January 5-9

I hope you all enjoyed the holidays and our long break!  Welcome back!  Below you will find a few reminders.

Snack and Water
Please be sure to send your child with a healthy snack and a clean water bottle each day. 

Cold Weather
We will be going outside any day that the temperature during recess is 32 degrees or above, so please send your child to school with a warm hat and gloves.

Homework
For Christmas, I have the kids a set of coupons, one of which is a homework pass.  A homework pass can be used any night except when studying for a test.  Your child will simply tape or glue the pass onto their reading log for the night they use it. 
That said, please remember to sign your child's agenda and their reading log each night.  I also want to stress the importance of XtraMath.  I've seen a huge improvement in my students' abilities to recall their math facts since I began using the program last year.  It's so important to know those math facts as we delve deeper and deeper into more complex math concepts throughout the year.

Carnival Night
Don't forget--5th Grade Carnival Night is coming up on Friday, January 23rd!  Be sure to sign up for a donation of just $10 or more!

Here's what's coming up this week:
ELA:  We are starting a new ELA unit entitled "Conflict in America."  Throughout the ELA unit, the kids will be reading and writing about slavery and the Civil War.  We begin this week by reading about slavery, how it came to be, and what life was like for those who were enslaved.  The kids will be writing in "slave journals" using different points of view to analyze what life was like for enslaved Africans.
Word Study:   We will explore the different verb tenses and their uses.
Math:  During math we will be studying fractions including how to convert from a fraction to a mixed number and vice versa, as well as how to compare and order fractions.  We will also explore the concepts of equivalence and how/why we simplify fractions.
Social Studies:  We will continue studying the events that led to the Revolutionary War and the kids will have the opportunity to act out many of these in class.