Thanksgiving week

I hope your Thanksgiving break was amazing! I am so thankful for all of you, and very blessed to have you in my life. You make my job enjoyable and meaningful.

We are ending Unit 2 in our Religion books this week. The students will receive a study guide on Monday, we will review for most of the week and look back on some of the stories we learned, then test on Friday.

In Math, we are diving hard into decimal division this week. We will finish up next week, and move into measurement before the semester ends. Please make sure that your child is doing the math homework that is being sent home. I usually take one grade per week on math homework, but they do get punches for one homework as well. Math requires a lot of practice!

We are still reading The BFG by Roald Dahl in Reading. We have been learning about personification, metaphors, comparing and contrasting, cause and effect, and much more! We made dream jars this past week and Frobscottle. We are doing vocabulary a little bit differently with this book. We will take a vocabulary test at the end of the book. The students will receive a study guide for these words next week when we get closer to the end of the book. We are also working on verbs in language. We will finish up verbs next week and have an assessment on them.

I can't wait to see all the Colonist posters tomorrow! I am excited to see which colony you chose to be from, and all of your information. We will finish up Chapter 4 this week, and also get a study guide for the test. We will begin again with our "States and Capitals" quizzes with a study guide on Thursday.

In Science, we are still brainstorming our "Celebrate Science" ideas! We will begin Chapter 5- Earth's Landforms this week, while also brainstorming. Also, we will begin talking about the Science Fair! Whew! It is going to be busy in Science this week! The Science Fair project will be required, and the students will receive a grade. This is not for bonus credit, it will be a REQUIREMENT. 

I can't wait to see you all tomorrow!

Love you all,
Nina Jones

11th-13th Week= Mrs. Jones forgot her homework!

I am so sorry for the delay in posting! Here are a few things we have been working on:

We played "Decimal Monster Dash" on Halloween and the students did a great job! They were very creative with their monsters. 

Today they played "Decimal Turkey Dash", and I was very impressed with their turkeys. 

In Religion, we have been watching "I Am Second" videos, and finishing up Unit 2. The past few weeks we have really been focusing on Martin Luther and other leaders God used from the Bible. We will finish Unit 2 next week, and have an assessment soon after.

We wrapped up decimal multiplication this week, and will begin decimal division next week. I believe we have started a tradition with the Decimal Dash. The students are already wondering what they will draw for Christmas! 

We finished Mixed-Up Files, and I have to say that the museums were AMAZING! I love seeing each student's creativity shine! We focused on non-fiction texts again, and went more in-depth with connecting with them. We have now began our first fantasy book of the year, The BFG, by Roald Dahl. He was an interesting man! We read a biography about him, and now are a little way into the book. Our poetry unit is complete, and I enjoyed reading all the student's poetry books. We are now learning about verbs. We made an "Angry Verbs" board that shows "Angry Birds" as action verbs, and the pigs as helping verbs. We will talk about verb tenses next week. 

We also wrapped up biomes this week in Science. This week we will be going to the McWane Center, and starting our brainstorming for our project. 

We are still making our way through the 13 Colonies in History. 

Hope you all have a good weekend! I will see you bright and early Monday morning for the field trip! 

For a bonus punch, tell me what you want our "Celebrate Science" project to be. 

Love, 

Mrs. Jones

9th and 10th Week= Patriotic and Cold

Last week we had a drizzly, cool day at American Village. We all really enjoyed our time here, and we are really getting to our colonies in History now. 

I also enjoyed our meetings at Parent Teacher Conferences on Friday. I was glad to be able to get to know you all a little better. 

During Religion this week we worked on our banner for Reformation Sunday and we started a book to learn more about Reformation. 

We are still moving along in reading The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. I am excited to see what the students are creating with their museums! 

In Science, we are starting biome research projects next week. The students will also create their own ecosystems if we can collect enough 2-liter bottles! 

We are studying Colonial America in History right now. 

In math we are working hard on multiplication and will be starting multiplying decimals next week. 

We are still working on our Poetry books! We are writing Limerick and Diamanté poems this week. 

Don't forget! Sunday is Reformation Sunday at 3:00pm. Fall Festival is Thursday night 5-8 and it's free! November 5th is Chik-Fil-A spirit night. November 15th is our McWane field trip. 

Congratulations to all students who recieved awards today! 

 

Thank you so much for all the love on my birthday! I love you all! 

Love, 

Mrs. Jones

"He must become greater, I must become less." John 3:30

8th week= Fall Weather!

Last week was an interesting week for Mrs. Jones. I had my 2nd ever stomach "bug" which stayed longer than it was welcome! I apologize for being out on Tuesday, but the students recieved a great report from the sub! 

In Religion, we are talking about the Holy Spirit. We will also be talking about Reformation, and working on our banner. 

