A Great Week!!

Welcome to another great week of 5th grade!  I continue to be very impressed with our student's hard work and dedication to do their very best.  It was great meeting most of you at open house.  If you have any questions throughout the school year please do not hesitate to ask.  Below are a couple things to look forward to this week in "The Kourt Room:"

In reading this week we will begin to build our classroom reading partners.  Each day in reading the children will have an opportunity to work with their reading partner.  Throughout this week we will discuss the importance of having authentic reading conversations in reading.  The children will have daily conversations about the books they are reading and have opportunities to discuss the strategies they use to comprehend what they read.  Each of our mini-lessons this week will help our reading partners get to know one another better as readers and prepare them to have authentic reading conversations.  We will have reading workshop each day throughout the week.  Reading workshop is a time where the children will read their independent books, post their thinking, respond in writing to reading, and complete their reading logs.

In writing this week we will continue our personal narrative unit. We will continue to brainstorm our personal stories and write about our small moments.  A small moment is a significant story that may only last a couple seconds but it is one that the writer never forgets.  This small moment really has made a difference in the writer's life.  The children have written their stories based on special places, turning points in their lives, and different emotions they have felt.  The children will have to write a page nightly in their writer's notebooks based on their personal small moments.

We will continue our geography unit in social studies.  The children will learn about latitude and longitude and geography terms this week.  We will have our weekly vocabulary quiz on Friday.  On Thursday we will have Glenmont's kickoff assembly for our read-a-thon that will benefit Glenmont's future playground.  Look for handouts to be set home on Thursday.

Have a fantastic week and thanks for your support!

Andrew