The Week of November 29th

Dear Parents,
This week is conference week. I will have a copy of your child's report card. Please think of any questions or concerns you have and would like to discuss.

There is NO SCHOOL on FRIDAY due to parent/teacher conferences.

*Paper Recycling Fundraiser Comes to Prairieview: We are happy to announce we can now raise money for our district by recycling paper! You can help us out, too! Please collect any paper you are going to throw away or recycle (office and school paper, newspaper, magazines and catalogs, and construction paper---no cardboard!) and send it in with your child to school or drop it off at the green and yellow Paper Retriever bin in the Lakeview parking lot (near the fence by the Prairieview playground). The bin is available for drop offs 24/7. The more paper we recycle, the more money we can make! Do something good for our schools AND the environment!
Thank you!

The students of Project Challenge grades 3-5 are participating in a Lion's Club Holiday Drive. We are looking for donations such as new toys, new games, toiletries, and food for the needy families in the Darien area. If you wish to participate you will need to bring the donations in by December 13. Remember that some of these families live right here in Darien. So let's help these families have a happy holiday season. PLEASE DONATE!



HERE'S WHAT'S HAPPENING IN OUR CLASSROOM:

SPELLING: Lesson 12 Review lesson and word of the week

SCOOPer READING: I hope that during the Thanksgiving holiday there was a chance to read and work on a book activity. I hope to have a lot of book meetings this week!

READING: We will continue to review summarizing, drawing conclusions, inferring, identifying author generalizations, visualizing, and word work with vocabulary words using our realistic fiction novels until December 2nd.
Next week, we will review main ideas and details using our skills workbook. Our work with extended response will continue as well.
We will be having book club discussions with our novel CRASH. An end of the book activity will be assigned and due on Monday, December 6th.

SOCIAL STUDIES: Chapter 7 Fight for a Continent
We will be covering Lesson 1 "The Spanish Move North", Lesson 2 "French Explore Mississippi", and Lesson 3 "French and Indian War".

SCIENCE: We will be learning about the energy pyramid and the 10% rule.
We are finishing this unit and testing on Tuesday, December 7th.

MATH: Mean, Median, Mode and Range
An assessment will be given on Thursday.

The Week of November 29th

Dear Parents,
This week is conference week. I will have a copy of your child's report card. Please think of any questions or concerns you have and would like to discuss.

There is NO SCHOOL on FRIDAY due to parent/teacher conferences.

*Paper Recycling Fundraiser Comes to Prairieview: We are happy to announce we can now raise money for our district by recycling paper! You can help us out, too! Please collect any paper you are going to throw away or recycle (office and school paper, newspaper, magazines and catalogs, and construction paper---no cardboard!) and send it in with your child to school or drop it off at the green and yellow Paper Retriever bin in the Lakeview parking lot (near the fence by the Prairieview playground). The bin is available for drop offs 24/7. The more paper we recycle, the more money we can make! Do something good for our schools AND the environment!
Thank you!

The Weeks of Nov. 15th & Nov. 22nd

Dear Parents,
We have officially ended the 1st trimester grading period.
Here are some helpful reminders for success during the 2nd trimester:
*Extra Credit.....

Please remember that here at Prairieview, we suggest that students set a personal goal for the grades they would like to earn each trimester, and then work towards that goal the entire trimester. Therefore, students are NOT given opportunities for extra credit assignments. However, teachers may provide bonus points on various assignments throughout the year.

*Late homework - Trimester 2

1 day late - minus 15%

More than 1 day late until unit test is taken - minus 25%

After unit test is taken - a zero is entered in the grade book

Some important dates....
We are inviting parents to attend this PBIS Recognition Assembly on Monday, November 15th, at 1:45 p.m. where the students will be recognized by local law enforcement officers for their fantastic work on maintaining our core expectations of being respectful, being responsible, and being safe.

Looking forward to see you there!

SCOOPer READING Celebration = Tuesday, November 16th!

Friday, November 19th - Lunch in I.M.C. - I hope to see more students participating! The due date to turn in this slip is Wednesday, November 17th.

