The Headlines, 11-24

The Headlines

 

It’s hard to believe that we are already upon the holidays and Thanksgiving is this week.  We are looking forward to a short, but productive week!

Math:  The class as a whole did very well on their unit 3 test.  I am especially proud of how well they are doing with using bar models to solve word problems.  This week we will start dividing fractions by fractions.  I am also planning on having a few more quizzes in math throughout our units.  I feel it will help assess how the students are doing throughout the unit and will also help me see who may need extra tutoring.

Literature:  We have reached Chapter 7 of the Hobbit and the students are doing an excellent job of practicing story mapping and pulling out main events.  This week we will be doing a character study based on one of the many interesting characters we have met thus far in the book.

 Writing:  Everyone seems to be grasping our study of adjectives and their role in a sentence.  We are becoming grammar detectives by looking for clues to help us find what job a word is doing.  Ask your kiddo to tell you the four questions that adjectives answer!  We will be having a short quiz on adjectives on Wednesday, so be looking for the grammar spiral to be coming home.

Spalding:  We had a short word list last week as I unknowingly had worked ahead.  This week we will have only fifteen words which they will receive on Monday.  We also started taking the pre-test in class last week.  If a 100% is earned then the students do not need to take the test on Friday.  If words are missed the homework Thursday is to write only those words three times.  However, because of the short week we will have only one test on Wednesday this week.

 

Science: We completed our unit on plant cells and started learning about Mitosis last week.  We discussed what mitosis is and how it affects our bodies.  This week we will begin looking at the different phases of mitosis.

History:  We have had some great discussions as we have looked at the beginning of the Reformation.  This is a really interesting time in history and the students seem to be really enjoying the ideas.  I am looking forward to reading all of their newspaper articles on the printing press.  We will be doing peer editing on these this week and the final draft will be due Wednesday.

 

                                                      Reminders:                           

 

The winter uniform policy will go into effect once we return from Thanksgiving Break.  Students will no longer be permitted to wear shorts to school. Girls must wear white or navy knee-high Masocks or nylon tights with their skirts, skorts, or jumpers. Navy or black socks must be worn with pants. Jackets and sweaters free of pop-culture icons may be worn outside; however, only approved sweaters and pullovers with the logo may be worn in the building. Spirit wear is not uniform-approved attire, so it is not permitted in class.

Our service project has begun!

2014 Archway Holiday Hope and Relief Effort

 

Our goal this year collectively as an Archway Arete community is to provide relief to the town of Hyder Arizona.  The town of Hyder, located in Yuma County, was once a World War II desert training ground for General Patton’s troops, but is now known as a ghost town.  It is populated today by hardworking shrimp, tilapia, and date farmers.  Income is very low and with only one general store the people of the town face many challenges to meet daily nutrition, housing, and hygiene needs.

 

The drive is being run by the Veselovsky family, one of our own Archway families and we are asking the rest of Archway Arete community if they can generously donate the following items to the people of the town of Hyder, Arizona during this holiday season:

 

Kindergarten:  Dental hygiene items such as toothbrushes, toothpaste, floss, mouthwash

First Grade:  Toilet paper & paper towels

Second Grade:  Canned food

Third Grade:  Dry rice, dry beans, dry pasta

Fourth Grade:  Flour, sugar, oats

Fifth Grade:  Hygiene items such as deodorant, shampoo, conditioner & body wash

 

You may begin dropping off collections to the classroom starting on Monday, November 17, 2014.  The collection will end on, Friday December 5, 2014.  Thank you in advance for your generous support and greathearted effort. 

 

 Important Dates:

 

Wednesday, 11/26: Half Day, 11:45 am Release

11/27 – 11/28: No School, Thanksgiving Break

 

Wish List:

 

Thank you so much for the glue sticks and sharpies, as well as for all of the donations for our service project. We appreciate your generosity!

 We are doing a science activity on Wednesday that  requires Oreos and large candy sprinkles.  If you are able to send either of these in with your fifth grader we would appreciate it!

If I don’t see you, have a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoy the time with your family.  I am so grateful to work in a school with such supportive and caring parents and for each of the amazing kiddos in our class. 

 

 

Headlines, 11/17

The Headlines

 

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and enjoyed this cool weather!  It is finally starting to feel like fall J

 

Math:  Last week we continued our unit on fractions.  We discussed how to convert measurements from larger units to smaller units, as well as from smaller to larger.  We also practiced using bar models to solve problems.  Students should have brought home and completed a study guide for the unit over the weekend.  Our test will be Wednesday and we will be reviewing today.  I will be holding a tutoring session for those who would like to attend tomorrow from 2:50-3:25.  We will also be starting our new math unit where we will continue to build on our fraction knowledge.

