Happy New Year! Set Your Goals HIGH!!!!!

In just a couple of days, it will be the beginning of a New Year: 2012!!!!!! I just wanted to post Happy New Year greetings to my students (and some former students who still check in on the blog)! I hope the new year will be full of excitement, fun, lots of learning, and lots of you achieving your goals that you set for yourselves! Make it a GREAT year and one to remember!!!
Also please remember that January 2nd is still part of the break and teachers have a teacher workday on Tuesday, January 3rd so students are NOT to come back until Thursday January 4th! Be ready to start your Benchmark Testing! I hope you have studied a little bit over the break! Don't forget everything that you have learned! AND READ!!!!!!! Love you all!

Science Projects On Plant And Animal Cells!

Here are the pictures from the Science Projects that students made showing the parts of animal and plant cells. They were so creative and the students really enjoyed presenting them in class and eating a few too! GREAT JOB 5th-Grade!!!!

Merry Christmas To My 5th-Graders!

Today was our last day of school. We had our party yesterday and then today was the Sing-A-Long and Goody Bags. Thanks to all of the parents who donated goodies to make the Goody Bags! I hope Santa is good to all of my students and that they enjoy some extra time relaxing and hanging out with friends and family! Make sure you study a little during the break so you will be ready for your benchmark tests when we go back to school, but also take some time to relax, rest, and HAVE FUN! Be safe!

Science Projects Due Tomorrow!!!!!!!!

Just a quick reminder that Science projects are due tomorrow......you've had a week and three days! It's time to see what all of your creative minds have come up with as models for plant and animals cells!!!! I can't WAIT! We'll be taking pictures and posting some of them on here! Remember to check your instruction sheet with the copy of the rubric that I will use to grade your projects. See you in the morning!

SOLS We Are Working On 2nd-Nine Weeks

Please look in the column on the right and scroll down to find a listing of the information we are studying and learning during 2nd Nine Weeks. Parents: this is a great way for you to keep up with what your child is learning and will be learning this nine weeks. Please note that the listing for 1st Nine Weeks is right below the 2nd Nine Weeks. Your child has notes to study EVERY night and should also keep old graded papers for review. He/she should NEVER say that they don't have homework.....STUDYING EVERY NIGHT and READING 20 MINUTES EVERY NIGHT IS HOMEWORK!

Working Towards The Christmas/Winter Break

Now that we are done with Thanksgiving, we are in the Christmas Holiday Season and we have a LOT to cover before our break comes around. Students are encouraged to study, learn a lot, BEHAVE, and read 20 minutes every night! We are also encouraging students to work hard on SuccessMaker Math and Reading which is your own personal tutor for Reading and Math! It has been PROVEN to help students learn and to prepare for the SOL Tests! We also have After-School Tutoring continuing and students are encouraged to take advantage of the extra help. Remember to ask questions if you don't understand something. THEN you can get the help you need!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

I have so much to be thankful for and among those things are my great 5th grade students that I get to work with this year. I hope all of them have a great holiday and a mighty wonderful Thanksgiving!

Important Dates!!!!!

Here's some dates to put on your calendars:
November 14-17 FAMILY LIFE
November 16 Career Day 1:30 for 5th-Grade
November 15: PTA and Brag Night 6:30 pm
November 14-18 American Education Week
November 22: Math Mini-Camp All Day!
November 23: Math Mini-Camp Assessment/Early Release 11:30
November 24-25 NO SCHOOL: Thanksgiving Break

Benchmark Tests For 1st Nine Weeks! (Sept. 26-29, 2011) and Intersession

I just wanted to let students and parents know that I will be giving the Benchmark Tests for Reading, Social Studies, Science, and Math next week. They will be on the laptops but students will be given scratch paper for any work that they want to do on the side. Students are encouraged to take their time, work out problems, and do their VERY best on these tests. The tests let us know how well students have learned the material that we have taught during the 1st Nine Weeks. The principal and school superintendent will also see these scores, so please encourage students to study EVERY NIGHT and to really put forth their best efforts when taking the tests. Here's the schedule:
Monday (Sept. 26) READING
Tuesday (Sept. 27) SOCIAL STUDIES
Wednesday (Sept. 28) SCIENCE
Thursday (Sept. 29) MATH

