The Week of September 29th!

Dear Students and Parents,

Thanks for taking the time to read this on-line newsletter! It sure helps you be informed!

MISS TREFONAS'S HOMEROOM:

Arrow/Tab Scholastic Book Order will be sent home on Tuesday. There are many great offers in each month's book order. This is optional. Buying books from these orders earns the classroom teacher bonus points to buy books and other classroom materials. Please send orders in an envelope with exact money or a check made out to SCHOLASTIC BOOKS.

This week's order will be due on Friday!

TICKETS!! Has your child told you about our classroom tickets that they can earn for positive behavior? I am asking for any parents who'd like to donate to my ticket prizes to send in "goodies" at any time. We need healthy individually wrapped snacks like cereal bars, fruit snacks, crackers, pretzels etc. Also, decorative pencils, prizes, stickers, and any other item you think would be fun for the kids to earn is GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!

THANKS!!!!

SOCIAL STUDIES: We are finishing Chapter 5 this week! The test will be on Tues. Oct. 7th!

Again, I am suggesting that reviewing for the test start as each lesson is finished.

I asked review questions from lessons 1-3 this past Thursday......ask your child if they were able to answer the question(s)! They even got tickets for correct answers! There were some students who obviously have studied and unfortunately some students who didn't know many of the answers.......

SCIENCE: Using science time to learn more about ELECTIONS! The students have a packet with 6 different election issues. There is background about each issue and each candidate's stance on them. The students have questions they have to answer about these issues. Lastly, they will be asking adults to read the issues and respond with their opinions.....BE READY!!!

The students will be getting a direction sheet on Monday about finding an appropriate quote from one of the presidential candidates that is needed for Friday, October 3rd.

Electoral College will be a big topic this week! We are doing a simulated activity with Miss Stetka's class about how the popular vote vs. the Electoral vote works in the election process!

MISS TREFONAS'S READING, ENGLISH, SPELLING CLASS:

TICKETS: Has your child told you about our tickets that they can earn for positive behavior? I am asking for any parents who'd like to donate to my ticket prizes that I welcome "goodies" at any time. We need HEALTHY individually wrapped snacks like pretzels, crackers, fruit snacks, cereal bars etc. Also, decorative pencils, prizes, stickers, etc....would be GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!!

SPELLING: Lesson 5 and word of the week!

ENGLISH: Unit 5 Capitalization & Punctuation - Proper nouns and adjectives and commas will be discussed this week!

READING: We are applying the reading strategy of summarizing as we read TROUBLE RIVER. We are writing a cumulative summary of 20 words or less as we read. The students are doing this in a summary journal which also requires illustrations.

SCCOPER READING: Many great book discussions and activities!!! Mrs. Warkentien, our library assistant, has also been meeting with students with their book activities and is excited about the books being shared with her!

VOCAB CLUB: September's 10 words are due this week. Students need to also pronounce the words correctly.

MISS TREFONAS'S MATH CLASS:

MATH: Some students have completed their timed multiplication tests 0 - 12's. ! WOW!

Timed tests due date is Tuesday, October 7th. The deadline was extended since there are a couple of days I will not be here , and I don't have a sub give timed tests.

Chapter 6 Test is Thursday, October 2nd

The WeeK of September 22, 2008

Dear Parents and Students:

Magazine Turn in = Tuesday, September 23rd!
Picture Day = Thursday, September 25th!

HERE'S WHAT'S HAPPENING IN MISS TREFONAS'S HOMEROOM:

SCIENCE= We are taking a temporary break from science and will be doing an Election Unit.

Some of the activities involve family participation.

We will be learning about the Democratic and Republican parties and candidates.

SOCIAL STUDIES= Parents, Can you answer this question......"What's the name of England's first permanent colony in America? Check with your 5th grade historian to see if you are correct! You can also have an interesting conversation with your child about what happened to the colonists of Roanoke Island?

We have finished Lesson 1 of Chapter 5. To make studying at the end of the chapter easier, go over Lesson 1 vocabulary, people and places! An ongoing review is a lot easier!!!!

This week we will finish Lesson 2 and Lesson 3.

MISS TREFONAS'S READING, ENGLISH & SPELLING CLASS:

SPELLING= Lesson 4 and W.O.W. (Word of Week) Have any W.O.W. bonus points been earned yet? Check the grade book to find out!

ENGLISH= Unit 1 ! We are finishing the unit this week. The students will be doing a review from the textbook on Wednesday. We will go over the review on Thursday. Friday is the test!

READING= We will be begin the reading comprehension strategy of summarizing using various materials. By the end of the week, the students will have begun a "summary journal" using the literature book Trouble River.

MISS TREFONAS'S MATH CLASS:

MATH: Chapter 2 Multiplication. We are multiplying by 2 and 3 digit numbers this week.

Your child is currently taking timed tests. We have many students who are ready to take their 7's timed test on Monday. Timed Tests for 0's - 12's due Friday, October 3rd.

