December 2, 2010
Dear Fifth Grade Parents,
Tomorrow (12/3) 5A will be leading the Advent Wreath Blessing prayer service. Please come and join us in prayer at 8:30am in the school hall.
Report Cards will be handed out next Friday 12/10. I have reminded the students all week to check Powerschool and turn in any work that is missing by Friday 12/3.
5th Graders: Bring in Lunches of Love 12/10 – Decorate the bag!! (non-perishable items)
Curriculum update week of 12/6- 12/10:
Math
12/6: Lesson 41, Adding and Subtracting Fractions with Common Denominators
12/7: Lesson 42,Short Division
12/8- Mass no Math
12/9: Lesson 43,Writing Quotients as Mixed Numbers
Religion
The fifth graders are adopting a local family for Christmas. This family has a mother and a father who both recently lost their jobs three months ago. They also have 4 children. We will be collecting money and then we would like to have volunteers to buy specific items on the list and then return them to school so we can wrap them as a class. We will be accepting any monetary donations by Thursday 12/9. Please donate any amount you can afford. Please email me if you are interesting in being a shopper.
Fifth Grade: Week of 12/5 – 12/11 Lunches of Love – Decorate the bag-reminders will be on HW page!!
We will be moving on to Chapter 15, Forgiveness and Healing. Students will be participating in a communal Advent Penance Service on 12/13.
Social Studies
The fifth graders are busy working on Chapter 6, Early English Settlements. We will have our Act it Out Presentations next Tuesday 12/7 for both classes. They are working on this in class. The Act it out, questions and answers are due on 12/7. The test for this Chapter will be on 12/9.
Language Arts: We work on descriptive writing this week, focusing on the traits of: word choice, organization, sentence fluency and conventions. We use our senses to bring to life common Christmas objects and symbols using our five senses. Students do NOT have a spelling assignment or test this week.
Science
Students begin a research-based science unit called Microworlds. In this unit, students will learn to use their powers of observation with the help of magnifying lenses and microscopes to see familiar things in a new way. They are also introduced to a fascinating new world-the cellular structure of living organisms.
Reading
This week 5th Graders have been using Graphic Sources to better understand informational text. Next week we will be reading a true story about a young girl who decides to make a difference in her community by motivating her friends to participate in a service project. This provides great opportunities to discuss our Schoolwide Learning Expectations of becoming Faith-Filled Catholics who apply the principles of Catholic Social Teachings, and Respectful People who care for others. This story coincides perfectly with 5th Graders’ efforts to bring Lunches of Love to school next Friday!
Have a great week!
Ms. Semandiris