Free Christmas Album

Mr. JJ Evans has a new Christmas Album that he is allowing the community to listen to for free.  Please click on the link below to visit his site.  Hope you enjoy!!

http://vibedeck.com/jjevans

Sorry for the Late Update!

Families, I am so sorry for not updating my blog this week.  It has been quite a busy week at Miss Dodd's house!! :)

I did want to post a few announcements.
Friday, December 14: We will send the Gainesville High School football players off to play in the State Championship game by participating in a parade.  We will line the sides of the road that runs behind Centennial Friday afternoon. Students need to wear comfortable shoes and dress warmly.  No student will be allowed to check-out between the hours of 1:00pm-2:00pm because of this.

Italian Ice money ($2) was originally due Wednesday but it was moved to THIS FRIDAY (tomorrow) and will be delivered on Monday.  This change was due to the parade Friday afternoon.

The Step & Musical Production has been moved to Monday at 12:35 & 1:30 instead of Friday, again, because of the parade.

Please let me know if you have any questions about anything going on in class this week or next! Thank you for your continued support!

Thursday, 12/13

PTA Winter Concert @ 6:00pm

Friday, 12/14

Gainesville Middle School Holiday Concert @ 9:00am (leave CAA at 8:30am)

Italian Ice Money Due ($2)

Monday, 12/17

Mr. Williamson will do a classroom discussion on "Harassment Hurts" @ 12:45pm-1:25pm

Italian Ice Delivery

Tuesday, 12/18

Mr. Williamson will do a classroom discussion on "Harassment Hurts"-part 2 @ 12:45pm-1:25pm

Thursday, 12/20

My Homeroom: Holiday Party @ 12:45pm.  We will watch The Polar Express or maybe another Holiday movie from 11:15-11:45 and then 12:45-1:30.  I will provide hot apple cider (from my family's orchard) and hot chocolate.  Mrs. Brock (Madison's mom) is going to contact parents about sending in treats to enjoy during the movie.  

Friday, 12/21

Last day of school before the Winter Break!!! We will be watching Kit Kittredge, An American Girl Story, during Science.  This is a video that the students will LOVE! It is based on the story of a girl, around age 10, who lived through the time of the Depression.  This video goes hand-in-hand with 5th grade Social Studies Standards.  

Week of December 3rd

Hello Families!! I hope that you have a wonderful weekend; I know I did! I love seeing all the Holiday decorations all around town! :)

Month at a Glance:

Monday, 12/3

Centennial Book Fair 7:30 - 2:30

Our whole class will visit the Book Fair on Monday at 10:30

Tuesday, 12/4

Centennial Book Fair 7:30 - 2:30

Wednesday, 12/5

Centennial Book Fair 7:30 - 2:30

Thursday, 12/6

Centennial Book Fair 7:30 - 2:30

Math: Summative Performance Task

Skate Country, 4-6 pm, $4

Friday, 12/7

Centennial Book Fair 7:30 - 11:00 (closes early!!)

My homeroom: Science Test

Chick-Fil-A Biscuits, $2.50

Thursday, 12/13

PTA Winter Concert @ 6:00pm

Friday, 12/14

Gainesville Middle School Holiday Concert @ 9:00am (leave CAA at 8:30am)

Monday, 12/17

Mr. Williamson will do a classroom discussion on "Harassment Hurts" @ 12:45pm-1:25pm

Tuesday, 12/18

Mr. Williamson will do a classroom discussion on "Harassment Hurts"-part 2 @ 12:45pm-1:25pm

Thursday, 12/20

My Homeroom: Holiday Party @ 12:45pm.  We will watch The Polar Express or maybe another Holiday movie from 11:15-11:45 and then 12:45-1:30.  I will provide hot apple cider (from my family's orchard) and hot chocolate.  Mrs. Brock (Madison's mom) is going to contact parents about sending in treats to enjoy during the movie.  

