For Friday

Hi everyone,
Hope you are finding some time to get out and enjoy this beautiful weather. Here is what we will be doing in class tomorrow:

Fluency - Star Spangled Story (we will complete the back side, talking about descriptive language in writing)

Social Studies - We will finish our culture presentations and recite The Preamble.

Writing - we will finish our study on the types of sentences (declarative, imperative, interrogative, and exclamatory) by taking a short quiz to demonstrate understanding. Looking through the Sees Behind Trees story and looking for these types of sentences may be a smart thing to do. Time may be given for free writing and addingknick knacks to our writing journal (this can be stickers, photos, magazine clippings, etc.) We will continue our storying lesson.

Reading - We will do an open book test for Sees Behind Trees. You will be writing an extended response for this story, needing to look back in the story in order to support a single idea. Reading the story again would be a great way to be prepared. Be sure that you are asking yourself questions during reading.

Otter Creek - we will take our two minute test tomorrow. Have you been studying so you get a higher score tomrrow than you did last week?

Math - be sure (5th grade math) that you record the time you started your math homework and the time you finished it. We will use this data to work on landmarks of mean, median, and mode tomorrow.

After all of this, you will surely be ready for a weekend of relaxation!!
:-)

Tuesday

Homework for today:Math: 5th grade - journal page 37 and 38. Study link 2.4 can be done for extra credit. We are working on analyzing what to do with all the information in a story problem. Being able to identify necessary and unnecessary information is a very useful skill. Accelerated Math has a study link for homework.

Spelling - Test over Unit 5 tomorrow and contract due tomorrow.

Science - Atmosphere Quiz tomorrow

Fluency - we are sticking with our fluency from last week, since the kids have the Preamble to memorize and that is fluency practice.

Social Studies - memorize Preamble to the Constitution by Friday.

LMC day is Thursday!

Climbing into the Atmosphere

This week, we continue our study of the atmosphere, learning about the difference between the layers and what can be found in each layer. We have a busy week, so I appreciate the support you can give at home to keep your kids on track.

Today, we had an assembly called the PRO kids assembly, where we talked about how to have good character. Making good choices in school helps everyone have a better experience in school. Sometimes, it can be hard to remember that we are dealing with5th graders, our expectations can be so high. It is important to provide the kids with reminders or a tool (like a checklist) in order to keep on track with what they should be doing. Building good habits now can help your child be more successful on their own accord later. Does your child have a routine of what to do when he or she comes home? How do you check the work that is due? Is there a calendar to write assignments down for both of you to refer to? How often do you check this site for help?

Here are some assignments for this week:
Fluency:
We are continuing to use the fluency passage (Star Spangled Story) from last week.

Social Studies:
Culture activity is due tomorrow (Visual representations must be included!)
Preamble should be memorized by Friday

Science:
Study the layers of the atmosphere (in order), know their qualities and what you could see in each layer

Math:
My class has journal page 31 due tomorrow (math box page)

Spelling:
Test on Wednesday
COntract due Wednesday

BAND TOMORROW MORNING AND SMALL GROUP TOMORROW AND WEDNESDAY
OLSAT TESTING TOMORROW FROM 11:20 - 12:20

Learning about the Ice Age

Dear Students,
I hope you are enjoying learning about history as much as I love teaching it! There is so much to choose from when it comes to history. Every time I open a book on history, I am fascinated with what I find...it is always something new, even thought it is technically OLD!! I love it! I love looking out at you and seeing the excitement in your faces when we are talking about people from 10,000 years ago. Do you remember what we talked about from the timeline today? Try to remember!

Please take a moment to direct your mom or dad to our upcoming events in the margin!

Here is the work you have been assigned:
Math: 5th grade has math boxes due tomorrow and Study Link 2.2. THe family letter for unit 2 came home today too.

Spelling: We took our test today on Unit 4 and got the list for Unit 5. THe pretest will be tomorrow. Also, you should complete the spelling sheet for Unit 4 (given on Tuesday!!). It is due at 9:15 tomorrow morning - so if you left it at school, get right in and finish it!

Social Studies: Lesson 2 pages 61-63. You will need your 12 square notes page completed tomorrow for class!

Also! Culture Activity is due on Monday (either a culture doll, collage, or the typed newspaper article)

Reading: Fluency is due on Friday - SIGNED by a parent! Remember, do not complete the written portion, but prepare to complete it in class. Look for the descriptive phrases and idioms in the passage!

Who are you?

I know, I know! How much do I need to know about you? First there was the "Me Bag" activity (done pretty much by yourself). Then, there was the "All About Me" poster (done at school except for one piece of homework). Both of those activities told us lots about you. NOW...dun, dun, DUN... there is the Culture Activity. TOday, we spent time talking about the Star Spangled Banner as part of our fluency lesson. We talked about how that song, our National Anthem, is part of America's culture - mostly played at sporting events. We talked about how America is unique in that it is a country comprised of a variety of cultures. The Culture Activity is a chance for you to tell your story (HIStory or HERstory). Who are you (as part of a family)? This is an activity where you might need a parent or grandparent to help guide you with the history of your family. The pink sheet that came home today outlined the choices of how you can represent this activity. You will be graded on how well you represent your culture. No matter what the activity, you need to include 3 VISUAL representations of your culture (picture, clipping, photograph, etc.). This year, I am presenting kids with a trio of options. You child has chosen either a culture doll, a collage, or a newspaper article (that will need to be typed). I am hoping this will allow your child to express his or her culture in a comfortable way. This is not meant to take a long time. Your child does need to be able to explain the representation to the class. It is due next Monday, the 27th.

Here is other homework for the week:Spelling test for Unit 4 is Wednesday (contrat too, unless you are off contract)
Math - 5th grade has box pages due (half sheet came home) test was graded, reviewed and passed out today - some kids need this signed! Accel. math has a study guide.

Fluency this week is Star Spangled Story - work with idioms. Bring in some idioms we did not talk about for some reading extra credit points!

BAND AND ORCHESTRA LARGE GROUP START NEXT WEEK IN THE MORNING!

Are you studying the PREAMBLE??

See you tomorrow!!!

Motivating words

Today we watched President Obama's Back to School Speech given yesterday in Philadelphia. It was very motivating and as we watched, we all wrote down some of the snipets of encouragement he was doling out left and right! Tomorrow, we will create a collection of quotes to encourage each other.

Today we had our first fire drill! The kids did a great job staying safe and setting a great example to the younger grades.

Tomorrow is LMC day. DO you have any books that need renewed or turned in? ANy summer books that you still need to return???

Homework is:
Spelling - pretest tomorrow on Unit 4

Reading - test is Friday over Hot and Cold Summer. Our main focus with this story is characterization and vocabulary.

Math - 5th grade math has journal page 23 for homework. We are working on understanding square numbers and exponential notation. We have a test on Unit 1 on Friday. A study guide is coming home today. It is NOT HOMEWORK to be done by tomorrow. It needs to be at school tomorrow so we can work on it in small and large group work. We will do review of Unit 1 in class tomorrow and the only homework tomorrow will be the study guide (to study for the test) signed by a parent. This study guide is counted only toward effort. I will not grade this as it is done with partners and together in the class so it doesn't make sense to count it as a grade. It is a resource for the kids to know what will be on the test. On Friday, the class will be assigned a few math box pages as review and those will be due next week.

That is it!