Thank you, Memorial!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends. My father and I spent some of our Thanksgiving Day at the St. Francis House in Boston serving food to those who needed it. I asked my homeroom students to make cards for me to bring. I also reached out to the other teachers and many Memorial students participated. I brought close to 200 cards with me! I set them at each place setting and everyone who read them had a smile on his/her face. I promised one man that I would share his message. He told me to make sure the children knew that they touched the hearts of many homeless people. He went on to say that reading the cards was better than the meal. 

Many of the people we served took the cards with them. Thanks to everyone who participated in this! Your small act of creating something with construction paper and a simple "Happy Thanksgiving" 

made a very big impact.

St. Francis House tweeted "thank you" to all of you! 

The tables were all set with your lovely cards! 

                                       

Gratitude

I wish you and your families a wonderful holiday filled with family, friends, gratitude, and laughter! 

Yesterday was a very special day in Room 235. Many family members of the students in our classroom joined us to hear each student give a speech about what they are thankful for. The students have been working diligently to write and rehearse their speeches. I think anyone who was witnessed this yesterday would agree that their public speaking skills were nothing short of amazing. All too often, we are rushing around in our lives. The students reminded us yesterday that it's important to take a moment to be reflective and feel thankful for all of the good in our lives. Thank you to everyone who joined us for this special event yesterday. I certainly have a lot to be grateful for this Thanksgiving!


Our special day continued after the speeches. Our class filled up the compliment jar, so their prize was to have a special guest come teach a lesson. I invited my favorite teacher in to teach the class. My father, who taught in Burlington for many years, taught a lesson about setting goals, overcoming obstacles, and appreciating the things we have in life.  He did this by using Travis Roy's book Eleven Seconds. If you're not familiar with the story, here's more info. Mr. C asked the students to close their eyes and think about a goal they want to achieve 20 years from now. He timed them for eleven seconds and then we talked about how short that time felt. When Travis graduated from Tabor Academy in 1995, he gave a speech on his 10 Rules of Life. Students broke into groups, read the rules, and we talked about what each rule meant. We were blown away by their insight and maturity when discussing each of these rules. When asked what their biggest take-away was from this lesson, one student replied, "It doesn't matter if you change on the outside, you will always be the same on the inside." Big thanks to Mr. Conceison for spending time with us yesterday!

Scholastic Reading Club

Shop Online: scholastic.com/readingclub

One-Time Class Activation Code: LPJXW

Dear Families,

Encouraging reading is one of the most important things we can do to help your child succeed. It can be tough finding the right books to keep them interested, which is why I am so excited that our class will be participating in Scholastic Reading Club this school year.

With Scholastic Reading Club: 

- Every book you buy earns FREE Books for our classroom library 

- You can choose from handpicked, grade- and reading-level-specific books for your child

- You'll find the best values on a variety of formats

Each month, your child will bring home Reading Club flyers. Together you can choose from books hand-selected by teachers and experts, and then order online or send your order form and payment to me. 

I'd also love some help growing our classroom Reading Club. If you'd like to help out, please let me know! I'm excited to get our class reading! 

Thank you for your support, 

Ms. Conceison

If This Is Your First Time Ordering Online:

- VISIT scholastic.com/readingclub

- ENTER the one-time Class Activation Code (top of this letter)

- SHOP from a carefully curated selection of the best books and value packs

- SUBMIT your order and earn FREE Books for our classroom

- All book orders will be shipped to school! 

That's a Wrap Edition VII

Here are some things to talk about this weekend...

• We had the Veteran's Day assembly on Monday. It was a great way to honor the day. 
• We have a new student starting on Monday. Over the weekend, each student needs to make a welcome card for Ben. Please see the homework tab for details. 
• Ask your child to show you "Double, Double, This, This." It was a tricky energizer we did a morning meeting. 

