The Week of November 1st, 2010

Dear Parents,
Thanks to the party and treat moms who went out of their way to make our Halloween celebration festive and SPOOKtacular!
Treats and drinks = Mrs. Brindac, Mrs. Campbell, and Mrs. Baer.
Party helpers = Mrs. David, Mrs. Herstowski, Mrs. Olsen, Mrs. Dygdon, Mrs. Brandt & Mrs. Smiles.

Thanks also to the following families for donating goodies to our classroom last
week:
~Mrs. Reynolds, Mrs. Wiseman, Mrs. Dusza, Mrs. Baer, Mrs. Olsen, Mrs. Szyptek, and Mrs. Dygdon

If you can donate......(Thanks in advance....)
The classroom needs: scratch n sniff stickers (Let's Learn is the best place to find these!)
Goldfish crackers

Great news:
The students earned a reward party in art class for PAWS earned. Have them explain this to you!

and more Great News..... We had an exciting Trade Fair! Everyone had their homemade items to trade and did a great job participating in this activity. We had lots of fun and it was a great learning experience!

and even more GREAT NEWS..... Our class will be getting a pizza party for turning in the most Box Tops!!! Start collecting again!!!!

HERE'S WHAT'S HAPPENING IN OUR CLASSROOM:

SPELLING: Lesson 9 and word of the week....
Work due Thursday and Test Friday

READING: This week, we will review all the skills we have studied so far this school year, specifically, summarizing, drawing conclusions, inferencing, identifying author generalizations, and visualizing while reading CRASH, a realistic fiction novel.

SCOOPer Reading: Monday, November 1st = 1st Trimester goal is due!
All book activities must be completed and turned in.
The students have been given several reminders about this and how only one book activity at a time can be turned in.

ENGLISH: We are finishing Chapter 5 Capitalization and Punctuation - Test is Mon., Nov. 8th

SOCIAL STUDIES: We will be finishing Lesson 3 of Chapter 6.
This means your child can review both lessons 2 and 3!
The students will be getting directions about making a colonial game which will be due Tuesday, Nov. 9th.
JR. ACHIEVEMENT....week # 4 with Mr. and Ms. Paleka

SCIENCE: We are finishing Lesson 1 of Chapter 5.....
Can your child sing the Photosynthesis song to you? "How do plants make their food......

MATH: We are finishing Chapter 5.
Test = Friday, November 5th.

The Week of October 25th

Dear Parents,

I'd like to thank Mrs. Dusza for donating snacks to our classroom.
Also, thank you Mrs. David for the Halloween prizes.

Can you donate.....? Thanksssssssss
~Fruit snacks
~Scratch n Sniff stickers
~individual Crystal Lite (or another brand) water flavor packets....any flavor that is light in color
(in case of spills, we don't want to stain the carpet!!!)

IMPORTANT REMINDERS.........
~Wednesday, October 27th = Classroom Trade Fair
~Friday, October 29th = Halloween Festivities....
Parade @ 1:00 ....parents are invited to be outside to watch the parade!!!
Party @1:30....a HUGE thanks to Mrs. Brindac, Mrs. Campbell, and Mrs. Baer for providing the treats and beverage. Mrs. David, Mrs. Herstowski, Mrs Olsen, Mrs. Dygdon, Mrs. Brandt, and Mrs. Smiles are the classroom party moms. Thanks for all your planning!

*** Students need to bring their costume to school on Friday. The costume might need to be simplified for school purposes since students need to be able to change in a short amount of time. Changing will take place in the classrooms. The fifth grade will have designated classrooms for girls to change in and for boys. Washrooms will not be available for costume changing. No weapons, even fake, are allowed at school.

HERE'S WHAT'S HAPPENING IN OUR CLASSROOM:

SPELLING: Lesson 8 frequently misspelled words
Assignments are due Thursday and final test is Friday......word of the week = 1 bonus point on final test!

ENGLISH: Unit 5 continued.....Abbreviations and Titles

READING: During our CORE instruction we are continuing to make analogies. We are also drawing conclusions and making inferences from non-fiction text.

The students will be taking a skills book assessment this week.

We are finishing My Side of the Mountain.
My Side of the Mountain vocabulary quiz on Tuesday.

The students will be given an assessment to see how well they can read a selection and draw conclusions.

We will begin a novel at the end of the week and apply the reading strategies that we have learned thus far this year.

SCOOPer READING.... 1st Trimester goals are due November 1st!!!!!

SOCIAL STUDIES: TRADE FAIR WEDNESDAY......students need to bring back the sheet with a parent signature due Monday or before.
Chapter 6 Lesson 2 = Colonial Cities, Towns, and Farms
Chapter 6 Lesson 3 = Everyday Life in the Colonies
Again, reviewing after each lesson is a great study skill!

SCIENCE: LEAVES for project are due on Monday, November 1st
Your child needs to show you the instructions on how to "prepare" the leaves.
This can not be done last minute!
Chapter 5 Lesson 1 Plant Structures

MATH: Chapter 5
Lesson 1 Decimal Place Value
Lesson 2 Equivalent Decimals
Lesson 3 Compare and Ordering Decimals
Friday = Homework sheet
Your child should not have any Chapter 3 materials in their binder. We are finished with that chapter!