Tuesday, November 23rd - Report Cards
No school = Wednesday, Nov. 24th - Friday Nov. 26th - HAPPY THANKSGIVING

HERE'S WHAT'S HAPPENING IN THE CLASSROOM:

SPELLING: Lesson 11 and word of the week

READING: We will continue writing extended responses this week, using questions from our realistic fiction novel - Crash. Furthermore, we will continue to review all the skills we have studied so far this school year, specifically, summarizing, drawing conclusions, inferencing, identifying author generalizations, and visualizing. We are also continuing our word work with vocabulary words.

SCOOPer Reading: Tuesday we are setting our 2nd Trimester goals and the students will receive new book activity choices. It's also our celebration for meeting our 1st Trimester goals!

ENGLISH: Unit 2 Nouns

SOCIAL STUDIES: finishing chapter 4......
The students have been reminded to bring home their textbook and review especially over the weekend. There's a lot of content in this chapter. Have you seen your child reviewing?
If so, send me an e-mail and I would like to reward them for being responsible!!
CHAPTER 4 TEST - Tuesday, November 23rd!

JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT: Our last session will be on Tuesday, November 23rd.
The culminating activity is the students are doing commercials based on a service or product they are selling. Thanks to Mr. and Ms. Paleka for being awesome facilitators!

SCIENCE: continuing chapter 5......your child has "memory" vocabulary cards that they should use for an ongoing review. A family member can participate in this activity or they can play memory on their own.
On Tuesday, November 23rd, Fullersburg Woods will be coming to talk with the 5th graders about ecosystems. They will focus on the concept of food chains and the energy pyramid and how everything in our world is connected. This fits in great with our science chapters 5 and 6.

MATH:
Chapter 6 Quest (quiz/test) is Tuesday, November 16th.
We are then doing an assessment of material learned in both chapters 5 and 6.
This helps us evaluate who has grasped the concepts that are to be mastered in 5th grade, and who needs additional practice.
We will also be visiting the computer lab this week to play a math problem solving game.
Next week, we will be doing problem solving.

The Week of November 8th

Dear Parents,
Important reminders for this week:
~Monday, November 8th = Skating Party

Students attending the roller skating party on Monday, November 8th will need to report to school at 3:45 p.m. to check in and have their hands stamped before boarding the buses. Students should bring their fast pass with them at check in which will go home with them on Monday. Please remember not to park in the bus lanes when dropping your student off and for pick up. Thank you

~Thursday, November 11th = No School - Veteran's Day
~Friday, November 12th = End of Trimester

Tuesday, November 23, 2010 will be picture retake day. Any student that did not have their picture taken prior to this date may do so. They will be required to have a picture envelope with money to have a picture taken. Any student wishing to have a picture retaken will have to return the original picture packet for a retake.

CAN YOU DONATE.......
We need Q-tips and buttons for misc. classroom projects.
Scratch n' Sniff stickers
Snacks....
*Goldfish Crackers
*Cheese n Crackers
and any other individually wrapped healthy snacks that are "peanut free"
THANKS!!!!!

HERE'S WHAT'S HAPPENING IN OUR CLASSROOM:

SPELLING: Lesson 10 and word of the week (worth 1 bonus point for word and definition)

ENGLISH: Monday = Unit 5 "Capitalization & Punctuation" Test
Next we begin - Unit 2 Nouns!

READING:
We will begin writing extended responses this week. This skill is taught using a short story called The River and a technique with the acronym IEIEIE which stands for Idea, Evidence, Interpretation, Evidence, Interpretation, Extension. Fifth graders should be familiar with this technique.
Furthermore, we will continue to review all the skills we have studied so far this school year, specifically, summarizing, drawing conclusions, inferencing, identifying author generalizations, and visualizing while reading CRASH.
We are also doing a lot of word work with vocabulary words.

SCOOPer Reading: We will be planning our celebration for meeting our goals. The "party" will be on Tuesday, November 16th......stay tuned....more details to come soon!
The students will be setting their Trimester 2 goals and receive their new book activity packets the week of November 15th.

SOCIAL STUDIES: Colonial Games = Tuesday, November 9th
This week we are doing an activity based on Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac.

SCIENCE: Chapter 5 - Lesson 2 How is Energy Passed Through an Ecosystem

MATH:
Chapter 6 L1 Rounding Decimals
L2 + & - decimals
L3 Estimate Sums
Friday = Lesson 1-3 review & homework sheet