In Math, we have finished up expressions and variables. We will touch briefly on mean, median, and mode this week. 

In Reading we started From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. We will be working a lot with characterization in this book. Next week, we will begin a project titled Establish a Museum, where students will make their own museums! The possibilities are endless and I can't wait to see all those creative minds working! This week they are working on a business letter to the "Met" in New York City. 

We have been working on Poetry in Language. Your students are making their own books, and will share some poems with the class when we are finished. So far we have done Acrostic, Free Verse, and Haiku. 

We are finishing up our assessments on the human body this week and will begin ecosystems. The students will be assigned an ecosystem in groups and will make a food web. 

The explorer reports are due Wednesday in Social Studies, and next week we will do our oral presentations. Make sure to read the guidelines! We are also learning the Preamble, and other neat facts before we go to American Village on Thursday.

**We will meet at school at 7:15 am on Thursday morning. We will leave by 7:20 am. Please bring a sack lunch! I will also have directions printed for each vehicle and the address for GPS. 

For a bonus punch, tell me what museum (anywhere in the world) you would love to visit and why, or a museum you have visited before and enjoyed. 

Love, 

Mrs. Jones

"He must become greater; I must become less." John 3:30

7th week= Scary!!

We started off the week with Sophia's pet tarantula Charlotte. I faced my fear of tarantulas for sure! 

In Religion this week we reviewed for our Unit 1 test and also did some Bible rebus puzzles. Here is a picture of our Six Chief Parts of Christian Discipline and our crosses we made in Art with oil pastels:

In Science, we worked on our human body projects and finished our life size systems. You all did such a great job!

 

In Social Studies, we finished up Chapter 2 and began our Explorer Reports. 

Math was filled with finishing up some basics of decimals, and beginning expressions, variables, and equations. We are doing some basic algebra! 

We began the first book of Monitoring Comprehension, and we will finish it this week. We will begin a new read-aloud. 

Exciting news! We were chosen to participate in the Celebrate Science program for the McWane Center in Birmingham! We get to make a science project that will be judged. We also get 2 FREE field trips and if we win we get money for our school! I am super excited about this, because we LOVE science! 

Don't forget: American Village field trip is the 17th! October 27th is Reformation Sunday at 3:30, and Fall Festival is the 31st from 5-7! 

For a bonus punch, tell me what genre you would like to read as a class for a read-aloud this year. (Example- science fiction, action, adventure, etc..)

Have a great weekend! See you Monday! 

Love, 

Mrs. Jones

6th Week= Extraordinary!

To start off the week I attended the fair, and I saw one of our own's drawing on the wall! 

Go Gabby!!! 

Religion- This week we focused on the 2nd and 3rd Commandment. Next week we will not have a memory verse because we will have our unit test on Friday. 

Social Studies- We began and ended with our explorers. This week we will finish up chapter 2 and begin an explorer report. This will be worked on at home, and at school. 

Science- We are still working on the human body system projects. We are in groups working on a group project. We will try to finish these this week, but it may take us into the next week. You may have noticed Jeffrey coming home with some of you. The students all want to take him home so we are taking turns. Just please be sure to bring him back with all parts in his little home! 

Reading- We finished up Abduction this week, and some students don't know where to go from here. They loved it so much that they wanted me to get another book like it! I love this spirit! This week we will work on monitoring comprehension, then we will begin another chapter book after we finish some of our reading strategies. We will also begin a poetry unit. The students will make a poetry book! 

Math- We worked hard on division strategies this week. Next week we will take a chapter test on decimals and division. Then we will start on expressions and variables. 

We really appreciated the DARE officer and Mr. Bales coming to talk to us about subjects covered in Abduction. Thank you!

Don't forget about the talent show Tuesday night, Oktoberfest next Saturday, and the field trip October 17th. 

Have a great weekend!

Love, 

Mrs. Jones

"HE must become greater, I must become less." John 3:30

Picture Day!

I forgot to include that tomorrow is picture day! So, don't forget to brush your teeth and smile pretty😁!

6th Week= Efficient!

This week we made a lot of progress! We are sailing along in 5th grade, and I am enjoying every second of this journey!

This week in religion we talked about the difference between Law and Gospel. We also took a survey of how well we follow the Ten Commandments and learned that we all are sinners! We spent time on the first Commandment (a few days actually), and next week we will talk about a few more of the Commandmebts in depth.

We finished up decimal subtraction and addition today by making a menu from a local restaurant and we had to spend at least $70 but not over $75. The students definitely had to stretch their appetites a bit! Next week we will work on division and take a chapter test on decimals and division. 

We are reading Abduction in reading. The students are VERY engulfed with this story. They beg to read more chapters every day, which in return makes their teacher happy! We are using different reading graphic organizers to work on strategies, and this week they wrote a prediction of what they believe will happen. We will also finish up our grammar unit this week and have a test. 

