Week of September 28th

 Salutations!

I am excited to start diving into Wit and Wisdom this week.  Your students have done a great job adapting to the digital notebook and learning when to take notes, as well as how to take notes.  Just a reminder that my digital notebook is ALWAYS AVAILABLE in the Reading Course (5th graders) or English Course (6th graders).  If your child is absent or needs to catch up with notes, they can copy directly from my notebook.

Our novels for the start of the module have arrived!!!  I will be at school on Tuesday, September 29th from 1:30-3:00 to help distribute them.  You may also stop by during school hours on another day if that works for you.  Ms. Tucker has a list of students and can record the number of the novel that you sign out for the quarter.  They are paperback novels, please teach the children to treat them kindly and not to dog-ear them or leave them laying open upside down (this damages the spine).  6th graders will begin reading Tuesday (There is a digital copy linked to their planner and the meets slides); however, 5th graders will start with nonfiction studies to build understanding of westward expansion in the United States before starting with the novel study.  

• 5th Grade Novel:  Thunder Rolling in the Mountains by Scott O'Dell
• 6th Grade Novel:  Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis

Please check to make sure your student is up to date on assignments.  This Friday  is midterm already!  I will be making a note of missing work to help you support your scholar in getting up to date.  It takes diligence and constancy to stay on top of work and courage to ask for help when it's needed.  I have been reinforcing each of these FCCS values with the students.  I am happy to help support your scholar or you in any way I can to help make learning a successful endeavor.  Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns at all.

Fondly,

Melissa

Important Dates:

• Tuesday, September 29th - Novels Available for Pick Up (1:30-3:00)
• Friday, October 2nd -  2 Hour Early Dismissal

Week of September 21st: Four Weeks Already?!!!

Greetings!

It is hard to believe that we are entering the fourth week of school.  It was wonderful seeing so many of you at Back to School Night last week!  For those of you who were unable to attend, or if you wanted a review, here is a copy of my presentation from Thursday. I am enjoying your children so very much.  They are lively learners, and we are making some great connections. In the spirit of Festina Lente (make haste slowly), we have been building the habits necessary for us to be strong readers and comprehenders. We have been working on establishing work habits and learning when to stop and annotate, as well as what to annotate, when we are reading literary text.  We have also been practicing how to respond to a writing prompt and use a rubric to evaluate our own work.  

Reptito Mater Memoriae:  Repetition is the Mother of Memory reminds us that it is important to practice new skills to build those memory paths in our brains.  With this pedagogy in mind, we will continue to practice note taking this week using short stories.  We will also continue refining our writing about reading.  For more detailed information about our studies and work this week, please refer to your child's planner linked below.

Next week we will embark on our novel study with Wit and Wisdom.  We are still waiting for hard copies of the novels.  Please be on the lookout for an invitation to come pick them up from school when they arrive.  While we wait, we will use my Kindle version.  If you would like to purchase your own copy of the class novel, you may.  They are widely available in hard copy and on digital devices.  5th Graders will be reading Thunder Rolling in the Mountains by Scott O'Dell and 6th Graders will be reading Bud not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis.  

5th Grade Planner for the Week

6th Grade Planner for the Week

Reminders:

• 9/28 School is Closed
• 9/29 Novel Study Starts

Week of September 14th: Off to a Great Start!

 Important Dates:

9/17 Back to School Night for 5th Grade and Middle School Families

Helpful Hints:

Student Planners with Meet agendas and work are posted weekly in the Reading Course for 5th Grade and the English Course for 6th Grade.  Click to access the 5th Grade Planner or the 6th Grade Planner for this week.

To keep our Course looking tidy, I am putting all work in a weekly folder.  Past week's folders and work can be found in the black Previous Learning Folder.  I encourage students to complete work in a timely manner, but understand that sometimes that is not possible.  All work will be scored on a full credit scale regardless of when it is turned in.  

Reading This Week:

This week and next we will be focusing on comprehending literary text.  I have found that teaching students to annotate as they read increases their comprehension, but often students do not know what to annotate.  What is important to record?  To help with this, I like to teach Notice and Note as a strategy for note taking.  Students learn that author leave clues or "signposts' to help them discover messages and themes in the text.  We are learning how to recognize those signposts and are practicing looking for them in our independent reading this week.  Next week we will practice using short stories.  By October we will move into our novel studies with Wit and Wisdom and be ready to annotate as we read more complex text.

These anchor charts have been provided to the scholars to help them recall the different signposts.  I linked the charts in case some of you want a copy or if the students prefer a printed copy.  They will also receive a bookmark with the signposts when they get their ELA materials.

Questions?  Concerns?

Please know that you can contact me at any time with issues or questions.  My email is melissa.anzick@fcps.org.  You can also message me through Schoology.