February 7, 2008

1/7/08

Dear Fifth Grade Parents,

Make sure to look in the FCE for your child’s Mid-trimester report. It was so great seeing all of you at the camp meeting on Tuesday night. The following is a brief curriculum update for the following week.

Math
Friday: Test #12
Monday: Lesson 66, Reading a Centimeter Scale
Tuesday: Lesson 67, Writing Tenths and Hundredths as a Decimal
Wednesday: Lesson 68, Naming Decimal Numbers
Thursday: Lesson 69, Fractions of a Second

Religion
This week is the first week of Lent. I will be selecting a morning that our class can go to Mass together before school (8:00am) The sign up is not out yet so watch my web site on the “Homework” section for an update. I will also tell the students! We are learning about Chapter 16, Gathered for Mass. Students will receive a study guide on Monday that will be due next Wednesday.

Reading
5th graders started the book, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe this week. We will do much of the reading during class, although some of the homework will be to finish up a chapter or to re-read parts of the book. We will continue to emphasize answering different types of questions using evidence and detail from the text.
Book Report projects continue!! Final report is due on Feb. 21.

Language Arts: This week, students will continue to study verbs. We’ll work with helping verbs, linking verbs, and past, present & future tenses of verbs. Students will complete a Valentine’s Day activity with verbs being the focus.

Social Studies
Next week we will continue our study of Chapter 8, Facing Slavery. No test next week!

Science
Students will test the strength of eggshells to infer how the shell helps a developing chick survive in its habitat. Students will learn how adaptations help organisms survive in cold climates or hot, dry climates. Students will make a model of fat insulation using shortening and test its ability to prevent heat loss.

Have a great week!

Ms. Semandiris