Week of December 16-20

 

           

Upcoming Test!

There will be a test and an extended response question over Colonial Williamsburg this Monday. Please encourage your child to take the chapter 9 tutorial at www.tutorial.historyalive.com. Due to the snow days, our teaching of this unit has been a little condensed, so I will allow the kids to use their books and their notes. This will also help them with the important skill of locating information in a text.

Donuts with Santa

I hope to see many of you at our Donuts with Santa event tomorrow! I know my own children are so excited and it is fun to see the students outside of class!

Calling all catalogs!

If you have any catalogs at home that you don't need, please send them to school by Tuesday. We are still collecting catalogs to use for our holiday shopping spree project this coming week!

Movie Time!

Both boys and girls are invited to bring a special snack on Tuesday. The girls will be watching a movie with Mrs. Hammons related to what they've learned during Lunch Bunch and the girls will be watching "Sign of the Beaver" related to our recent study of Native Americans with the 5th grade teachers.

 

 

Holiday Activities

• WOW! Thank you, thank you, thank you!! We have such supportive and caring families! Our child will receive everything on his wish list and it is all because of you! The kids are excited and we will be wrapping the gifts this coming Wednesday!
• On Thursday, we will have our school-wide Sing-a-Long and the kids are invited to wear their pajamas!
• Our Winter Party is this Friday at 1:00pm. If you are a certified volunteer, you are welcome to attend!

Building Visitors

I want to make you all aware that any and all visitors to our building must provide ID upon entering. If you or another family will be visiting the school for lunch, volunteering, or any other circumstance during the school day, please be sure to have a photo ID ready when you enter the office.

Book Fair

I want to thank all of you for your support of our Book Fair this week. An extra thank you to those who purchased books for our classroom! I try to be selective and choose books that will support the kids' learning. :o)

BOB

Most of the kids are very excited about the BOB books this year! Please encourage your child to read his/her BOB book at home each night. This is such a postiive and educational competition. I have set the students up on a website called Book Adventure in order to take quizzes on BOB books and any other chapter books they finish, but for some reason their logins are not working. I will do my best to get to the bottom of this ASAP, so the kids can assess their own comprehension of the books.

Our Learning Plan for the Week!

Math: The kids will do a few more fraction lessons and then we will dive into our Christmas shopping spree project!

Social Studies: I will assess their understanding of colonial Williamsburg Monday and then we will begin a new unit on tensions leading up to the Revolutionary War.

Writing: The kids will finalize, publish, and celebrate their feature articles on creative thinkers!

Reading: We will continue learning how to compare and contrast story topics and themes in two literary passages as well as begin exploring how to effectively answer reading open response questions by lifting lines from the passage.
 

Happy Holidays!!!

Week of December 2-6

    Happy Holidays!!! 

I hope you all enjoyed the break and had a lovely Thanksgiving!  

Husky Helping House

If you were able to shop for our Husky Helping House kiddo, please feel free to go ahead and send in his gifts.  We will also be in need of wrapping paper, tissue paper, and boxes if you have any you can spare in the coming weeks.  Please be sure to send in all gifts no later than December 10th.  If you signed up to donate money, please send that in by December 2nd, so I will be able to go shopping for the remaining items for our kiddo.  Thanks so much for your support!  This is one of the kids' favorite Harmony traditions!

Lunch Bunch

Starting this week Mrs. Hammons will begin hosting Lunch Bunch with all the girls in our class.  This means that for the next few weeks, Mrs. Hammons will bring the girls up to eat lunch in her office and learn about life in the girl world and how to handle girl bullying.  Please chat with your daughter about what she is learning at Lunch Bunch because these lessons can be very helpful especially with the coming transition to middle school.

Upcoming Tests

Thursday~Test over colonial regions (chapter 7 of History Alive)

Friday~Test over division

*Please help your child to prepare for these tests.  Study materials will come home for math and the tutorial will be available for social studies at www.tutorial.historyalive.com.

Here's what we'll be learning this week!

Math:  We will learn the different ways to represent remainders in division and how remainders are used or ignored in the real world.

Social Studies:  We will review what we've learned about colonial regions and the kids will make a billboard advertising their assigned colonial region to demonstrate their understanding.

