Welcome back to school!

Welcome back to school, and welcome to our online newsletter. I will be posting news and information about our class as often as I can, so check back here frequently. I won't use anyone's full names for privacy, so look for your initials!

It's been a great first week and a half. Our class is getting along well with each other, learning and practicing the expectations for behavior, and diving right in to our lessons. The fifth grade math students have spent some time working with arrays as models for multiplication and practicing their multiplication facts, and they are ready to start learning about prime numbers and divisibility. We also have a small group of students who are taking on the challenge of sixth grade math, although they have spent this week getting a refresher on some important fifth grade concepts. In social studies we talked about the importance of getting to know about ourselves before studying other groups of people, and so we are making timelines of our own lives. Some of the events on the students' timelines have showed up as entries in their writing notebooks as well, since we started our writing unit telling stories from our lives! Students have worked hard on focusing their writing on small moments, and expanding those moments using descriptive and sensory details. They are doing a great job, and they love to share their writing with the class. They also love to read, and they have enjoyed choosing independent reading books from our classroom library this week for checkout. Hopefully parents have also seen them reading at home each night!

I am expecting a great year, full of fun and learning. Parents, if if I haven't met you yet, please stop by sometime and introduce yourselves. It's always nice to put a face to your name. Thanks for all your support in getting your child ready for school!