Minnesota Trees

Our first science unit is on trees. The kids are soon going to be heading out to the school forest to adopt a tree. They will study that tree in detail and get to know everything about it. But before we can identify trees in the forest, the kids need to learn how to identify them. Today we took a close look at 6 different tree branches. They looked for differences in leaves and bark and we learned about alternate and opposite branching.

Observational Drawing

For the past few days we have been working on an important scientific skill, observational drawing. In science this year we will be doing a lot of scientific inquiry investigations. The students will be expected to be able to make observations and record data. A big part of these observations is recording what they see. This week we practiced drawing and coloring many items from nature. As a final assessment, the kids went outside today and drew a plant they found on the edge of the woods.

Writer's Notebooks

Today we finished decorating our Writer's Notebooks. I brought in my Cricut cutter and the kids had fun cutting out their names. They also found photos in magazines on the computers of things that represented their lives. A whole bunch of cutting and gluing followed before we coated the covers with a couple of layers of Mod Podge. Does Mod Podge remind anyone else of their childhood? One whiff of that stuff brings me right back to second grade.

These notebooks will be filled with all kinds of wonderful writing. Hopefully they will end up as a keepsake and will be found in a box of stuff 20 years from now, waiting to be rediscovered. 

Second Day of School

Yesterday was the first day of school and I forgot to take pictures. The first day is always jam-packed full of information and activities, but I usually remember to take at least one photo. Not this year. Well, I did take some today, thank goodness...

We jumped right into science and yesterday we learned about goldenrod galls. Today we went out to the school forest to find some galls of our own. Tomorrow we are going to cut them open to see if we can find the tiny Goldenrod Gall Fly maggot inside. It's going to be awesome!

Finding goldenrod galls

Being a little goofy

Looking for galls.

We found a dead mole. It was pretty cool!

Mrs. Magner's 5th Graders

It's Back to School Time!

Wow, summer flies by faster every year and this summer seemed to be shorter than ever. I had a fantastic summer filled with traveling and learning and relaxing. School starts on Wednesday of this week and I have been very busy getting my room ready. This is my 21st year of teaching at Hill City School so you would think getting ready for a new school year would be easy and fast. This is definitely not the case. I am always changing things - hopefully for the better. It makes my job more interesting, at the very least.

Here are some glimpses of my classroom.

This is our word wall. All our spelling words get put here for the
students to refer to as they write. The comfy chair is called
 "Grandma's Chair" because I got it from my Grandma Thea.

All our art supplies are located in the Art Center. Each month
students can do different art activities for extra credit.

Each student has a Reader's Workshop binder. Students will record the
books they read, responses to these books,
and will store mini-lesson handouts in these binders.

Students hand all their work into these drawers.

This is my desk area.

I have a large library in my room. There should be no excuse
 for not finding a book to read!

This is an old bookshelf I had in my basement. I added a new
coat of paint this summer and now it holds our genre of the month
 books, award winning books, and my favorite books.

Science is my favorite subject and so this area of the room
 will soon be bursting with live (and dead) critters.

Students have the opportunity to hold jobs each month.
These jobs will earn them money for MagnerMart.

Students will write an "exit ticket" each day before they leave. This will be an answer to a question I give them and will be their "Ticket out the Door." 

Besides novels, we will be reading a lot of picture books this year.
 I call these "mentor texts" and we use them to learn
about the craft of reading and writing.

Everything we do in 5th grade is in our Learning Goals that are
directly related to our state and the common core standards.
The students will be aware of each goal as we start a lesson
 and the goals will be placed on this board for all to see.

Welcome to 5th Grade!