First Few Weeks of School

The first couple of weeks are off and running, and it has been quite busy! 5th graders have quite a few responsibilities. The two big ones are being a Kindergarten Buddy and safety patrol. Our class teams up with Mrs. Klosterman's class for Kindergarten Buddies. Each 5th grader is teamed up with a kindergartener. They are responsible for being a good role model, helping the kindergartener adjust to school life, reading alongside them, and demonstrating how to live and learn at CFI. Over the next several weeks I will talk with students on how to read with their kindergarten buddy including reflecting on the reading strategies good readers use when they make sense of text. This is similar to young ones apprenticing under more experienced members of a family.

Safety patrol is also another new and exciting opportunity for 5th graders. As you may know by now, we have revamped safety patrol so 5th graders are getting used to the new procedures. For now, 5th graders are enjoying their new responsibilities.

Last week, and this coming week, we are collaborating with Ms. Whitecotton's classroom for Friday Gathering. Last week the focus was CFI's Rights & Responsibilities. Both classroom created a videos highlighting these rights. It was also suggested we include of Kindergarten Buddies. Here is our classroom's part with the videos:

Next week, both classrooms will also host Friday Gathering (September 8 @ 2:20). This time we will be emphasizing what CFI is referring to as the "Book of the Month." This is a book from our Harvey Allen collection that all classrooms will read and discuss. For Friday Gathering we will be talking about this book and showing different ways classrooms can share about the book at gathering.

With many of these extra responsibilities, we have slowly getting back into the routines of class. In the 9 days we have been in class we have organized two shelves for folk and fairy tales before we begin a unit into these book, jumped head first in multiplication by looking at factors, multiples, and prime numbers, taped and edited our portion of Friday Gathering (this took much time), introduced our first unit of Social Studies by doing some introductory discussing of the Reconstruction Period, looked at how scientists use evidence to find patterns, and used some free time to write.

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