Word Study:  As we wrap up division, we will segue into measurement, so this week our focus will be learning the meaning of measurement terms.  I found a great website with flash cards and review games to help the kids with the metric system.  Please check it out.  http://quizlet.com/6006969/metric-system-prefixes-and-root-words-flash-cards/

Writing:  The kids have been researching for a feature article about a famous creative/inventive thinker and this week we will begin drafting those articles.

Reading:  This week, we will continue learning about Renaissance thinkers through reading as we compare and contrast depictions and story elements in two different texts about da Vinci and Galileo.

Have a great week, and if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me!  :o)

Week of November 18-22

Check out our...Act It Outs!!

Roanoke Act It Out

Jamestown Act It Out

Plymouth Act It Out

News to Know for This Week

 

BOB!!! 

Battle of the Books is starting up this week!  If you aren’t familiar with BOB, it’s a reading competition where kids are put in teams and they select books from 10 possible titles to read and comprehend.  Come February there will be a competition where the teams are asked questions about the books and they have to identify the correct book title and author for each question.  We will have a lesson with Mrs. Clark tomorrow afternoon where she will introduce the 10 book titles available to 5^th graders.  I am encouraging everyone to read as many of the books as they can before the BOB competition in February.  Perhaps you are wondering, How can I help my child succeed in the BOB competition?  Well, here are few tips!

ü  Encourage your child to finish the chapter book they are currently reading by this Friday.  We’ve already discussed this in class.

ü  Encourage your child to read only ONE BOB book at a time.  It can go back and forth each day in their backpack so they can also read at school.

ü  Ask your child about the book he/she is reading.

ü  Check out the books and read along with them!

ü  Remind your child to write comprehension questions for each book they finish. (These may be used in the competition!)

ü  Quiz your child on the book titles and authors as the competition nears.

Everyone participates in the school competition and those who read at least 7 titles can take the test to possibly compete in the district competition in the spring!

 

Parent-Teacher Conferences

Parent-teacher conferences will be held again tomorrow evening from 2:40-6:00pm.  If you have signed up for a conference tomorrow, please do your best to be on time, so we will have the full 20 minutes to chat about your kiddo and so that I can be sure to answer any questions you have.

Squanto Movie

Next Tuesday, we will be showing the movie, “Squanto” to the entire 5^th grade in the library at 9:00am.  Kids are encouraged to bring water, a snack, and a pillow to curl up with during the movie.  This movie fits perfectly with Thanksgiving and our study of colonization! 

 Boys’ Night Out/Girls’ Night Out

If you still have signed up for Boys’ Night Out or Girls’ Night Out and you are interested, please let me know no later than this Friday.  In order to participate, please send in at $20 donation.  This money goes directly to our classroom.  :o)

Thanksgiving Break

It’s right around the corner!  Next Wednesday-Friday is Thanksgiving Break! 

Here’s what we’re learning this week!

Math:  We will continue learning to divide expanding into division with 2-digit divisors and even decimals!

Social Studies:  We will continue learning about colonization as we study the 3 major colonial regions, their geography, and their economy.

Word Study:  Our study of correct sentences structure will continue as we explore the use of conjunctions.

Writing:  The kids will begin researching a creative thinker in order to compose a feature article.

Reading:  We will be studying story elements as the children read a fiction story called “Leonardo’s Wings.”

 Have a wonderful week!  :o)

 

Learning about Renaissance Thinkers

To kick off our new ELA unit on Renaissance Thinkers, the kids learned about Michelangelo and how he was hired by the pope to paint the Sistine Chapel.  They then had the opportunity to see just how difficult that task must've been as they were given the opportunity to paint upside down on paper glued to the bottom of their desks!  The activity was a big hit, but I think everyone agrees that Michelangelo did not have an easy task!

Making Cells

Last week, the kids were so enthusiastic as they learned about cells, we took some time out to make Play Doh models of plant and animal cells in small groups.  The kids had to create the cells and label their parts. Then they had to be prepared to present their cells and describe the functions of each part to another group.  They did a great job with this and they had a blast!  Their cells turned out nicely too!  Check it out!

Week of November 4-8

Important Information of the Week of November 4th-8th

Math Test

This Wednesday, we will have a math test over addition, subtraction, and multiplication of whole numbers and decimals.  Students will also be asked to estimate and to recall what they know about place value on this test.  A study guide came home today to help prepare students and we will continue reviewing tomorrow.  

