May 29, 2008

May 29, 2008
Dear Fifth Grade Parents,

This has been a very busy week! Looking ahead, we will be having our last “Thank-you Auction” during the last week of school. Please feel free to donate any items under $2.00 $5.00 starting next week.

Here is a brief curriculum overview for the upcoming week.

Math
Friday: Lesson 105, Symmetry
Monday: Lesson 106, Reading and Ordering Decimal Numbers Through Ten-Thousandths
Tuesday: Lesson 107, Using a Percent to Name part of a Group
Wednesday: Lesson 108, Schedules
Thursday: Lesson 109, Multiplying Decimal Numbers

Religion
We will continue to learn about Chapter 19, which is mainly about Matrimony and Holy Orders. The next two Monday’s will be spent teaching Chapters 5 & 6 in Family Life. I will be teaching the girls and Mr. Schreck will be teaching the boys.

Social Studies
Tomorrow we will have the Chapter 13 test. Next week the 5th graders will begin Chapter 14, The Constitution. In this chapter the students will learn the events that led to the creation of the Constitution. They will list and describe key powers of the legislative, judicial, and executive branches of government. They will also learn and be able to explain the system of checks and balances.

Science
Students will learn how electric circuits are used in the home and how electricity is measured in voltage and kilowatts. Students will take a quiz on lessons 1 & 2 next Wednesday.
Family Life: Students will begin Chapter 5, Growing to Fatherhood next Monday.

Reading
The Number the Stars ABC books were an excellent review of the story. They have been on display this week, and should come back home today. The grading rubric is included in this boomerang. Please remind your student to find and return all copies of Number the Stars.

Language Arts: This week, students get to design their own spelling lists!! Each student’s list should:
*Contain 15 words or more
* Include words that have been challenging for the student to learn (for example, words with tricky suffixes like -sion/tion or -able/ible
* They may be new or interesting words a student would like to learn
* They may be contractions or homonyms (like you’re, your, yours…)
Students were to bring their lists to class today (Thursday) for me to preview. Then, each student will decide on an appropriate practice activity to complete, which will be due on Monday. Our test will also be on Monday. We explore the sections of the newspaper and learn to uncover the 5W’s and an H from news stories. I may ask that students bring newspapers to school a few times next week.

Ms. Semandiris