The week afterwards will begin our two-week Intersession. Students will be reviewing all skills taught during the 1st nine weeks to help remediate any weaknesses. Good behavior is EXPECTED and students who do not behave will be sent home for the remainder of the Intersession period. A LOT of review games and activities will be going on so please plan on attending Intersession! Remember that Intersession times are 8:20-1:20 every day. Following the two weeks of Intersession, we will ALL enjoy a nice week off for Fall Break!

PTA/Open House/Book Fair

I just wanted to let everyone know that the first PTA Meeting of the year will be THIS Tuesday 09/13/11 at 6pm. It will be Open House AND the book fair!!!! It's a great time to visit the classroom AND buy some wonderful books!!! LOTS OF FUN!

School Starts MONDAY: August 1, 2011!!!!!

Well, ready or not, it's time for a NEW SCHOOL YEAR!!!!!!!!!!! Make sure you get some rest this weekend because Monday is the beginning of a new year with a new group of 5th-graders!!!! Looking forward to meeting MY CLASS!!!!!!

Open House on Thursday! (July 28, 2011)

Are you ready to meet your teacher?????? I.W. Taylor's Open House will be this Thursday from 4-6pm! I am soooooooooooooooooo excited about meeting my homeroom and getting our year off to a GREAT start!!!! See you then!!!

No More Changing Classes!!!!!!

Well, there is going to be a big change at Taylor Elementary and I am so excited! We are NOT going to be changing classes anymore. The homeroom teacher will teach EVERYTHING to her homeroom class! That will save soooooooooooooooo much time! This is called a self-contained class and research shows that it is really helpful for students to be in a self-contained class so I am excited about it! I've taught like this before when I first started teaching 5th grade in Halifax County and I LOVED it!
I was able to go in last week to my classroom and get some things unpacked and cleaned out and of course THIS coming week, teachers officially go back to school. Open House is Thursday! Can't WAIT to meet my new group of students!!!!!

Supply List

Some of the new 5th-grade students may have lost the supply list we sent home at the end of the school year. Here's the list so you can start getting your supplies ready!

*3 inch ring binder (YES you will need one that big!)
*(8) dividers for the binder (do not write on them yet)
*glue sticks
*pencils for personal use (no mechanical pencils please)
*1 pack of 12 pencils for classroom use
*(10) packs of notebook paper
*colored pencils
*crayons
*erasers for the pencils
*(5) boxes of tissues
*scissors
*10 multicolored highlighters
*pencil box or pouch
*ruler
*protractor (the clear, cheap kind)
*(6) packs of 3X5 index cards
*Index card file box
*1 box of gallon-sized ziplock bags
*1 box of quart-sized ziplock bags
*optional: 1 spray can of Lysol disinfectant spray

Just A Few More Weeks...........

Well, the summer is quickly flying by and soon it will be time to start a new year, meet new students, and get busy with Back To School! I sure hope my new students are getting a lot of rest and having a safe and fun summer break. I also hope that they are reading and keeping up their skills as well as practicing the Math that they learned last year! Hopefully they all know their multiplication facts!!! I also hope that the 5th graders I taught this past year are working on maintaining their skills as they get ready to go to the Middle School!!!!! Remember that every year builds upon the one before it! Don't lose your skills! Yes, summer is for having fun and relaxing, but you don't want to lose all of that knowledge that you worked so hard to attain!!!! Enjoy the rest of your summer!!!!

The Year Is Almost Over!