Comma Quiz

In Word Study over the past couple of weeks, we have been learning about comma usage.  We will have a quiz this Friday where students will be asked to apply their understandings of comma usage to correctly place the missing commas in a letter.

Conferences

It's not too late to sign up for conferences!  I still have spots available on both nights.  If you are having difficulty signing up, please let me know and I will be happy to help.  

Here's what we'll be learning this week...

Math:  This week we will wrap up our unit on adding, subtracting and multiplying whole numbers and decimals with a test, an extended response question, and a transfer task.  The kids will be given many opportunities to demonstrate their knowledge.

Social Studies:  We will begin a new unit learning about the first British colonies in America, their successes, and their hardships.

Word Study:  This week we are wrapping up our unit on commas.  I've already seen the kids making a valiant effort to apply their learning in their own writing!

Writing:  Our focus in writing will be on how to respond to On Demand Writing prompts that ask for students to give an opinion.

Reading: Students will be reviewing metacognition and the thinking strategies that are so effective at helping to build better readers.  

**On another note, I want you all to know that I am enjoying your kids so very much!  They are a fantastic group and they have received compliment after compliment on their behavior.  The substitute who covered for me Friday afternoon when my kids were sick left a glowing report and the related arts teachers have also said wonderful things about this crew!  I'm very proud of them!  They are a kind and enthusiastic bunch!

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact me via email or phone.

Have a great week! :o)

Week of October 7-11

 Husky Hustle
The Husky Hustle is this Friday! We will be participating as a class during our Related Arts time from 8:00-8:45am. So far, we have only had one person turn in money for the Hustle, making our total earnings $55. Please help your child to raise money for this fun event and for our fabulous school! Any amount is fine. All money is due by Friday.

Harmony Harvest
Our annual Harmony Harvest is also this Friday! Please come join us from 6:00-8:30pm for games, jumpies, food, and fun!! Don't forget to check out our 5th grade auction items. All funds donated by our students signing up for the auctions go directly toward our class!

This Wednesday is another Early Release Day...dimissal at 12:20pm.

Bullying Awareness Day
This Wednesday is also Bullying Awareness. On Wednesday, I am asking each child to wear orange as we stand up against bullying!

Math Test!
This Thursday, we will have a math test over place value of whole numbers and decimals. Please feel free to go over the review sheets I'm sending home today and tomorrow to help your child prepare. There are also several websites your child can use to prepare for the test under the Links section of our class blog. I've also copied them below.

http://www.funbrain.com/tens/index.html
http://www.math-play.com/place-value-games.html
http://www.gamequarium.com/placevalue.html

Finally, here is what we'll be doing this week in class!

Math: In math, we are wrapping up and reviewing whole number and decimal place value skills. On Friday, we will begin adding with decimals.

Social Studies: During social studies this week, we will begin "diving" for artifacts on a sunken ship. The kids will simulate diving and studying artifacts that may have been found on a ship that sunk during the age of exploration to learn about motives for exploration.

Word Study: During word study this week, we will do different activities to review some of the words that have been added to our word wall over the past couple of months.

Reading & Writing: We will continue our Clues to a Culture ELA unit. Today the kids began developing their own trickster tales after examining Native American trickster tales. We will also learn how to collect clues through a culture by examining photographs and reading materials to try to understand different perspectives.

Reading Fluency Practice

Over the past week we have spent a lot of time workiing on reading fluency with a focus on 4 major components:  articulation, pace, expression, and accuracy.  I assigned the kids poems to read that were written a little differently than how we usually speak to help them work on building their fluency.  They practiced for a few days and then had to perform a choral reading.  This assignment was a little tougher than you might expect because most kids had to choral read with a partner and doing that while adding expression can be tricky!  They did a great job practicing and preparing though, and you can click on the names below to hear your child's reading his/her assigned poem.  Enjoy!  :o)

My Shadow - read by Colin R and Andrew

My Shadow - read by Haley & Nichole

My Shadow - read by Addie & Emily

My Shadow - read by Isaac & Jake

Here Comes - read by James

Here Comes - read by Colin B

Little Red Riding Hood & the Wolf - read by Lauren & Savannah

Little Red Riding Hood & the Wolf - read by Henry & Marshall

Little Red Riding Hood & the Wolf - read by Audrey & Meredith

Little Red Riding Hood & the Wolf - read by Colyn & Mitchell

Little Red Riding Hood & the Wolf - read by Alex & Sammy

Week of September 23-27

Happy Monday!!