The Week of October 18th, 2010

Dear Parents,
Thanks to the following parents for the generous classroom donations:
~Mrs. Gurnic - snacks and Halloween stickers
~Mrs. Brandt - Halloween prizes
~Mrs. Olsen - Halloween prizes
~Mrs. Reynolds - Halloween prizes

I always appreciate donations for our classroom ticket reward program.
Remember, snacks need to be individually wrapped and "peanut free".
We could use more cheese and cracker snacks, fruit snacks, and Rice Krispie treats.

SOME IMPORTANT REMINDERS:
~Wednesday, October 20th = Early Dismissal @ 11:00
~Thursday, October 21st = MAPS testing for math (last day of testing!)
~Thursday, October 21st = Book Fair 6:30 - 8:00

HERE'S WHAT WE ARE UP TO IN OUR CLASSROOM:

SPELLING: Lesson 7 - Work due Thursday! Test = Friday!
Word of the Week and definition = worth 1 bonus point!

READING: Our CORE reading skill this week is analogies. All fifth grade students will learn how to analyze and complete various types of analogies. In addition, all students will begin focusing on the important skills of drawing conclusions and making inferences while reading a fictional text.
We will be reading an excerpt from the book My Side of the Mountain. The students will also be learning new vocabulary words.

SCOOPer READING: The deadline for 1st Trimester is November 1st!

ENGLISH: Unit 5 continued.....Quotations and Abbreviations.

SOCIAL STUDIES: Chapter 6 Life in English Colonies
Lesson 1 Working and Trading
We will be having a classroom TRADE FAIR that will be held on Wednesday, October 27th.
The students will receive a direction sheet on Wednesday.
This is a fun activity that replicates what trading was like during colonial times.
Their participation is graded.

SCIENCE: Introductory Unit Test = Tuesday, October 19th.

JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT:
Jr. Achievement began last Thursday! Jr. Achievement is a not-for-profit organization financed by businesses. The purpose of Jr. Achievement is to educate and inspire students to value free enterprise, business, and economics to improve the quality of their lives. Our volunteers, Ms. and Mr. Paleka, will be visiting our classroom once a week for the next 6 weeks. Ms. Paleka works for Harley Davidson Financial, and Mr. Paleka works for Tellalabs. They have been the volunteers for my classroom for the past 8 years! I'm sure your student will be sharing some of their experiences with this program during the next few weeks!

MATH: Homework sheet = Monday
Chapter 3 Test = Tuesday
The rest of the week we will be reviewing chapters 1-3.
To assess their knowledge of these chapters, a "Target Test" will be given.
**The Target Test will not be graded but used to measure mastery of the 5th grade skills and concepts.

The Week of October 11th, 2010

Dear Parents,
Thanks to the following parents for their generous classroom donations:
*Mrs. Olsen for popcorn and apple juice that will be enjoyed while watching Pocahontas!
*Mrs. Brandt for popcorn and apple juice, as well as Halloween goodies for our prize box!
*Mrs. Herstowski for a lot of fun Halloween goodies for our prize box!

BOX TOPS.....Will our class win the pizza party? Last turn in date for the first contest is Friday!!!

HALLOWEEN PARTY HELPERS.....if you signed up to help with the Halloween party you will be contacted by our classroom party coordinators: Mrs. Brandt and/or Mrs. Herstowski.
I'd like to thank all of you who are planning the party, bringing goodies, and drinks.

IMPORTANT REMINDERS:
~Chicago Wolves Read to Succeed Program starts this week!
~Materials will be sent home on Tuesday, which is when the program begins
~It will run from Oct. 11th - Dec, 3rd.
~Participants will earn a free ticket to a Chicago Wolves hockey game in February.

~Monday, October 11th = Columbus Day - No School
~Thursday, October 21st = Book Fair 6:30 - 8:00
~Friday, October 22nd = Bus Driver Appreciation Day!

MAPtesting: Our class will be testing on Tuesday and Friday from 1:00 - 2:00

There is a new testing system being employed by the district this year. MAP testing stands for Measures of Academic Progress. These tests will be taken beginning next week, in the areas of Reading, Language, and Math. Students will take a series of multiple choice tests in each area on the computer. The program computes a score, which is then placed along a continuum to show each student's individual progress. It will even be able to show what particular areas each student excels at, and what areas they may need some additional support with. We are hopeful that this new system will help make our instruction for our students even better!

And in the Classroom......

Spelling - none this week due to MAP testing

English - Unit 5 continued.....Tuesday = comma project is due.
Next lessons are on INTERJECTIONS and correct use of QUOTATION MARKS.

Reading - We will continue to work on finding the main idea and supporting details in various text. Our understanding of Homonyms/Homophones will be applied in a "punny" activity!

SCOOPer Reading - I continue to be impressed with the books and the activities that are being completed. The students have been sharing many of their activities with the class which also advertises a good book to read!

Social Studies - Chapter 5 Test = Wednesday
We are not starting Chapter 6 until next week.

Science - Test will be on Tuesday, October19th.
We will finish the unit and on Friday the students will receive a study tip sheet!

Math - We only have math on Wednesday and Thursday this week due to MAP testing.
Lesson 3.9 Long Division
Lesson 3.10 Relevant and Irrelevant Information in problem solving
Homework Sheet = Monday, October 18th
Chapter 3 Test = Tuesday, October 19th