Headlines 9/27

It's hard to believe this is the last week of the first quarter!  The students have been working hard and I am sure everyone is ready for a chance to relax and hopefully enjoy some cooler weather.  However, we still have four more days of school so let's help our scholars remember that we are going to finish strong!

Math:  We have taken our time moving through bar models and I am impressed with how far they have come in their ability to use bar models to solve problems.  We will be moving on to multiplication and division of large numbers this week, hopefully this will be a review for most, and after the break we will finish Unit 2.

Spalding: We are taking a break this week from Spalding and will use this time to review our roots.

Writing/ Grammar: I am looking forward to reading everyone's personal narratives tomorrow.  For the rest of the week we will be reviewing parts of speech and sentence diagramming.

Literature: We only have a couple chapters left of Voyage of the Dawn Treader.  We are excited to conclude with a literature celebration on Thursday.  I will be collecting the Voyage packets on Thursday and these will count for a test grade.  I have been encouraging the class to keep on top of these and  these should have been taken home and checked over this weekend.

History: We have been enjoying learning about the Mayans, Aztecs, and Incas and their culture.  The mini-books will be due Tuesday and we will be taking the test on Thursday. 

Science: I am looking forward to seeing everyone's atom projects, we have had a few students already bring theirs to class, and it is clear they have worked hard!  We will spend the rest of the week presenting to the class.

 

Announcements:

If your child will not be here Thursday, please be sure to let us know in advance.  We will be taking tests and grades that are important for quarterly evaluations.

 

Important Dates

 

• Monday, 9/28:  Personal Narratives Due
• Tuesday, 9/29: Ancient Civilizations Packet Due
• Tuesday, 9/29: Atom Projects Due
• Wednesday, 9/30: Roots Test (Study Guide will go out Thursday, however there may be a couple more roots to add next week.)
• Thursday, 10/1: History Test
• Thursday 10/1: Literature Celebration 



Spalding List, Sign-Up Link, Reading Logs

As you may have noticed your child did not bring home a reading log this week.  I apologize that I did not get this sent home.  I will NOT be collecting reading logs this week!

Many of our scholars did very well pre-test this week.  If they missed more than two they should write the words three times and will re-take the test tomorrow.  I again apologize that I did not put these out earlier, however, here is the list for this week, hopefully better late than never!

fought
fuel
genuine
growth
handful
hardly
investigation
involved
involve
stationary
stationery
*Be sure to know the meaning of each!
stomach
succeed
television
tough
whistling
whistle
wholesome
wreath
whistle
wrestling
wrestle
meant
mean
distinguish

Also, there is a sign-up genius for the literature celebration that was emailed.  If you did not receive it here it is:

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f054da9a722a13-5thgrade

Thank you for your continued support! 

Headline 9/21

I hope everyone enjoyed their three day weekend.  I attended a workshop taught by our very own Mrs. Posner at Arete Prep and learned some great new tips and teaching tools on sentence diagramming which I am excited to share with our scholars. 

The next few weeks will be quite busy as we prepare for the end of the first quarter, so please be sure to read the newsletter carefully, especially looking at due dates for the weeks ahead.

Math: First off, I would like to thank the parent volunteers who came in and helped the class on Wednesday. The kids loving having a different face to guide them, so if you are interested in helping us out, please let me know.  We are currently in the heat of Bar Model Problems, we will be reviewing these for the next couple of days and then will move into multiplication of larger numbers.

 Literature: We are nearing the end of Voyage of the Dawn Treader.  I hope that the students have been keeping up with their comprehension and vocabulary packet.  In the next few days a sign-up genius will be sent out for our Voyage literature celebration, please  be on the lookout for that! 

Writing/Grammar:  Over the weekend the students should have completed their pre-writing for their personal narrative.  We will continue to work through this process as the week progresses and the final draft will be due on Friday.

Spalding: I hope having the lists posted on the blog helped you prepare your child for the test.  I will continue to do this.

History: Last week we began learning about the Mayans. We will start talking about the Aztecs and Incas this week and the students will be assigned a short booklet to make about one of the three groups.  These will be discussed tomorrow and will be due next Monday.  We will also be taking the Ancient Civilizations test next Thursday.

Science: Most students did very well on the mid-unit quiz.  We will be learning about chemical bonds this week and will have time to work on the atom project.  These will be due next Tuesday, however for extra credit the students may turn them in early!  Please let me know if you have any questions regarding this assignment.  Our hope is that this is an opportunity to see the creative juice flowing!

Announcements:

• I will be holding a special tutoring session for students who needed a little extra review of the packet we completed for last Wednesday.  I will be handing these back today, and will have a note if your child should stay.  Please check-in with your kiddo regarding this!
• A homework survey will be sent out soon, please take note of how long your child is spending on homework so that we can be sure we are giving an appropriate amount.

 

Important Dates:

• Friday, 9/25: Reading Logs due Friday, 9/25
• Friday, 9/25: 11:45 Dismissal
• Thursday, 9/24, 6pm-8pm: Spalding and Singapore Math Night
• Monday, 9/28:  Ancient Civilizations Packet Due
• Tuesday, 9/29: Atom Projects Due
• Wednesday, 9/30: Roots Test (Study Guide will go out Thursday, however there may be a couple more roots to add next week.)
• Thursday, 10/1: History Test
• Thursday 10/1: Literature Celebration 

Spalding List and a Few Updates

 

This is our Spalding list for this week, we will not be having a pre-test, the final test will be tomorrow.  There is also a study guide going home for a short Science quiz.  We have discussed this at length in class, and if the students spend time studying this at home tonight they should do very well on the quiz.