Husky Hustle Fund Raising
The Husky Hustle is just around the corner on October 11th! Please encourage your child to ask friends and family to sponsor him/her in the Husky Hustle. Our goal is 100% participation regardless of how much each child is able to collect. These donations willl go toward purchasing more iPads for classroom use. Last year's Husky Hustle funds aided in the purchase of 30 new iPads and an iPad charging cart to be shared by the classrooms! These iPads are so useful and the kids love utilizing them in class!

Harmony Harvest
Also coming up soon is our annual Harmony Harvest! Save the date for Friday, October 11th from 6:00-8:30. This is such a fun event with games, food, and jumpies! There will also be a teacher auction! The 5th grade teachers will be hosting a Boys' Night Out and a Girls' Night Out in November! It's going to be a lot of fun, so please come to the Harvest and sign up for the auction!

MAP Testing
We will complete MAP testing in the area of Language on Tuesday afternoon.

Kelso Lessons with Mrs. Hammons
Mrs. Hammons will come our classroom on Fridayd to teach classroom guidance.

Word Study List
This week, your child has a word study list taped into their agenda to begin studying. Our focus in word study for the next 2 weeks will be on homophones which are commonly misused such as their, there, and they're. Please help your child to study the correct use of these words at home. There are a number of websites listed under "Links" on my blog for the kids to get extra practice using homophones.

XtraMath
Please continue to encourage your child to continue using XtraMath each night! The kids get recognized at morning meeting as they are awarded certificates when they progress through addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. You can also monitor your own child's progress through the site to see how they are doing as they earn a colored dot at the end of each session!
Less than 10% wrong.
Over 10% wrong or too few answers.
Over 25% wrong or very few answers.
Session incomplete.

Math: This week in math we will review whole number place value and begin studying place value of decimals.

Social Studies: We are wrapping up our unit on the first Native Americans with an extended response question tomorrow. Beginning Wednesday we will study the various Native American culture regions that existed as the Native Americans settled throughout North America. Our focus will be on how these people used their natural resources to adapt to the environment.

Word Study: We will identify the correct homophone to be used in various situations each day and even learn tricks to help remember which ones are used when!

Writing & Reading: Our English Language Arts unit on Playing with Words is coming to a close. The kids will practice reading fluency skills of articulation, pace, expression, and accuracy this week through choral reading. They will also explore proverbs, write a humorous narrative using idiioms and figurative language, and finally complete a transfer task to demonstrate their knowledge of word play on Friday.

Week of September 16-20

Test Time!

We will have our first math test this Thursday. A study guide will come home tomorrow to help your child prepare. Some of the things that will be in the test include finding factors, prime factorization, using exponents, and the order of operations. The following websites will provide great extra practice at home.

Order of Operations Practice
http://cemc2.math.uwaterloo.ca/mathfrog/english/kidz/order.shtml
http://www.softschools.com/math/order_of_operations/games/

Factors & Prime Factorization Practice
http://www.mathplayground.com/factortrees.html
http://www.quia.com/cb/8436.html

Picture Day!

Tomorrow is Picture Day!

Early Release

We will have Early Release again this Wednesday at 12:20pm. Wednesday also happens to be Kentucky High Attendance Day!

Related Arts

We will be in PE through Wednesday of this week and then we will begin a rotation in Technology.

Here is what we'll be learning this week...

Math: Our test is on Thursday followed by a transfer task on Friday so this week we will be reviewing factoring, prime factorization, using exponents, numerical expressions, and the order of operations.

SS: We are wrapping up our study of the U.S. regions and beginning a study of the first people to live in the Americas.

Word Study: We will continue learning about figurative language.

Writing: This week we will learn about synonyms and antonyms and we will also begin learning about idioms as we continue learning about how authors play with words.

Reading: Today we will be publishing final drafts of the BioPoem and the short report on a famous historical person. Starting tomorrow, we will begin practicing our reading fluency through choral reading.

Painting the U.S. Regions!

The kids were hard at work using creativity in Social Studies today!

.