Quiz over textbook lessons 1-4 = Friday!

GO CUBS!!!!

GO MUSTANGS!!!

GO BEARS!!!!!

The Week of September 15, 2008

Dear Parents,
Thanks to all of you who attended Curriculum Night. In the limited amount of time that was alloted to meet with each group, I hope I communicated expectations, policies and answers to questions. Please keep communication open between the classroom and home.

HERE'S WHAT'S HAPPENING IN MISS TREFONAS'S HOMEROOM:

SOCIAL STUDIES: Chapter 4 tests will be graded and returned on Monday.

Chapter 5 Lesson 1 "Hard Times in Virginia" We will learn about the colonies of Roanoke and Jamestown. Ask your child this question at the end of the week: Which was the first permanent English Colony in America?

SCIENCE: "Egg-speriment" due Tuesday!

We will be finishing the introductory unit. There will not be a final test over the introductory unit.

HERE'S WHAT'S HAPPENING IN MISS TREFONAS'S READING CLASS:

SPELING: Lesson 3 workbook due Thursday. Final test on Friday!

Word of the Week = possible 2 bonus points!

ENGLISH: Each child needs to bring in a photograph that they are in doing something memorable. This will be used to write our "Pyramid Poems". The pictures will be returned.

We will be learning about subjects in imperative sentences and conjunctions.

We will be listening to and singing along to two classic School House Rock songs.......Mr. Morton & Conjunction Junction! How many parents remember these?

READING: We will be reviewing the skills of looking at pictures and reading charts and graphs when used in non fiction text. We will also be learning how to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information in non fiction text. Main idea and supporting details will be reviewed towards the end of the week which will be an introduction to our next reading strategy, SUMMARIZING!
VOCABULARY WORD CLUB = Your child is responsible for completing 10 vocabulary cards due by the end of the month! Hopefully, they are working diligently on this!

SCOOPER READING = Tyler shared a wonderful book activity and an interesting book on Friday! We have had many other good shares too!

MATH CLASS:

Tuesday is our "Celebration of Knowledge" or otherwise known as a TEST on Chapter 1!!!

Chapter 2 MULTIPLICATION is next. How will your mathematician do on multiplication timed tests that begin this week?

GO DGS MUSTANGS! CROSS TOWN RIVALRY AT DGN!!!!

GO CUBS!!! INCREASE OUR FIRST PLACE LEAD!!!

The Week of September 8th in Miss Trefonas's Class

Dear Parents,
It was nice to see many of you who came to the R.T.I. parent information meeting this past Thursday evening. Hopefully, you gained some insight into how we are structuring reading and meeting the children's needs.
This week we have our 5th Grade Curriculum Night - Thursday, September 11 @ 7:00pm! I encourage you to attend. You will be going to a presentation with each of your child's teachers. This will help you know each teacher's expectations and policies in their classroom. You will also sign up for fall parent/teacher conferences in your child's reading class.
Friday, September 12th....Lakeview's band will be preforming for Prairieview students.
This is a fun kick-off to the band program at Prairieview. This will be at 12:45. Parents are always welcome!

MISS TREFONAS'S HOMEROOM:

SOCIAL STUDIES= Chapter 4 "Spain Builds an Empire"

Wednesday = How to Study sheet

Thursday = Jeopardy review

Friday is the chapter test.

SCIENCE = We are doing an introductory unit and learning about different tools and inquiry skills that scientists use. The students will be getting information about an EGG-cellent experiment/contest on Thursday!!! The students will have to "invent" something on their own and fill out the steps of the scientific method.

The EGG-cellent experiment "invention" will be due Tuesday, September 16th!

More information will be coming home with your scientist.......

MISS TREFONAS'S RTI CLASS:

SPELLING = Lesson 2 Workbook due Thursday! The test is on Friday!

This week will be our first W.O.W. "Word of the Week"....students can earn bonus points for spelling the word correctly and knowing its meaning. This will be explained to them on Monday!

ENGLISH = Unit 1 Sentences! We will be reviewing the 4 types of sentences and subject/predicate. Project Challenge students will be receiving some enrichment assignments this week.

READING = We are continuing to use the comprehension skill "predicting" through various activites. We are also doing different language activities with synonyms and antonyms.

We will also start making vocabualry cards to increase our vocabulary knowledge and usage.

Each child will be responsible for finding 10 new words and making vocabulary cards for each of those words. They will be individually quizzed orally by Miss T. at the end of the month on their words and a grade will be taken.

SCOOPER READING: Your child should be reading a book....then, completing a book activity!

Some students have already completed a book and activity!

MISS TREFONAS'S MATH CLASS:

MATH: Quiz over Chapter 1 Lessons 1- 3 is Monday.

The students completed their first " homework sheet" on Friday, Septermber 5th. I will explain how homework is graded and the "homework sheet" at Curriculum Night!

We will be finishing the chapter this week and testing at the beginning of next week...9/15!