Math: We finished up our unit on dividing by 1 digit divisors. As your child to tell you the sentence we use to remember that steps to division. We will have one more review day on Monday and then the topic 4 test will be on Tuesday. 

Social Studies: We did an activity with latitude and longitude and then began research for explorer projects. Students are using online sources as well as books to take notes and to track their sources. They are doing a wonderful job so far! 

Science: Ms. P from the science center just sent us some materials for our next unit on food webs. We will begin that when we finish explorers. 

Reading: We worked on tracking our thinking while reading Fish in a Tree. Students were asked to describe any "mind movies" that happened as the events in the book unfolded. This is a great strategy to promote visualization. 

Writing: We're wrapping up our Thanksgiving speeches and starting to practice  reading them. We also talked about nouns: common, proper, plural, irregular plural, OH MY!

                                               

Important Info: 

• Please consider paying your PTO dues to help support all of the wonderful work that our PTO does! There are many events, especially in fifth grade, that are subsidized by the PTO. 
• Erin Moulton, the author of Keepers of Labyrinth series, will be at the public library TODAY at 3:30 for an afternoon of craffts, contests, trivia, and prizes! 
• Thanksgiving Speeches will take place on November 24th at 9:30
• I have e-mailed parents to set up or confirm conferences. Please e-mail me if anything changes. 
• I'll be using the Remind app to send out quick reminders to parents. Be sure to sign up if you haven't yet!  Text @mconcei to 81010. You'll receive quick reminders from me right to your phone. No need to download the app. 

Enjoy the weekend! 

That's a Wrap! Edition VI

Here are some things to talk about this weekend...

• We had our first Class Meeting this week. Ask your child what went on! I was so proud of them.
• Student Council has been working on some great things to improve our school.

Math: We are continuing to work on dividing by 1-digit divisors. One of the most challenging lessons this week was interpreting remainders.  

Social Studies: We had our quiz on the seven reasons to explore today. Everyone did a great job! Ask your child if they can sing the Latitude and Longitude song to you. 

Science: We had the Star Lab this week. Ask your child about what they saw inside. 

Reading: We worked on tracking our thinking while reading Fish in a Tree. Students were asked to describe any "mind movies" that happened as the events in the book unfolded. This is a great strategy to promote visualization. 

Writing: We continued working on Thanksgiving speeches and simile poems. We've talked a lot about revising and editing. I've been encouraging the students to vary their sentence types. We did a sentence sort activity that was frustrating at first, but everyone persevered through it! We also had the test on sentences today. 

  

                                                

Important Info: 

• Please consider paying your PTO dues to help support all of the wonderful work that our PTO does! There are many events, especially in fifth grade, that are subsidized by the PTO. 
• Erin Moulton, the author of Keepers of Labyrinth series, will be at the public library on Friday, Nov. 13th at 3:30 for an afternoon of craffts, contests, trivia, and prizes! 
• Pictures went home today- I'm sorry they didn't get in their mailboxes yesterday! 
• Thanksgiving Speeches will take place on November 24th at 9:30
• Sign up for conferences at the following link OR e-mail me to schedule an appointment for December 3rd.  http://bit.ly/1VRHYfk 
• I'll be using the Remind app to send out quick reminders to parents. Be sure to sign up if you haven't yet!  Text @mconcei to 81010. You'll receive quick reminders from me right to your phone. No need to download the app. 

Enjoy the weekend! 

That's a Wrap! Edition V

Here are some things to talk about this weekend...

• We had our first Class Meeting this week. Ask your child what went on! I was so proud of them.
• Congratulations to Paul and Cole for being recognized at Wall of Fame! 
• Student Council has been working on some great things to improve our school.
• We had the pumpkin vocabulary parade on Monday. The 5th graders represented science and social studies words. 

Math: My math class had their test on Topic 3 yesterday and we began topic 4 today. Topic 4 is all about dividing by 1-digit divisors. I gave out an optional math challenge to students. This is due by November 5th. 

