The Week of October 1, 2012

Dear Parents,

A Scholastic Book order will be sent home on Monday.  This is an excellent opportunity to order a great selection of books at a reasonable price.  It is optional to order.  I pass out these order forms monthly.
The TAB order is a Jr. High level order form.  There are some selections that deal with more sensitive or young adult issues. Please review your child's selections!
A check to SCHOLASTIC or exact money is accepted in an envelope with the order forms.
When ordering from Scholastic, they give teachers bonus points to purchase books and other learning materials for the classroom.....So, thank you in advance!

HERE'S WHAT WE ARE LEARNING:

SPELLING:  Lesson 5 and an opportunity to earn a bonus point with the word of the week!

ENGLISH:  Comma Project - due Monday!  We will be learning the correct usage of quotation marks, abbreviations, and titles.  We will finish Unit 5 this week.  The test will be on Tuesday, October 9th.

**CARTOON in color needed for Wednesday.

SCOOPer Reading:  First quarter book goal is due Friday, October 19th!

READING:  We will be doing some higher level thinking skills as we solve analogies.  The students will be given analogies that use synonyms, antonyms, whole to part, part to whole.  The relationship between the first set of words need to be determined to solve the analogy. Furthermore, there are some challenging words used on this sheet which will reinforce the use of dictionaries to learn and understand new words.

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:  Jamestown Colony!  Your child should be able to tell you the similarities and differences between  the colonies of Roanoke and Jamestown.

We will also learn about other European colonies.

SCIENCE:  Weather :  Air masses and fronts and weather patterns and climates.

We will be finishing the chapter this week.  The students will NOT be given a test as an assessment of their learning.  Instead, they will be given directions about a WEATHER PROJECT. 

MATH:  MULTIPLICATION TIMED TESTS for facts 0's - 12's end this Friday.

Please continue to practice, practice, practice multiplication facts at home.

Chapter 3 Division - The steps for long division are a lot easier if multiplication facts are memorized!

Friday = Homework Sheet

The Week of September 24, 2012

Dear Parents,

    Some reminders for this week:

School Picture Envelopes:    Went home with your students today.  Please check their backpacks for them.  To pay by credit card, visit mylifetouch.com.  Follow online instructions.   Write online payment code on order form.  Bring completed order form to Picture Day - Thursday, September 27, 2012.  If paying by check, please make checks payable to Lifetouch. 

Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Magazine Turn-In

Thursday, September 27, 2012
Picture Day
Last Magazine Turn-In

Cozzi Corner Dist 66 - Fundraiser

Friday, September 28, 2012
Early Dismissal - 11:00 a.m.

Cozzi Corner Dist 66 - Fundraiser

   

HERE'S WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THE CLASSROOM:

SPELLING:  Lesson 4 and "word of the week"

READING:  We have been doing some different activities with homonyms and homophones.

COURAGE - This week we will look at a non-fiction news article and the students will focus on facts and opinions rather than plot and character.  We will also be reading a non-fiction and fiction selection about a diplomat who was faced with  deciding between saving lives and obeying government orders.

The students will use facts from the selections and their own values and experiences to reach a judgement.

SCOOPer Reading:  The students have been given several reminders that Friday, October 19th is the due date to reach their reading goal.  Only one book activity can be turned in at a time.

ENGLISH:  Unit 5 Capitalization and Punctuation - This week we will be concentrating on the many different uses of the comma.  We will be doing an enrichment activity that requries creative thinking with comma usage.  We will also review interjections and do an enrichment activity using !!!!!

SOCIAL STUDIES:  Chapter 5 Lesson 1 - England's first colony at Roanoke.  What happened??? Lesson 2 - The students will learn about the Battle of the Spanish Armada.

SCIENCE:  Chapter 11 Lesson 2 - Clouds and Precipitation and Factors that Affect the Weather Cycle, as well as, learning about different weather tools.

MATH:  Multiplication Timed Tests!!! Many students have passed!! Keep practicing so your child not only has them memorized but knows them quickly and accurately!

Chapter 2 Test and Homework sheet = Thursday

 

The Week of September 17, 2012

Dear Parents,

    This week Mrs. Zaboth, our multi-needs teacher, will be doing a presentation to our 5th grade students.  This informative talk helps the children better understand the students in her classroom who have various disabilities.  In 5th grade, the students have an opportunity to be Peer Buddies with these students.  This is voluntary and the students participate in this activity during recess and silent reading time.  Most students find this very rewarding and enjoy being able to interact with these students.

HERE'S WHAT'S HAPPENING IN THE CLASSROOM:

SPELLING:  Lesson 3  work due Thursday and final test on Friday.  The students were not introduced to "Word of the Week" last week, however, they will be this week.  The word of the week and definition are worth 1 bonus point on the final test.

READING:  We are reading fiction and non fiction selections which coincide with the theme: Courage.

The students are responsible for vocabulary cards in which they self select words which are new and/or interesting to them.  Each child will be individually quizzed on their vocabulary words.

We will also be reviewing root words, prefixes, and suffixes.
The students are also identifying different character traits with supporting evidence.

SCOOPer Reading:  Your child has set a goal that is due October 19th.  Only one book activity can be turned in at a time.  I am encouraging each child to have a book read and an activity completed by the end of this week.