Friday, 12/21

Last day of school before the Winter Break!!! We will be watching Kit Kittredge, An American Girl Story, during Science.  This is a video that the students will LOVE! It is based on the story of a girl, around age 10, who lived through the time of the Depression.  This video goes hand-in-hand with 5th grade Social Studies Standards.  

We are on Week 10 of spelling this week.  Below you will find the list of words for this week.  Remember: your student may not have any words this week or he/she may have all 20 words...it all depends on their Pre-test that they take on Monday morning at 7:35.  Their words should be written in their agendas.
1. has     2. have   3. hard
4. he       5. head   6. hear
7. heart   8. heard  9. help
10. heavy   11. held    12. here
13. her        14. himself     15. him
16. high      17. his            18. home
19. hold     20. horse


Monday: Working on the difference between an expression and an equation.  We will work on writing expressions in class and students will finish a worksheet for homework.

Tuesday and Wednesday: Students will be completing a sample performance task that deals with patterns and expressions.  This will help to prepare students for their BIG Summative Performance Task on Thursday.

Tuesday Homework: Finding a pattern and a rule worksheet.

Thursday: Summative Performance Task

Friday: Begin working on our Geometry Unit.  Most of this day will be spent on learning all the vocabulary that we will be dealing with in this unit. (There is A LOT!!!)


I have really enjoyed reading the Career Essays that were turned in Friday.  Students were originally going to have 45 minutes to put their finishing touches on their essays in class but because I am the PBIS Coordinator, I had to help take care of the Italian Ice orders so Mrs. Frierson read a book to the class.  I let the students take their papers home over the weekend so all of them should have been turned in on Monday morning.  

We are now back to Shurley English!! YAY! We start Chapter 7, Lesson 1 on Monday.  This unit talks about Pattern 2; which excites the students!! I'm not sure exactly how much we will progress each day because each lesson gets a little more in-depth and I don't want us to go too fast.  

We will take 2 days before Holiday Break to practice writing a paper for the 5th Grade Writing Test that will take place in March. We want to make sure that we are ready for that important assessment! 

SCIENCE (sorry, don't have a cute header!)

This week I have my homeroom for science again.  We are building on our previous unit of matter and will talk in-depth about changing matter.  We will discuss how matter can be changed and whether that change is chemical or physical.   This week, we will do nothing but demonstrations and hands-on activities.  THANK YOU SO MUCH for your support! Ask the students, I almost cried over how supportive each of you were at bringing in science supplies! I am so thankful for each of you! We visited the Book Fair today so we were only able to complete 1 station/experiment today but they will end up completing 7 different stations in groups.  On Thursday and Friday we will be dining at our "Chemical Change Cafe" and learning even more about chemical and physical changes that occur in our everyday lives! 

Students in the Community

Several fifth grade students are on part of our Honors Chorus at CAA.  They will be having several performances this coming Sunday and Monday.  Please consider going to support this individuals! Hope to see you there! :)

Sunday, December 2nd: Christmas on Green Street. We will be performing at the Jackson-Walters house, which is the white house right next door to Mellow Mushroom. The students will perform at 6:15 pm on the porch outside.

 

Monday, December 3rd: Lovelight Program at Northeast Georgia Medical Center. The students will perform in the Lovelight garden, which is located in front of the North Patient Tower. The program begins at 7:00 pm and won't last more than 30 minutes.

Week of November 26th

Hello Everyone! I hope that you each had a wonderful Thanksgiving Break and spent plenty of time relaxing with family (and a little extra sleep too!).  We are in FULL SWING in Room 103!

We are on Week 9 of spelling this week.  Below you will find the list of words for this week.  Remember: your student may not have any words this week or he/she may have all 20 words...it all depends on their Pre-test that they take on Monday morning at 7:35.  Their words should be written in their agendas.

1. gave          2. girl          3. get         4. going         5. give
6. go             7. glass        8. gone      9. gold         10. great
11. good      12. got         13. ground   14. green     15. grow
16. group     17. half        18. had      19. happened   20. hand


In my math classes, we are finishing our unit on the coordinate plane.  The summative assessment will be Tuesday.  Students will need to be able to create their own coordinate plane, plot ordered pairs, determine distances between points, and predict where the next point(s) should be located.

