Wonder began today... Fish in a Tree tomorrow

Students should be bringing home their books every night Monday-Thursday.  PLEASE help your child to put the book back in the book bag and back in the backpack!  If anyone has copy of Wonder we can borrow, please send it in with your child. Thank you!

Wonder & Fish in a Tree

Next week we start reading Wonder (4th grade) and Fish in a Tree. First reads will be done in class and then the 2nd read should be done at home that night. The students are finding that by reading pieces 2 times they can better analyze the text when answering questions or discussing the events.  There are links to all of the Fish in a Tree chapters on the blog-see the right hand section of links.  I am adding Wonder tonight.  Wonder is not broken into different chapters, so if your child uses the audio, he or she will have to write down the time on the video or keep that tab open on the computer.

Fun Day!

Here are some videos and pictures from our Fire Safety lessons. Thank you to all the firefighters who came to our school today.  Our evacuation drill ran very smoothly. The kids were well behaved.

One group with the hose!

Climbing out the bedroom window!

What do you do if you are asleep
and the fire alarm goes off?

Getting safely out of the bedroom.

Reaching safety

It was hard to see in there!

They had to aim for targets

Safety Day is Tomorrow!

Tomorrow is Safety Day!!
Nathan Sibley is riding to school on a fire truck!!!!!  Fire Safety at 11:40, book fair preview at 12:20 (they accept debit cards... oh NO!!!!), and an Evacuation Drill to St. Patrick's around 1:00 ish.  Busy, busy! But so much fun to be had!  Seriousness during the evacuation!!!! 

Busy, Busy Week

Happy Monday!  Dr. O'Dell sent home an Alert Now Message today.  Tuesday night there is an informative session on Vaping at SATEC. It is from 6-8 pm. Wednesday afternoon is a Safety Drill, Friday is Hay Day, and Sunday is the Harvest Dinner.

Next Monday and Tuesday evenings are conferences.  Students do not have school next Friday, November 1st.

Restorative Justice is..Howard Zehr.wmv

Hi everyone,

I am currently in my 3rd graduate class of 4 to obtain a Graduate Certificate in Restorative Practices.  I shared some of this at the 5th grade family circle we had in August before school started.  This is a short video that explains the 3 principles of Restorative Justice (Practices).  A statement that struck me while I watched it was, "When relationships are harmed, it creates needs."   The harm then needs to be repaired and those harmed have needs that need to be met.  What Restorative Practices really allows us to do is to pay attention to those harmed, which rarely occurs in the traditional punishment practice. 



I will continue to share aspects of Restorative Practices as we go through the year.  If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.

No School Tomorrow for the Kids!!

Tomorrow is an in-service day for teachers.

In reading, we have working on summarizing.  Summarizing is a short retelling of the main points of something... in this case what we have read.  The students have been using post-it notes to help them remember the main points of what they have read. Right now it is every two pages.  This will only last for another week.  At that point we will begin Wonder (4th) and Fish in a Tree (5th). 

We will be reading together in school for our 1st read and then the students will do the 2nd read at home.  We will analyze the text the next day.  After these units, students will only need to use post-its at the end of chapters to summarize.  If your child is having difficulty remembering the big points, then he or she may go back to doing a post-it every couple of pages .

Right now, Fish in a Tree audio is linked on the blog. I am still trying to find a Wonder audio that I like!

Next Friday is Hay Day and then that Sunday, 10/27/19 is our annual Harvest Dinner.  Students eat free this year thanks to Grady's Golden Goodness.

Remind

I would like to start using Remind as a way for us to text one another. I sent instructions in an email and although it says Highgate as the school, it is for Fairfield.  Conference schedules are available on Pick A Time. You should have seen instructions sent home to you last week.

Google Classroom & Storyworks...

We have done a ton of work to get the kids used to google classroom and Storyworks & Storyworks Jr.  I think they got it today, but the test will be on Monday! I will be absent and Ms. Thompson, my former team member-now member of the Retired Teachers Club-will be subbing for me.  I'm sure they will do fine and have each other plus Ms. Thompson to help them. 