WOW, this year has been a BUSY one!!!!! The last nine weeks was full of SOL preparation and practice and then taking the tests. And now we have one week left after tomorrow! Now our days are full of Promotion Ceremony practice and cleaning out lockers and desks. Next week we will go to Riverside Lanes for a mini-fieldtrip on Monday followed by our AR Pizza Party, Team Day on Tuesday, Field Day on Wednesday, Promotion Ceremony Practice and Kickball Tournament on Thursday, and the Promotion Ceremony for parents, family and friends at 9:00A.M. on Friday. YES, the days we have left together as a 5th-Grade Team are numbered and quickly flying by.....remember to have fun but behave!

SOL Reading Test Tomorrow and Thursday

Just a quick note to remind you that SOL Reading Tests will be given tomorrow for small groups and Thursday for large groups. Please review your Reading notes, Released SOL Tests that you practiced with in class, websites that you have been told about in class, and make sure that you get a good night's sleep and eat a healthy breakfast in the morning. Come to class ready to ace the test. Take your time, use your Reading strategies that you have been taught, re-read questions and passages and DO YOU VERY BEST! You get ONE SHOT to pass and I KNOW you can do it!!!!!!!!

NEW Website To Practice Math! GAMES AND FUN!

Someone shared this website with me today and I'm passing it along to my students because you are going to find lots of games and activities to practice Math! You can also print worksheets and just finds a TON of things to do that's FUN! Enjoy it!
The website is:
http://jmathpage.com/index.html

Here's What We Are Working On This Week (April 11-15, 2011)

1. Graphing: The Four Types of Graphs
2. Variables
3. Open Sentences
4. Equalities/Equations (1 step linear equations using add/sub and 1 variable)
5. Variable Expressions
6. Review: Patterns, Elapsed Time, Adding/Subt. Fractions and Mixed Numbers, Distributive Property of Multiplication Over Addition)
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This is the last of the SOL Material to be covered! When we finish all of the things listed above (1-5) then your child should have taken notes and had practice on ALL of the 5th-Grade SOLs! Next week is Intersession followed by Spring Break and then the rest of the weeks before SOL Testing, we will be remediating, taking questions, practicing and reviewing. As always, your child is welcome to come to me in the morning at 8:05-8:20 to ask questions one-on-one and get help. I have told all of the students this since the first day of school and very few of them come to me for help.

Math ARCADE GAMES!!!! FUN FUN FUN!

There is a website called http://www.arcademicskillbuilders.com where you can go on and play arcade games that let you practice Math skills! They are fun and I should know because I've been playing them too! Check it out and leave me a message in the guestbook to let me know what you think!

World Book Encyclopedia ONLINE!!!!!!

As we are working on research and as students have questions about different topics, you now have World Book Encyclopedia available for you to use for FREE ONLINE! This is a great resource for all students and parents (and teachers!). To access the encyclopedia, go to www.worldbookonline.com and for the username type danville1 and for the password type library. You can also go to the links section of this blog (located on the right side of the page and simply click on the link there to take you to the website. HAVE FUN!!!!!!!

Here's What We Are Working On This Week (March 21-25, 2011)

Reading: We will start the novel, Island of the Blue Dolphins! YAY!!!!! Great book! We are also working on nonfiction passages and using our test-taking skills to find the correct information to answer SOL formatted questions.

Math: 2-D shapes, line of symmetry, transformations, congruent/similar, subdividing and combining shapes, and review of previous skills during POTD (problems of the day)

Monday is also the SOL Writing Test (prompt).

CONTEST to earn some Team Day Points!!!

Ok I'd really like to see how many students are checking this blog. So....here's a contest to earn 5 Team Day Points. You have to:
1. Leave a comment in the guestbook and tell me what your favorite part of the blog is.
2. You can also tell me what your favorite thing is that you've learned in Math class.
3. The first 10 5th-graders to do this will get the 5 Team Day Points.
Have fun!

This Week's Skills Covered In Class: March 7-11, 2011

Reading: Practicing and reviewing for the SOL Writing Test (The testing days are Tuesday and Thursday!) We will also be reading some passages and practice test-taking skills for Reading! Students will also have time to take AR tests!