In Social Studies we finished our project this week and presented them to Mrs. Ninke. I am so proud of 5th grade. They really did a wonderful job! Next week we will begin chapter 2 in our Journey to America book. We will have a Southeastern region quiz on Tuesday. 

We took out chapter 1 test in science this week, and now we will focus more on the human body systems. I feel that this is an important concept, and it is a standard on our course of study. However; it isn't covered much in our textbooks so we will be using different materials to study the different systems. 

Each week students will fill out a nonfiction text graphic organizer for a test grade in Social Studies. They will use their Scholastic Weekly Reader. The students filled out their first one today. 

I am very excited about all that we are doing in 5th grade, and our upcoming field trip. You should receive a field trip note on Monday. 

We are enjoying our new iPad! The students played a game this week named Presidents vs. Aliens, and they also explored the NASA app. We will use them this week to do some math projects we will be working on. 

For a bonus punch, show someone in your household a rebus we did this week. Comment below which one you used! 

4th and 5th Week= Superb!

I apologize for not posting last week! I wrote a post, posted it, and realized mid-week it had never posted. So I will try to sum up both weeks! 

Thank you to all the Grandparents and parents that came to Grandparent's Day! We had a blast! 

The week of Labor Day we had a blast with plants. We did a colored xylem water transport experiment with napa cabbage and colored water. Most of the experiments worked well with the blue colored water. We also began the human body system last week. We had a nurse from Children's hospital in Birmingham come and visit us. She brought lots of neat items with her to show us. 

The past two weeks in Reading we have focused on different genres, and non-fiction text features. This week we will begin a new book titled Abduction! I am so excited to begin this book! I read it last weekend and could not put it down. 

In religion we have been talking about the  Six Chief Parts of Discipline. I have been taking a class on Sunday afternoons with Pastor Bussman, and I am learning so much! We hope to finish our first unit in Religion in two weeks and have our first test. 

We began our first chapter in History and now we are going to finish up our project. We will begin having a regions states and capitols quiz each week. We will start out by naming just the states in a region, then we will include the capitols along with state names. 

We have jumped into addition and subtraction of decimals, and will work on estimating, and money this week. 

We will be going to American Village October 17th, and I will be sending home more information this week. I plan on taking one more field trip this semester.  

We also have began a morning "rebus" puzzle. Ask your child to show you one at home. They require lots of higher order thinking skills! 

We also received IPads and Apple tvs this week from Premier Bank! I am so excited to begin utilizing these in the classroom. 

Thank you all for everything you do! 

For a bonus punch, comment where you would like to go on a field trip to in 5th grade. 

Love you all, 

Mrs. Jones

3rd week= moving right along!

We ended this week with a science experiment, and made icecream out of it! 

 Some of the ice cream froze, but others had sugary milk! Either way, it was fun to learn about how the ice and salt mix to make the cream freeze. 

We learned about different mountains in the bible and what important event happened at those mountains. We did a group torn art project to depict our mountains. 

We finished Frindle in reading this week, the students really enjoyed the book. We will be doing a lot of chapter books as a class, groups, and individually. Next week we will be learning how to choose the right books for us, work in reading groups, and different genres. We will also talk about different kinds of sentences, conjunctions, subjects and predicates, and then we will start poetry. 

In science, we started our bacteria experiment and we are just waiting for it to grow. This week we will begin plants, and learn more about classifying animals. 

In social studies, we have almost finished our project-based learning project. We will begin our Journey to America this week. Students will have a quiz after each lesson. 

We will be having a PTL meeting September 3rd at 6:00pm. We will also celebrate Grandparents Day September 11th. 

I am praying that you all have a wonderful, safe holiday weekend. I can't wait to see you all again Tuesday! 

For a punch on your punch card, tell me why the ice and salt mixture made the ice cream freeze. 

Love,

Mrs. Jones

"He must become greater, I must become less." John 3:30 

August 26-30

Spelling Words (Test Thursday)

List 2: sense, plenty, enemy, quest, wealth, sweater, feather, welcome, shelter, meant, edit, health, breath, tennis, swept

Selection Words: treasure, bedspread, chess, strengthen, shelf

 

Vocabulary Words (Test Friday)

1. core

2. task

3. locate

4. initial

5. ensure

(Students should look these up at home. I use www.dictionary.com to get my definitions. Please know all given meanings.

 

 

 

“How great are you, Sovereign Lord! There is no one like you, and there is no God but you, as we have heard with our own ears.”

2 Samuel 7:22

 

2nd week= Outstanding!!!

Two weeks down, only a lot more to go. I have had a blast this second week! We jumped into our curriculum, and we are having a ball! I really failed at taking pictures this week, we were just very engulfed in our studies! 

