WEEK of February 21st - 25th

You can click on the AWIM/Symphony blog to check out some pictures and information.


March is theme month at school. Students are encouraged to dress accordingly if they wish!


- March 2:   Sports Day

- March 10: Family Reading Night Event (6:30 - 8)
- March 11 - 14: No School

- March 16: Favorite Character Day

- March 25: PTO Family Fun Night

  March 30: Hawaiian/Beach Day

 READING: 

 We began our new genre unit that centers around the Revolutionary War  period. The theme is "making choices". We read Katie's Trunk to begin. This was written from the point of view of a Tory, a colonist who was loyal to King George. We begin our novel, The Fighting Ground next week. 

 MATH:

Along with review lessons we have learned about how fractions and decimals are related. We practiced changing a fraction to a decimal and a decimal to a fraction. This unit contains many concepts and we have spent time reviewing. We will work with showing fractions and decimals on a number line next. Although we are at the end of new lessons once that is taught and practiced, we will not take the test yet. We will move into chapter 8 which also deals in fractions. We have found that once we are part way through this chapter, students feel more comfortable with chapter 7 concepts and are more successful. I will let you know when we will test this.

WRITING:

President reports are due Monday. I have given extra time for these because of snow days, field trip, etc. We'll work on a brochure next.

SPELLING/GRAMMAR:

We have been studying adverbs quite a bit. An adverb describes a verb as opposed to an adjective describing a noun. We also began discussing comma rules and practicing these concepts.

SCIENCE:

We have been learning about simple machines. Simple machines make work easier by allowing less effort to be exerted to do the work. We have talked about levers, wheels and axles,  ramps, and screws. Next week we'll discuss the concept of flight, then create and test paper airplanes to apply what we learn.  Should be a fun one!

AWIM and SYMPHONY

AWIM

Tuesday was our last day of AWIM. The kids had fun designing, building, and testing their balloon-powered cars. Students competed against each other within their own class. The winner from each class competed against each other in the "finals" to see whose car could go the straightest for the farthest distance.

Olivia Scoville, Jenn Eastman, and Tiffany Schippa from our class won!

                              Now we get a pizza party from JCI on March 1st! Thanks girls!! Great work!

Winners of "Best Presentation"

Our winning team!

                                           Symphony Trip:

I am so pleased with our 5th graders for their terrific behavior on the buses, at the symphony, and at the museum. They made this a wonderful trip! At the symphony, Caden Klanderman, Ashlen Wolfram, and Jerzy Gates had their "Firebird" drawings shown on the big screen during the "Firebird Suite". Very cool! We looked at many and varied exhibits at the museum and got to ride the carousel!
We appreciate our volunteers who went along with us. Thank you Tracy Dowker, Jen Folkert, Lynae Wolfram, Beth Poe, and Amanda Jacobs!

 

February 21st-SNOW DAY!

Hope you're all having a great day! 
Tomorrow we will celebrate President's Day by having cake and wearing red, white, and/or blue!
If you don't wear these colors, it will be completely understandable because I forgot to remind you on Friday!!! 
Remember tomorrow is our last day of AWIM!


SPELLING BEE:
The regional spelling bee will be at Bluestar tomorrow.
Please remember to encourage our participants
Jenn Eastmann and Garret Heyerman!!

Week of February 15th - 18th

February 18:    $5.00 Due for Field Trip

February 22:    AWIM 2 - 3:30 (last one)

February 23:    Symphony Field Trip, 5th Grade Release

 

PRESIDENTS' DAY!

Monday, Feb. 21 is President's Day. We would like all fifth graders to wear red, white, and blue on this day. We will be engaged in various activities throughout the day including Presidential Trivia, reciting the Presidents in the lunch room, and celebrating with a birthday cake!! This is in place of a Valentine's Day Party.

 

Reading:

I have been enjoying the student Lit Kit presentations! It has been good for them to work on their presentation skills and they are doing quite well! Summarizing a novel can be difficult and I am proud of everyone for their hard work in this area. Next week we will begin our next genre unit reading several texts. The focal novel is The Fighting Ground.

Math:

We continue in our first fraction unit. We are continually reviewing previous lessons as we progress through the unit. This week's new lessons were simplest form, comparing fractions and comparing and ordering fractions. We are also reviewing past concepts such as multiplication, multiplying with decimals, division, distributive property, and graphing.

 

Writing:

Final drafts of president reports are due on Tuesday. These should be typed and have a cover page. 

Next week students will begin writing and designing brochures to encourage people to move to the colonies, an assignment that ties to their social studies unit. 

