The Week of January 3rd, 2011

Dear Parents,
I hope everyone has a happy and healthy new year!

This week we will begin MAPS testing again. Friday we will be testing from 1:00 - 2:00.

T.G.F.D.
Too Good For Drugs begins this week with an officer from the Dupage County Sheriff's Department.
This is a substance abuse prevention curriculum. There will be a total of 9 lessons that focus on the dangerous substances that are used widely by young people. A letter will be sent home explaining this program in more detail after our first session on Thursday.
At the end of the program, we have a graduation ceremony!

HERE'S WHAT'S HAPPENING IN OUR CLASSROOM:

SPELLING: Lesson 14 and word of the week. Spelling work will be due on Thursday.
This week the test will be on Thursday due to no spelling on Friday.

READING: When we come back from break, we will be learning more about the structure of a story through story mapping! Our class will read the story Elena, from our anthology. We will also be having a vocabulary quiz on words from this selection on Monday, January 10th.

~The students did a great job applying their reading comprehension strategies while reading and discussing books for our BOOK CLUBS. We will have one culminating activity where each group will advertise the book they read to the rest of the class.

SCOOPer Reading: Most students have read at least one book and completed an activity.
I hope that the students will read a great book during the winter break and have an activity completed when they return.
We have had a lot of great book shares! This is a way for students to hear about a good book to read!

ENGLISH: We will be writing winter haiku poems. Then, we start Unit 3 -Verbs.

SOCIAL STUDIES: Chapter 8 "The Road to War"
We will do Lesson 1 "Trouble over Taxes"
We will learn the School House Rocks song NO MORE KINGS which fits perfectly with this chapter!
The students will participate in a role playing activity which will simulate how the colonists felt about unfairly being taxed....NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION!!!
Also, we will begin a retelling of important events that led to the American Revolution with a point of view activity....."I am the Patriot....."I am the Loyalist" This activity will be ongoing during the chapter.

SCIENCE: We will continue Chapter 6 Lesson 1.
The students will have a Lesson 1 QUIZ on Friday.
We will be doing a role playing activity with symbiosis and the three different types: mutualism,
parasitism, and commensalism.

MATH:
Chapter 24
Lesson 2 - Area of squares/rectangles
Lesson 4 - Area of triangles
Lesson 5 - Area of Parallelograms
Lesson 8 - Volume

The Week of December 13, 2010

Dear Parents,
This is our last week of school for 2010! I can hardly believe that time goes by so quickly.
Thanks to the following families for donating snacks, prizes, and/or craft items to our classroom this past week: Alvarez, Dygdon, Gurnic, Brandt, Reynolds, and Herstowski.
I hope I didn't forget anyone.
I appreciate how much this class's parents support our classroom activities.

Some special events this week:
Monday = Holiday concert @ 9:30 in PV gym - Parents are invited.
Holiday concert in the evening at Lakeview too!

Thursday = Bowling 9:00 - 11:00 *students can bring $ for snacks!
Regular lunch will be available when we return.

Friday = Movie @ the Tivoli

HERE'S WHAT'S HAPPENING IN OUR CLASSROOM:

SPELLING: Holiday List...words will be given on Tuesday. Work due and test on Friday.

READING:This week we will continue to practice summarizing and predicting with skill pages and fiction reading material.
Monday = no reading due to band concert....
Tuesday = Book Club meeting #2 and discussion sheet due.
Wednesday = read and work on book club discussion sheet....
Thursday = no reading due to bowling...
Friday = Last Book Club meeting and discussion sheet due.

SCOOPer Reading:
I have told the students that they should try to have at least one book read and book activity completed before the break.

ENGLISH: Unit 2 Noun Test = Wednesday!

SOCIAL STUDIES: Chapter 7 Test on Tuesday!

SCIENCE: We are starting Chapter 6 Lesson 1
"How Do Organisms Compete & Survive in an Ecosystem"
There is a project that goes along with this lesson.
We might start this project prior to break.

MATH: Monday = Homework sheet and perimeter review.
Tuesday = Perimeter Test
Wednesday = Logic problem solving and using coordinates. Both with a holiday theme.
Thursday = No math
Friday = fun activity!

The Week of December 6th, 2010

DEAR PARENTS,

CLASSROOM DONATIONS NEEDED.........
*Fruit Snacks
*Goldfish Crackers
*Cheese and Crackers snacks
*Rice Krispie treats
and any HOLIDAY/WINTER stickers or prizes....

THANKS, in advance!!!

HERE'S WHAT'S HAPPENING IN THE CLASSROOM:

SPELLING: Lesson 13 Homophones for regular and challenge lists

READING:
This week, all fifth graders will review the skill of drawing conclusions. They will also be introduced to the skill of Author's Purpose. Students will learn how to read a text and decide if it was written to persuade, inform, or entertain. They will use the acronym PIE to help them remember these three important terms.
We will be continuing to summarize, question, predict and connect using student selected literature books for BOOK CLUBS. The students will be completing book club discussion sheets and having discussion group meetings.

SCOOPer READING:
Hopefully, all students will have one book read and activity completed prior to our winter break.

ENGLISH:
Unit 2 NOUNS - singular and plural possessive nouns & appositives
We are finishing this unit and testing on Wednesday, December 15th.

SOCIAL STUDIES:
We are finishing Chapter 7.
The students will be getting a "How to Study" sheet and highlighting their notes on Thursday.
They will be writing Hot Seat review game questions on Friday for our review game on Monday.
CHAPTER 7 Test = Tuesday, December 14th.

SCIENCE:
Chapter 5 review on Monday.
Chapter 5 test on Tuesday.
We will begin Chapter 6 Lesson 1 "How Do Organisms Compete and Survive in an Ecosystem"
We will be doing a project that pertains to this lesson the following week and continue the chapter after break.


MATH:
Monday = Homework sheet and Quest (quiz/test) on Mean, Median, Mode and Range.
Tuesday = Target review and assessment on the same skills.
Wednesday = Chapter 23 (yes, we are skipping around in the book) Lesson 2 Perimeter
Thursday = Chapter 23 Lesson 3 Perimeter Formulas
Friday = Chapter 223 Lesson 5 Circumference
We will be testing this chapter prior to winter break.