ENGLISH:  We are finishing Unit 1.  The Test will be given Thursday.

Next, we will do work from Unit 5 "Capitalization & Punctuation".

SCIENCE:  Weather and the Water Cycle

SOCIAL STUDIES:  Chapter 4 Lesson 3 "Life in New Spain" and we are finished with the chapter.

Chapter 4 test = Friday.

Your child will be filling out a "How to Study" sheet on Wednesday.  This sheet is worth 2 bonus points if it is filled out, signed by a parent, and returned on the day of the test!

I encourage on going studying.  Your child has notes and graded work in their binder which they can review!

MATH:  Multiplication! Multiplication! Multiplication x Multiplication!

Your child will have less frustration and more success in math if they have their multiplication facts MEMORIZED!  I can't emphasize this enough!

A letter is being sent home requiring a parent signature explaining the timed tests your child will be taking.

Friday = Chapter 2 Quiz Lessons 1-3 and Homework sheet

The Week of September 10, 2012

Dear Parents,

 Monday, Sept 10  =  Junior Great Books Enrollment Deadline.  Enrollment forms will not be accepted after Monday because we need time to order the books.
Tuesday, Sept 11 =  RED, WHITE, and BLUE SPIRIT DAY in remembrance of  9/11/2001
 Magazine Assembly which kicks off the Magazine Drive fundraiser.

Thursday, Sept 13 = Band Concert with LV band performing for us at 12:30!

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

SPELLING:  Lesson 2  Any student who receives -0 or -1 on the pretest will be given a challenge list and an alternate spelling assignment to complete with the challenge words. This week the students will be given a "word of the week" bonus.  If they spell the word and give the correct definition on Friday's test a spelling bonus point will be earned!

Assignments are due on Thursday.

Spelling tests are on Friday.

ENGLISH: We are finishing the Unit 1 lessons this week.

We will be doing some enrichment activities based on our knowledge of the 4 different types of sentences and knowing the subject and predicate of a sentence.  We will also learn about proper use of conjunctions and do editing of run on sentences.

The week of September 17th we will take our first English test.

READING:  Your child should be reading a book for SCOOPer Reading!  I am pleased with the students who have completed a book activity already.  They put good effort into the activity and I enjoyed our book talks!  I look forward to more students having a book read and activity completed this coming week.

.....COURAGE is the theme of our reading unit!  We will be working on context clues with learning meanings of vocabulary words in our first selection Hatchet.  The students will be completing vocabulary cards for each new word.  We will also be focusing on character traits.

SOCIAL STUDIES:  We will be doing an enrichment activity based on our knowledge of Christopher Columbus's voyages to America.  

Ch 4 L2 We will learn how the Spanish and the Aztecs worlds collided as Spain continues to conquer new land.  

SCIENCE:  Ask your child about the activity we did where they had to observe candles......

They learned not everything is the way it looks especially when Miss T. eats a candle!!!!

Have them enLIGHTen you with what happened in class!!!

Chapter 11 Weather - Your child has learned about the different layers of the atmosphere.

Next, we learn about "uneven heating" and "local and prevailing winds".

MATH: 

Lessons 1-5 QUIZ on Monday!  Your child has a review sheet due Monday.

Homework sheet on Tuesday which will have problems from workbook pages 1.1, 1.3, and 1.4

Chapter 1 test = Thursday

The Week of September 3rd, 2012

Dear Parents,

MAPS testing this week! Please make sure your child is well rested and has eaten a healthy breakfast.
Our class will test at 8:05 both days.
TUESDAY = Math
FRIDAY = Reading

A HUGE  THANK YOU t o our PTO and parent volunteers for the wonderful luncheon and desserts that were provided to the teachers last week.

Monday, September 3, 2012
No School/Labor Day

Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Fourth and Fifth Grade Curriculum Night
I highly recommend attending this informational evening about the 5th grade curriculum!
You will visit your child's math class and homeroom.

THIS WEEK IN MISS TREFONAS's CLASS:

SPELLING: LESSON 1 - The entire class will be on the regular list this week.  We will begin having an alternate "challenge" list next week.
Spelling assignment - due Thursday
Spelling test - Friday

READING:  COURAGE....We will be reading different selections that fit this theme!  Our skill work will begin with character traits with supporting evidence.

ENGLISH: We have completed autobiographical poems that are displayed in the classroom that you can see at Curriculum Night. We also completed a descriptive writing activity about a summer memory that will be made into a classroom book.
This week we will begin Unit 1. 
 Your child should be able to identify the 4 types of sentences: declarative, imperative, interrogative, and exclamatory. We will also be reviewing the subject/predicate of a sentence and identifying the simple subject and simple predicate or verb.


SCIENCE: We will be sharing your child's interpretation of a scientist. 
The students will be learning about the important skill of OBSERVATION using a variety of candles.
I hope they share what they learn with this activity!!!
We will begin our first unit, Chapter 11 Weather.

SOCIAL STUDIES: In social studies we are beginning chapter 4 "Spain Builds an Empire." The students will learn how Columbus's voyages led to a European settlement of the Americas and an exchange of people , animals, goods, and ways of life between East and West.

MATH: We will be Comparing and Ordering Numbers and Rounding Whole Numbers.
A QUIZ will be given the week of Sept. 10th which will cover both of these concepts and place value which we already covered.