September 9, 2010

September 9, 2010

Dear Fifth Graders and Parents,

The following curriculum update is for the week of 9/10-16. I am excited to see you all at Open House tonight!

Math
9/13 Test 1
9/14 Lesson 11-Story Problems about Combining Lesson 12-Lines, Number Lines,
9/15 Lesson 12-Lines Numbers &Tally Marks
9/16 Lesson 13-Multiplication as Repeated Addition/Adding & Subtracting Dollars and Cents

Religion
This week we began Chapter 1, Longing for God. We discussed the question, why are longings so important? We discussed difference between the longing for material goods vs something such as love, support, and compassion. Students will be receiving the study guide for this chapter on Tuesday. It will be due on Thursday. We will have the chapter 1 test on 9/20.

Social Studies
The fifth graders have been working 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. We will be having a test on this lesson on 9/21. 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!

Language Arts: Students are reviewing basic parts of speech: nouns, verbs and adjectives. Students write and illustrate “form poems” using these parts of speech. A spelling assignment has been given to the students and is due on Monday. There will also be a spelling test on Monday. Know that you can access my webpage at: http://www.holyrosaryws.org/Specialists/LanguageArts5/ in order to download PDFs of any language arts assignments.

Science
Students are learning how to conduct controlled experiments by experimenting with variables that do and do not affect the behavior of pendulums. They are graphing their results in a variety of ways and using their graphs to predict the behavior of different length pendulums they construct.

Reading
5th Graders have enjoyed their first week of Reading classes! In an attempt to increase the amount of time students spend reading each day, we begin every class with ‘free reading’ time. Students need to be sure to always bring a silent reading book to class. This week we read an excerpt from Dear Mr. Henshaw, with a focus on the Target Skill of Sequencing; keeping track of the order in which events happen in a story. Sequencing helps us to better understand what we read.

Have a great week!
Ms. Semandiris