Language Arts
Reading, Writing, Listening, Speaking and Viewing
Reading  Our Houghton Mifflin reading series has a wonderful selection of award-winning, short story literature. Beginning with the unit titled, Nature's Fury, the students in Room 24 will be reading fascinating fiction and non-fiction information revolving around natural disasters on our planet. Later in the year, stories will parallel our Social Studies content with, And Then What Happened Paul Revere?, James Forten, and Katie's Trunk, for example, sharing person-to-person experiences from around the time of the Revolutionary War, and much more! Reading comprehension grades are not only tied to the weekly Houghton Mifflin stories, but also what's being taught in reading groups, literature circles, mid-week assignments of independent reading, and monthly Book Shares (see below). Book Shares I am enthusiastic about substituting Book Shares as a replacement for documented reading minutes. Rather than documenting "how many" minutes have been read each week, students will simply have a 20+ minutes free-reading requirement as part of their nightly homework, culminating in one Book Share due at the end of each month. This begins in September. If your student enjoys documenting their minutes read, then by all means encourage him/her to participate in our school's read-a-thon once it begins. (When it starts, all forms will be in our classroom and are collected regulary for logging and distribution of prizes.) I have determined from previous years' logs that we have an incredible school of avid readers, who, for the most part, read much more than just 100 minutes per week. That's fantastic! Congratulations to all of my readers, who I hope by now have an engrained sense of the wonder and satisfaction that comes from finishing a good book. There is nothing more satisfying for me than listening to a student give a succinct, yet descriptive summary of a good novel in the form of a unique Book Share. Each Book Share will be different and each month will bring a new set of directions to follow. ***Practicing for the oral presentation portion is a wise idea. We want to be excited about reading the book you just read. Tell us why we should be, and that makes for a great presentation! (Monthly directions will be posted below at the bottom of this page.) Writing The focus of fifth grade writing is to prepare students for composing articulate, expressive, and detailed five paragraph essays. This is a huge step up from what most of the students are used to, and truly will become the hallmark of what is expected of them for many years to come! The first semester will revolve around writing a Report of Non-Fiction Information. The second semester will focus on how to write a Persuasive essay. Learning to create an engaging thesis statement and topic paragraph, and stating the three discussion points that will be detailed later in body paragraphs will keep us hard at work each week with the writing rubric at hand. We work from a structured organizer that leads to the writing of a rough draft, and then finally a polished essay. For each portion of the essay, (topic paragraph, body paragraphs and the conclusion paragraph), we practice with lots of training wheels on the bike, so to speak. Each element is analyzed for its importance in the overall essay, and we practice quick writes daily to encourage fluency. We also pair writing with lots of buddy talk and small group role playing to try out different perspectives for ideas. For most students, writing will be a very challenging subject in fifth grade. Spelling Don't forget these fun, interactive websites for studying your own spelling words via the internet! Each week, play one or more of the following as part of your homework assignments... 1.) www.yourdictionary.com/grammar-rules/elementary-spelling-games.html From here, scroll down and select: Online Elementary Spelling Games. Then, select: Word Safari. It's 6 games down. Wow! I just love how Word Safari lets you enter in your own spelling words and play a fast moving cartoon game where your hand needs to be as quick as the eye! Don't pop all of your balloons, but if you do, just try and try again! (I suggest you begin on "easy"---it's tough!) There's an 8 letter maximum on this one so it can be limiting. It's a blast! 2.) www.scholastic.com/kids/homework/spelling.htm Make your very own spelling words "Word Search" that you can play--online--once it's created! Other games are fun, too, but don't forget to do the one where you are actually studying YOUR OWN words of the week. :-) 3.) www.spellingcity.com This may be my favorite game of all. How would you like an on-line voice pre-testing you with your very own spelling words? This is amazing, kids! Just enter our spelling words into the game and when you're ready to test, the game speaks to you, prompting you to spell-type your words! If you miss any, the game will help you learn. You can also play games here with your words like, "Hangmouse", and "Missing Letter". Try it out and see! (*WARNING KIDS: THIS IS NOT A REPLACEMENT FOR PARENTS!!! :-) Listening, Speaking, and Viewing I love how these very important components go hand in hand when the children are given a presentation task. We not only role model how the presenter shoud give a report--eye contact, head held high, loud speaking voice, practice in advance--but I also have high expectations for the listening audience. Monthly Book Shares as well as group project work in Social Studies and Science will provide opportunities to hone our skills both giving and viewing oral and computer presentations. Flashlight Fridays  Each Friday, we can usually find the time to enjoy our Silent Sustained Reading (SSR) time in the dark! Please allow your student to bring a flashlight and a small pillow, if they like, to keep in their cubbie all year. We curl up, take off our shoes, turn out the lights and read, read, read! (Make sure a name is on the flashlight and that the batteries work.)
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Mrs. Kelly's Website
Temecula Valley Unified School District
Abby Reinke Elementary School
302-6610 x3824
www.myteacherpages.com/webpages/ckelly
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