Hello Parents and Families,
I will be using this blog as a way to communicate what is happening in our classroom throughout the year. In many ways this will serve as our classroom newsletter. The advantage of this blog is that I will also be able to use it to give quick updates and reminders for families about school and classroom related events. I look forward to an awesome year and can't wait to continue to learn more about each and every student in my class!
Wednesday, August 31, 2016
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
Mr. Halley's Class: What's Happening in January
Welcome to a new year!
I hope you all had a very relaxing and fun winter break! I wanted to update you on what we will
be doing in January. For the next
3 weeks we will be doing an interdisciplinary unit on sustainable living. This unit will focus in the content
areas of literacy and science.
Students will be doing research on a topic of their choice that has to
do with sustainable living. The
end product will be a 3-minute video that each student will be producing in
class. All of our 5th
grade classes at Lake Elmo will be participating in this unit. We are very excited about taking on
this new challenge, as this is the first year we have tried teaching this
unit. We are collaborating with
many other schools throughout MN and there is even one school in Norway that is
also working on this same unit.
Wayne Feller (technology integrationist for our district) has been
instrumental in helping us to develop this unit and will continue to support us
throughout the unit. If you get a
chance, ask your child about the three guests we learned about this week (we
did video conferencing with 3 individuals who are doing some amazing work in
the area of sustainable living).
For the next 3 weeks we will NOT be doing spelling lists/tests in order
to accommodate our schedule.
In math we have just started unit 7, which focuses on
multiplication and division of 2 digit numbers, 3 digit numbers and
decimals. This unit often is quite
an eye opener for many students.
Learning how to multiply and divide (especially decimals) can be very
challenging. This would be a great
time to have your child practice some of their basic multiplication and
division facts at home. Students
are grouped into 3 or 4 different groups in math so that they can be
appropriately challenged. Please
check their planners daily to see what their assignment is. Unfortunately I cannot show each
students individual plan for math assignments in Skyward, so the planner is a
great tool to be able to see what their daily math assignment is.
As the calendar has turned to 2016, I look forward to
continuing the fun and learning in our classroom. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact
me. My contact information is
available on my school webpage, which can be accessed at the Lake Elmo school
website or by copying and pasting the following web address:
- Ben Halley
Saturday, November 21, 2015
What's new: Mr. Halley's class
Hello families,
I would like to start this post by talking about the wonderful things I get to witness on a daily basis from this awesome group of students. It's not one super obvious moment that sticks out; rather it's lots of small things every day where your kids are making me smile and laugh. What a lucky person I am to be able to have students so willing and able to make me laugh. Yes, we certainly get down to business a fair amount of the time, but there's lots of fun mixed in. This class has already taken control in the hallway. They literally line themselves up and walk from space to space without me doing anything but strolling along. I know this doesn't sound like a big deal, but this shows me the kind of leadership and respect that adults (myself included) sometimes struggle with. "Best class," "My favorite class," "They were amazing," "They were one of the most respectful classes I have ever had." Those quotes are from my subs this year!!! That doesn't happen by accident. These kids are growing up into some super awesome young adults. On the academic side of things we are having a great time learning about all sorts of new and exciting things. We have recently started some new units in Literacy, Math and Social Studies.
In Literacy we are two weeks in to our Non-Fiction unit that is focusing on Informational texts. The kids have been reading primarily from Non-Fiction books during our literacy time. It's been really fun to watch them become very engaged in the topics they are reading and learning about. We will spend another 2-3 weeks in this unit and then we will be starting a unit on Historical Fiction.
In Math we started Chapter 5 in the Math Expressions (pink book) curriculum. This chapter focuses on the addition and subtraction of fractions (primarily with uncommon denominators). For this chapter there are three different groups working in our Math Expressions book and in our Holt book. I will be putting assignments on my calendar that will be for each of the three groups. The Pink group is working through the Math Expressions book almost exclusively for chapter 5. There is also the Pink/Red group who are going to be doing the majority of lessons in the Math Expressions book, but will also be doing some lessons in the Holt (Red) book as well. There is also a group working mostly in the Holt book throughout this chapter/unit. All students will be taking the same quizzes and unit test as these are great resources for the student and for me to see how they understand the concepts.
We have spent the last week and a half in Social Studies on our "Explorers" unit. The first part of this unit is dedicated to learning about the groups of people who lived in America before it was "discovered" by Europeans. Each student is part of an "expert" group that is learning about one specific Native American group. We will then be sharing all of our information together as a whole class so we can learn about 5 different groups of people living in what we now call America. Lastly, we will end the unit by having each student study their own explorer. From now on the kids will be switching for Science and Social Studies. Each unit will be approximately 3 weeks long. When the students are in Mrs. Hoskins and Mrs. Heilheckers class they will be doing science units. When they are in my classroom we will be doing Social Studies units.
Winter is here. Unfortunately one thing we can always count on living in Minnesota is that winter seems to catch up by surprise. This past week was a reminder of just that. Moving forward it will be very important for all kids to have appropriate winter clothing at school. This is just a reminder to make sure your child has a coat, hat, gloves/mittens and boots (once the snow hits). Snow pants are also strongly recommended.
