First Full Week

Well, we made it through the first full week of school! Mrs. Bentz and I tried really hard to keep the kids in their normal routine. For my classroom, that meant the first week of Daily Language Arts (complete with weekly quizzes), spelling, social studies lessons, and language arts lessons. We certainly were busy!!

The students are getting to know each other, and both classes are becoming a bit chatty. Starting next week, Mrs. Bentz and I are going to implement a reward system for those students who are staying on task and doing what they are supposed to be doing. Hopefully this will help keep the classroom quiet and focused!

I hope your students are working hard on their Active Reading Logs! If you did not receive the parent clarification email that I sent out, please let me know. I'm very excited for students to practice their reading strategies at home. I think it's so much more beneficial than just telling them to read for 20 minutes each night.

A highlight for next week will be the Edible Maps in Social Studies. Students will be showing off their knowledge of the physical features of the United States by making a map made out of candy. So much fun! It will also help them prepare for their first Social Studies test, which is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, September 13.

Have a great Labor Day weekend!

Welcome!

Welcome to the 2011-2012 school year! My name is Mrs. McCleary and I teach 5th grade Language Arts and Social Studies on the Blue Team. Here's some important information you should know for this school year:

Beginning and Ending Time of School
-The first bell rings at 8:20. Students need to be in their homerooms by the 8:35 bell.
-The dismissal bell ends at 3:20 each day.

Best Ways to Contact Me
-Email is the best way to get in touch with me. My school email is jmmcclea@marysville.k12.oh.us.
-The school phone number is 937-642-1154. If you call, you will be redirected to my voice mail, so this is not the best option.
-If you prefer, you may write a note in your student's planner. If you do so, I will respond in the same way.

Ways I'll Communicate with You
-Email is the easiest way for me to communicate with parents; however, if you would prefer phone calls or written notes home, just let me know!

There's much more information coming your way, with the start of the school year just a few weeks away. If you have any questions before the first day, please let me know! Enjoy the rest of your summer!

Again, I am blown away by my students' creativity! We just finished up our Native American unit in Social Studies. Students were asked to create a Native American artifact at home, using as many natural resources as possible. The work students did on this project was amazing!! It was very evident that each student worked very hard and used his or her creative mind muscles to create masterpieces. Take a look at http://mrsmccleary.com/Showcase_of_Student_Work.php to see some pictures of this project!

The end of the first nine weeks is almost here! Can you believe it?! I hope to blog more during the rest of the year - I am sure you can all understand what a busy time of year this is. It has been a pleasure for Mrs. Bentz and I to get to know all 49 of our students. We are very proud of all of their accomplishments and we are looking forward to heading into the "meat" of 5th grade!

Genre Pictures = FANTASTIC!

I've been so busy that I haven't had time to post a blog!

I just wanted to share that I was grading some of the Genre pictures that the students did in class today and they are AWESOME! I am so proud of the 5th graders and how well they did on this assignment.

Each student picked a genre that we have discussed in class. They then drew a picture that describes this genre and created a word web for the genre. They turned out fabulous and I will be hanging all of them up on the bulletin board in my room. :)

First Week

Well, we have the first week of school under our belt. This year at Creekview, we are learning how to work as a community. We started the year off with some great community building activities. We talked about how we want Creekview to look, sound, and feel. The entire school made "t-shirts" that reflected who we are. In math and science, students brought in brown bags with items that represented who they are. Students also participated in a great group project called "Creature Feature" (you should ask your student about that one!).

We had an awesome week! This week, we are going to start to get into the groove of academics. So, wish us luck! We're off!

End of Summer is Near

We are at the time of year again. The end of summer is on it's way and it will soon be time for back to school!

Enjoy your last few weeks of freedom and I will see you in the fall! :)