Science:

We have been discussing and experimenting with simple machines. We have learned that simple machines make work easier since less force is needed to be used. Types we have learned about are lever, wheel and axles, and pulleys. 

 Next week in AWIM: Groups will compete against each other to see whose car can go the farthest and straightest. The winner from each class will compete against each other.

 

 

 

February 7th - 10th

          UPCOMING EVENTS:

- February 16: Marshall Music Visits

- February 17: Lit Kits Due

- February 18: $5.00 Due for Field Trip

- February 22: AWIM 2 - 3:30

- February 23: Symphony Field Trip

Box Tops Competition!

The 5th grade class needs your help!  We are having a school wide competition to see which grade can collect the most box tops.  The winning grade will get a pizza party.  So let's start collecting!  The competition will go from February 7 through March 4. 

Reading - Lit Kits

The lit kit information was sent home Thursday- we have gone over it a few times and I showed the class an example on Thursday as well.  I sent home a yellow page that explains what they should work on this weekend. Tuesday and Wednesday they'll have some time to work on their summaries and for me to look the drafts over. Your child should begin to start collecting materials for their lit kit and have a container ready.  Please note that their chosen book should be finished by Tuesday, February 15.  I am planning on having the lit kit presentations begin on Thursday, February 17.  

 Math

We have just started chapter 7, all about FRACTIONS!   Some of the topics that we have covered so far are improper fractions and mixed numbers, equivalent fractions,  finding the greatest common factor, and reducing to simplest form.We are doing a lot of review of concepts daily even as we add new concepts.

Science

We continue to work through our forces of motion unit.  The class did very well on their quiz of lessons 5-9. We will begin lesson 10 on Wednesday which is about simple machines such as levers.

Can you think of any everyday tools we use that are examples of a lever?  

AWIM: Students continue to develop there balloon powered cars by testing how far they are able to go, if they are able to go straight, and adding weight to them.

Writing

  Students have completed the research of their chosen president. This has been a good experience in how to google specific information, how it is important to use more than one source, and how we should not trust the information on every site searched. Students practiced skimming for information and realized they couldn't just skim to find everything they needed! We will finish drafts, revising and editing by Thursday. Reports will be due on Monday, February 21st. 

  We also practiced memorizing the presidents in order from the beginning to end. Most students are able to get all the way through! Trevor Blood from our class is ale to say them all backwards!

Ask your child to recite them for you!

Week of January 31- February 4

UPCOMING DATES
- February 8:           AWIM 2 - 3:30

- February 11 - 14:  Mid-Winter Break

- February 15:         AWIM 2 - 3:30

- February 16:         Marshall Music Visits

- February 18:         $5.00 Due for Field Trip

- February 22:        AWIM 2 - 3:30

- February 23:        Symphony Field Trip, 5th Grade Release

It was a bit of a crazy week with our 2 snow days! We've had to do a little regrouping obviously and I'm trying to get through what is needed and still be fair about it!

SCIENCE:
We are going to have our quiz over Lessons 1-9 on Wednesday instead of Monday. We will do a jeopardy review game on Monday. They have some things they will be able to study from. I won't be giving a study guide as this isn't very long and they'll have enough review and their own papers/journal to study from.

READING: 
Students are reading their own books independently, keeping track of setting, characters, problem, and resolution. They have had short vocabulary assignments and will have other short comprehension assignments this week. Our goal was to be finished with our books on Wednesday and begin the Lit Kit assignment (which I will post below) on Thursday. Because of snow days and other items that have taken up time, I'll discuss a new reasonable timeline with students on Monday and make sure everyone is comfortable. 

Lit Kit-We have discussed this a little already, and students have the rubric they'll be graded on. I'll be discussing this in detail with students on Monday. Each student will be given a packet that explains what to do, but this is an overview:

* The container for the kit should be something that reflects the novel
* The items in the kit should help retell the beginning, middle, and end of the story
* No more than 6 items per kit
* Due date is Feb. 15th.
* A written summary is also expected at the time of the presentation.

WRITING:
We have been researching presidents and will complete this on Monday. I will model how to take their notes and write them into an organized biography. We will begin writing drafts on Tuesday.

MATH:
We have focused on improper fractions, mixed numbers and equivalent fractions. Next week we will review equivalent fractions, working with placing fractions on a number line, greatest common factor, and possibly get to reducing fractions. Along with the basic working out of the problems, we have also been drawing visual pictures of some of our work to be sure we really understand what were learning!



  Please feel free to email me or call if you have a question about homework, etc. 

FYI: I realize that some of the spelling analogies and other lessons can be tricky-I always tell the kids to do their best and bring back what is complete. We always go over it the next day to be sure we understand it-which is the most important thing!