We had a morning of math this am, focusing on the hardest easy thing I teach all year, place value. Our number system is beautifully simple, but that's also why it's confusing. Ask your kids about the period names (million, billion, etc) and see if they can say them in order, starting at the decimal. Then, check out their decimal place value knowledge. Here's a reminder for parents:

After lunch, we had PE with Ms. Mingle's class and came back for keyboarding practice on the Chromebooks. The end of our day was interrupted by a fire drill.

For those looking for the secret word, it's numerator. See you tomorrow!

We are finally starting to get down to business. We have started looking at place value, and today we began decimal place value. Getting into decimals is a little more confusing, but we will get there. We also started Rocket Math today. Finally, we had another lesson on bullying. For PE, we mixed it up with Mingl's class and played kickball. Kids, especially while the weather is nice, plan on getting outside from time to time, so wear footwear that you can run, jump, and kick in!

Thursday, I had one student with the correct secret password, today we had five. I wonder how many students on Monday will know that "flubber" is the next secret code word?

We had another great day! I'm enjoying getting to know your kids. Today we started the day with the Rocket Math 4 minute timing for multiplication facts. I wanted to see who could get 100% of 100 math facts. So far no one, but I know it's going to happen soon. We will officially begin Rocket Math tomorrow. Then, we took a field trip around the school and talked about procedures and the leadership responsibilities of a fifth grader. To sum up, fifth graders are cool, so be cool. After that we started our first math lesson on place value. This concept may seem easy, but it is actually quite abstract and challenging. I told the kids that this is the hardest easy thing I teach. After lunch, we practiced a little more math before starting our pipe cleaner and foil art project. I will post pictures of that once I figure out who has signed the media release and who has not. We ended the day with our first of many bullying lessons. Remember, for it to be bullying, three conditions need to be met: First, bullying is aggressive behavior that involves unwanted negative actions. Second, bullying involves a pattern of behavior repeated over time. Third, bullying involves an imbalance of power or strength. We will talk more about bullying tomorrow.

I had only one student return with the secret code word today. Tomorrow's secret code word is: phooey.

1st Day of School!

We had a great first day of school! We started the day getting to know each other with a game of "Two truths and a Lie" and a scavenger hunt activity. We had a class meeting to explain the way we do fifth grade and the expectations. After lunch, we got together with Ms. Mingl's class and learned and practiced some "Brain Breaks." We ended the day with watermelon art. If your kids are sticky when they get home, it's because they ate a 20 lb watermelon in about five minutes. See you tomorrow!

Oh yeah, I'm just curious to see who's reading this, so tomorrow the secret code word is "pineapple." Shhh! Don't tell anyone!

Parents,

Welcome to our classroom homework blog. Please use this site to access assignments, deadlines, math textbook and important messages for this classroom. I update this site frequently, so be sure to check it daily. It is a pretty good resource to keep us on the same page.

Please take moment to fill out the parent survey below. Thanks!

Back to School Night!

I can't wait to meet you all at Back to School Night, tomorrow from 6:00 to 7:30!