Mrs. Crotty's 5th Grade Class
By Crotty, Tanya on December 01, 2014
First quarter came and went very quickly, and now we are more than half way through second quarter. Before we know it, we will be ready for winter break. 5th grade has been keeping very busy in the classroom with D.A.R.E., math, and reading.
D.A.R.E. is a program that we are fortunate to be able to keep at Johnson County Central. Each year we have the honor of Trooper Trantham coming into our classroom for 13 weeks and teaching the importance of staying drug, alcohol, and violence free. He makes learning fun and the students have a great time each lesson. The class has recently ended, and we have had our graduation ceremony. Graduation is a special day for each student. Students from the class are chosen to read an essay that they have written, from their heart, about D.A.R.E. This year’s essay winners were: Kaita Baird, Madelyn Harrifeld, Emma Straka, and Isabella Wolters. They did a great job of writing and reading their essays. Trooper Trantham will be missed.
D.A.R.E. has given us a nice change to our weekly classroom schedule, but we are still busy with our other classroom curriculum. Math keeps us on our toes every day. The math skills that we are learning can be a challenge, but it proves to be a wonderful feeling in that moment when you realize just how something works. Short division seemed to be something that almost didn’t feel natural to work, but after trying it a few times, now many 5th graders find it isn’t that difficult and choose to use it instead of long division. We have also been using division to find a mixed number. This has been different since we usually write the remainder as a remainder, but now we have to use that remainder to create the fraction part of a mixed number. Sometimes old habits are hard to break. Math has many vocabulary words that we need to know and apply to our daily work, so we record, review , and practice those words on a regular basis. We continue to practice multiplication and division facts and appreciate a family member helping us by checking our fact practice page at home.
Each week in reading we have a new story with new skills to learn and some review of skills we have already learned. With each new story comes new “Amazing Words” and “Vocabulary Words”. We are learning the meaning or meanings to many new words each week. Some words we have heard before, but didn’t know the meaning. We are also learning that some words have multiple meaning and the process to figure out which meaning to apply to the context. We have 30 minutes each day for Accelerated Reader and the students are able to read a book of their choosing and then take a quiz over the book when they finish it. Each quarter a new personal goal is set for each student and they all work very hard to achieve their goal. Reading takes you on a great adventure and is vital for every subject area and career.
We will continue to stay very busy in the classroom. With Thanksgiving just around the corner, we are looking forward to a few days off from school, extra family time, and some delicious turkey. We hope you will do the same.