The Week of September 30th, 2013

Dear Parents,
   The first BOX TOP collection will be on Tuesday, October 1st. Our class has a lot of box tops turned in but keep collecting......the class that collects the most box tops in each grade level earns a pizza party at the end of the year!!!
   Tuesday = BLACKHAWKS Spirit Day to celebrate their home opener of the season!
   Friday = Taffy Apple Preorders are due.

HERE'S WHAT'S HAPPENING IN THE CLASSROOM:

SPELLING:  Lesson 5 and word of the week

ENGLISH:  Unit 1 Test = Tuesday.  Unit 5 "Capitalization & Punctuation" is our next chapter.

We will begin reviewing the importance of capitalizing proper nouns and adjectives and the proper use of commas.

READING:  Word Word = Prefixes/Suffixes, Homonyms/Homophones

We will use Time For Kids to read and evaluate non-fiction articles this week.

SOCIAL STUDIES:  Chapter 4 continued..... The students have learned about the struggles England had settling early colonies in America.  What did happen to the people of Roanoke? Your child had to analyze clues and draw a conclusion.  What made Jamestown a successful colony unlike Roanoke?

SCIENCE: Has your child sang the "Water Cycle" song for you?  

We will be learning about the different types of clouds and precipitation, as well as, weather instruments.

MATH:  Chapter 2

Your child will be using their understanding of multiplication as we learn about:

*Prime and Composite Numbers

*Prime Factorization

*Powers and Exponents

*Multiplication Patterns

Friday =  Math Quiz

The Week of September 23re, 2013

Dear Parents,
     The online science book is WORKING!!! Thank you, Mrs. Cullen, for bringing to my attention a glitch that has been fixed.  The instructions on how to access the online science book were included in the packet you received on curriculum night. ***WHEN YOU LOGIN WITH YOUR STUDENTS 7 DIGIT SCHOOL ID - THE SAME ID YOU USE TO ACCESS PARENT CONNECT DO NOT INCLUDE ANY PRECEDING ZEROS.**

I will be going over the directions with the students this week in class and additional direction sheets are available.  Please try connecting at home to insure you are not having difficulty.

IMPORTANT REMINDERS:
Thursday, 9/26 Picture Day
Friday, 9/27 Early Dismissal 11:00

HERE'S WHAT'S HAPPENING IN THE CLASSROOM:

SPELLING:  Lesson 4 and "word of the week"

ENGLISH:  Unit 1 Sentences continued

*Subject in imperative sentences

*Conjunctions

*Run-on sentences

*Pyramid Poems

READING:  "Courage"

We are reading an excerpt from HATCHET 

*Character Traits and supporting evidence

*Word Work / independent selection of vocabulary words

*Comprehension questions

SOCIAL STUDIES:  Chapter 4 Test is Monday and "How to Study" sheet due!

Chapter 5 English Colonies

*The Lost Colony of Roanoke

*Jamestown

SCIENCE:  Weather

*Water Cycle

*Weather Instruments

MATH:

Ch1 L8 Order Whole Numbers and Decimals

Ch1 L9 4 Step Problem Solving

Chapter 1 Review Wednesday

Chapter 1 TEST - THURSDAY

The Week of September 16, 2013

Dear Parents,
 4th and 5th grade Curriculum Night is this Tuesday, September, 17th!
 6:30 - 6:45 The evening begins in the gym with Mrs. Schultz, principal of Prairieview
 6:45 - 7:00  Math Presentation in your child's math classroom
 7:00 - 7:30 Homeroom Presentation

Wednesday, September 18th  12:15 Lakeview band performs for Prairieview students.
~ Parents may attend.
 Friday, September 20th SPIRIT DAY.....CRAZZZY HAIR DAY!!! (My hair looks this way daily!)

HERE's WHAT's HAPPENING IN THE CLASSROOM:

SPELLING: Lesson 3 and "word of the week"

ENGLISH: Unit 1 Sentences....4 kinds of sentences, subjects/predicates, simple subjects/simple predicates "verbs".  This should be a review.  The students will be given enrichment work.

READING: We discussed the word BIBLIOPHILE and its meaning!  We did an activity where they gave an example of a bibliophile.....it's on a bulletin board that you can see at Curriculum Night!

This week we begin various reading activities that will encompass the theme of  COURAGE.

*vocabulary  *Character traits and supporting evidence  *Comprehension

We will be using an exert from the book Hatchet and some non fiction short news stories.

SOCIAL STUDIES:  The Spanish  conquistadors have taken over the Aztec and Incan empires and areexpanding New Spain.
On Monday, we will be making Aztec masks as an extension to what we are learning about the Aztec culture
Lesson 3 The students will be learning about life in new Spain.
The students will be getting a "How to Study Sheet on Thursday"
Thursday we will be playing a Jeopardy review game.
Chapter 4 test is scheduled for Monday, September 23rd.

SCIENCE:  What conditions affect the water cycle?

MATH: Chapter 1 Lesson 5 We will be using base 10 blocks to understand place value in decimal value.
Lesson 6  Decimal Place Value through thousandths in standard, expanded, and word form
Lesson 7 Comparing Decimals
Lesson 8 Compare Whole Numbers and Decimals

The Week of September 9, 2013

Dear Parents,
     
     A special thank you to Mrs. Arce for picking up film at Walgreens. The students used a picture on a project that is on display which you will see at 5th grade curriculum night.  Also, the students make an individual memory book of photos taken throughout the year as a keepsake of 5th grade memories!

REMINDERS:
  ~Tuesday - Magazine Drive begins
  ~Wednesday - Red, White, and Blue "Proud to be an American" Spirit Day for 9/11
  ~Tuesday, September 17th 5th Grade Curriculum Night for Parents Only

SCHOLASTIC BOOK ORDERS:
Your child will have the opportunity each month to order books from Scholastic.  This is a great opportunity to purchase independent reading books for your child at a reasonable price.  I send home selections from a 5th grade catalog as well as a TAB order.  The TAB order has great higher level books however there are some that can contain "sensitive" material since they target a middle school audience.  Please review your child's selections carefully.  If you have any questions about a book's appropriateness, please ask!!

If your child places an order, I do not have an online account. Please send in the order form and a check made out to SCHOLASTIC or money but it has to be an exact amount!  You may write one check and combine the total from multiple order forms.

HERE'S WHAT'S HAPPENING IN THE CLASSROOM:

SPELLING:  Lesson 2 - Pretest on Monday.  Your child will have the opportunity to learn the "Word of the Week" If they spell the word and use the definition learned in class on their final test Friday, they will earn 1 bonus point!  Spelling work is due Thursday.  Final test is on Friday.

Challenge word list and activities for anyone that misses 0 or 1 on the pretest!

ENGLISH:  Prepositions and Prepositional Phrases

READING:  We will be reading Time for Kids a nonfiction publication and reviewing some reading strategies.  Then, we begin our first theme....COURAGE

SOCIAL STUDIES:  We did not start social studies last week....so, we will be doing what I mentioned last week!  A scavenger hunt using our social studies text book.  Then, we begin Chapter 4 and learn about the voyages of Christopher Columbus and the Columbian Exchange.  The children will be writing a letter in 1st person, as if they are Christopher Columbus!

SCIENCE:  Did your child share what they learned about SEWER MAGGOTS?????

This week we will begin Weather and the water cycle.  The layers of the atmosphere and uneven heating

are the main topics.

MATH:  ......continuing place value and comparing and ordering numbers....

~Next we will see the relationship between fractions and decimals

 ~ Decimals to the thousandths\

QUIZ = Friday