Monday Homework: COACH Book page 188-189 all
Tuesday: Summative Assessment: Coordinate Plane
Wednesday: Begin unit on Operations & Algebraic Thinking: Creating Patterns
Wednesday Homework: Decimal Number Lines & Number Lines Worksheet
Thursday: Continue working with patterns in algebra.
Thursday Homework: COACH Book page 18 #1-5
Friday: Formative assessment over OA.3

Remember: Students can ALWAYS look through their COACH Books for additional help.  I am also available for after-school tutoring during 2nd load 2:25-2:50 every afternoon.  Please let me know if your student needs additional help in any subject.  



This week we are finishing up our HUGE Careers essay.  Your student has been working on this paper the whole month of November.  If they are not on the rough draft stage by Wednesday, they will be bringing this home to finish so that they can do peer edits and revisions on Thursday.  The final, publishing essay is due Friday.  

SCIENCE (sorry, don't have a cute header!)
This week I have my homeroom for science.  We are building on our previous unit of matter and will talk in-depth about changing matter.  We will discuss how matter can be changed and whether that change is chemical or physical.  This week we will be doing mostly "book learning" and "video learning"; we will not have any interactive demonstrations.  Next week, we will do nothing but demonstrations and hands-on activities.  With that being said, there are a few items that we REALLY need in order to help with our "experiments".  Students have a half sheet of paper that they have brought home that lists some of the supplies that we will need.  If you are able to provide any of the items, it would be greatly appreciated!! Thank you in advance for your help with this! 

Fundraiser for CAA

While you are Holiday shopping, why not help your child's school earn some CASH!!! The link below takes you to a flyer that is tied to the SchoolMall fundraiser we did earlier in the school year.

If you shop at certain online stores and type in the schoolmall code for CAA our school gets a percentage of the purchase. (For example...the Toms website gives CAA 7% of every purchase).

http://www.cfe.com/dp/images/2012SMLColor.pdf?utm_source=Dawn&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign="SML2012HolidayFlyer"

HAPPY SHOPPING!!! 

Week of November 5th

Events This Week: 

Thursday:  Careers Guest Speaker: Cedric Spain, technology from Centennial

Friday: Spelling Test #7-begins at 7:35am immediately following announcements 

Careers Guest Speakers: Vet technicians from Murrayville Vet Clinic

This week in Spelling, we are still working on our "Words that Every Fifth Grader Should Know How to Spell".  We are in week 7 of our words.  Remember: your child may have 1 word this week, 5 words this week, or 0 words this week depending on which words they missed on their pre-test.  Check your child's agenda for their spelling list.  

This week in math we are continuing to work with decimals.  We are particularly working on dividing decimals.  Students will have a Summative Assessment on Friday that covers multiplying and dividing decimals.  Students will not have much homework this week.  

Continue working on Math Facts!! 

This week Mrs. Kennedy's homeroom is in my science class.  My homeroom is with Mrs. Kennedy learning some social studies! :) 

In science, we will be talking about Matter and Atoms.  We will talk about the different states of matter along with learning about what matter is.  

We aren't doing Shurley English again until after Thanksgiving Break. We'll be working on our big writing project that all 5th graders are doing:

2020: What's Your Vision?

This 5th grade class will graduate from high school in the year 2020! That number makes me think of perfect vision and being able to see clearly. We want our students to have a clear sense of their vision so they can start setting goals now to succeed later in life. While their vision may change, they'll have some experience with looking into their future with some serious thinking and will know how to set small goals in order to meet bigger ones. I'm getting excited just typing about it!

Students will be researching a career they might like to have when they grow up. Students will be required to take a skills aptitude test, research a specific career, write a 7-paragraph informational essay, and make a presentation. We will start this on Wednesday, and all projects will be due November 30th - no exceptions. This week, we'll start with some talking and thinking time with classmates to discuss a variety of careers that are available. I want the students to talk with each other, find out about some career options their peers might be interested in. Perhaps your child will hear of a career that he or she hadn't thought of before! Please take time this week to talk about careers with your fifth grader. This is going to be quite a big project, and your thoughts and input will be valuable into your child's decisions for the project! 

