September 15, 2011

September 15, 2011

 

Dear Fifth Grade Parents,

The fifth graders had a wonderful week! We are looking forward to Westfest this weekend. The following is a curriculum update for the week of 9/19-9/23.

Reminders:

Back to School Night – 9/22

Math

Monday: 9/19 – Lesson 12, Lines, Number Lines, Tally Marks

Tuesday: 9/20- Lesson 13, Multiplication as Repeated Addition

Wednesday: 9/21- Lesson 14, Missing Numbers in Subtraction

Thursday: 9/22- Lesson 15, Making a Multiplication Table

Religion

Next week we will be working on our prayer service which will be held on September 30th.

Social Studies
This week the fifth graders began to work on Lesson 1, Geography of the United States. In pairs they are working on their Interactive Notebook maps 1A-1D. Each map has a set of questions to answer. We will review the correct answers in class orally as well as visually on the Smart Board. The answers in their Interactive Notebook should be correct. The test for this lesson will be on 9/27. Students may access the on-line study tool via my web-age. Just click on History Alive and go to lesson 1. No study guide will be passed out as the on-line tool acts as the study guide!

Science

Students are conducting controlled experiments with the pendulums they have built. They are experimenting with the variables of mass, length and the release point of the swinger. Students will take a quiz based on notes in their 5-subs and their experiments with pendulums next Thursday (9/22).

Language Arts

Whoa what an exhausting but exciting week we’ve had in Language Arts!! This week students were busy reviewing expectations and are in the process of writing a pre-assessment piece about themselves. This pre-assessment will generate a base from which the students will grow from throughout the year.   Students also practiced their spelling words and will have a spelling test on Monday, September 19th.  Starting next week students will study nouns, word choice, and conventions. We will also be starting our Descriptive writing unit.

Reading

I am enjoying getting to know the 5th Graders! Today I took my first test and tried to say all of the students’ names correctly…they told me I scored 80%! Reading homework this first week is to add at least one entry to their book logs each night. Students know to bring a silent reading book to class every day along with their other work materials.

Have a great week!

 

Ms. Semandiris