The Week of October 29th, 2012

Dear Parents,

   You can access your child's first quarter report card grades and comments on line.  We will discuss your childs grades, MAPs test scores, and ISAT scores (taken in spring of 4th grade), as well as their work and study habits.  I look forward to meeting with you.

The Late Policy for 2nd Quarter
 1 day late - minus 15 %

 More than 1 day late until unit test is taken - minus 25%

 After unit test is taken - a zero in the grade book

HALLOWEEN:
Students may bring their costume to school on Wednesday. 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.

THANK YOU TO ALL PARENTS WHO ARE HELPING WITH OUR CLASSROOM HALLOWEEN FESTIVITIES!!!

Here is What We are Learning This Week:

SPELLING:  Lesson 9 and word of the week

SCOOPer READING:  The students will be setting new goals and receiving new activity sheets for the second quarter.

SCOOPer READING Party:  THURSDAY!!!

A slip with all the information will be sent home.  Some students volunteered to bring in treats.  If there is any problem sending in the item, feel free to substitute something else.

Thanks!!

READING:  We are finishing JACOB's RESCUE.  The childeren will be completing a Bio-poem based on a specific character in the book for a culminating activity/assessment.

SOCIAL STUDIES:  Chapter 6 "Life in English Colonies"  Lesson 1 Working and Trading in the Colonies

ELECTIONS:  The students have parent participation activities to complete at home this week based on different political issues and looking at the viewpoints of each candidate. 

SCIENCE:  Chapter 12 Lesson 1 "What are Oceans Like"  The students will be creating a diagram of the ocean floor.

JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT:  Session 2 !!

MATH:
 Monday: Chapter 5 Decimal review
Tuesday: Chapter 5 Decimal QUEST (quiz/test)
Wednesday: Halloween math activities
Thursday: Chapter 6 Lesson 1 Rounding Decimals
Friday:  Chapter 6 Lesson 2 Addition and Subtraction of Decimals



Week of October 22, 2012

Dear Parents:

The first quarter ends Friday, October 26th. 
Parent/teacher conferences are the week of October 29, 2012.
I look forward to meeting with you and discussing your child's first quarter grades, work habits, and other information. 

THANK YOU for the many Book Fair Gift Certificates.  I will have the books ready for our classroom library on Monday!!

HERE'S WHAT IS HAPPPENING THIS WEEK:

SPELLING:  Lesson 8

READING:  Jacob's Rescue -  Vocab quizzing over each childs 12 self selected words will begin Monday. 

SCOOPer Reading:  Friday (October 19th) was the due date for 1st quarter book goals.  Most of the class reached their goal!  We will be celebrating this accomplishment the week of October 29th.  The children will receive their new goal sheet and activity packets the week of October 29th.  This gives them a week or so to just read without having to do any activity for their book!!

ELECTIONS:  The students have been learning about living in a Democracy and the right to vote.  We had an involved discussion about the Electoral College.  We will continue to discuss the Electoral College, as well as, look at the Democrat and Republican candidates and their views on the major election issues.

JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT: We had our first session this Friday!

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. Both are successful in the business world and bring their expertise to the classroom. Mr. Paleka works for Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. and Ms. Paleka works for Harley Davidson financial services. They have been Junior Achievement volunteers in my classroom for 12 years! I'm sure your student will be sharing some of their experiences with this program during the next few weeks!

SOCIAL STUDIES:  We have finished Chapter 5.  We will be filling out our "How to Study Sheet" on Monday.  Don't forget this sheet if filled out, signed by a parent, and returned on the test date is worth 2 bonus points.  We will have a classroom review on Tuesday.  The Chapter 5 Test will be taken on Wednesday.

SCIENCE: We will continue to share weather mimeo presentations.

THINK ENERGY!!  Our classroom will be participating in this program brought to our classroom by Nicor gas and ComEd.  The children will be learning about energy efficiency and it is intended to motivate students to THINK!, TALK!, and TAKE ACTION! about energy.  This is free of charge.
**Each household will receive a TAKE ACTION kit which will give each family some innovative and new technologies to make a difference now!!!

MATH:
Chapter 3 Test on division is scheduled for Tuesday.
Next, Chapter 5 - Decimals



The Week of October 15th, 2012

Dear Parents,

     The BOOK FAIR is this week!!! There will be great books to purchase and delicious TAFFY APPLES!!!  I hope to see you Thursday night!! The doors open at 6:30 and it goes until 8:00!  I plan on bringing my nieces and nephews that the class heres me talk about!!  The triplets are in 6th grade and AJ is 2 1/2! 

HERE's WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THE CLASSROOM:

SPELLING:  Lesson 7 & word of the week

SCOOPer READING:  DUE FRIDAY!!! **The students have been reminded that I will only allow one book activity to be turned in at a time. 

READING:  Jacob's Rescue continued.....

ENGLISH: We are taking a break to fit in some extra social studies material to learn about the ELECTION process and the candidates and the issues they are debating.

SOCIAL STUDIES:  The next colonists we will be learning about are the Puritans.

The last lesson in the chapter will cover the 13 colonies!

A test will be given the week of October 22nd!

SCIENCE:  The students are almost finshed creating an interactive MIMEO on weather.  This has been an exciting learning experience!

MATH:  QUIZ Monday which will cover Chapter 3 Lessons 1 - 5.

Next, we will be dividing by 2 digit divisors.

The Chapter 3 Test will be the week of October 22nd.

The Week of October 8, 2012

Dear Parents,

     HAPPY COLUMBUS DAY WEEKEND!!

Movie Night is Friday, October 12th.  If your child is attending, slips need to be turned in by Wednesday, October 10th.

***The fifth grade teachers would like help in organizing their classroom libraries in a different way. We would like to label each book with its lexile score so that students can make better choices for independent reading. Selecting books at appropriate lexile levels will help students increase fluency and comprehension while reading books that are of high-interest to them. Please contact me if you are interested.***

HERE'S WHAT'S HAPPENING IN THE CLASSROOM:

SPELLING:  Lesson 6 and word of the week.

ENGLISH:  Unit 5 Capitalization and Punctuation - We have one lesson left on using titles correctly.  TEST - Thursday!

SCOOPer Reading - Due date is Friday, October 19th.

READING.....

COURAGE - Our next selection is Jacob's Rescue.

A synopsis:  Once Jacob Gutgeld lived with his family in a beautiful house in Warsaw, Poland. He went to school and played hide-and-seek in the woods with his friends. But everything changed the day the Nazi soldiers invaded in 1939. Suddenly it wasn't safe to be Jewish anymore.

We will be doing vocabulary cards with self selected words.  The students will be doing activities based around the three levels of questioning:  right there, think and search, and on your own.

SOCIAL STUDIES:  Chapter 5 Lesson 2 "New European Colonies" and Lesson 3 "The First Colonies".  We will be comparing and contrasting the similarities and differences between the different colonies.

SCIENCE:  Weather.... The students will be applying the knowledge they have learned to create a MIMEO presentation!!!

MATH:  Tuesday = Quiz Lessons 1-3.  We will then continue with long division and have problems that have a zero in the quotient.  The students will also be looking at patterns in division that will sharpen their mental math skills.
We are taking MULTIPLICATION MAD MINUTE QUIZZES!!!  Your child will be given a page of 30 mixed multiplication facts to pass in 1 minute.  Once they have passed three of the 30 mixed MAD MINUTES....they can try to pass 40 problems in one minute!