This morning we took some time to review what we'd learned about the Northeast and Southeast regions of the United States.  The kids created Venn Diagrams comparing and contrasting the Northeast and Southeast.  Then, they took their knowledge and painted pictures to depict the visual differences between the two regions.  It was a lot of fun to see what they came up with!

A sampling of our final products...

On another note, is your child struggling with math?  I've updated our blog links to include a few fun websites for practicing the order of operations and factoring!  Check it out under the subheading "Math Links!"

Week of September 9-13

MAP Testing
This week we will begin MAP Testing. MAP Testing is completed on the computer to assess student performance in Reading, Math and Language skills. Tomorrow's test will be over reading.

XtraMath
Tomorrow evening I would like everyone to begin using a website called XtraMath to practice their basic math facts. The website gives preassessments and then helps children to master their basic math facts based on their personal needs. The children's results will be displayed for me to see on a regular basis so I can also monitor their progress. It is a really cool tool for mastering math facts! Tomorrow each child will be given their own personal pin number and I will show them at school how to log in to begin practicing their facts.

Field Trip!
This Friday we will take our first field trip of the year to Riverside, Farnsley-Moremen Landing! Mrs. Pike and Mrs. Sarno will be chaperoning. Please be sure to have your child bring a sack lunch and dress appropriately for digging, walking, and working with clay. It will be a fantastic experience where the kids will even get to participate in a real-life archeological dig!

Black Paw!
On Friday, our class earned our first black paw! To celebrate, the kids have opted to have 20 extra minutes of recess today!

PE
PE starts on Wednesday!  Please have your child wear athletic shoes!

In case you need a refresher...here is the Order of Operations!

Rule 1:	First perform any calculations inside parentheses.
Rule 2:	Then perform any calculations using exponents.
Rule 3:	Next perform all multiplications and divisions, working from left to right.

 Rule 4:  Lastly, perform all additions and subtractions, working from left to right.

This Week's Learning
Math: In math we will review the order of operations and how to write problems as both numerical and verbal expressions. (e.g., 2 x 6 is the numerical expression, the product of 2 and 6 is the verbal expression).
Social Studies: We will continue learning about the 5 major regions of the United States and their characteristics.
Word Study: We will continue to learn about figurative language and how author's use it.
Writing: We will finish our study of the 6 traits of writing and begin putting those traits into practice.
Reading: The kids will use the research they gathered on a historical or famous person to create a BioPoem and a short essay.

Have a great week!! :o)

Week of September 3-7

I hope you all enjoyed a terrific Labor Day weekend! We have a short, but busy week ahead of us.

Upcoming Tests
Wednesday: Geography Test-This will be over all of the material covered on the History Alive Tutorial. Students will also need to demonstrate an ability to identify and label the 4 major oceans (the Southern Ocean will be extra credit), the 7 continents, the equator, the prime meridian, and the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. There are several websites under my blog links for practicing the continents and oceans or they may study using their social studies notebooks.

Technical Difficulties
If your child cannot access the Internet at home or has other technical difficulties related to homework, please let me know. I will do my best to accommodate them here at school.

Math Facts
Please encourage your child to practice his/her basic basic math facts, particularly multiplication. I'm noticing it's common for the kiddos to miss a few factors when looking for all the factors of a number. Knowing basic math facts is so helpful in 5th grade!

Here's what we'll be learning about this week...
Math: In math we will begin to explore the order of operations with a focus on how to use parentheses, brackets, and braces when solving equations.
Social Studies: This week we will review what we've learned about geography so far and complete a test and a transfer task. On Friday, we will begin learning about the different geographical regions of the United States and what makes them unique.
Word Study: As part of our English Language Arts unit about playing with words, we will learn about figurative language, why authors use it, and we will practice using it in our own writing.
Writing: The focus this week will be on the 6 traits of writing and how good writers use these traits to communicate effectively.
Reading: We will l learn how to use the thinking strategy of determining importance to take notes. Then the kids will gather research on historic people for a BioPoem they will be writing about a historic person next week!

Week of August 26-30

Parent Orientation
Please attend if you can so you can learn all about homework policies, curriculum, grades, and special 5th grade events. Confidentiality Training begins at 6:30pm in the gym tomorrow night for anyone interested in volunteering in our classroom and orientation will be held in my classroom at 7:00pm. I've only gotten 5 responses on my blog poll, so please take the poll to let me know how many to expect tomorrow evening.