We have been discussing the Bible and the preservation of the Bible in Religion. Today, we watched "I am Second" videos of Bailee Madison, Colt McCoy, and Bethany Hamilton. We journaled about how we would feel if God said we had to stop doing the one thing we love to do most. If you haven't watched these videos I encourage you to watch a few! They are great testimonies! 

www.iamsecond.com

We are still reading Frindle, and the students are enjoying their literature circles. We even read outside one day this week! I hope to finish this week and start Comprehension ToolKit. It is a great way to teach students comprehension skills with all sorts of different texts. The goal is to teach the reader, not just the reading!We will be reading different genres, fiction and non-fiction. I am really excited about this! You won't be seeing the typical weekly comprehension test from one story. Occasionally I will give a comprehension test on stories that we are reading. If you have any questions feel free to ask! For more information on Comprehension ToolKit visit this site:

http://www.comprehensiontoolkit.com/

We started Go Math this week and learned 

about place value and patterns. We are about 

to finish chapter 1, and move on to decimals! 

Get excited! 

In science, we finished up cells and had our

 edible cell projects today. You guys are AMAZING! 

I was blown away!! This week we will collect 

samples from around the school to see just 

how much bacteria is lurking around. We will also 

begin plants and have an experiment with those!

Put your lab coats and goggles on this week! 

In History the students are working on geography 

presentations in groups. They are doing so well! 

I can't wait for them to finish and present their 

presentations to the class. 

A lot of exciting things are happening in 5th grade! For a punch on your punch card, comment before Monday about what your favorite subject has been so far, and what you would like to see more of in that subject. See you Monday! 

Love, 

Mrs. Jones

Homework Aug 19-23

Homework:

·         You should receive a homework menu for this week. Three items should be completed and be turned in by Friday. If you have any questions about the tic-tac-toe board, please don’t hesitate to ask. As of right now this board is NOT being graded. Students are receiving reward punches for doing them. (This is subject to change)

• Spelling List: Test on Thursday-Students will be required to write in cursive, and to also write a dictated sentence. This sentence will come from the selection words.

List 1: cancel, travel, castle, salad, catalog, cabinet, blanket, tractor, magnet, cabin, palace, glance, paddle, sang, shampoo

Selection Words: accident, activity, classroom, absent, ballot

For example: The classroom activity was canceled because of the accident.

·         Vocabulary List: Test on Friday

jolt- to move with a sudden, jerky movement             

 

 promptly- to do something right away

gradually- slowly over a period of time or   distance

     essential- the most important

     acquire- buy or obtain for oneself

·         Bible Memory Verse: Recited on Friday

o   “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.” Ecclesiastes 9:10

·         Cell project is due on Friday afternoon. Instructions are attached.

1st Week of 5th Grade=Completed!

We have had an awesome week! I have really enjoyed getting to know each of you and I am excited about what this year will bring! 

Here are a few photos of activities we did this week:

The students wrote their goals for the 2013-2014 school year. They have some great goals! 

The students worked together on a science experiment named "Save Fred!" They used the scientific method in their science binders to write about the experiment. 

Pastor Bussman came to play a multiplication review game with us! 

Boys vs Girls on the multiplication review game! 

We worked in Literature circles to complete summaries of our book Frindle. 

Happy Birthday Lawson!!! 

We had such an exciting week! We are doing a lot of work in different spots around the room so if your child has a beanbag, pillow, and/or a clipboard they would like to bring, they are welcome to leave it in the room. 

I have enjoyed the first week so much! I hope you have as well! 

For a punch on your punch card, leave a comment telling me what your favorite activity was that we did this week. 

See you Monday, have a great weekend! 

Love, 

Mrs. Jones

P.S.- I enjoyed seeing you all at the pool party tonight! 

"He must become greater, I must become less." John 3:30

Pool Party!

Don't forget that tomorrow night from 6-8pm we are having a pool party at the Aquatic Center. Come out and fellowship with your school mates, teachers, and families. I hope to see you all there! 

Open House

Thank you all so much for coming today! It was so nice meeting you all and your families. 

One thing I forgot to mention, you are allowed to bring bottled water or a thermos that will not spill out. 

I can not wait to see all of your smiling faces tomorrow morning!

*Remember-We will all meet in the sanctuary together first thing at 8 a.m. You can bring your backpacks with you.

Get plenty of rest tonight and eat a good breakfast! 

Love, 

Mrs. Jones

Welcome!

I can't believe it is almost time! We will be beginning a new school year in 3 days, and I couldn't be more excited! I hope 5th grade will be a spectacular year for all of you. I am praying for us to have a successful year. 

Here is a sneak peek of the 5th grade classroom: 

I am so excited to meet you all and kick this year off to a great start! 

*Remember to get plenty of rest, eat a good breakfast, and come prepared to learn! 

Love, 

Mrs. Jones

"He must become greater; I must become less." John 3:30