Summer Break!

We hope that everyone has a WONDERFUL, AMAZING, BEST SUMMER EVER, and we will see you all in August! 

What We're Learning this Week! {April 17th-21st}

Our K-PREP testing starts on Tuesday, April 25th, so our days are limited. We are making the best of them reviewing concepts and skills in a way that isn't as boring as traditional review. So, on Monday, in Reading, students reviewed skills by playing Trashketball! Who doesn't love getting to throw wads of paper trash across the room, basketball style, trying to earn points for their team!?

Tuesday, we completed our final MAP Math test for the 2016-2017 school year by once again using the Chromebooks from the comfort of our classroom.  Our score goal for end of the year in Math is a 223 and students worked feverishly to either raise scores to the 223 level, or to beat their own personal best if they had already surpassed this score earlier in the year. 

Other events coming up this week include:
Tuesday, April 18th - Spring MAP Math Assessment
Wednesday, April 19th - Walk the Red Carpet Event! {For students scoring Proficient or Distinguished on last year's K-PREP assessment}
Friday, April 21 - "Little Mermaid" Production @ 1:30

What We're Learning this Week! {April 10th-14th}

On Monday, after a week off, we are ALL in on prepping for the K-PREP test. In Math, we began our testing review packet that Mrs. Elliott created, focusing on the hardest and most difficult standards. We picked a good name for this year's booklet. Last year's 5th grade chose to "Hulk Smash" the test! Because this year's students are obsessed with Matilda, specially the Trunchbull, we decided we were going to "Trunchbull the Test"! Students even chose which picture they wanted represented on the cover! LOL

{Last year's cover!}

{This year's cover!}

Tuesday in Reading it was time for our Spring MAP assessment, the final one for the year. W decided to tackle this assessment a little differently this time and opted to take the test in the classroom using Chromebooks!

 

After during our daily "Trunchbull" on Wednesday, we focused our attention to Social Studies and reviewed by playing various Social Studies games! We reviewed over topics such as the United States, Explorers, Landforms, the World, and Native Americans. Who says reviewing can't be fun!?

Events coming up this week include:

Monday, April 10th - MAP Spring Assessment {Reading}

Wednesday, April 12th - STLP State Competition

What We're Learning this Week! {April 3rd-7th}

This week, we are learning how to RELAX! Enjoy your week off everyone! We will see you next week, ready to do some last minute test prep as we prepare to tackle the K-PREP! Stay safe and have fun!

- Mrs. Elliott & Mrs. Dennis

What We're Learning this Week! {March 27th-31st}

We have another busy and full week ahead of us as we march toward Spring Break and count down until K-PREP testing time! In the meantime, we spent the day Monday celebrating our most recent post-assessment accomplishments in both Mrs. Elliott and Mrs. Dennis' classes!

As students completed their PDSA's for standards of study in both the Math and Reading content areas, students chose what celebratory activity they wanted to participate in, should 80% of the class reach proficiency on the standard, according to the post-assessment data. 

In Math, students chose "free electronic time", an opportunity to play freely on their electronics during Math time (school approved sites, of course!), instead of working for the day. 

As, our classroom motto goes, "We work hard, we play hard!", and students definitely worked hard! Take a look at pre-test versus post-test scores, indicating a high level of student growth for both classrooms!

{Students place a post-it note indicating their score in the correct column according to pre-assessment results: 0-50% red, 60-70% yellow, and 80%+ green. Those students scoring below 80% are required to take the post-assessment test at the end of the standard, while students scoring 80% or higher can choose to take the assessment to increase their score, or opt out, if they scored a 100% for instance. After post-assessment results are in, students then move their post-it note to the correct column, indicating their new, and hopefully improved score. Students not scoring in the proficient column, 80%+ are then pulled for Tier II grouping.}

In Reading, students chose "Cake Boss", an activity they have completed numerous times at this point, yet can't get enough of! They get to decorate, and then most importantly EAT cakes that they've decorated! 

Formulating a plan...

Some of the completed cakes...

And the Cake Boss winner, voted on by Mrs. Dennis and Mrs. Elliott....!!!!

Mondays can be hard coming back to after a fun-filled weekend, but with student achievement celebrations like these, it always makes it a little easier!☺

In 5th grade, "We WORK hard, we PLAY hard!" and Mrs. Dennis and Mrs. Elliott always hold up their end of the bargain!

