Hello All,

This years Poetry Competition is at the end of this month! Every 5th grader will be participating in the class Poetry Competition during the week of April 20th (specific date will be announced later). Top three 5th grade students will move on to compete in the school-wide, OTA Poetry Olympics, on April 23rd.

In order to become prepared, each student needs to choose a 5th grade Core Knowledge poem to memorize! Students will be judged on how well they can recite the poem, speaking clearly, understanding the poem’s rhythm, meaning, and overall tone.

You can find all the 5th grade Core Knowledge Poems HERE –> Poetry Competition 5th grade

This week in class each student will be choosing a poem to focus on for the next 2.5 weeks. Once your child has chosen a poem, I encourage you to help them practice at home… you can help remind them to recite the poems while doing everyday tasks, like driving to school, at the dinner table, to and from athletic practices, etc. 

This quarter we are reading Wonder by R.J. Palacio. This is an unbelievable and powerful storyline that really causes us to stop and dig deep about many different circumstances and situations life throws our way. Wonder is about a boy named August who was born with severe facial deformities. He has been home schooled his whole life. The book begins when he begins going to Beecher Prep and enters the 5th grade. The story is told from multiple perspectives and we see life unfold for August as we read.

Yesterday, we had some great dialogue and questioning happening in our Language Arts block. Here are some responses below:

“If I had to ask one of the characters in Wonder something, I would ask Via, the sister of August three things. One question I would ask her is “Do you ever feel left out or alone from anyone in your family, because your parents always worry about August and not you?” “Do you feel the same way as other people do towards August or do you think of him as an ordinary normal faced human?” Lastly, I would ask Via, “Do you have a person in your life who is always there for you?” I would ask her all these questions to know how she feels. -Elena

Jack Will reminds me of a hyena because he’s sly one minute and your best friend and then the next minute he is talking behind you behind your back. If I were in August’s position I would say how could you say that about me? I trusted you! I thought we were best friends. He led August on by saying and talking about intense stuff, like his cleft palate. I would never let him talk about that stuff. August is brave to let him have those conversations with him, especially in a joking manner. -Maxx

If I could ask any character in Wonder 3 questions that would help me better understand their actions, I would ask Jack Will. For my first question, I would ask him why he pretended to be August’s friend and why he chose not to tell Mr. Tushman he didn’t want to be friends with August. My second question would be why he said such mean things about August on Halloween. Lastly, what I would ask Jack is why he let August trust him enough to be best friends and then suddenly betray him. The significance of these questions is to help me understand Jack Will better during the story.  -Simone

I would ask Summer some questions. One, Why did you sit with August? I need to know this because she was the only person to sit with August. Two, Do you want to be friends with August? I need to know this because some people sit with someone but don’t want to be their friend, and it would be mean to get August’s hopes up and then ditch him. Third, did you know that if you sit with August, you will never get popular again? I need to know this because if Summer things she can just change her mind and go to the popular group, then she is wrong. -Paris

Below you will find the project trees for Language Arts for the quarter (You will also be able to find these on the Language Arts page of the blog throughout the remainder of the quarter).

Print your copy here: Independent Reading Tree Q3

Print your copy here: Literature Q3

Print your copy here: Word Analysis Tree Q3

Print your copy here: Writing Q3

5th graders did an amazing job creating a cereal based off a book! Through their 60 second in class cereal box advertisement, the class and I enjoyed hearing about all the different books everyone read this quarter!

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