Week of October 31-November 4

Happy Halloween!  I know everyone most likely has a busy night planned, so your child is telling you the truth when he/she says there is no homework tonight!  :o)

Reminders for this week…

Early Release:  Please remember that Wednesday, November 2^nd is an Early Release Day.  If your child’s transportation will be different, please send me a signed note indicating that change.  We will release at 12:25pm that day.

Conferences:  Progress Reports come home on Wednesday, November 9^th and conferences will follow.  If you would like to set up a parent-teacher conference, please call the office to schedule.  They will be held on Thursday, Nov. 10 from 2:40-6:00pm and Tuesday, Nov. 15 from 2:40-6:00pm.

BOB:  Over the next couple of months you may hear your child referring to BOB a lot.  Your child hasn’t met someone new; BOB is actually an abbreviation for Battle of the Books.  Each year we participate in this competition to team up in our classrooms and read 10 BOB books.  There will be classroom competitions and a district competition.  All kids will participate on their teams in the classroom competition.  Kids who wish to enter the district competition must read at least 7 of the books and will do so on an individual basis.  Please encourage your child to participate in BOB.  It’s a fun, exciting way to get kids reading.

Word Study:  This week’s word study rules involve making words that end in –ix, -is, and –us plural.  As part of the lessons the kids will be given a list of words and they will have to research in the dictionary to find the correct plural spelling.  Therefore, though they will be learning and practicing the rules here at school, the word study rules will not be taped in their agendas until Wednesday night.

Upcoming Tests:

Math Test on Friday

Social Studies Test of Friday

I try hard not to let big tests fall on the same days, but sometimes I’m stuck with it.  I will not be assigning a reading log this week to allow the kids plenty of time to prepare.

What We’re Learning

Social Studies:  We will be wrapping up our unit over the first three colonies, Roanoke, Jamestown, and Plymouth.

Math:  The culmination of our first geometry unit is Friday.

Word Study:  We are exploring the rules for pluralizing words with less common endings such as –is, -ix, and –is.

Writing:  We are finishing our exploration of different genres and the kids will select a genre to explore during writing workshop for the next few weeks.  Some will write poems, some may do persuasive letters, and some may do short stories.  I’m leaving it open to any type of writing they have experience with.

Reading:  We are continuing our study of character traits and how characters’ traits can be impacted or changed due to other elements of the story such as setting, other characters, and theme.

Red Ribbon Week: October 24-28

Welcome back!  I hope you all had a fantastic and relaxing Fall Break! 

Red Ribbon Week
Red Ribbon Week will be the week after Fall Break. Our theme this year is "A Drug Free Life Rocks." Each day in class we will do an activity that encourages children to choose a drug-free lifestyle writing our own drug free song! Students will also be invited to dress up for Red Ribbon Week in the following ways.
Monday: Wear red
Tuesday: Wear sunglasses
Wednesday: Wear clothing inside out
Thursday: Wear tie-dye
Friday: Wear somethiing that represents your future (e.g., a pencil tucked behind your ear if you wish to be a writer, a suit for a future businessman, a football jersey for a high school football player)

Photo Story Autobiographies

Please remember to send in approximately 20-26 pictures that correlate with your child's autobiography. It is best if pictures can be put on a flash drive that your child can bring to school. If you can't use a flash drive, please put the pictures on a CD. I cannot accept hard copies or e-mailed copies of pictures for these. All pictures must be here by Wednesday, October 26 because we are going to the lab to put them on the computers so the students can create their Photo Stories during the Technology rotation that starts October 27. If you do not have any electronic copies of pictures I will allow your child to find images from the Internet that support his/her autobiography such as a UK symbol if they like UK. I know gathering pictures can be a lot of work, but the end product is well-worth it!

Upcoming Tests

Word Study Quiz over Plurals on Friday
Mixed Multiplication Facts Quiz on Friday

Below you will find out what we’re learning this week!
Social Studies:  Explorers’ motives and impacts; 1^st colonial settlements
Math:  Geometry-polygons and angles
Word Study:  Plurals (continued from the week prior to Fall Break)
Writing:  Open Genre (The kids will dabble in some different types of writing this week and then they’ll get to choose which type to pursue!)

Reading:  Responding to Literature-character traits and story elements

Week of October 10-14

Red Ribbon Week
Red Ribbon Week will be the week after Fall Break.  Our theme this year is "A Drug Free Life Rocks."  Each day in class we will do an activity that encourages children to choose a drug-free lifestyle writing our own drug free song!  Students will also be invited to dress up for Red Ribbon Week in the following ways.
Monday:  Wear red
Tuesday:  Wear sunglasses
Wednesday:  Wear clothing inside out
Thursday:  Wear tie-dye
Friday:  Wear somethiing that represents your future (e.g., a pencil tucked behind your ear if you wish to be a writer, a suit for a future businessman, a football jersey for a high school football player)

Fall Break
Please remember that Fall Break is next week.  Enjoy it!

