November 9, 2017
Dear Fifth Grade Parents,
We have been very busy here in 5A! I hope you all have a wonderful Veterans Day remembering and honoring all our beloved Veterans.
I wanted to share that I am part of an Accreditation Team for the Archdiocese of Seattle. Last year, as you know, we went through our Accreditation Visit. This was the culminated event of our intense self-study. We had a team of teachers and administrators visit our school for three days to work to verify and find evidence for all the wonderful things our school does. So that is what I will be doing next Monday – Wednesday 11/13-15. I will be at another school those days. I look forward to this wonderful professional development and plan to take home some great ideas as well.
Reminders:
11/10 – No School – Veteran’s Day
** Please sign up for a conference on the Holy Rosary Web-Site.
**If students have any missing work they need to turn in for my classes, they will be able to do that Thursday 11/16 after school. Thank you!
Religion
This week we completed their Chapter 14 study guide. Today we assembled our “My Baptism” collages. The religion test is next Tuesday 11/14!
Math/Semandiris
11/13 – Ch. 4 L. 4 Adjust Quotients
11/14 – Ch. 4 L. 5 Divide Greater Numbers
11/15 – Ch. 4 L. Fluency Practice
11/16 – Ch. 4 L. Fluency Practice
11/17 – Ch. 4 Chapter Review
Math /Mr. Schreck
Chapter 5, Add & Subtract Decimals
Monday: Lesson 1, Round Decimals
Tuesday: Lesson 2, Estimate Sums & Differences
Wednesday: Review Lessons 1 & 2,
Thursday: Quiz, Lesson 1 & 2
Math (Mrs. Heuer):
Next week we will be continuing our chapter on multiplying and dividing fractions and mixed numbers. We will be finishing up this unit next week, and the unit test will be after the conference break. The students have really been working on their problem solving skills and figuring what operation and unit to use. Hope you have a nice conference!
Reading
This week we focused on determining the ‘Theme’ or message of a story based upon the character’s actions, specifically, how they respond to conflicts. We used the familiar story of Hatchet to practice this skill and then moved on to identifying ‘Themes’ in Elisa’s Diary, a realistic fiction story. The assessment this week will be to read a short article followed by a quiz over the article. We’ve discussed the importance of reading questions carefully and looking at possible answers closely before making a selection. One strategy is to ‘whisper read’ the question out loud when it doesn’t make sense the first time.
Science
Students begin Lesson 4, “How Are Plants Classified?” Students will learn how scientists classify plants and what mosses, ferns, conifers, and flowering plants are.
Students will take a quiz on Lessons 1 & 2 in their textbook next Friday. Students are completing two study guides in class to help prepare them for the quiz.
Social Studies
We are currently finishing up Chapter 5, Routes of Exploration to the New World. The Interactive Notebook pages 28-29 & 32 were due today. (11/9) and we went over the answers in class. I have changed the test date to 11/16 (Thursday) to allow some extra time to study. The study guide is on the social studies Google Classroom. Next week on, Monday for 5A and Tuesday for 5B, students will be using Google Slideshow to create a presentation on all the information on the Matrix on pages 28-29 in the Interactive Notebook. This will not be graded but will be a way to teach how to do Google Slideshow and simultaneously study for the social studies test.
Language Arts
This week in 5th grade Language Arts, students have been focusing on spelling words with /ou/ and /oi/ vowel sounds, identifying how to make singular nouns plural, and beginning to write a fictional narrative. I just want to send out a reminder that all spelling words can be found on my classroom under the “5th LA” tab. I will try to get the words posted on the Monday of every week, so students can use this tool to study. Next week students will continue to work on writing a fictional narrative. It makes me so happy to see how excited they are about writing!