Penny Pig & Projects

We have been busy in 5th grade!! We have been working on division, summarizing, learning all about Native Americans, personal narratives and other cool 5th grade things. We have had a great week.

We have a new member of our class. She is only 4, and she is furry. She loves to eat vegetables, drink water and loves to be held. Have you heard about her? Two weeks ago, we welcomed Penny. Penny is a Guinea Pig that once belonged to a former student of mine and she needed a new home. We found a home for her in room 227.

We have been reading lots of books about how to care for her and we have some classroom experts that have guinea pigs of their own that share their knowledge with us too! She really liked it when we save her some veggies from lunch and she also likes to sit in our laps while we work. She has been a fun addition to our classroom and the kids have done great taking care of her and welcoming her to our family.

 

 

We will have a care schedule posted next week with jobs of feeding, watering, holding changing out the bedding in her cage. They have been great with her and they make having a classroom pet very easy. I am looking for someone to take her home for Fall Break. Please let me know if you are interested.

 

 

We have also been doing lots of projects in our room. On 9/11 we did a web search timeline of the events that happened on September 11th. It was very cool and the kids enjoyed it very much. We learned a lot about this day in our nation's history.

 

 

 

 

 

 



Our Native American projects were turned in this week. They were amazing!! I loved seeing what can happen when you and your child collaborate to create. They presented the information the learned about their artifact and we have them on display in the hallway for all to see! I am very proud of their efforts. Grades for the project should be in the Friday folder from the week.

 

Next week, we will wrap up our division unit, work on non fiction text structures, move on in the timeline of our country to learn about explorers. We will keep working on our personal narratives and begin learning about plant and animal cells.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Thanks for stopping by!!

Mrs. Snyder

Welcome Back 2014!

Hello Parents and Friends!

Welcome back to school! I know you have been back for a while, but this week was my first week back after maternity leave. I have LOVED getting to know each one of my students this week. We have been trying to learn all about each other all while learning new things, having picture day, trying to catch up to the other 5th grade classes and follow our daily schedule. It sure has been an adjustment for me to be back, but I have enjoyed it so much!

I wanted to start by giving you a peek in our classroom. This is where we spend our days. There are 24 of us in this room. We will learn together and grow so much together in this room this school year. I work hard to create an inviting space where we will all want to come to each day.  :)

WhaleCome. We are so glad you stopped by!

 

 

This is a peek in our room.
If you look closely you may notice the smallest Snyder child in this picture. He likes to come help me on the weekends. :)

This is one of the most used spots in our room.
We use it for morning meeting, reading groups, group work, a quiet place to read or work.
We use this corner quite a bit during our day.

 

 

This is our clip chart. Each day your child starts on GREEN- Good Day. They move up and down the chart based on good and not so good choices. There was info about this in the back to school folder. If you want to know more about how it works just ask! :)

We have 4 classroom rules:
Listen, Share, READ, Care.
Ask your child what these rules mean.

Here is our schedule, in case you were wondering what we did all day.

 

 

 

This is a great class and they have worked very hard with the sub and have all learned a little about each other, but I am trying to learn all about them too and we have been working to create a classroom culture that will make all of our days great ones. This week we did a little activity to encourage collaboration, communication and celebration (which are all key words here at LME). I gave each group a set of six solo cups and a string and rubber band apparatus and asked them to collaborate to create a six cup tower without touching the cups or rubber band with their hands. They could only use the string.

 

This seemed like a very challenging task to them. There was some concern that I had asked them to do the impossible. However, after some great communicating among the teammates they were able to collaborate to come up with some pretty creative ways to attempt the challenge. Eventually all groups completed the challenge which was reason for celebration and allowed for a great classroom discussion about working together and completing tasks.

 

 

 

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed a little peek into our short 4 day week and our classroom. We hope to update this blog regularly and eventually have the students do the updates. I am looking forward to the adventures to come with this bunch this year!!

 

LOVE,

Mrs. Snyder