We had a wonderful time on the 5th grade trip. I don't know about the kids, but I was exhausted on Friday night! There are a lot of lost and found items at the bottom of the Parker Staircase. If your child is missing something, have him or her check their first. I have put up all my trip pictures under "Paparazzi Picts". I would love to add student pictures if your child has any he or she would like to share.
Important Announcements
~ Tomorrow is a G day. Please remind your child to wear his or her chapel uniform.
~ We also have class pictures tomorrow at 10:15.
~ Homecoming is this Friday. There will be a blue and white NUD. Go Lions!
~ It's almost time to start bringing laptops home! Students were given a laptop take home letter today. Please take a minute to review this with your child and fill out the form. Students may begin to bring their laptops home as soon as they return their signed form.
~ As I mentioned at Parents' Night, we are piloting a new typing program this year called typing web. I will be introducing it to the class tomorrow. Students will be required to complete a certain number of lessons per trimester with an accuracy rate between 90% - 100% and at least 25 WPM. Along consistent monitoring along the way, students will take a test at the end of each trimester to track their progress. While students will have some time to work in class, most of the time they will be working to complete the lessons at home. I will send you more information about this once I've introduced it to the class.
~ Spelling is something that many of our students struggle with. If a child is trying to push him or herself to use more challenging vocabulary words, it is understandable that he or she may not know how to spell them without looking them up. However, I am finding that there are many words that students are misspelling that are words they should know. Therefore we are going to start having weekly spelling tests for "learned words", aka: words students use daily and still misspell. Every Monday, I will be sending home a list of words. We will not be going over the words in class. Students should study the words at home and be prepared to take a spelling test every Friday. I will be introducing students to a fun, online, study tool called Quizlet tomorrow. Once we have taken the test on Friday, students will add any words they missed to their personal spelling list. Once the words have been assessed, I will begin to count off when they are misspelled on any assignment. This week's words are.
again
against
also
always
among
answer
beautiful
blood
build
busy
calf
clothes
cough
courage
debt
door
doubt
Math
As we move through Unit 2, we will be learning the "traditional" algorithms for addition, subtraction and multiplication, division will come later. Last week, we focused on addition and subtraction of whole number and decimals. This week, we will be learning how to solve addition/subtraction number stories, how to use probability, and multiplication of whole numbers and decimals. We will teach them traditional multiplication alongside the partial products algorithm. By the end of the unit, and certainly throughout the year, we will shift to using ONLY traditional multiplication. Students will also learn the importance of making magnitude estimates before multiplying. Focusing on place value, this will be a helpful tool for indicating whether their product at the end is correct or not.Study Links 2.5 – 2.8 will be assigned this week. All resources for math are on our common math web page, which you can find through our own website under "Math". We will be taking our unit 2 assessment next Wednesday and Thursday. We are reversing the order this time. We will take the open response on Wednesday and the written assessment on Thursday. That way I can offer a review tutorial on Wednesday afternoon. A review packet will be coming home this week.
Don't forget, there is a new problem of the week up. These problems are not optional and not doing them will result in a homework infraction.
Writing
Students are continuing with their drafting of their memoir. As they write, they are constantly thinking of strategies that they can use to revise their pieces. A main challenge continues to be clearly including a reflection at the end, something we will continue to work on as we continue to revise our pieces. Editing will become a key area that we will be focusing on shortly. We will be learning revision and editing strategies, and how we can play with punctuation in order to bring out the tone of our writing. Students will be working their memoirs for writing homework this week. Memoirs should be finished by the end of writing on Friday.
Reading
This week, students will pair up with reading partners. Students will learn what the purpose of a reading partner is and why it is so important to their continued growth as a reader. We are still working on productively using our Reader's Notebook to show all of the thoughts, ideas, questions, and reactions we are having as we read.
Social Studies
We have had a great time creating our 13 colonies projects in the inGen Studio. I can't wait to see the final products. We will be finishing those up this week and I will post them on the website for everyone to see. After our colonies study, we will be moving on to The French and Indian War.