Math: Measuring length (inches) and (centimeters), measuring length examples involving inches, feet, yards, miles (U.S. Customary Units) and millimeter, centimeter, meter, and kilometer (Metric System Units), 2-D plane figures, review.

SOL Writing Test Next Week!!!!!

The SOL Writing Test will be given next week. The multiple choice part will be on Tuesday, March 8 and the Direct Writing (Prompt/Paper) part will be given on Thursday, March 10. Students are encouraged to practice writing papers, and looking over all of the multiple choice practice tests that have been given. Many of these will come home in their folders on Monday. Be sure to save them, and PRACTICE. Here are some other helpful tips to get ready for testing dates:
1. Get a good nights rest the night before.
2. Eat a healthy breakfast that morning.
3. Come to school with a good, positive attitude! You KNOW you can pass this test if you take your time and THINK. Miss Dudley has taught you EVERYTHING you need to know and you can do it!
4. Take YOUR time on the test! It is not timed and you can really do your best!

Good luck 5th-graders! Your teachers believe in you and know you can ace this test! Now it's your turn to SHOW WHAT YOU KNOW!!!!!!!!

Here's What We Are Working On This Week (Feb. 28th-March 4th)

This week we are not going to be reading a book or selection because we will be practicing for the Writing Test during Reading time. Please encourage your child to take these preparations seriously and do his/her best! They will count as GRADES in the gradebook!

Math: Types of Triangles (classifying by angles AND by sides:right, acute, obtuse, equilateral, scalene, isosceles), Measuring Length (centimeters and inches), 2-D plane figures, 3-D solids, congruent and similar figures, line of symmetry, review of elapsed time).

Interims go home on Monday (February 28th). A lot of students are not studying and practicing at home with their notes and old papers. They need to take Math seriously and do a lot of work AT HOME! Tutoring one or two days a week will start in the middle of March to allow me to tutor those that need it the most BEFORE the SOL test in May.

Thanks Donors Choose!!!!!!

We are so happy to have received our latest DonorsChoose project that was funded. We now have 21 copies of each of the last 3 Diary of a Wimpy Kid novels (The Last Straw, Dog Days, and The Ugly Truth)! These are some really nice hardcover books and we are reading like crazy!!!!! Mrs. Appleton's homeroom has already reached our Class AR Goal in the Library but a few students need to still reach their goal so we can have our pizza party soon! Mrs. Appleton is now waiting to see how many of her wonderful readers will DOUBLE their AR Goals!!!!! These new books are definitely helping us love reading more and more. Thanks to our kind donors who picked our project and sent us these GREAT books!!!!! Now we have ALL 5 books!!!!!

Here's What We Are Working On This Week (Feb. 21-25th)

Reading: We will be reading the book, "Who Was Harriet Tubman?" and doing a unit of study on Harriet Tubman. We will also be discussing elements of nonfiction text.

Math: We will be Measuring Angles using a protractor and identifying angles as acute, right, obtuse, and straight. We will also work on measuring length using inches AND centimeters. We are starting back this week with our Math Problems of the Day after taking a break for a couple of weeks to review some material and get caught up with our pacing guide. The POTD will review ALL skills covered so far for the year, so make sure you are looking over your Math Journals every night and practicing with graded papers sent home.

This Week's Skills Covered In Class: Feb. 14-18

1. Reading: We read the fiction story, The Marble Champ, and talked a lot about plot. Students made a plot outline of the events of the story. They organized the events into the introduction, the rising action, the climax, the falling action, and the conclusion. Students also had time to take AR tests every morning and we did SuccessMaker Reading for 30 minutes in the Computer Lab. The test on the story and vocabulary is tomorrow. Students should also have 4 AR points every week! The more they read, the better readers they become.
2. Math: We covered introductory notes in Geometry including point, line, line segment, ray, plane which are a review from 4th grade and temperature notes about Fahrenheit and Celsius measurements for freezing temperature, boiling temperature, and normal body temperature. Students should memorize the six temperatures and be able to answer questions about them. We took a quiz on this and a LOT of students did NOT do well. We will be remediating this! We also took notes on the types of angles (acute, right, obtuse, straight) and we will be measuring angles with a protractor on Friday. Please remind your child to bring his/her protractor to class.

