October, Already??

   It is hard to believe that it is already the first week in October!  This first month and a half of school just flew by!  We have been working hard this week learning all we can for our latest project.  We have been reading the City of Ember in small groups and we have been learning about the sun, shadows and moon all to help us complete our projects.
     This week we went outside and traced our shadows at different times of the day to see how they change.  We had a video chat with Dr. Bolt from the Chicago Planetarium on Tuesday and that was outstanding.  He did a great job talking with us and answering lots of the students questions.  He showed us photos and artifacts that were very cool to see.  We hope we can talk with him again sometime.
     In fifth grade math this week we continued to work on multiplication and division.  We took a common assessment over these and students did fairly well.  Those having problems with these skills are struggling because they do not know their facts.  Quiz your child often as them more practice the better they will be at knowing their facts.  In advanced math we worked on mathematical properties and finding GCF and LCM's.  This was Miss Kunnen's last week as Mrs. Dennie's student teacher.  The students and Mrs. Dennie will miss her and the help she gave the kids. 
     In language arts small group, we work on comprehending The City of Ember by discussing and answering questions.  We also continued working on similes and metaphors.  Please remind your students that they need to complete two Achieve 3000 articles each week and two thought questions.  The goal is to have an average of 75% or higher on each of these activities on the first try.  These articles are at each students independent reading level.  Also, students should be reading at home each night and completing their Riverside Reads chart.   In science, we did a lot in our notebooks and outside on the sun and shadows this week.  We took a common assessment this week over the sun's movement. 
     We are having a parent informational meeting on Wednesday night, October 9th at 6:00pm for any parents who want to learn more about Echo.  We know there are questions that parents have and we would love to have you come and ask those and we will try to answer them.  The questions we can't answer we will find someone who can answer them for us.