We only have 3 days of school this upcoming week due to our mini Thanksgiving break. Wishing you and your families a happy, safe, and fun Thanksgiving break!!! Safe travels for those of you leaving town for the break. As always, please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
-Ben Halley
I would like to start this post by talking about the wonderful things I get to witness on a daily basis from this awesome group of students. It's not one super obvious moment that sticks out; rather it's lots of small things every day where your kids are making me smile and laugh. What a lucky person I am to be able to have students so willing and able to make me laugh. Yes, we certainly get down to business a fair amount of the time, but there's lots of fun mixed in. This class has already taken control in the hallway. They literally line themselves up and walk from space to space without me doing anything but strolling along. I know this doesn't sound like a big deal, but this shows me the kind of leadership and respect that adults (myself included) sometimes struggle with. "Best class," "My favorite class," "They were amazing," "They were one of the most respectful classes I have ever had." Those quotes are from my subs this year!!! That doesn't happen by accident. These kids are growing up into some super awesome young adults. On the academic side of things we are having a great time learning about all sorts of new and exciting things. We have recently started some new units in Literacy, Math and Social Studies.
In Literacy we are two weeks in to our Non-Fiction unit that is focusing on Informational texts. The kids have been reading primarily from Non-Fiction books during our literacy time. It's been really fun to watch them become very engaged in the topics they are reading and learning about. We will spend another 2-3 weeks in this unit and then we will be starting a unit on Historical Fiction.
In Math we started Chapter 5 in the Math Expressions (pink book) curriculum. This chapter focuses on the addition and subtraction of fractions (primarily with uncommon denominators). For this chapter there are three different groups working in our Math Expressions book and in our Holt book. I will be putting assignments on my calendar that will be for each of the three groups. The Pink group is working through the Math Expressions book almost exclusively for chapter 5. There is also the Pink/Red group who are going to be doing the majority of lessons in the Math Expressions book, but will also be doing some lessons in the Holt (Red) book as well. There is also a group working mostly in the Holt book throughout this chapter/unit. All students will be taking the same quizzes and unit test as these are great resources for the student and for me to see how they understand the concepts.
We have spent the last week and a half in Social Studies on our "Explorers" unit. The first part of this unit is dedicated to learning about the groups of people who lived in America before it was "discovered" by Europeans. Each student is part of an "expert" group that is learning about one specific Native American group. We will then be sharing all of our information together as a whole class so we can learn about 5 different groups of people living in what we now call America. Lastly, we will end the unit by having each student study their own explorer. From now on the kids will be switching for Science and Social Studies. Each unit will be approximately 3 weeks long. When the students are in Mrs. Hoskins and Mrs. Heilheckers class they will be doing science units. When they are in my classroom we will be doing Social Studies units.
Winter is here. Unfortunately one thing we can always count on living in Minnesota is that winter seems to catch up by surprise. This past week was a reminder of just that. Moving forward it will be very important for all kids to have appropriate winter clothing at school. This is just a reminder to make sure your child has a coat, hat, gloves/mittens and boots (once the snow hits). Snow pants are also strongly recommended.
We only have 3 days of school this upcoming week due to our mini Thanksgiving break. Wishing you and your families a happy, safe, and fun Thanksgiving break!!! Safe travels for those of you leaving town for the break. As always, please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
-Ben Halley
Friday, October 30, 2015
Hello parents,
I am venturing into the world of blogging. My hope is to be able to give you all more insight into what is happening in the wonderful world of Mr. Halley's 5th grade classroom. I will also be using this blog post as another way to send out quick announcements related to both our classroom but also Lake Elmo Elementary School. So, here is a quick recap of what we have been (and will be) working on.
We spent this week working on a writing project writing a personal narrative story.. The kids wrote a 1-2 page story about one specific event in their life.
I am venturing into the world of blogging. My hope is to be able to give you all more insight into what is happening in the wonderful world of Mr. Halley's 5th grade classroom. I will also be using this blog post as another way to send out quick announcements related to both our classroom but also Lake Elmo Elementary School. So, here is a quick recap of what we have been (and will be) working on.
We spent this week working on a writing project writing a personal narrative story.. The kids wrote a 1-2 page story about one specific event in their life.
In this writing process students learned a number of things; primarily we spent some time focusing on your general grammar rules while also developing the idea of how to write a three to five paragraph story with a beginning middle and end.
Generally one of the most challenging aspects of this project or any writing project is the editing and proofreading stage. I felt the students did a nice job of coming up with stories on their own, and of course adding details is always a challenge, but beyond that the editing and proofreading is a real challenge. My goal this year is to help students become better editors and proofreaders and to talk about the distinction between these two.
Next week in math we will continue our work in unit 3 which is a unit focusing on the addition and subtraction of decimals. In literacy we will be working we will be starting a non fiction unit that unit will last for about a month. and we will be finishing up our current science unit which is focusing on variables.
In our variable unit we are learning about what a variable is. A variable is anything that you can change in an experiment that might affect the outcome. For example we made something called a life boat and used pennies as passengers to figure out how many passengers could fit in a boat. The variable that we tested here was how many passengers can fit in a boat depending on the size of the boat. Ask your child if they know what a variable is. If they are unsure have them access their science notebook or have them check in with me.
I had someone ask me the other day, what advice would you give to a 5th grade parent now that we are almost one quarter of the way into the school year. The main advice I would give to parents right now is to make sure that your kid is reading for 20 to 30 minutes every single night. Also a great resource that is available for you is Skyward. Through Skyward you will be able to check to see if your student is caught up with their work and you'll be able to see their scores. Skyward can be a little clunky to work with at times so if you are accessing it and have questions please don't hesitate to contact me. The last thing is to make sure to let me know if you have any questions. We talk all the time about the importance of students at this age becoming more independent and advocating for themselves, but sometimes we as adults forget to do the same thing. Please don't hesitate to contact me with questions. Have a great weekend!!!
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