First off let me wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving! I know I have a lot to be thankful for including my family, both at home and at school! Fifth grade readers have been very busy these last couple of weeks...we covered a lot of skills including; making predictions, sequence of events, and story elements. We have also covered a few fluency skills, and of course have been reading a lot of good books! Each class is currently having a competition. Every month students set a goal for how many books they think they will be able to read, and then at the end of every month I conference with them to see how many they actually read. I have told them that the class that has the most books read by the end of the year will get a pizza party courtesy of me! So far Mr. Brown's class is in the lead with a 128 books! 
Next month we will focus on our poetry unit. This is my favorite unit of the year because I get to see kids' creative sides. It is also fun for me to show kids that poetry might not necessarily be what they think it is. I hope everybody has a wonderful holiday season, and remember to keep READING! :o) 

Where has fall gone? This school year is already flying by, and so far it has been great. In reading, students have been doing a fantastic job, and we have read some really good books! Currently, fifth graders are working on Close Reading strategies, along with predicting and making context clues (very important skills to have as a reader). We are also reading a fantastic book called Wonder. This also happens to be a Battle of the Books book for fifth grade. 
In my class students have started working on Blogs of their own. We will use these in a variety of ways throughout the year, but we will start by using them to correspond with another class through something called The Global Read Aloud! This is program where two classrooms from different parts of the world read the same book, and then discuss it through a variety of technology. In the past we have primarily used Blogs and Skype. We will most likely use these again this year. I hope everybody has a great rest of the week, and remember to keep READING! ;o)

Blogging w/ Mrs. Haglin

Blogging Continues!

Readers' Theater; Harry Potter

Readers' Theater: Its the Great Pumpkin

Readers' Theater: Tops and Bottoms

Readers' Theater

Readers' Theater:  Big Pumpkin

Big Pumpkin

Miss Nelson is Missing 

Welcome Back! It has been a great first couple of weeks back at school. Students and teachers are starting to get into the groove of being back on a schedule. In the last few weeks we have done a lot of fun things, one being our Reading Taste Test. This activity was so fun to do with fifth grade. I set up the extra sixth grade room as a restaurant and on each table was a different genre of books. Students got about ten minutes at table to sample that genre. After reading for few minutes they would write in their "menu" their thoughts about that book. The menus were then to create book lists of books they could potentially read this year. I think the students enjoyed it as much as I did.
Just a reminder that reading logs will be due Monday. Students will get their new reading log on Monday for that week. If you have questions about reading logs or anything reading please don't hesitate to contact me. I hope everyone has a great weekend and remember to keep READING! :) 

Discussing their book choices!

You need a few snacks at a tasting! 

Mrs. Kosloski's Student of the Month for Stamina

How did we make it to second trimester already? Time is flying by in fifth grade, and we have been very busy over the past few weeks. Fifth graders did their first book club, and finished this week. It was fun to hear them discuss a bunch of different books! My class started meeting with their preschool book buddies every other Thursday, and that has been so great! Now we are diving into poetry. This is my favorite unit of the year because it always amazes me how creative they are. And usually by the end of the unit I can get the kids who raised their hand on the first day and said they did not like poetry, to change their mind! As we near winter break I want to remind all students to keep reading...even over break! I hope everyone has a great holiday season!
                                        
                              Preschool Book Buddies...on Halloween!

Conferences

Wow, how are we half way through October already? Time really does fly when you're having fun! Thank you to all the parents that came out to conferences. It is our privilege to get to work with your children. Thank you for sharing them with us!

Last week my class got a chance to Skype with a class from South Carolina for the start of our Global Read Aloud. Both of our classes are currently reading Fish In A Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt. As we read the book we will be discussing it with our partner class. Next week, Mrs. Haglin will be coming into teach us about Kid Blog, and we will be posting questions and comments about the book for our partner class to respond to. It is a very cool project, and allows us to go outside our classroom without really going outside our classroom! 

This week all classes participated in performing readers' theaters in reading class. Everybody did a great job and it was really fun to watch. When we come back from break we will be working on main idea, and eventually our first book club. I hope everybody had a fantastic fall break, and remember to keep READING! 

Skype Session w/ a class from South Carolina

Getting into the Groove!

This week we had a normal week! All students rotated each day, and we started Art, Band, and Technology! Fifth graders took their first spelling test on Friday, and they even had some homework! This week in reading we worked a lot on read-to-self. Students also put together their reading journals that will be crucial to reading class this year. Finally, we practiced writing a letter about the book we are reading in class. While students were reading this week I started to assess their reading levels with a word test. I will continue assessments next week. These students are awesome! I am so excited for the rest of the year. I know it is going to be great! 

Just a reminder next week is our volunteer orientation. If you are planning to chaperon our field trip in the spring you will need to attend this event. Also, the people from Rachel's Challenge are coming back next week.  Have a super weekend! 


PS. Check out this post from Mrs. Haglin's blog. My class will be participating in this again this year! I can't wait! 

Posted: 18 Sep 2015 01:00 AM PDT

The Global Read Aloud is a fantastic way to connect your students with the world through reading!

There are no rules other than reading one of the selected books aloud to your students and connecting in some way with a different class about the book.

Last fall, Amy Kosloski's class participated.  They connected with classes in Texas, New York, and Canada through Skype and Kidblog.  Check out some of their Kidblog posts here.

They enjoyed a good book together and became more engaged as they discussed the book with other classes.  They broadened their perspective as they viewed, spoke to, and blogged with students from a different area of the world.  Click here to see a few moments from one of their Skype experiences (this was a Mystery Skype, in which each class tried to guess the location of the other class).

This opportunity is for all ages, K-12.  It officially beginsOctober 5th.  I can help you set up a partnership, teach you and your students how to Skype/blog/make any other sort of connection.  Please click here to let me know if you are interested in learning more about the Global Read Aloud.

First Week of School

Happy Friday! We survived our first week of school! We had a really great week in fifth grade. At the beginning of the week fifth graders did a lot of getting to know you activities, and also learned a lot about our room, and the expectations in our school. Towards the end of the week students got the chance to rotate to math and science and social studies, while I got a chance to get to know students from Mr. Kiebel and Mr. Brown's class. In reading class this week we did a few read alouds, and talked about "shopping" for books. Most students also got the chance to check out a book or two from my room.
 Next week I will begin assessments on all students. This year students may read any book they want in while in my room. With that said, students need to make sure they always have a book while in my class to read. In fifth grade we work really hard on learning how to pick out good fit books. We use the IPICK method (see picture below). I will be working with students on this in our individual conferences as well as in whole class lessons. Along with reading in my class students are expected to read 20 minutes at home five days a week. They will need to record these minutes on their monthly reading log, have it signed by a parent, and bring it back at the end of the month. Fifth graders will receive their first reading log on Monday. As I said earlier it was a great week. I am so excited to work with all of the fifth grade students this year. Cheers to the weekend and a great week two!

PS Book orders are due Wednesday 9/16

My class performing a rules readers' theater for the kindergarten class!