On Tuesday, it was back to business as usual. In Math, after taking our next pre-assessment, over 5.MD.1, students took notes over creating and answering questions involving line plots with fractional measurements. After reviewing briefly, students created a topic that we could quickly and easily gather data from that included fractions {student shoes sizes}, gathered their own information in a tally chart, and transferred their information to a line plot, being careful to include all the necessary parts. Here is an example:

In Social Studies, we continued working on our study of the Civil War. After investigating the key events that led up to the War, such as the Missouri Compromise, Bleeding Kansas, and the election of Abraham Lincoln, we dug deep into what the war was like for soldiers of both the Union and Confederate Armies, including war tactics and technologies, food, life on the home front, and even medical care.

In the meantime, a few students who are working on independent studies of their choosing, continued their projects. These are still works in progress and the boys almost had heart attacks knowing that unfinished products were going on the blog, LOL!

Henry chose to delve deeper into European, Spanish, and French Explorers and is creating a version of "Pokemon" cards for each explorer, giving each a "health" rating scale, depending upon their successes and failures in achieving their goals.

Roby and Cooper chose to stick with the Civil War and are busily creating a board game incorporating events leading up to the war, key figures of the war, major battles, as well as other important and deciding factors that helped to determine the ultimate outcome. 

 

Eli chose to focus on Geography. He is researching and creating a World Cultural Map, based upon the predominant population of countries located throughout the world, as indicated by their religious symbols. 

On Wednesday, the entire school traveled to Morehead State University to watch the M.S.U. Eagles battle Alabama A&U. It was a wonderful field trip, as many of us had never had the opportunity to step foot on a university campus, even though we have one so close! Before the game, fifth grade had the privilege of  touring campus. We got to see and learn about the many academic programs offered and what buildings those courses were offered in, we visited the Recreational Center and were amazed at how nice and state of the art it was, and got to experience what campus living would be like by visiting an actual dorm room! Then, it was on to the athletic field to cheer on our favorite Eagles! We had a blast, and of course, M.S.U. won!

Other events coming up this week include:

Wednesday, March 29th - M.S.U. Baseball Game Field Trip {wear BLUE or YELLOW}

Thursday, March 30th - Perfect Attendance Staff vs. Students Basketball Game

Friday, March 31st - March Against Drugs {wear RED!}

Sign up for "REMINDers"!

Life can get a bit hectic when kids start school and deadlines quickly approach. We hope to help out by using a program called Remind (formerly Remind101) again this year with our classes. Remind is a text reminder app that will allow us to periodically send out classroom (think homework assignments or project due dates) and school reminders (field trips, fundraisers, programs, etc.) via text message to help ease the burden of remembering. 

You can subscribe one of three ways, whichever is most convenient for you:

Simply send a text message to (606) 219-4376 and enter our classroom code: @2c7f

OR

Download the Remind app (it's free!) and enter the classroom code: @2c7f

OR

Visit this link http://www.remind.com/join/2c7f

The service is free, depending on your cellular service text messaging rates (meaning standard text messaging rates apply). Rest assured that you will not receive advertisement texts and your phone number will remain private. You may choose to opt out at any time by messaging “stop” to the above number.

We have found that this service helps to strengthen the home-school connection. Again, we look forward to another wonderful year!

2016-2017 Class Rosters!

{Click on each picture to enlarge!}

We are looking forward to a wonderful new year in 5th grade!

Welcome to 5th Grade Shenanigans!

Welcome to Mrs. Dennis and Mrs. Elliott's classroom blog! We are so excited that you have chosen to visit our new and improved class page! This blog was designed with YOU in mind, so that we could share what's happening in our classroom, while keeping you up to date with the latest happenings, as the stronger we are as a school-home team, the more successful your child will be throughout the school year. As you explore our blog, you can see our daily schedules, view cool projects and activities that we've been working on and read about the special events and learning that take place in our rooms every day. We hope by visiting our blog, you can get a better idea of the rigor, requirements, and what we do on a daily basis in 5th grade at Owingsville Elementary School. In addition, classroom newsletters will be just a click away, as well as nightly homework assignments and additional resources to help your child, should he or she have difficulties. Enjoy your journey as you navigate the site and remember to bookmark and check back often, as the site will be continuously updated throughout the school year!