November 14th through the 18th

Keenoy's Koala Of The Week:  CharRon Ray

CharRon shared that she loves her family very much and enjoys being kind to others.  She also likes anything having to do with Hello Kitty:)  CharRon is a hard worker and we love having her in our class!  We also very much enjoyed her dog Snickers talking to us this week.  She has a Photo Speak app on her Ipad and sent a special message to the Koalas from her dog.  The class wanted to watch  the video message over and over again.

South Korean Guest Teachers

Our class enjoyed hosting South Korean teachers for an hour this week.  Their lesson focused on teaching us more about Korean culture.  The teachers had students get into three groups, and each student spent approximately 15 min. at each station.  The stations included  making a jeggi (hacky-sack), yutnori (board game), and creating a South Korean traditional outfit using origami. 

       

   

  

   

Keenoy Koala News                                                             

November 18, 2016

Dear Families,

     It was so nice seeing everyone at conferences.  I truly enjoyed sharing your child’s progress with you.   Thank you so much for all of your support this year and making your child’s learning such an important priority.  Please do not hesitate to contact me through email or phone with any questions, comments, or concerns.  Thanks for all that you do!

    Please join us on Friday, December 9 for our annual holiday event. Your child will be singing in the gym with the other 5th graders, and then afterwards is an open house in our classroom. You can check the Paxton Keeley website or our classroom blog (last week’s newsletter) for the schedule.

Pizza Party

We earned a Pizza Party for donating the largest amount of money/food items during the Paxton Keeley Food Drive.  We will have the Pizza Party during our lunch period on Tuesday, November 22^nd.  I plan on buying Gatorade for the class, but students can also bring in a different drink from home.

Keenoy Koala Cash Goal

Students agreed that 700 Keenoy Cash was a great goal for us to work towards.  We are well on our way by already earning 579.  Students liked the picnic lunch/cozy clothes/movie afternoon so much, that they voted for the same reward at 700 cards.  I plan on also bringing Gabby into the classroom during the movie time on that day.  She is equally excited about the idea of spending a couple of hours with 5^th graders and DaddyJ  Every time she makes a trip to Paxton, she never wants to leave and usually leaves in tearsL  She feels so BIG going to school at 3 years old.

Writing

Students completed their pre-assessment for informational writing today.  This assessment is used to determine what skillset students have with this style of writing before we jump into our lessons.  Instruction in this genre of writing (informational) will begin after we return from Thanksgiving break.

Reading

We completed the book Zach’s Lie, by Roland Smith.  Students showed a lot of interest and learned many great reading strategies while reading this book.  We started reading The Watsons Go To Birmingham-1963, by Christopher Paul Curtis on Thursday.  This is a fantastically funny book and a great book to practice our next session skills:  Main Idea, Cause/Effect, Point of View, and continue to work on Theme.  I will be modeling my thinking aloud and asking students to practice these comprehension skills in their independent book each day. 

Students will be taking an assessment over the comprehension skills (inferring, prediction, and context clues) taught during the last several weeks.  I am confident that they will be able to apply these strategies practiced in class with Fiction and Non Fiction passages. 

Social Studies

Students are learning about the Spanish Conquistadors in chapter 3.  From the 1500s to the 1700s, Spanish explorers and priests gave names to settlements throughout the Southwest and Florida.  We will start learning about European Settlements when we return from Thanksgiving Break.

Math

We have completed the lessons for multiplying and dividing decimals. Students took an assessment on Thursday.  These will be graded over the weekend and returned to students on Monday. Our next topic is called “Variables and Expressions” and will introduce students to some algebra.

Science

I am sending home the Earth/Space Systems Quiz today.  I am very proud of our class results and I can tell that they learned a lot of new information in this unit.  We already started our Engineering Unit this week.  During the first part of this unit, students will be creating testable questions to explore.  We will focus on:  variables, constants, graphing, hypothesis, conclusions, charting, performing trials, and figuring out the mean of data.

