December 1, 2011
Dear Fifth Grade Parents,
Kalo Mena!! (Happy 1st of the Month)! In Greece, people usually greet one another in this way on each 1st of the month. I hope you are all doing well. Report Cards will be sent home on December 9th. Here is a brief curriculum overview for the week of December 5th – 9th.
Wednesday 12/7: 5A & 5B will be attending the 7:45am Mass before school. Parents are welcome to attend as well!!!
Tomorrow 12/2 our 5A prayer Service will be streamed live. Please view our prayer service streamed live this Friday at: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/holy-rosary-west-seattle.
Christmas Service Project – The fifth grade has adopted a family for Christmas. We are asking for each student to donate a monetary gift. Then we will be asking for volunteers to help us shop for items on the family’s wish list. Please feel free to send in donations beginning tomorrow 12/2.
Math
12/5 – Lesson 42 Short Division
12/6 – Lesson 43 Writing Quotients as Mixed Numbers
12/7- Lesson 44 Measuring Lengths with a ruler
12/8 – Mass
Religion
We have been preparing for the Advent Wreath Blessing prayer service on Friday (12/2) at 8:30am. Please note that the prayer service will be streamed live this Friday at: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/holy-rosary-west-seattle. We are moving on to Ch. 14 Reborn in Christ. In this chapter we will be learning about Baptism one of the Sacraments of Initiation. Students will be creating collages of their own baptism.
Social Studies
The fifth graders are working hard on Lesson 5, Routes of Exploration to the New World. Using a matrix, we are recording data about each of the 8 explorers. We will then use this information to compare and contrast the various explorers and the voyages that they embarked upon. The test for this lesson will be on 12/9.
Reading
This week we finished reading Hatchet. Many of the students were disappointed in the “abrupt” ending, but are excited to read the sequel, “Brian’s Winter” to see what would have happened had Brian not been rescued. We will spend next week back in the Scott Foresman text reading a true adventure story about a scuba diver who saves a dolphin in distress. I’ve asked students to be on the lookout for Christmas picture books that they can bring in during our last week of class before Christmas. **Please do not purchase books for this activity or allow your child to bring in keepsakes. The books will be passed around and shared, so although we will all be very careful, I can’t guarantee that books will come home in perfect condition. There will be plenty to go around, so if that box hasn’t made it out of Christmas storage, please don’t worry.
Music
Students have been given the music to memorize for the Epiphany program. They should be practicing every day!!!!
Language Arts
This week students submitted their Descriptive Writing Paragraph on Thanksgiving. As students drafted their essay they were focusing on the skill sets we have been practicing in class: Sentence Fluency, Organization, Ideas and Content, and Conventions. In the next few weeks, students will be learning more about subject and predicate, conjunctions, and content words with a continued focus on skills they have practiced these past couple weeks.
Please make sure your student is studying their spelling words. On average, students should be spending at least 15 minutes a night studying to be prepared for their Tuesday spelling test.
Science
Students are practicing using their microscopes. Students will learn how to prepare a wet-mount slide. They will also learn to focus up and down over the surface of an object that has depth. Students will then use their skills to identify unknown specimens using a microscope.
Have a great week!
Ms. Semandiris