provided by SAL on the day-of.

 

Because of our shifted science curriculum times, there will not be a science quiz this week. Science periods will be used for Culture Fair prep.

 

Thank you for bringing tri-fold boards, everyone! Students should arrive at the Culture Fair any time from 6:00-6:15 on Thursday to set up their board and practice sharing with visitors. We will be in the 5A and 5B rooms, no shifts in location. 

 

Math Practices 10.1 and 10.2 will be on the docket this week, with 10.1 being due on Thursday and 10.2 being due next week on Monday. % % %

Students under 100% fluency in Reflex should achieve a green light in Reflex at least once this week for a 3.0, twice for a 3.5, and 3+ times for a 4.0.

 

I'll reach out with more information about ELA homework in the next few days, just waiting to hear back about securing class licenses for Reading Plus. 

 

Let me know if you have any questions!

Mr. Brown

Welcome back to another short week,

 

A good chunk of our ELA and all of our SS worktime is currently being spent on researching for Culture Fair (instructions, examples, partners + subjects are on Google Classroom!) so there haven't been many workbook activities. 

 

5A/5B Parents: Please have your student bring in a tri-fold board as soon as you're able so we can begin the next step of the process when students are ready. If two students in a group both bring a tri-fold, I'd be fine with covering the cost of one of them so I could have some emergency boards in reserve. 

 

Otherwise, decimals have been proceeding very nicely in math! We will have another quiz on decimal multiplication/division on Wednesday.

 

Science Quiz on Wednesday, as well.

 

Thank you!

Mr. Brown

Hope you all stayed safe during the snow day!

 

There won't be any Missing Assignment Reports sent home this week as I will be using my prep period to start outreach for mid-year conferences. These will be sent home next week, however. 

 

No tests this week. We will have the Thursday science lesson quiz like normal. 

 

If you or your student would like to improve their Unit 3 Social Studies test scores, they're welcome to come in for a retake during either recess! They just need to let me know a little ahead of time so I can plan accordingly. Students with one or more absences during our work sessions last week (5A or 5B) are eligible for a 4.0 on the retake rather than my usual 3.5 maximum. 

 

 

Hi 5B families,

 

Letting you all know that I think it'd be best to move 5B's SS test back to Friday so the considerable number of students who were absent on Monday will have a period to get caught back up and complete a study guide. Thank you!

Hello all,

 

Hope everyone had a nice weekend! Important things happening this week:

 

MAP Testing will be on Tuesday (ELA/Reading) and Friday (Math). If you're searching for some extra enrichment to help boost those scores, your student's IXL skill plans are tailored to their fall term MAP results and will automatically adjust according to what they're successful at and what they may need to shore up. 

 

IWP 3 (Partner) is due on Friday by 9pm (unless we've spoken about an extension). We'll have time for one more work session before leaving on Friday, but otherwise we're in the home stretch! About half of the teams are finished at this point. I only need a submission from one of the students in a team, so if it says 'MISSING' on Google Classroom, don't worry.

 

Social Studies Unit Test on Thursday [5A] / Wednesday [5B]. We'll have one period of prep (and students will be provided study guides). I've been listening to your feedback on previous unit tests and promise this one will be less intensive- especially in terms of writing requirements :)

 

Decimals Operation Test on Friday. Another 'tiny test' to see where students are at in terms of multiplying and dividing decimals after we go through 9.1-9.3 in class this week. Results look promising from our IXL quiz that we took on Friday! 

 

Also, we're beginning to loop students in on Culture Fair prep/expectations this week. By Friday, each student will have their culture/country and partner assigned along w/ a rubric for what their presentation needs to include. I'm working to have an example posterboard ready to go by the end of the week as well.

 

Let me know if you have any questions!

Mr. Brown

Hello again everyone,

 

Hope you had a restful and reflective MLK Jr. Day. Missing Assignment Reports went home with students today. Here are some important things coming up:

 

This Thursday, there will be a water cycle unit test in science. Students have been given study guides to prepare.

 

Next Thursday, there will be a social studies unit test. 5A students have been handed back all their previous Review Question answers to help them prepare; 5B will have theirs soon. 

 

There will be another small math test on this Friday to assess students' basic operations with decimals. We should be able to get through practice 8.1 (due 1/22) and practice 8.2 (due 1/23) first, w/ practice 8.3 being STARTED before the test but due after (1/27). Students should bring home their '5A' hardcover math textbooks at some point before the end of the month so I can take a census of them. 

 

Thank you,

Mr. Brown