Upcoming Dates

Nov. 21         Planetarium Field Trip (Rock Bridge High School in Columbia)

Nov. 23-25   No School - Thanksgiving Holiday

Dec. 20        Winter Party 2:15-3:00

Dec. 21-Jan. 3       No School  - Winter Break

Have a wonderful week and Thanksgiving Holiday!

                                                                                                            Sincerely,
                                                                                                            Dan Keenoy

November 1st through 4th

Keenoy's Koala Of The Week: Clete Gott

Unfortunately, we already took Clete's soccer medals down prior to this picture. The board behind him was completely full of medals that he earned with his competitive teams!  He plays for Columbia Sporting and loves the game of soccer.  He also loves his wonderful family and enjoys anything having to do with animals.  

Keenoy Koala News

Dear Families,

I hope that everyone had a wonderful week.  As you can see on our Classroom Blog, we now celebrate a Koala of the Week.  Each student will now have the opportunity to display things about them on a bulletin board located outside our classroom door.  The class also decided that during their week, they can incorporate technology by creating/sharing a pic collage with their classmates.  We also created a schedule so that students know when their week will be.  I absolutely love this idea and it is a great way to continue building a strong community of learners who care about each otherJ

Parent Teacher Conferences

We have completed the first trimester of our school year.  Parent-teacher conferences begin on Monday.  You will receive another reminder of our conference time the day before our meeting is scheduled. For those who have a conference on Monday, your reminder note is in the Friday Folder.  If for some reason you now have a conflict with your conference date, please contact me right away so that we can reschedule. It is also very helpful if everyone is on time to their conference so that I may stay on time as well. 

Friday Folders

The Friday Folder checklist has been pulled. A new checklist will go home beginning Friday, November 18. Since next week is conference week, Friday Folders and a newsletter will not be sent home.

Holiday Performance & Open House

Please join us on Friday, December 9 for our annual holiday event. Your child will be singing in the gym with the other 5th graders, and then afterwards is an open house in our classroom. Here is the schedule for that day:

Grade Level                           Perform in Gym                    Open House in Classrooms

5^th                                            11:15 am                                 After Choir Performance

Choir                                       11:35 am                                 11:55-12:15

3^rd Grade                                 11:55 am                                 12:15-12:35

4^th Grade                                 12:15 pm                                 12:35-12:55

2^nd Grade                                 1:05 pm                                   1:25-1:45

Kindergarten                           1:25 pm                                   1:45-2:05

1^st Grade                                 1:45 pm                                   2:05-2:25

Math

*Our last math assessment will be shared at conferences.

*We began Topic 7 - Multiplying and Dividing Decimals.

*Students mentally multiplied decimals by 10, 100, and 1000.

*Students learned how to multiply decimals using strategies based on place value and properties of operations

Writing

*(Students completed the post-assessment for this genre of writing on Thursday

*Writing  (pre-assessment, process piece, and post-assessment) will be shared during conferences.

*Our next genre of writing will be informational.

Reading

We continued to focus on inferring and using context clues to figure out the meaning of unknown words.  Students seem to be loving the book, Zach’s Lie and we are nearing the end.  I love how this book requires them to make so many inferences and forces a deeper level of thinking.

Science - Space Systems

We completed this unit today with our lesson over moon phases.  Students will be taking an assessment on Wednesday and received a detailed study guide this Tuesday.  Students were to study each night for at least 15 min.  I have recommended that they study one-ish lessons per night so that they do not get overwhelmed by all of the information.  Thank you for signing the study guide each evening to help hold them accountable for this work.  Students who did not return this form signed on Friday had to owe their extra recess time.  If you have time to study with your child, before Wednesday, that would be helpful to them.

Reminders

Nov. 6                         Daylight Savings Ends...set your clocks back by one hour

Nov. 8                         No School - Election Day

Nov. 7, 9-11    Parent/Teacher Conferences

Nov. 11           No School

Nov. 21           Planetarium Field Trip (Rock Bridge High School in Columbia)

Nov. 23-25      No School - Thanksgiving Holiday

Sincerely,

                                                                                                Dan Keenoy