2nd Nine Weeks Is DONE..........Now Onward We Go!

Well half of the school year is over and we are heading into the second half of it! With that comes LOTS and LOTS of SOL Test Prep! We have a lot of Math left to cover and there are many weak areas that students need to practice and work on outside of the classroom. After school tutoring has begun and soon in school tutoring will also go on during Activity Time. Please encourage students to study EVERY night and to READ EVERY NIGHT! The best way to become better at reading is to read more and more and more and more..........The first SOL Test will be in March and will be the Writing Test. Students should be writing and writing and writing and writing........The more you write, the better you ALSO get at reading. The two skills go together and help each! Reading improves Writing and Writing improves Reading!
As for Math.........students have a MATH JOURNAL that should be coming home every single night! Papers that I send home with grades on them should be used as study materials and worked over and over to ensure that students don't lose their skills! Students are also told to see Mrs. Appleton during AR time in the mornings if they need extra help with a Math skill. So far, not many students have been coming to get help! Now is the time to prepare and learn and study and get yourselves ready for those tests! We KNOW that everyone can pass but you have to be willing to work at it! Don't disappoint yourselves! You can do it!

Math Benchmark Test TOMORROW! (Jan. 14th)

Make sure you are studying and practicing Math for the benchmark test tomorrow. It goes in the gradebook and the top 3 in each class will get special treats! The grades are turned in to Mrs. Tucker who then goes over them with our superintendent so do your BEST! Take your time and work out EVERY SINGLE problem before choosing an answer on the computer! You get ONE SHOT!!!!! Let's see some 100's!!!!!! You can do it!

The Newest Tool In Our Math Classroom!

Thank goodness for kind donors out there who have donated a HIGH VOLUME pencil sharpener to our classroom! We just got it today and it is getting the job! Just a reminder to students to take care of it.....it is the last pencil sharpener I am getting this year for the classroom and THIS ONE SHOULD LAST or you'll be on your own to get your pencils sharpened. Let's all work together to take care of this one.

A NEW YEAR Has Started! Set YOUR Goals High!!!

Welcome to 2011 and back to school!!!!! Now is the time to set your goals and think about things to come in the future. I am SURE that many of you are thinking ahead to SOL Testing and the scores you hope to make on those tests. You can't wait until the last minute to prepare. You have to start NOW! Here are some things you should be doing to get ready:
1. Do ALL of your homework and come to class ready to ask questions if you don't understand something.
2. Study your notes EVERY night! Those Math Journals should be going home with you every night so you can review the skills that you still are struggling with. Use your OLD papers that have been graded and sent home to review and practice too.
3. Schedule a time to talk to your teacher if you need some ONE-ON-ONE help with a certain skill. AR Time is 8:05-8:40 so while my homeroom students are working on AR, I am free to help students, but YOU have to let me know what you need help with and come to me to schedule a time! I am here for you!
4. Come to school ready to LEARN! Many students are not coming with that "learning attitude." We are noticing that some are coming just to socialize and play with friends. There is a time for socializing, talking, and playing but class time is NOT that time. Save your conversations for Lunch, Recess, and other free time that may come up. Use class time for asking questions, listening carefully, and doing your best on your assignments.
5. Make yourself some study aids such as flashcards, study posters, practice tests, etc. You LEARN when you DO SOMETHING with the information.....not just by looking at it. The more you work with information and use it, the better you LEARN it! Be an ACTIVE learner!!!
6. ENCOURAGE each other.....we're all one big 5th-grade Family and everyone needs encouragement and friendship. When people feel better about being at school, they LEARN better!
7. Follow directions and DO YOUR BEST......no one can MAKE you succeed. You have to choose it for yourself and WANT to be a winner! Your teachers are here to teach you, guide you, and help you. But in the end.....it's up to YOU!