Agendas
Please encourage your child to record their nightly reading and pages read each day when you sign his/her agenda. Some kids have been forgetting to record what they read. It is important that they select appropriate reading material and stick with a book until they finish.

Early Release
This Wednesday will be our first Early Release Day. Students will be dismissed at 12:20pm. Please send in a note Wednesday morning if your child's transportation will change due to early dismissal.


Here's what's coming up this week!

Math: We will explore square numbers, square roots, and prime factorization. Knowing basic math facts is so crucial! I highly encourage you to have your child practice math facts for at least 10 minutes each night if he/she does not already know them. I'll be sending home the baseline mad minute I gave last week in this week's Wednesday folder, so please check to see how your child did. If your child got less than 1/2 of the facts correct on the mad minute, please work with him/her at home.

Social Studies: We will continue our study of geography this week as we explore geographic forms of land and water, physical features of the U.S., as well as climate and time zones.

Word Study: We will review the words added to our word wall in various ways from playing games to drawing pictures!

Writing: Students will be given a daily invitation to continue collecting ideas in their writer's notebooks as they build their writing stamina.

Reading: We will build reading stamina as we set goals, learn to discuss what we read, and read and respond to silent reading in class.

Week of August 19-23

We are already off to a great start this week!

 Personal Electronic Devices
This weekend I sent home a personal devices form. If your child will be using a personal electronic device for educational purposes here at school (research, reading, etc), please complete and return the form at your earliest convenience.

 Parent Orientation
Don't forget to attend Parent Orientation next Tuesday at 7pm! Please try to attend. I will also have a volunteer sign up sheet available that evening.

 Edmodo
Please let me know if your child does not have access to a computer at home. I will be introducing a very cool homework tool called Edmodo this week. Edmodo is a website for teacher and student use where kids can log on to have group discussions, complete homework assignments, gather research, and complete quizzes all from home!

 Basic Math Facts
Starting now, please encourage your child to practice his/her basic math facts at home. It is very important to know basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts in 5th grade as much of our computational work is multi-step!

 Agendas
Please sign your child's agenda each night including Fridays. I love the agenda because it is a fantastic communication tool so you can be aware of your child's homework each night, and so that we can write notes back and forth as needed. Keep an eye out for notes from me in your child's agenda. I'm very big on positive agenda notes!

Here is what we'll be learning about this week!

 In math, we are kicking off a unit on number theory beginning with factors and products and moving into divisibility rules and prime and composite numbers. Please ask your child about the divisibility rules. These are incredibly helpful when solving division problems and identifying factors! You will also be able to find the divisibility rules below!

In social studies, we are beginning to explore geography. We started yesterday by identifying the continents and oceans and singing songs to help us remember them. We will continues learning about the continents and oceans as well as latitude, longitude, and more specific geographic terms.

For word study this week, I will be introducing our word wall. The kids are invited to suggest words for the word wall as well. On this bulletin board, we will display new or unfamiliar words as well as content words related to our learning.

Our first read aloud of the year is actually a book my 5th grade teacher read to me, called Hatchet. It's a very exciting story about a brave boy who has to survive on his own in the wilderness after his plane crashes in the for Canadian wilderness.

For writing this week, we will begin collecting in our writer's notebooks and learning how to persevere even when there are distractions.

Finally, this week's reading lessons will be about building stamina as a reader, selecting books, and we will have library orientation on Friday so the kids can begin checking out books!

2	If the last digit is even, the number is divisible by 2.
3	If the sum of the digits is divisible by 3, the number is also.
4	If the last two digits form a number divisible by 4, the number is also.
5	If the last digit is a 5 or a 0, the number is divisible by 5.
6	If the number is divisible by both 3 and 2, it is also divisible by 6.
9	If the sum of the digits is divisible by 9, the number is also.
10	If the number ends in 0, it is divisible by 10.

1st Day 2013-2014

Thank you, 5th graders, for a fantastic 1st day!  Everyone was here on time, ready to learn, and the energy in the classroom was wonderful!  Parents, please remember to return your student questionnaire as soon as possible, so I can get your e-mail address and gain a little more information about your child.  I plan to set up an e-mail distribution list and begin weekly e-mails this coming Monday.  I hope each of your children comes home excited about 5th grade and eager to come back tomorrow!  Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.  Thank you!

