Getting Acquainted in Fifth Grade

The fifth graders started ten school days ago learning more about each other, our commonalities and our unique qualities.  We had “Me Bag” sharing during the first week in which students shared books, games, pictures and other items that symbolize who they are.  We have been having long morning meetings each day to greet each other, share ideas, and get to know each other better.

We voted to spend some class money (from a recycle market in third grade) on some class turtles and donate the rest to earthquake victims in Lombok.  We have voted on our first read aloud novel for the year, Three Pennies by Melanie Crowder.  We have also had lots of Go Noodle brain breaks, a must when you’ve been working for an hour or so! Finally, we have completed a beautiful class puzzle together to symbolize what we can create when we all take part and work together.

We have started getting used to routines and procedures in the classroom.  We created essential agreements together by brainstorming our rights and responsibilities.  We’ve created team names and agreements made by each table group. We agreed on skills to earn and lose points on Class Dojo and will be getting weekly reports on how we are doing in class.  We started digital portfolios on Class Dojo and parents have started commenting on our work!

We have started exploring number sense in math.  Students are exploring various multiplication and division concepts; such as factors, square numbers, and prime factorization.  If you are working on multiplication facts with your child, here is a link to Factor Captor, a game the fifth graders have been playing this week!

We have also just started to get into our first unit of inquiry about forms of government around the world and how they impact citizens who live there.  Students started with a tower building activity in which each group was under one form of government: democracy, monarchy, republic, and dictatorship. Students had role cards to follow and a short amount of time to build the tallest tower possible.  We are looking forward to continuing this activity next week.

Library

Welcome back to school! It is with great pleasure that I, Ms. Pam (Library Teacher), and my partner, Ms. Ririn (Library Technical Services Director), welcome back all our patrons to our SIS Library.

How We Use the Library

Our Library is the hub of learning at our school. With over 36,000 print and online resources available to you, our SIS Library is easily one of the best libraries in East Java, Indonesia.

Elementary Students:

Most of our Elementary Classes come to the Library twice a week: once for a Library Lesson and checkout, and another separate checkout day. At the Library, we encourage the students to become enthusiastic, lifelong readers and critical thinkers, and we teach them to be skillful researchers, and ethical users of information. We share stories and learn about different kinds of books. The Library Teacher collaborates with the classroom teachers to integrate lessons with their classroom Units of Inquiry.

Parents:

We would like to extend an invitation to our parents and families to register and be an SIS Library Patron. You may ask any of our Library staff for a Library Patron form to fill out. This membership allows you to checkout as many as 8 books at a time. We have a collection of board books, picture books, beginning and junior fiction chapter books, young adult books, magazines and newspapers that you can peruse for yourself and for your children. As a parent, you may also access our online resources. Please ask our Library staff for the username and password.

Library Hours

With the changes in our bell schedule, our new Library hours are now from 7:45 am to 4 pm.  Students come during designated hours for library lessons as well as during their breaks. Parents and families are welcome to come to the Library any time to sit, chat and enjoy our Library collection.  Elementary students must be accompanied by a parent if they are visiting the library after school.

Mark your calendar for these special dates:

At the end of the school year 2017-2018, the students were handed Summer Reading Challenge Sheets to serve as reading logs over the summer. Since the beginning of this school year, we have been collecting these sheets back from the students.

Students who submitted their forms will be invited to our Summer Reading Challenge Breakfast  at the Library next Friday, 24th of August, to celebrate their success in committing to their summer reading goals. We will be preparing a healthy breakfast for the students and will be handing out certificates to our yearlong readers. Invitations will be handed out on Monday, 20th of August.

Our NEW BOOKS COLLECTION will be displayed starting on the 27th of August.

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To view our print and online resources,  you may visit our webpage: SIS Library which is our Destiny Catalog portal. If you need any assistance in navigating our catalog, please come and have a chat with us, and we will be happy to walk you through our resources.

Ms. Ririn and I look forward to a year of serving you and your children as your Librarians.