 

Literature:  We are really enjoying our reading of The Hobbit.  We have been practicing making annotations as we read which is a skill that our scholars will be using throughout their careers as Great Hearts students.

 

 Writing:  I was very pleased with the scores on our noun jobs test. I know these are advanced concepts for the kids, but they are working very hard and next year they will be ahead of the game!  We are moving on to adjectives and adverbs this week, so be looking for these notes to come home with your students.

 

 

Spalding:  I hope everyone has found the list of words on the blog helpful.  Please note these have not been marked and students should still have their words dictated  to them and should write them three times with markings and rules.

 

Science: We have continued our study of plant cells, primarily by looking at the similarities and differences between plant and animal cells.  Our quiz over this unit will be on Wednesday and then we will be moving to Mitosis.

 

History:  The class as a whole did FANTASTIC on the history test!  I am very proud of the study skills they showed.  We began our study of The Reformation by looking at the Printing Press and how it impacted the world.  This week we will begin a newspaper activity and will study the life of Martin Luther.

 

 

 

                                                      Reminders:                           

The winter uniform policy will go into effect once we return from Thanksgiving Break.  Students will no longer be permitted to wear shorts to school. Girls must wear white or navy knee-high Masocks or nylon tights with their skirts, skorts, or jumpers. Navy or black socks must be worn with pants. Jackets and sweaters free of pop-culture icons may be worn outside; however, only approved sweaters and pullovers with the logo may be worn in the building. Spirit wear is not uniform-approved attire, so it is not permitted in class.

 

Our service project has begun!

2014 Archway Holiday Hope and Relief Effort

 

Our goal this year collectively as an Archway Arete community is to provide relief to the town of Hyder Arizona.  The town of Hyder, located in Yuma County, was once a World War II desert training ground for General Patton’s troops, but is now known as a ghost town.  It is populated today by hardworking shrimp, tilapia, and date farmers.  Income is very low and with only one general store the people of the town face many challenges to meet daily nutrition, housing, and hygiene needs.

 

The drive is being run by the Veselovsky family, one of our own Archway families and we are asking the rest of Archway Arete community if they can generously donate the following items to the people of the town of Hyder, Arizona during this holiday season:

 

Kindergarten:  Dental hygiene items such as toothbrushes, toothpaste, floss, mouthwash

First Grade:  Toilet paper & paper towels

Second Grade:  Canned food

Third Grade:  Dry rice, dry beans, dry pasta

Fourth Grade:  Flour, sugar, oats

Fifth Grade:  Hygiene items such as deodorant, shampoo, conditioner & body wash

 

You may begin dropping off collections to the classroom starting on Monday, November 17, 2014.  The collection will end on, Friday December 5, 2014.  Thank you in advance for your generous support and greathearted effort. 

 

 

 

 

Important Dates:

 

Wednesday, 11/19: Plant Cell Quiz, Math Test

Wednesday, 11/26: Half Day, 11:45 am Release

11/27 – 11/28: No School, Thanksgiving Break

 

Wish List:

 

Some students do not have fine-tip black Sharpies (or Sharpie like pens), if you see these on sale we would love to have some extras, as we use these for projects.

 

We are in great need of glue sticks!

 

Spelling Words and Tutoring Session

Spelling Words, 11/6

 

controlled

control

disaster

eager

enemy

example

excitement

exciting

excite

fierce

flew

flies

fly

forgotten

forgot

gigantic

giant

guide

hurrying

hurried

hurry

knowledge

know

lawyer

paragraph

patient

patience

pianist

pianos

piano

Our words are getting more challenging!  To help your students you can ask them to tell you about the rules we are studying.  Rules 19 and 11 can be tricky, ask your child to explain them to you!

Also, don't forget that the History test will be on Wednesday.

We will be having a tutoring session Wednesday from 1:45 - 2:25 since we will not be in school tomorrow.  A few of the kids had a hard time with todays concept in math.  If you feel that your child needs the extra support, please be sure they stay for help.

Enjoy your day off, and a special thank you to those of you who are serving or have served our country.  I am so thankful for the sacrifices you and your families have made.

Headlines, 11/10

The Headlines

 

We had a very productive week with our fifth graders.  We were able to wrap up a few of our units and start some new ones.  We also had our first school assembly and learned about our virtue of the month, Courage.

 

Math:  The students have done very well with our fraction unit thus far and seem to have a strong grasp on the concepts presented.  We discussed adding and subtracting fractions with like and unlike denominators, multiplying fractions by a whole number, and using conversion factor in measurement.  This week we will continue our study of measurement and conversion factors, review bar models, and complete our study guide for the fraction unit. 

