EOGs are done!

tomorrow we have human growth, and we’ll be cleaning up our classroom.  On Thursday we have our celebration.  You should have gotten a letter today in their folder that looked like this:

Dear Parents and Families of 5^th grade students,

Congratulations!  The school year is coming to a close, and your student is about to take their next big step into Middle School.  This is a last little reminder about our awards and end of year celebration that will be held this Thursday, June 26^th in the Gymnasium at Lockhart Elementary.  We will have a short ceremony where students are presented with a certificate of completion of 5^th grade, and some academic awards will be handed out as well.  The ceremony begins promptly at 9AM.  We do not want anything to interrupt our ceremony, so the doors will be closed and it will not be possible to enter the Gym after 9AM.  Please make sure that you have arrived and are seated by 8:45.  We expect the ceremony to last approximately 90-120 minutes.  Afterwards, there will be cake and refreshments in the cafeteria for the students and their families to enjoy.  Students will receive their report cards Thursday morning, so families may feel free to take their child home once the ceremony has completed.

Also, to clear up some confusion:  There is an end of year celebration put on by the PTA for the entire school on Thursday night at 6:30PM.  This is a luau themed celebration.  This is for the entire school, and does not have anything to do with the 5^th grade end of year ceremony, which is Thursday morning at 8:45AM.  Please feel free to come and enjoy this luau as well, but note that it is separate from the 5^th grade ceremony.

If you didn’t get it, well there it is!

It’s been a great year with some wonderful kids.  I am going to miss them!

Hopefully I will see you all Thursday

-Mr. Potter

Go ahead and click it, you know you want to!

We are in the home stretch!

So tomorrow we have our science EOG test.  We have spent the last few days reviewing, and the students should have a good bit of paper and notes to look at tonight.

There is no more homework for the week, and students don’t need to worry about reading logs.  However that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be reading!!

Reading daily really is the most important habit that you can instill in your child.  Please keep reading.  It increases your vocabulary, exposes you to a myriad of different things, and honestly just makes you more intelligent.  This is a bit old, and more for 1st graders, but just look at the math on this website for an idea of why it’s so important to keep reading:

Why do I have to read each day?

So:

Tomorrow(Tuesday): Science EOG

Wednesday: Human Growth and Development lessons and celebration practice

Thursday: 5th grade awards and celebration

Please dress nicely, and parents and families please be in the Gym no later than 8:45 AM.  The doors will be closed for good at 9AM when the ceremony begins as they do not want any interruptions.  Students will be getting another note about this tomorrow when they bring home quite a bit of their stuff that is here at the school.

That’s it for announcements from me.  If you have any questions about anything at all, please shoot me an e-mail or give me a call.

Get a good night’s rest, and eat your breakfast tomorrow!!

-Mr. Potter

Science review and State of the Classroom!

Long time no post!

So this week we took our Math and Language Arts EOGs.

Our kids really worked their tails off.  I was so incredibly impressed with how hard they worked on both of those tests.  In both cases, we were the absolute last class testing among all of fifth grade.  Our kids double and triple checked their work, and really thought about what they were doing.  It was fantastic.  Regardless of what scores come back, I am satisfied that everyone did their best on those assessments.

BUT WE AREN’T DONE YET!

We have spent the last few days reviewing basically the entire year’s worth of science.  It has been a bit rocky for me as I wasn’t here for the first half, so I wasn’t too sure what the students new about a lot of things.  We have been rotating between using study island on the computers, studying independently, groups, and taking practice assessments.  I am very happy with how hard the students are still working after having such an exhausting Monday and Tuesday.

There IS homework this weekend!

Students at this point should have three review packets – one on weather, one on human body systems, and one on ecosystems.  The first two should already be finished and checked.  Their homework this weekend is to finish the third packet on ecosystems.  They also have a science journal with some notes and a science textbook.  They should be looking through these, at the topics we have covered, and ensuring they understand these concepts.  If they are still stuck on anything or confused, they should come in Monday with questions to be answered!

