March 25, 2010
Happy Greek Independence Day!!!!
Dear Fifth Grade Parents,
Next week is Holy Week, which is a very important and solemn time in the church calendar. We will be celebrating the Stations of the Cross on Friday followed by a noon dismissal. The week after Spring break we will ITBS Testing. We will begin on Tuesday, April 14th.
Math
Friday: Investigation 7
Monday: Lesson 71, Fractions, Decimals, and Percents
Tuesday: Lesson 72, Area, Part 1
Wednesday: Lesson 73 Adding and Subtracting Decimal Numbers
Friday: Lesson 74, Converting Units of Length
Religion
Tomorrow each student from grades 3-8 will be taking individual confession with a priest. We have reviewed the process of individual confession during class as well as “Examined our Conscience”. Next week is Holy Week. We are currently working on learning the Stations of the Cross. We will have a quiz to recall all 14 stations next Thursday.
Language Arts
Students analyze the critical plot components in sample short story compositions. We practice writing introductions, which include a character description and the setting. Students begin to outline the conflict, crisis, and resolution patterns to be used in their own short stories. There is no spelling assignment or test this week.
Reading
This week 5th graders are enjoying a longer selection in the Scott Foresman text; Babe to the Rescue. Each student has been assigned a section to practice orally each night for E.S.P. practice, and to perform on Friday in a Reader’s Theater format. There will be a Selections Test on this story on Friday. We continue to spend a good amount of class time reading silently and sharing books, this week with an emphasis on the Target Skill of Summarizing.
As part of the 5th Grade ‘Steps to Respect’ program, I am spending a few minutes each day reading Crash by Jerry Spinelli. Each read aloud session is followed up with discussion to reinforce the skills learned in the ‘Steps to Respect’ bullying prevention program.
Please encourage your child to check his or her Power School grade report for missing assignments, and to complete and turn in all missing work.
Science
Students will take a test on Chapter 4, Ecology, on Tuesday, March 30th. Next, students will start a unit on motion and design. Next week students will focus on the use of drawings in the design process. They will draw vehicles they build from K’Nex building pieces. In small groups they will use their visual and spatial perception skills to build a vehicle pictured in a technical drawing. Next students will focus on force and motion by conducting experiments to determine how applying a force to an object changes the motion of the object.
Social Studies
The fifth graders are very busy working on Lesson 11, To Declare Independence. The students are preparing for a debate between three Loyalists and three Patriots. They have been divided up into 6 groups and assigned a real colonist to act out in the debate. Students should complete the interactive notebooks for this lesson at home by next Tuesday (3/30). The debate will be on Wednesday (3/31) and the test for this lesson will be on Thursday 4/1.
Have a great week!
Ms. Semandiris