Your kids are fabulous and leave every day with a smile on my face.

Class Coupons

During the day, the students have opportunities to earn tickets that they can cash in for certificates.
The certificates/coupons are:

• Visiting a younger class and helping out for 1/2 hour.
• Eating lunch in the room with a friend.
• Free time at intervention time.
• Wear a hat for the day.
• Free choice of where to sit.
• Visit to the Treasure Box.

Little things that let the students know we notice good choices.  

Bike Trip on Friday.  A lunch is needed and appropriate outerwear for the weather!  LAYERING is excellent!!!!

Conferences in about 3 weeks.

Bike Trip This Friday

There is reading homework every night Monday - Thursday. Post-It notes should be used at least every two pages with a statement of what has happened.  Inferences and predictions can be used also.

This Friday we go on our Bike Trip.  Permission forms are in and the students will be learning a bit more about biking in P.E. class this week.  We are going with the 6th grade and will be eating lunch at the end or during our ride. This is new to me, so I'm going to let go of some control and let it ride!

Conferences are about 3 weeks away.  Tuesday 10/29/19 is the after school conference night when all teachers will be here.  Team 4-5 needs to decide on another night.  Mrs. Howrigan, Mrs. Heald-Howrigan, and I will be having conferences together for time slots of 15 minutes. 

5th Grade to Northwest Solid Waste District

The beginning!

July 1, 2020...it will be illegal for food
waste to go to the landfills.  Get one of
these for "backyard"composting.

Compost in the making.

This is like the truck that picks up our compost.

A roller truck.

Plastic sap tubing. It gets shipped to
 Arkansas to be made into irrigation lines.

Rinse your containers before you
put them in the recycle bin.

Bring your old paint and stains
in to NWSWD!

An old Mercury thermostat!

Baled paper, about 1000 lbs.

The front of the baler.

The other side of the baler.

Gizmos and Book Orders

5th Grade Field Trip to NWSWD on Friday!
Dress for the weather. Boots, gloves, hats, etc.  Change of shoes for when we return.  Bring a bag lunch.  

Gizmos at explorelearning.com
The 5th grade was introduced to Gizmos today.  Gizmos are simulated labs for math and science.  We did a Gizmo today on The Forest Ecosystem.  Students brought home their work to show you, and if you want to visit the site their usernames are the first part of their emails and the password is Tully2019.
  
Trout!
We had the Trout in the Classroom tank delivered today.  We will start the Trout program in January.  

Book Orders

Class Code - NXBYL Order Due Date -  10/11/19

Scholastic Book Orders will go home tomorrow. 
All orders are due by 10/11/19.

There are two ways to order:

1. Go online to: scholastic.com/new parent.
Look up my name: Tully, or enter our Class Code: NXBYL.
Follow the instructions to place your order online by: 10/11/19. 

2. Check off the books you want to order for your child
and return the flyer to me with a check to
Scholastic Book Clubs by 10/11/19. 

Google Classroom and Scholastic

Students should be reading for 20 (4th) to 30 (5th) every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.  Post it notes should be used to record important details or inferences.
4th grade has a field trip tomorrow, 10/3 and 5th grade go on one Friday 10/4.

This week we have worked on becoming familiar with google classroom and Storyworks & Storyworks Jr. Scholastic magazines.  Conferences are the last week in October.

With google classroom, I can create assignments right from Scholastic. Scholastic turns them into an assignment that I can then edit if I want to add, delete, or revise questions.  Google classroom also allows me to add links and google documents for them to use while completing assignments.  When I formally grade an assignment I will add it to Power School Unified Classroom.

Storyworks and Storyworks Jr. are magazines the students read throughout the month.  They always will have a class copy that is shared between the 4th and 5th grades. The online version has so many cool features. Some articles/stories have audio versions so the students can read along while hearing it read to them.  There are videos providing background knowledge and vocabulary slides.  Here are the websites for you to explore.  The student login is the same for both magazines... frogjar5
storyworks.scholastic.com    storyworksjr.scholastic.com