On Thursday, students will take a career aptitude test, asking them how they feel about certain skills, subjects, and hobbies. At the end of the aptitude test, students will be given a list of career fields that might use their talents well. Students will be able to click on the suggested career fields and start exploring those options.

More information will be coming home about this as the week progresses. Stay tuned! :)

Matter Webquest

Task #1

Task #2

Task #3

Task #4

GHS Homecoming Spirit Week @ CAA: Oct. 29-Nov. 2.

Monday: NEON Day

Wear bright neon!

Tuesday: Intellectual Day

Dress like a super smarty

Wednesday: America Day

Show your patriotic spirit

Thursday: College Day

Wear your favorite college logo

Friday: Spirit Day

Show your Gainesville PRIDE

Red Ribbon Week

Centennial's Red Ribbon week is underway and we are SUPER excited about showing off how we are pledging to be Drug-Free.  The following activities will occur this week:

Monday 10/22- Kick off Red Ribbon Week - Everyone wear Red.

Tuesday 10/23- Put a Cap on Drugs- Wear your favorite ballcap.

Wednesday- 10/24- Turn Your Back on Drugs-  Wear Your Shirt Backwards

Thursday 10/25- Drugs are Crazy!!- Crazy Socks Day

Friday- 10/26- I Don't See Drugs in My Future- Wear sunglasses.

 

I hope that you will allow your child to participate in these fun events this week!!

 

 

Pictures of Students

Anytime that I take pictures or videos of students this year, I will post them on here under the "Class of 2020" tab at the top of my blog.  I have posted pictures of our recent Field Trip along with videos.  Enjoy! :) 

Meet the Author

A week or so ago I was given the opportunity to attend a "Meet the Author" forum at Brenau University.  I had never heard of the author who was visiting but after further research, I found that she was the author of a new trilogy that was written for pre-teens and teens.  The author is When I arrived, I was surprised at how small the meeting was and how personal it felt to be there.  I was Ally Condie and the trilogy is called Matched.  It consists of the following books: Matched, Crossed, and Reached.  Matched is a New York Times Bestseller! I was so excited to find out how popular her trilogy has become.  After the Q & A session, I was able to meet Ally and purchase her first two books.  She signed both of them with a little note to my class in each of them! I am hoping to get a few copies of each of the books for our classroom library because I am really enjoying them! Below you will find some pictures of Ally and her books along with some more information about the trilogy.  

In the Society, Officials decide. Who you love. Where you work. When you die. Cassia has always trusted their choices, but she begins to question just how perfect her world really is when she notices things are not what they seem. As Cassia begins to doubt the Society’s infallibility, she is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she’s known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.

Chasing down an uncertain future, Cassia makes her way to the Outer Provinces in pursuit of Ky—taken by the Society to his sure death—only to find that he has escaped into the majestic but treacherous canyons. On this wild frontier are glimmers of a different life and the enthralling promise of rebellion. But even as Cassia sacrifices everything to reunite with Ky, ingenious surprises from Xander may change the game once again.

After leaving Society and desperately searching for the Rising—and each other—Cassia and Ky have found what they were looking for, but at the cost of losing each other yet again: Cassia has been assigned to work for the Rising from within Society, while Ky has been stationed outside its borders. But nothing is as predicted, and all too soon the veil lifts and things shift once again.

 

 

FIELD TRIP!

Friday, October 19th

9 am - 1:30 pm

Chestatee Wildlife Preserve

Dahlonega, GA

Students can view a variety of wild an exotic animals in a serene, country setting.

Live Animal Show!

Students can see many of the animals up close as well as pet many of them! Exciting!

Parent volunteers needed and WELCOMED!

We'd like to have small groups to make the tour more enjoyable for the students.

COST:

$5.75 per student

$5.75 per adult

RSVP to your child's teacher today if you'd like to volunteer!