CHRISTMAS GIFT GIVING:  
Last week's blog had information about the 5th grade having no gift exchange, rather students/teachers will be able to buy a ticket/candy cane as a gift for a friend or teacher. Money will be collected and the student whose name is drawn will get to choose the charity donations will go to.
  Candy cane/ticket sales will begin next week and I will let you know an exact date in advance.

*This coming week I will be talking to students about various charities and having them tell the class about charities they are familiar with- I think it will take too much time to research and make it a writing project at this point as I had planned.

ELOQUENCE DAY!! Hamilton Elementary has had an Eloquence Day for years and Sandyview also joined in awhile back. This year we're bringing it to the middle school!

WHAT IS IT? Our 5th Grade Christmas Party. 
        *We teach the students table manners, how a table is set properly, etc. 
        * We seat students boy/girl at random and boys pull chairs out for girls.
        * We dress up! Girls in skirts or dresses. Boys in slacks and nice shirt, etc. What you'd wear  to church, but get as fancy as you want! I will explain this all to the kids this week.
     NOTE: This is meant to be fun, not stressful so please know that you should not feel the need to go shopping! For example: If your boy only has jeans, this is fine. We are hoping they have something other than a t-shirt.

WHEN IS IT?      December 19th
WHERE IS IT?   The Cafe' de Elequonce' - meaning we don't tell the kids where this event is held to keep it fun and we change it around on occasion. So if you find yourself being a parent volunteer- PLEASE keep this a secret from your child as they understandably find it very difficult to refrain from telling friends.

  *Homework this weekend- Math- this is in their planners-some students completed this Friday.
  No December Book Project, but reading is expected daily homework.

MATH: 
 There are tutorials for cross-multiplying, fractions X a fraction, and fraction X a whole number in the math tab. 

We continue with multiplying whole numbers and fractions and fractions by fractions. We have added in cross-multiplying and are also looking at comparing fractions. We will begin multiplying mixed numbers this week. We will have our first quiz on Friday. 
   RETEST: Next week, I will be giving any student who received a '1' on any section of the "Adding & Subtracting Fractions" test the opportunity to retake those sections. After all the review we have done and now doing many of the same concepts in this unit in addition to the new, this will be a good time to take it again.
  Reminder that if you have a can of playdough to send with your child for math, please do so.

LANGUAGE ARTS
  We continue with book clubs reading Long Way from Chicago. Students read their "Turkey" stories on Friday and we had hot chocolate. We will write a short opinion piece about a nonfiction article we'll be reading this week about kids and extreme sports.

SCIENCE:

We have been studying all week for the science test which will be on Tuesday. Students were to bring the study guide home Friday and study. We will review Monday as well. Wednesday we will be using computers to do some roller coaster activities involving forces and motion. Thursday we will go over test results.

 

Spelling:
This week's spelling words are in the spelling tab.
We took the skill and proofreading tests Friday. This will come home Monday. Students typically have a lesson, homework page (which often gets completed in class) This week's skill is contractions.

We will also focus on verbs and noun review.