Photo Story Autobiographies
I sent a letter home today in the Wednesday folder regarding Photo Stories for the kids' autobiographies.  Please send in approximately 20-26 pictures that correlate with your child's autobiography.  I will have all the kids print a draft tomorrow to bring home.  It is best if pictures can be put on a flash drive that your child can bring to school.  If you can't use a flash drive, please put the pictures on a CD.  I cannot accept hard copies or e-mailed copies of pictures for these.  All pictures must be here by Wednesday, October 26 because we are going to the lab to put them on the computers so the students can create their Photo Stories during the Technology rotation that starts October 27.  If you do not have any electronic copies of pictures I will allow your child to find images from the Internet that support his/her autobiography such as a UK symbol if they like UK.  This is a really great project that the kids enjoy so very much and that I hope to share with you!  Thank you for your help in gathering photographs for your child.

Upcoming Tests:
Social Studies Test over Chapter 4 on Friday
Multiplication Mixed Facts Quiz on Friday

Social Studies:  The kids have been pretending to be archeologists diving for and examining artifacts from a sunken ship to gather information about what sparked the Age of Exploration in the late 1400's and early 1500's.
Math:  We have wrapped up our unit over estimation and computation and now we are delving into geometry!
Word Study:  Pluralization Rules
Reading/Science:  The unit over the 5 kingdoms of living things will culminate this week with a reading comprehension over the 5 kingdoms and an open response.  The kids will also have the opportunity to pretend to be a scientist who discovers a brand new organism for their trnasfer task on Thursday.
Writing:  We are publishing autobiographies and beginning open genre writing this week!

Native American Culture Regions

Over the past few days the kids have been working really hard to learn about the different Native American culture regions.  They have studied the environments, natural resources, the types of homes they lived in, what they ate, and the kinds of artifacts the Native made to help them survive.  After reading, watching videos, and taking notes on each region the kids were asked to make artwork of what they learned.  Each group worked hard to make a mural of their region as well as a scaled down model of a dwelling from their region.  Their hard work paid off and below you will find pictures of their amazing murals and dwellings!  Way to go, kiddos!

by Mckayla, Jeffrey, and Jillian

From Native American Culture Regions

by Maria, Claire, Ali, and Ainsley

From Native American Culture Regions

by. Bella, Connor, and Allison

From Native American Culture Regions

by. Alex, Abby, Trent, and Marlee

From Native American Culture Regions

by. Brennan, Sophie, Lilly, and Tyler

From Native American Culture Regions

by. Mackenzie, David, and Kyra

From Native American Culture Regions

by. Hayden, Logan, and Brandon

From Native American Culture Regions Below you will find a slideshow of the murals and dwellings as well as of the kids hard at work. The next step in this journey to learn about the Native Americans will be to write a real estate ad encouraging others to come and buy a dwelling in their region!

Week of October 3-7

Happy October!  Thank you to everyone who collected and sent in pledges for the Husky Hustle!  As a class we earned approximately $837!  Way to go 5th graders and parents!  The Hustle was also a blast!  The kids loved it and they came back in the room with tons of energy afterward!  Thanks also to those parents and students who attended the Harmony Fall Festival.  It was a huge success as well!  The PTA does such an amazing job putting this event together each year!  My boys and I had a great time and they enjoyed getting to play with my big 5th graders!

On one last note regarding the Fall Festival, if you would still like to sign up for one of my auctions--Boys Night Out or Girls Night Out, please let me know.  I realize that not everyone was able to attend the Fall Festival and the auctions are still open.  Many thanks to all who did sign up...it's going to be fun!!

Coming Up This Week...
I think the kids are really ready to move on to mixed facts.  I've been using the isolated tests to get a feel for which facts they need the most work on, so this week we will have 2 multiplication mad minutes, one over 8's and one over 9's.  The following week we will begin mixed multiplication facts tests every Friday.

On Thursday this week the kids are going to have a really cool opportunity to listen to a real live author speak in the gym.  Tyler Whitesides, the author of the novel, Janitors will be coming at 8:00am on Thursday to speak to the kids.  If you want to check him out or learn more about the book, please go to http://www.tylerwhitesides.com.

Finally, we will be working hard to revise autobiographies this week.  I still plan to have the students create PhotoStories from them, but we're not quite there yet.

Upcoming Tests:
Multiplication Facts Quizzes over 8's and 9's on Friday
Word Study Test over adding ed and ing on Friday

Here is what we're learning...
Social Studies:  We will continue our unit over Native American culture regions.  This week the kids will be designing scale models of Native American dwellings and writing real estate ads to convince other tribes to come settle in their region.
Math:  We are working hard on multiplication.  Several students are having trouble with 2 digit by 2 digit multiplication, so please feel free to lend a hand at home if you can.
Word Study:  The focus this week will be on how to correctly spell verbs when adding ed and ing.  The word study rules will be taped in your child's agenda for extra review at home.
Science/Reading:  We will continue to learn about the 5 kingdoms of living things going even further into the specifics of animal classification.  The kids will be doing lots of non-fiction reading this week to support their learning.
Writing:  Autobiography revisions will be in full swing!