Upcoming

Valentine's Day

We will celebrate with our party this Thursday (as there is no school for students on Friday).  Our party will be after lunch from 1:45-2:45.  Students are encouraged to bring in Valentines to their classmates.  I have sent a list home with them today.  We will also be having an optional box decorating contest.  Students are not at all required to bring in a fancy box, but those who choose to, can enter our contest.  If your kiddo doesn't want to decorate a box, please at least have them bring in something to hold their Valentines

Wish Week

Here is a message from student council:

Spirit Week will begin Tuesday February 18th.  Students are encouraged to bring change or a few dollars each day.  The class to collect the most money during Wish Week will earn a pizza party, so have fun and get competitive!  

Tuesday: Crazy Sock Day

Wednesday: Hat Day

Thursday: Skittles Day 

K - Red

1st - Orange

2nd - Yellow

3rd - Green

4th - Blue

5th - Purple

Friday: Wish Week Shirts

Field Trip

We are all set to head to the Museum of Nature and Science on March 6th.  Students will connect with their science learning of the body systems and participate in the Lung Lab where they will get to dissect a lamb's lung.  This is a great experience that kids seem to love year after year.  Please sign up here on MySchool Bucks.  Also, I am looking for 5 parent chaperones to accompany us!!  Please let me know if you are interested by this Thursday.  If I get more volunteers than the 5 we need, I will randomly pull names out of a hat.

Conferences

Spring Conferences are coming up on March 4th and 12th.  The school sign up will come out later this week, but I have included a sign up here for additional times if they may work better for you.  

Sign Up Link

P​TO Reminders

PTO is still collecting Box Tops!  If you have some please send them in.

February 11th is Papa John's fundraising night.

Please make sure to sign up your King Sooper's card with Gold Rush Elementary school.  A flier went home last week with a link.

January Update

Here's what's happening in our classroom:

Reading
We are in the process of completing our Argument and Advocacy Unit where students took some time to research a "hot topic."  These span from "Should we allow people to climb Mt. Everest?" to "Banning the use of plastic bags."  Ask your kiddo what they have been researching and where they stand on the issue.  They should be able to give you their claim followed with some strong research-based reasons.  With this unit we have focused quite a bit on critical thinking and reasoning.  They are doing great!

Writing
Our writing unit goes hand in hand with our reading unit, but the topic is a bit more controlled.  Students are taking sides on the question of "Should chocolate milk be available in school lunch rooms?"  Currently it's a pretty split class which is great to see.  Students have read articles on both sides to support their claim.  We have also spent a lot of time talking about adding thinking and "unpacking" the evidence to fully get your point across.  Other focuses have been: transitions, adding craft, looking at perspective, and using sources.

Math
We have dived head first into fractions and they are doing great!!  The past few weeks have focused on adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators as well as adding and subtracting mixed numbers.  There are so many things to keep in mind when dealing with fractions that often times kids get confused as to "what to do."  I'm a strong believer in teaching great mathematical thinking and understanding the why and number sense behind the math.  I think this is really helping these kiddos grasp the concepts.

Science
Our class is in our last unit that focuses on causes and consequences of weather.  This includes uneven heating of the earth, pressure, weather maps, and evaporation of water.  Along with this we have done a great technology unit where we looked at historical weather trends in different parts of the country and analyzed how this affects the area and climate.

Transition to MS

I know many of you have already attended some of the Coffee Talks at Cimarron Middle School recently.  If you haven't yet, there will be another one on February 26th.  This is a great opportunity for you to get to know the middle school and ask all the questions you may have. 

This week I sent home the electives form, which I thoroughly went over with the class.  I feel like they have a solid understanding of their choices, but if you need any other clarification I will happily answer any questions. 

Later in the year (May 11th) we will bring all the 5th graders up to Cimarron for a welcome and tour to help them feel more comfortable.

Being a parent sending a kid off to middle school myself, I am feeling many of the same feelings you are feeling.  Please know that I am always an email/phone call away.

December Happenings

Reading
We are finishing up our unit on Nonfiction Text Complexity by becoming experts on a topic of their choice.  Not only will kids gain deep knowledge on a subject, but we will be focusing on how texts on the same topics vary.  They may have different text structures, author biases, perspectives, and present information in very different ways.  Because of this, I am asking kids to gather resources.  We have books from our classroom that they are currently using, we have visited the Gold Rush Library, and I have printed a few articles for them.  Please also help them gather text by printing articles at home and visiting the public library.