 

Literature:  Last week we introduced The Hobbit to the students, and they are loving the humor and adventure already.  We also learned how to create a story map and reviewed summaries.  We will be using this book as a time to use the skills we have learned in writing to create clear summaries of our reading.  Please be sure your child has a copy of The Hobbit at school.  If you need a copy to borrow we are happy to help, just let me know as soon as possible. 

 

Writing: Our focus has been grammar for the past several weeks, specifically we have been discussing noun jobs.  Next week we will be reviewing noun jobs and will take a quiz over the unit.  We will also be reviewing the helping verbs.

 

 

Spalding:  I hope everyone has found the list of words on the blog helpful.  Please note these have not been marked and students should still have their words dictated  to them and should write them three times with markings and rules.

 

Science: The students did a great job on their Animal Cell test and I was proud of how well prepared they were!  We started our plant unit last week discussing the similarities and differences of the two types of cells.  This will be a short unit that should be completed this week.

 

History:  We have completed the Renaissance!  We finished the unit be looking at the way it influenced other parts of Europe.  Study guides were distributed on Friday.  We will be going over these in class on Monday and will test over the unit on Wednesday

.

 

We also took the time this week to think about what it must have been like for Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel by doing a little upside down art ourselves.  Here are a few pictures of our experience:

 

 

                                                      Reminders:                           

The winter uniform policy will go into effect once we return from Thanksgiving Break.  Students will no longer be permitted to wear shorts to school. Girls must wear white or navy knee-high socks or nylon tights with their skirts, skorts, or jumpers. Navy or black socks must be worn with pants. Jackets and sweaters free of pop-culture icons may be worn outside; however, only approved sweaters and pullovers with the logo may be worn in the building. Spirit wear is not uniform-approved attire, so it is not permitted in class.

 

 

Important Dates:

 

Tuesday, 11/6: No school, Veteran’s Day

Wednesday, 11/7: Renaissance Test

Wednesday, 11/26: Half Day, 11:45 am Release

11/27 – 11/28: No School, Thanksgiving Break

 

Wish List:

 

Some students do not have fine-tip black Sharpies (or Sharpie like pens), if you see these on sale we would love to have some extras, as we use these for projects.

 

We are in great need of glue sticks!

 

Spelling List and Flashcard App

This weeks list:

 

injury

injure

distribute

general

tomorrow

consider

against

again

complete

search

treasure

popular

Christmas

Christ

interest

advice

advise

American

America

bargain

beneath

beyond

broken

broke

break

cocoa

collar

comparison

compare

debts

 

Also, I have heard great things about the app ANKI, which has digital flashcards.  The website is:
ankisrs.net

You may want to check it out!

 

One other note, I have the fun run listed on the blog, but it has been cancelled. Finally, don't forget retakes are tomorrow.

 

Have a great day!



Headlines

The Headlines

 

We had quite a week of celebration!  Thank you so much to those of you who came and helped, sent in treats, or decorations.  It was a much needed celebration of all of our hard work over the last quarter J

 

Math:  Last week was the beginning of Singapore Math Unit 3 with a focus on fractions.  Although this is a review for some students, it is good to refresh our memories and we have also been practicing how to use our new skills in problem solving.  This week we will work on adding/ subtracting/ multiplying, and dividing with fractions and mixed numbers.  We also will start looking at the connection between fractions and units of measure.

 

Literature:  Our literature celebration was a huge success.  We were able to taste some new food and some of our students had the opportunity to play chess for the first time.  Thanks to a few of the kids, I am finally learning as well!  This week we will start reading The Hobbit.  Because this can be a challenging book, it will be done entirely as a read aloud.  We will still work on literature skills, but all reading will be done in class.

 

Writing: We have spent quite a bit of time learning all the jobs of nouns in sentences and have continued perfecting our sentence diagramming skills.  This week we will begin looking at prepositions, linking verbs, and nouns used as appositives.  It is very important that students bring home their writing spiral each night to help with their homework as that is where all of our notes are taken.

 

 

Spalding:  Our words are getting a little more challenging, so please be sure that your child is writing each word three times nightly. 

 

Science: We continued working on our cell analogy posters last week and also learned about the types of animal cells.  We will be going over the study guide in class today and will be testing over animal cells tomorrow.  We have a short unit on plant cells coming next.

 

History: Last week we looked at Leonardo Da Vinci and his work and how it impacted the Renaissance.  We should be finishing this unit this week and will review for the test next week.

 

 

Important Dates:

 

11/5: Picture Retakes

11/15: Fun Run

 

Wish List:

 

Some students do not have fine-tip black Sharpies (or Sharpie like pens), if you see these on sale we would love to have some extras, as we use these for projects.

 

We are running low on glue sticks!

Here are few pictures of our awesome literary characters, thanks for helping to make this a fun day!