Thursday, September 13th

Reminders and Announcements 

• Link for Back to School Night  - Click Here
• Friday, September 14th - Reading Homework Due
• Wednesday, September 19th - School Closed
• Friday, October 5th - Mid Term and 2 Hour Early Dismissal

I just want to take a moment to tell you how much I am enjoying teaching your children.  They are a pleasure.  Now for housekeeping...  On Thursdays you should get the regular Thursday Folder from your homeroom teacher and a comment sheet from your child's co teacher.  Please check each carefully.  Also, please note, my phone will be up and running by Monday and my class extension has changed.  My school phone number is 240-236-1513.

Reading 

Focus Standards:

• RI.5.1 - Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
• RI.5.2 - Determine two or more main ideas of a text and explain how they are supported by key details; summarize the text.

We have been working on strategies to help us prepare before we read informational text.  We have also been working on chunking text and summarizing our understandings along the way.  We will continue to add strategies to our reading tool belts next week.

I am also meeting with students to check reading fluency and basic comprehension.  You can look for those results by Friday next week.  I will send them in the Homework Folder.

Writing

Focus Standards:

• W.5.3.d - Text Types and Purposes: Use concrete words and phrases and sensory details to convey experiences and events precisely.
• W.5.3 - Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.

We have been working on drafts of personal stories.  Our focus has been on ideas during this phase of the writing process.  We have been trying to raise our writing to the next level by adding descriptive language and dialogue to bring the reading into the story.  We will continue to work on techniques that help us really engage our audience during next week's writing lesson and practice as well.