Writing
We are finishing up our Literary Essay Unit.  Kids are in the process of finishing their second piece and will do one last one on a text of their choice.  We have focused, not only on essay structure and tone, but have also really gotten into finding just the right evidence to support our thesis statements and then "unpacking" that evidence to show how it supports our thinking.

Math
Division is our next topic.  We begin with whole number division then move into decimal division.  Through this work we will be making estimates to check the reasonableness of our answers, dividing by one-digit divisors, and by two-digit divisors.  I will teach both Partial Quotients and the Traditional Method of division and either option is fine with me.  Typically students find it easier to use traditional with one-digit divisors and partial quotients with two-digit.  The most important aspect at the end is that they have a solid understanding of division, are accurate, and are efficient.

Holiday Items
As a "gift" to the class, I will have an in-class Read-a-thon on Thursday the 18th.  On this day kids can bring in a small blanket or beach towel to get cozy with, I will provide hot chocolate, and we will spend the day enjoying books!  We will read fiction, nonfiction, science material, magazines, etc.

Upcoming Dates
Friday, Dec. 6th - Spelling Bee Pre-Qualification at 8:30 in the Gold Mine Room
Thursday, Dec. 12th - One-on-one Reading Assessments (there will be a sub this day as I test)
Wednesday, Dec, 18th - Read-a-thon and hot chocolate party
Thursday, Dec. 19th - Class Holiday Party
Friday, Dec. 20th - Winter Break Begins

This Week

As you know, this week has a lot going on.  Here's an updated breakdown of all that is happening:

Today - 

Kids will switch to Mrs. Burgraff's class for Earth Science

Book Fair began

Wednesday - 

Our Celebration of Learning in our classroom followed by our Digger's Thanksgiving Feast (see image below for times)

Friday - 

Pajama Day to raise money for our Turkey Drive 

Last day of our canned food drive

Phew!  I hope I covered everything!

November Happenings

Just a quick update for our month!

Reading
We've begun our nonfiction unit of study where kids delve into this genre by reading books of their choice.  To raise the level of reading skills in this area, we focus quite a bit on how the text gets more and more complex.  We've reviewed text structures, main ideas and supporting details.  Next will be how many text have overlapping text structures as well as implicit main ideas.  Vocabulary development, domain specific words, and using morphology will also be a big focus.  This will lead to great summaries and hopefully a love of learning from nonfiction. 

Writing
After reviewing a basic essay structure, we have combined fictional reading and writing to learn about the Literary Essay.  This will solidify the structure of most essays that students will write for years to come, while also reinforcing those great reading skills we learned in September and October of theme, character motivation, and symbolism.

Math
After completing our unit on whole number multiplication, we are ready for multiplication of decimals.  We begin by looking at place value, powers of 10, and a visual model.  Students will be reasoning through many complicated word problems by the end of this unit.

Science
In our Body Systems Unit we are now looking at our digestive system.  With each new system we learn the purpose, function of each part, how they work together, the level of interdependency on the whole system, and how the system as a whole helps fulfill a basic life process.  We are also understanding when illness or problems occur and how to keep our bodies healthy.

Later this month we will have our Celebration of Learning where kids show off what they have learned.  This will be the 30 minutes prior to our Thanksgiving Family Feast!

This past week's emails

Just a reminder that our school fun-run, the Digger Dash, is this coming Friday, September 27th!!  Our team name is the Mrs. Hagerty's Hungry Hippos!  To get into the team spirt, it would be awesome if everyone could wear a grey shirt.  Mrs. Hatton and Mrs. Bliesmer have graciously put time and effort into making our class banner and are going to get the kids grey hats.  If you would like to make a $2 donation to off set the cost of the materials, that would be appreciated.  I'm happy to collect that any day this week.  

Here is the schedule for the day.  Please be sure to send a labeled water bottle with your kiddo!

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As I stated in a previous email, Digger Dash is this Friday!  Please refer back to that for times and attire.  

Also, conferences are coming up.  Later this week, look for an email from the school to schedule that.  As I know that sometimes these days and times don't work for everyone, please email me if you need another morning before school or would prefer a phone or email conference.  

I hope everyone is having a great start to their week!

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A few of you have already emailed me about additional times for conferences.  If the times the school has set up don't work for you, here are a few additional options:

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/805094AA5A72BA3FA7-fall