September 18, 2015 Unbelievable wether we are having!

Calendar of Events

9/21 - Gr. 4/5 Soccer Practice

9/22 - Gr. 4/5 Soccer Practice

9/25 - Gr. 5 Field Trip to Sunday River

9/28 - Gr. 4/5 Soccer Practice

9/29 - Gr. 4/5 Soccer Game CPS @ WES

10/6 - Gr. 4/5 Soccer Game WES @ CPS

10/9 - Workshop Day

10/12 - Holiday - No School

10/13 - School Photo Day

10/13 - Gr. 4/5 Soccer Game CPS @ WES

10/16 - Grandparents Day

10/20 - Gr. 4/5 Soccer Game WES @ CPS

10/21 - Gr. 5 Field Trip to Old Fort Western

10/27 - Mahoosuc Performance "Tinpanic Steel Band"

This weather has been so fantastic- a bit warm, but fabulous nonetheless! Let's keep it coming!

Next week, the Healthy snack host is Chelsea.

News of the week:

NWEA testing has begun. We are 2 tests down and 1 to go. Next week, we will complete our Language NWEA. 

We finished our class book, Kneeknock Rise. Our new class book is, Sing Down the Moon, by Scott O'Dell. This books goes great with our Social Studies work of early colonization and Native American cultures. 

Speaking of Social Studies, the students completed "Text Feature" articles about the Inca and Aztec cultures. Their work included a subheading, short summary, a caption with a descriptive sentence, a map and a side bar. 

Today, the 4/5 wing, students and teachers, got together to discuss playground rules. There have been some recent instances of bad behavior, aggressiveness, and disrespect. We thought it was important to meet as a wing to talk about a few of the issues and discuss the expectations of fun and safe playground use. We want to applaud the positive behavior and understand the consequences for the negative behavior. 

If anyone is interested in volunteering in our classroom, please get in touch. We need adults to help with leading small groups or 1:1; for basic fact practice, reading groups, math helpers, or even being a presenter to our class about your job, education or hobby. 

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Conrad

Main idea and supporting details lesson

September 11, 2015

A fun week was had!

In Social Studies, we have been learning about the First Americans and Early Colonization. We've also been discussing civics-rules, and guidelines, liberties-freedoms, Maine studies, and a bit of government. We had collaborative discussions 1:1, small group, and large group; coming together to build upon and express ideas clearly.  On Friday, we formed our Classroom Constitution, which supports us with guidelines for the most effective ways we can work and support each other throughout the school year.

Math class work has included basic fact timed tests, XtraMath, IXL-Place Value, Short Word form, and Expanded form with Exponents.

This week in English/Language Arts ( Literacy), the students continued their work with idioms, determining main ideas and supporting details, as well as progress toward showing command of their mechanics in writing.

On Thursday, after a class read aloud and discussion about the picture book, The Three Questions, students were broken up into groups to put a paragraph in the proper order-main idea first, followed by supporting details.

Small group reading groups highlighted main idea, details to support and follow-up comprehension.

Pics and short video show the activity and results below.

Upcoming events/calendar:

9/14 - NWEA Testing begins

9/14 - Gr. 4/5 Soccer Practice

9/15 - Gr. 4/5 Soccer Practice

9/15 - Open House 6pm-7pm

10/9 - Workshop Day

10/13 - School Photo Day

10/27 - Mahoosuc Performance "Tinpanic Steel Band"

Healthy Snack Schedule for the next 15 weeks.

9/14 Emily Cummings

9/21 Chelsea Duclos

9/28 Jakob Hooper

10/5 Riley Jerome

10/12 Reid Johnston

10/19 Travis Kneeland

10/26 Bode Leach

11/2 Evan Leach

11/9 Selena Ojeda

11/16 Forest Pelletier

11/30 Cameron Remington

12/7 Eli Shifrin

12/14 Keenan Sparks

1/4 Autumn Thompson

1/11 Jayden Thurston

Learning Stations are the way to go!

Learning and Growing

Tables and cubbies! Students are participating in a read-aloud play highlighting idioms. 

9/4/15 Greetings to all from Mrs. Conrad!

New year, New happenings!

It has been a fun and fabulous first week in our classroom! I am so pleased with the way the kids are coming together as a class and getting our routines and expectations down! Totally impressive!!

We have changes in schedule for this year. Our normal daily schedule looks like this:
8:10-8:50 Science/Social Studies
8:55-9:35 MON- THURS “Specials” (Exception: Friday-9:40-10:20)
9:35-10:00 Snack/Recess
10- 11:30 LITERACY/LA
11:35-12:35 Lunch/Recess
12:35-1:00 SSR
1-2:15- MATH

Specials: 
Monday-Library 
Tues & Friday-Phys. Ed 
Wed-Music 
Thurs-Art 

 Academic Accomplishments: 

• Students are doing a terrific job using their planners. They have come back to class each morning with HW filled out and signed by a parent. My students have also been very responsible with passing in HW. YAY, for us!!! 
•  DRA Testing is complete. 
• Reading Notebooks have been started in class. Our Class Read Aloud- Kneeknock Rise, by Natalie Babbit 
• On Friday, we started using our laptops to write a story. Students have shared their story with me and the creating..., editing…., revising process is in place for their first adventure story of the year. 
• Language and Literary elements: Fantastic, groovy, and super-exciting vocabulary for discussion and writing. Idioms-meanings and application Theme, characters, and setting of story Proper nouns -Spelling words-classmate names 

Points of interest and Things to consider:
In past years, our class has been participating in bringing in a healthy snack for the class each week. What that means is that a schedule is set up and each student is assigned a week to bring in a healthy snack for the class to share. Fresh fruit (bags of apples, oranges, etc) cheese sticks, granola bars (no nut products), etc.

The student would bring in the snack at the beginning of the week. Once it is gone, it’s gone. The student would not need to send in additional for that week.

I will start the schedule next week, so I will bring in the first snack on Tuesday.

More information will be coming home via newsletter and my class blog: http://kathy5conrad.blogspot.com/

Have an awesome Labor Day weekend! Mrs. Conrad