Social Studies: We have been learning about the Vikings this week, and we will start our explorers project next week. There will be a quiz on the Seven Reasons to Explore next Friday. 

Science: Mr. Musselman is coming in next week to do a star lab activity with us. Looking forward to it! 

Reading: We finished Morning Girl this week and took a short assessment on it. Students had to compare and contrast the two characters, Star Boy and Morning Girl. We had a very interesting discussion after reading chapter 5. There is quite a bit of figurative language in this book. Students were on the hunt to find examples in the text and they did a great job. One group even found a cliche, without even going over what that meant! 

Writing: We continued working on Thanksgiving speeches in ELA. The students are also creating simile poems based on a section of Morning Girl, where she uses similes to describe her appearance. I will post some examples on the blog when they're finished. 

Important Info: 

• Please consider paying your PTO dues to help support all of the wonderful work that our PTO does! 
• There is an important PTO meeting next Thursday. We will be talking about Title 1 math support. It will be a good conversation to join. Please consider coming! 
• Erin Moulton, the author of Keepers of Labyrinth series, will be at the public library next Friday, Nov. 13th at 3:30 for an afternoon of craffts, contests, trivia, and prizes! 
• Order forms went home today for Memorial Pride clothing. 
• Thanksgiving Speeches will take place on November 24th
• Sign up for conferences at the following link OR e-mail me to schedule an appointment for December 3rd.  http://bit.ly/1VRHYfk 
• I'll be using the Remind app to send out quick reminders to parents. Be sure to sign up if you haven't yet!  Text @mconcei to 81010. You'll receive quick reminders from me right to your phone. No need to download the app. 

Enjoy the weekend! 

That's a Wrap! Edition IV

Here are some things to talk about this weekend....

• Take a look at the videos Mrs. Dressler posted of our dance party here: Memorial School: Whole School Dance Party
• Congratulations to Dakota for being recognized on the Wall of Fame this week. Every time I look around in the morning or at dismissal, he is helping out around the classroom without being asked. 
• Ms. Martin came in to discuss ways to name our feelings through the Zones of Regulation. This is good language to use at home, as well.

Math: My math class is finishing up Topic 3. Ask your child to describe the Distributive Property to you. It was the most challenging lesson in this topic!  

Social Studies: We have been discussing the Seven Reasons to Explore this week. We began our unit on Explorers with a Jigsaw activity.  One of the discussion questions was: What fears do you think explorers faced? Ask your child about the fears we discussed. 

Science: The Solar System quizzes went home on Wednesday. I always allow students to do test corrections on social studies and science quizzes. They have the chance to earn back half of the points they lost if they correct their mistakes. Assessments are learning tools, too! 

Reading: We have continued reading Morning Girl this week. Students are comparing and contrasting the two characters, Star Boy and Morning Girl. We had a very interesting discussion after reading chapter 5. Morning Girl was curious to find out what she looks like because they didn't have mirrors in the 1400's. I asked the class to respond to the question "How would life be different if you couldn't see your reflection? Would you like this? Why or why not?" Ask your child how they'd feel about that! 

Writing: We continued working on Thanksgiving speeches in ELA. I challenged the students to come up with inviting leads and creative conclusions. Wait until you hear their speeches! We have also been learning about different types of sentences, how to correct fragments, and subjects and predicates. 

Check out our whole school dance party! 

Important Info: 

• Please consider paying your PTO dues to help support all of the wonderful work that our PTO does! 
• Order forms went home today for Memorial Pride clothing. 
• Vocab parade is Monday, October 26th
• Thanksgiving Speeches will take place on November 
• Sign up for conferences at the following link OR e-mail me to schedule an appointment for December 3rd.  http://bit.ly/1VRHYfk 
• I'll be using the Remind app to send out quick reminders to parents. Be sure to sign up if you haven't yet!  Text @mconcei to 81010. You'll receive quick reminders from me right to your phone. No need to download the app. 

Enjoy the weekend!