Welcome!!

      Welcome to 5th grade!!  We are going to have so much fun this year!  Please be sure to attend Open House this Thursday, August 8th between 5pm and 7pm.  I would love to meet you, show you where you'll be sitting, and answer any quick questions you have about 5th grade!  You'll also have the opportunity to unload and label all of your supplies so you'll have one less worry for the first day of school.  Parents, please bring your completed student questionnaire.  This questionnaire gives me useful information to best meet your child's individual needs.  I can't wait to meet everyone!  See you soon!
~Mrs. Whitley  :o)

US Salt Maps Project

For the past few days we have been making salt maps to review the US regions and the geography and climate of the U.S. In order to make it more hands-on, we made and painted salt maps. Then the kids flagged them with toothpicks and sticky notes to indicate the various industries, climates, and landforms in different parts of the U.S. Once the maps were complete, we invited Ms. Howard's first grade class to come over so the 5th graders could share their knowledge. The kids did a wonderful job and seemed very proud of their work. These will be on display in the hallway so come take a peek if you come for Lunch with Someone You Love next week! :o)

Some 5th Grade Fun :)

Lately, we've done some pretty fun things in class that the kids would like me to share.  Below you will find a link to a recording of the kids' new favorite brain break (inspired by the 5th-6th Grade Dance at NOMS) and our building of the Transcontinental Railroad in our hallway!  Enjoy!

The Kids' New Favorite Brain Break

Week of April 22-26

Happy Monday! Here are the things you need to know this week! There is a lot going on as the school year is quickly coming to a close, so please read carefully.

Upcoming Test!
There will be an economics test in social studies tomorrow. The kids have been learning about economics for the past 2 weeks and they have a list of terms taped into their agenda from last week which they are expected to know tomorrow.
Save the Date!
Please mark your calendar! Our class' 5th Grade Recognition will be on Thursday, May 23rd at 9:15am in the cafeteria.

NOMS
All Related Arts selection forms are due no later than this Friday, 4/26. This pink form can be found in the Manila folder your child brought home from the middle school visit last week. It is very important that every child complete one of these. Otherwise, their related arts classes will be chosen for them and they will not get a say.

Earth Day
In honor of Earth Day our school will be hosting activities this Friday to improve our grounds. The 5th graders will be pulling weeds and mulching our flower beds. Please send your child to school on Friday with gardening gloves if you have some and of course, clothes that can get a little dirty. There will also be a tree planted in honor of this awesome crew of 5th graders. To contribute to the tree, please send in a $1 donation.

Relay for Life
As you know, our school is collecting money to fight cancer with Relay for Life. Students who bring a $1 donation this Friday may wear a hat to school. The relay will take place the evening of May 10th at Oldham County High School. My family and I will be there from 7-9pm. Feel free to come out and walk with us.

Lunch with Someone You Love~April 29
Our final book fair is taking place next week and we are hosting our annual Lunch With Someone You Love event. This afternoon, your child will come home a with a form inviting you or a loved one to join them for lunch on Monday, April 29. After lunch loved ones are invited to stay and join our class to shop at our last book fair of the year.

Guest Speaker
Next week, our class will be studying Kentucky and this Friday they will have the opportunity to listen to a guest speaker, a farmer, who is coming to speak about the equine industry in Kentucky. She will even be bringing her horses to show the kids!

Zoo Field Trip~May 21
Please return all Zoo field trip forms as soon as possible. We will need several chaperones as I usually break the class into small groups to tour the zoo. If you are interested in chaperoning, please let me know by checking one of the boxes on the field trip form. In order to walk with a group, you must have completed confidentiality training and a background check.

Social Studies:  This week we are wrapping up our Economics unit and reviewing the U.S. regions.
Math:  Many children have expressed to me some confusion over fractions, so I am going to review fractions and mixed numbers with the kids this week and next.Word Study:  I've noticed many of the kids misuse apostrophes in their writing, so this week I am teaching a unit on singular and plural possessives.
Writing:  This week we will continue our ELA unit on coming of age as we read about how our country came of age through the Great Depression and the Civil Rights Movement.  Students will also learn to effectively answer reading extended response questions as they read about these topics.
Reading:  Students will engage in free reading time and writing reflections while I administer the DRA to each child in class.