Just one week remaining.  I know it’s rough, but we’ll get through it!

So, tldr;

finish ecosystems packet

study!

Science EOG on Tuesday!

Our final year end celebration and awards ceremony is on Thursday. I will post here Monday with all of the details if you don’t have them yet.

Have a good weekend,

Study!

-Mr. Potter

Monday is our Math EOG!!

If you haven’t yet heard, our math EOG is on Monday.  We have spent this entire week getting ready, and the kids are doing very well.  Here are just some review notes and problems that we did today.  Most everyone should have these already copied down into their math journals, but here is another opportunity to solve them and look at the answers before Monday.  There is one of each general type of problem (adding, subtracting fractions, multiplying fractions and decimals, area and volume, etc etc).

ReviewNotes

FinalReviewProblems

FinalReviewProblemsSolved

Please get a good night’s rest on Sunday!

Eat your breakfast on Monday!

and relax, because you’re going to do fine.  Take your time, double check your answers, and SAVE ROGER!

Have a good weekend

-Mr. Potter

A full day of air conditioning was enjoyed by all!

It was fantastic!

So this morning we really got down to business, to make up for yesterday.  We learned our last ‘new’ thing before the EOGs: Division by fractions.  We took a lot of notes, did a lot of activities involving some folded paper, and did a lot of learning.  The notes the students took, and a refresher for you if you need it, are here:

DivisionByFractions

For homework, the students should completely and totally finish their review problems packet.  They should redo the problems on the back of each page, and ensure they have double checked their work.  They will turn this in tomorrow for a test grade.  I will be checking and grading it for accuracy.  If they can understand and do these problems, then I am very hopeful about their prospects on the EOGs.  If there are still some that are giving them problems, they should let me know which so we can work on them.  We only have two days of review left!

CC 5th grade word problems

They also received a page of division with fractions problems to work out tonight:

DividingFractionsHomework

We spent the remainder of our day finishing up some M-class assessments and doing a topic test on fractions.  I haven’t graded the tests yet, but what I saw looked very promising.

You might also like to know that Roger has taken very few beatings these last few days.  Our Cordelia also made him an awesome eye-patch for his poor empty socket.

I think he looks awesome – how about you?

SO tldr;

students are doing great

air conditioning = hooray

finish redoing the math problems packet

CC 5th grade word problems

division with fractions worksheet

DividingFractionsHomework

Roger is safe……for now

Have a good one!

-Mr. Potter

Oh man, what an awful day!!!

So, the air conditioning did not work in our building for the entire morning.

yeah….24 fifth graders, and one sweaty teacher stuck in a room for 3 hours in 90 degree temperatures.

One word comes to mind:

aromatic

We took some periodic breaks, going outside into the shade, until finally we had had enough, and we all went outside to work in the shade.

So our morning was kind of shot, sadly.  We did do some rotations and math review, but mostly we just sweated, and wished we were at the pool.

This meant that once the air was finally back on in the afternoon, we finished up our math review that we should have done during the morning.

So, we spent our entire day on math!

And a trip to the coool, cooooool, wonderful media center.

For math homework, students should do PAGES 3, 4, & 5 of their review problems packet.  They should redo the problems on the back of the page, and make sure their answers are in sentence form.

CC 5th grade word problems

They also got a topic test 15 to take and do at home.  This should be a freebie level 3 or 4 test!

We have been doing a lot of work in small groups and independent work, and I’m very impressed with the majority of our class.  They are working hard even when the teacher isn’t looking right at them.  This is exactly how they have to be when they go to middle and high school.  Teachers are going to give them an assignment, and a deadline, and it’s up to them to make sure it gets done on time.  I have high hopes that our students will do well there.

so, tldr;

today was hot

Students should re-do pages 3,4,5 in their math problems packet

CC 5th grade word problems

Students should completely ace their topic 15 test

have an air conditioned day!

-Mr. Potter