 

Also, if your child has not brought a notebook for French please have them do so tomorrow. 

 

compete

deceive

determination

determined

determine

discoveries

discovery

discover

electricity

electrician

electrical

electric

entered

error

err

exact

exception

favorable

favorite

favor

Headline, 9/14

It is good to be back with all our scholars.  We have had a great start to the day, and we are looking forward to a wonderful week ahead!

Math: We are continuing to use the distributive property for mental math this week and will begin studying various types of bar model problems.  Today's homework is a bit challenging so I shortened the length of the work.  This is a challenging concept, so please know we will be working on it in class as well. 

 Literature: We have read up to chapter 8 in Voyage of the Dawn Treader  and Please, continue to help your child be keep on top of the Voyage packet.  We are working on this both in class and at home, however at the end of the unit they will be graded on completion of the vocabulary and comprehension questions.  

Writing/Grammar:Last week we introduced prepositional phrases and how to diagram them.  We are getting ready to take a short break from grammar to focus on writing a personal narrative.

Spalding: We will continue to move through our Spalding lists this week.  We will again have twenty words on the list.  I will also begin posting the words on the blog each week so you can help your child study, however I will not add markings or rules.

History: We completed our unit on World Lakes last week and will be starting to study Ancient Civilizations today. 

Science: We have been learning about the organization of the periodic table and will continue focusing on this.  We will be taking a mid-unit quiz later this week, and a study guide for this will be going home either today or tomorrow.

Announcements:

• I wanted to clear up any confusion on reading logs which I do not think I was super clear on!  They will be sent home on Fridays and will be due on Fridays of the following week.  However if it is a short week we will shorten the reading, for example this week they will be due on Thursday, and they will only need logs for the weekend-Wednesday.  
• Math tutoring will continue this week on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays from 3:05-3:35.  At this time we will be focusing on Math, however as the year progresses content areas may change.  We will invite your students to tutoring as we see fit, however, if you would like your child to stay, please let us know.
• A homework survey will be sent out soon, please take note of how long your child is spending on homework so that we can be sure we are giving an appropriate amount.

 

Important Dates:

• Reading Logs due Thursday 9/17
  Tuesday, 9/15, School Picture Day
  
• No school, Friday, 9/18
• Spalding and Singapore Math Night, Thursday, 9/24, 6pm-8pm



Headlines, 9/8/15

I hope everyone enjoyed a restful three day weekend.  It was a much needed R&R weekend for all, and we are now all ready for a great week ahead!

Math: Last week tests were sent home to make corrections for our first unit test.  Students received half credit for each correction that was made.  We also took an entire class period and worked through the test for any questions that arose.  Our new unit is underway, and we will be looking at the distributive property this week. 

Literature: We have read up to chapter 7 in Voyage of the Dawn Treader  and last week we spent some time looking at characterization.  We will build on this as we look at different types of characterization authors use.  As I stated last week, please help your child be sure they are keeping on top of the Voyage packet.  We are working on this both in class and at home, however at the end of the unit they will be graded on completion of the vocabulary and comprehension questions.  

Writing/Grammar:Last week we spent a great deal of time reviewing the four parts of speech we have learned, nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.  We will be taking a short quiz on Wednesday, to assess our knowledge of diagramming and parts of speech.  A review sheet will go home today.

Spalding: We will continue to move through our Spalding lists this week, however due to the short week there will only be twenty words.

History: Last week we continued our unit on World Lakes.  The study guide for this unit will be going home tomorrow and we will take the test on Friday.  We also made test corrections for the first unit test.  As a fifth grade team we decided the first page of the Geography test caused problems for many students, therefore we did not it toward the final test grade.  We will take a few days to revisit lattitude and longitude at a later date. 

Science: The science tests from last week have been graded and many students did very well.  The grades for this test will be kept as they are since the study guide for this test was very specific to the test.  We began our new unit on Chemistry last week by looking at the definition and structure of atoms.  This week we will continue looking at atoms will begin our study of the periodic table.

Announcements:

• Math tutoring will continue this week on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays from 3:05-3:35.  At this time we will be focusing on Math, however as the year progresses content areas may change.  We will invite your students to tutoring as we see fit, however, if you would like your child to stay, please let us know.

• Congratulations to Sloan McLellan the recipient of the Responsibility Virtue Award.  Sloan is such a great example to our class!

• We have had many absent kiddos in our class due to the coughs and sniffles that seem to be going around the fifth grade!  When your student is absent they will receive a yellow sheet with missed work.  Please help them be sure they are turning their work in when they return.  As a reminder, they have one day for each day they are absent to make-up their work.

• Mid-term grades will be sent home this week for any scholar who has below a 69% in any content area.  Although this is a good indication for how they have been doing so far in school, it is also an invitation to improve scores!  For many students mid-terms are a bit of a wake-up call to the level of study and work that is required in fifth grade.  Please know that there is still time for grades to improve!

 

Upcoming Tests/Quizzes.

• Thursday, September 10: Chapter 2, Grammar
• Friday, September 11: World Lakes Test



Wish List:

• Thank you for the wipes and Kleenex we are working on staying clean and healthy!

Important Dates:

• Please note that there was a scheduling error for the Singapore/Spalding night.  This will be rescheduled soon and we will keep you informed of the date.
  
  

 

We enjoyed a fun science experiment this week, mystery boxes!