September 29-October 3

Today is an exciting day at Riverchase Elementary School!  It is Fall Festival Day!  We sure do wish it wasn't raining but we will make the most of it.  Today we are channeling our excitement into publishing our first narrative writing piece!  The students have worked VERY hard learning about leads, dialogue, and telling a "small moment" story from their life.  I am very proud of the way that they have revised, edited, and revised again!  I can't wait to read their final pieces!

We used the upper grades computer lab today.  However, we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our Chromebooks in November.  Once we get them set up, students will be able to research and type their writing in the classroom as we are working!  If you have not signed the Hoover Engaged Learning Initiative agreements please go here to do so.

Other Curriculum News:

Writing:  If there is one thing I know about fifth graders, it is that they ALL have opinions.  Next week we will begin exploring argument and opinion writing.  This is a lot of fun for the kids.  We will learn that it is important to learn both sides of an argument as well as how to present this evidence in a convincing manner.

Reading: In conjunction with our writing unit, we will begin to study nonfiction text and their features.  This is a very important skill for fifth graders to be expose to and practice as they get ready for middle school text books and real-world print. 

Math: We are finishing our unit on properties of numbers, multiplication and division.  By the end of next week we SHOULD be able to move on to our geometry unit.  Please remember math IXL contracts are due October 7.

Science:  We will be finishing our earth and space science unit.  If you have not done so, ask your child about the fun experiments we have done with types of rocks and gravity!