Homework
Math: Pow and study links 2.5 - 2.8 assigned throughout the week
Writing: Work on memoirs
Reading Comp" "History of Numerals"
Important Announcements
~ Tomorrow is a G day. Please remind your child to wear his or her chapel uniform.
~ We also have class pictures tomorrow at 10:15.
~ Homecoming is this Friday. There will be a blue and white NUD. Go Lions!
~ It's almost time to start bringing laptops home! Students were given a laptop take home letter today. Please take a minute to review this with your child and fill out the form. Students may begin to bring their laptops home as soon as they return their signed form.
~ As I mentioned at Parents' Night, we are piloting a new typing program this year called typing web. I will be introducing it to the class tomorrow. Students will be required to complete a certain number of lessons per trimester with an accuracy rate between 90% - 100% and at least 25 WPM. Along consistent monitoring along the way, students will take a test at the end of each trimester to track their progress. While students will have some time to work in class, most of the time they will be working to complete the lessons at home. I will send you more information about this once I've introduced it to the class.
~ Spelling is something that many of our students struggle with. If a child is trying to push him or herself to use more challenging vocabulary words, it is understandable that he or she may not know how to spell them without looking them up. However, I am finding that there are many words that students are misspelling that are words they should know. Therefore we are going to start having weekly spelling tests for "learned words", aka: words students use daily and still misspell. Every Monday, I will be sending home a list of words. We will not be going over the words in class. Students should study the words at home and be prepared to take a spelling test every Friday. I will be introducing students to a fun, online, study tool called Quizlet tomorrow. Once we have taken the test on Friday, students will add any words they missed to their personal spelling list. Once the words have been assessed, I will begin to count off when they are misspelled on any assignment. This week's words are.
again
against
also
always
among
answer
beautiful
blood
build
busy
calf
clothes
cough
courage
debt
door
doubt
Math
As we move through Unit 2, we will be learning the "traditional" algorithms for addition, subtraction and multiplication, division will come later. Last week, we focused on addition and subtraction of whole number and decimals. This week, we will be learning how to solve addition/subtraction number stories, how to use probability, and multiplication of whole numbers and decimals. We will teach them traditional multiplication alongside the partial products algorithm. By the end of the unit, and certainly throughout the year, we will shift to using ONLY traditional multiplication. Students will also learn the importance of making magnitude estimates before multiplying. Focusing on place value, this will be a helpful tool for indicating whether their product at the end is correct or not.Study Links 2.5 – 2.8 will be assigned this week. All resources for math are on our common math web page, which you can find through our own website under "Math". We will be taking our unit 2 assessment next Wednesday and Thursday. We are reversing the order this time. We will take the open response on Wednesday and the written assessment on Thursday. That way I can offer a review tutorial on Wednesday afternoon. A review packet will be coming home this week.
Don't forget, there is a new problem of the week up. These problems are not optional and not doing them will result in a homework infraction.
Writing
Students are continuing with their drafting of their memoir. As they write, they are constantly thinking of strategies that they can use to revise their pieces. A main challenge continues to be clearly including a reflection at the end, something we will continue to work on as we continue to revise our pieces. Editing will become a key area that we will be focusing on shortly. We will be learning revision and editing strategies, and how we can play with punctuation in order to bring out the tone of our writing. Students will be working their memoirs for writing homework this week. Memoirs should be finished by the end of writing on Friday.
Reading
This week, students will pair up with reading partners. Students will learn what the purpose of a reading partner is and why it is so important to their continued growth as a reader. We are still working on productively using our Reader's Notebook to show all of the thoughts, ideas, questions, and reactions we are having as we read.
Social Studies
We have had a great time creating our 13 colonies projects in the inGen Studio. I can't wait to see the final products. We will be finishing those up this week and I will post them on the website for everyone to see. After our colonies study, we will be moving on to The French and Indian War.
Homework
Math: Pow and study links 2.5 - 2.8 assigned throughout the week
Writing: Work on memoirs
Reading Comp" "History of Numerals"