Monday, October 27, 2014

Parent Teacher Conferences and Weekly Update



This is the schedule of our parent teacher conferences for this fall.  I love this time to spend with parents because your students are truly amazing people who are growing so quickly in many areas.   There are some spots on Friday to come if the assigned conference does not work for you; please contact the office to change.

  Please note that there is no school on November 11, Veterans Day.  It falls on Tuesday.

NEWS FROM FIFTH GRADE   
WEEK OF OCT.27-31

I will be out of town for a family wedding this Thursday and Friday. Keith Quinton will sub for me- he’s familiar to most  students and a great teacher.  Please feel free to email me with any questions or concerns.  I will call as soon as I am able to do so.  

READING

Students are reading a novel of their own choosing for silent reading.

Posterboard came home today for “tree”-mendous book reports.  Students should have their ideas finished in their binders on a rough draft worksheet that looks like a tree.  I demonstrated some ideas for them, but here’s the rubric.

*Must be a book they have read on their own since September 8, 2014.
*Must be approved by Mrs. Steele (check!)
*Follows the work-sheet rough draft in form- First line has one word or character name, second has two, etc.
*Follows the work-sheet rough draft in function- First line is main character, second has two describing words, third has three words for setting, etc.
*Fills the space-- no teeny trees!
*Incorporates five -eight objects and small drawings that represent events, problems, or people in the book.  (Mine has buttons, baseballs, a laundry sack, a prisoner neck tag and a math equation that doesn’t make sense till you read the book. )
*Uses some color on the background in non-smearing media like colored pencil or watercolors.
*Spelling needs to be correct, vocabulary must be varied-- do not use words such as good, very, amazing, cool, super, or great.  

DUE NOVEMBER 3, 2014.


POPPY is our current class book and we are already ⅓ of the way through!  Excellent
vocabulary in this book makes it a solid choice for fifth grade.
Homework:  Read a minimum of twenty minutes nightly (bump it up!) at home starting in October. Please assist your student in making sure this is done.

LANGUAGE ARTS

Spelling: Lesson 8 came home today. Students should complete the packet and write the words for practice on a separate sheet of paper, stapled to the packet.  TEST is Friday morning and lesson is due upon arrival in class. Please use cursive at this point for the packet and the test.


VFW essays should be done and turned in.  I will grade a copy and submit the rest to the local VFW.  

SCIENCE---OWL PELLETS!  This Thursday and Friday.

US HISTORY and SOCIAL STUDIES

Four students have registered and I walked the class through the registration process today.  If you need another code please contact me.  Thanks!  The link on the registration slip is working great, just make sure to use the newstudent bit at the end.  We are starting week four tomorrow!

BIBLE VERSE:  Colossians 2:8  Test Wednesday.  Please study!  Great verse for our kids as they approach middle school and beyond!

GENERAL INFORMATION

PE is Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday-- please help your fifth grade student remember athletic shoes and good clothes for running and jumping. Showering nightly is a great idea at this age and deodorant is a critical school supply.

MUSIC is Monday and Wednesday.  Technology is Friday just after PE.

CHAPEL is every Wednesday.  Please encourage your fifth grade student to wear chapel clothes and bring their worship voices! Part of their spiritual growth we look for includes the ability to listen, worship, and participate in the body of Christ.  They are leading the way for their younger (and sometimes older!) peers.

PIZZA FRIDAYS! $2 per slice. ORDER by Wednesday 10/29.




Monday, October 20, 2014

Parent newsletter 10/20

NEWS FROM FIFTH GRADE   
WEEK OF OCT.20-24

READING

Students are reading a novel of their own choosing for silent reading and we just started the novel Poppy today. Our heroine has faced tragedy, met her nemesis, and been wounded-- and it's just the first chapter!

Homework:  Read a minimum of twenty minutes nightly (bump it up!) at home starting in October. Please assist your student in making sure this is done.


LANGUAGE ARTS

Spelling: Lesson 7 came home today. Students should complete the packet and write the words for practice on a separate sheet of paper, stapled to the packet.  TEST is Friday morning and lesson is due upon arrival in class. Please use cursive at this point for the packet and the test.


Language arts is focusing on verbs and our VFW essays this week. Students are finishing their rough draft.


SCIENCE

The structure of the earth and the rock cycle


US HISTORY and SOCIAL STUDIES

Native Americans:  This is a brief overview of which major language/culture groups lived in what regions of the US. The physical maps and features we worked with last week really stretched our brains. I sent home a registration link to log on to the part of our curriculum we are using now. There are games, puzzles, and review on the site. Our class will be using this quite a bit. Please help your student create a login. If they are absent, makeup is a snap and it's going to be fun to see how else we will use this new tool.


BIBLE VERSE: Psalm 19:1-2 Test Wednesday. Please study!

CHAPEL- We will be presenting our service project; fifth grade heads up the shoebox collection for Operation Christmas Child for CCS. Our group will help present to the school on this opportunity to show God's love.

GENERAL INFORMATION

PE is Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday-- please help your fifth grade student remember athletic shoes and good clothes for running and jumping.

MUSIC is Monday and Wednesday.  Technology is Friday just after PE.

CHAPEL is every Wednesday.  Please encourage your fifth grade student to wear chapel clothes and bring their worship voices! Part of their spiritual growth we look for includes the ability to listen, worship, and participate in the body of Christ. They are leading the way for their younger (and sometimes older!) peers.



PHOTOS- October 22- just after Chapel. I have extra order forms, but check your child’s folder. Send form and payment that day.

PIZZA FRIDAYS return on 10/24!  Order forms came home this week. $2 per slice. ORDER by Wednesday 10/22.

Newsletter 10/15

NEWS FROM FIFTH GRADE                      WEEK OF OCT. 13-17  

I apologize for the lateness of this newsletter.  My son fell and incurred a mild concussion Monday evening; we spent the evening and some of Tuesday in the ER getting his head injury assessed.  He’s doing much better after some good rest, but my catch-up work is still coming along.  

LAST LETTER EARNED!  We watch Shiloh tomorrow and have donuts!  

READING

Students are reading a novel of their own choosing. We finished all the Shiloh work and students have collected their work into a portfolio, which I will be assessing over this weekend.  We start our new novel, Poppy, tomorrow; it is chock-full of great vocabulary and funny, endearing characters.  It features a classic hero’s journey.  We’ll be doing a word collage book report in the next couple of weeks as well.  Look for it next week. The beginning work will be done in class and come home for personal touches.

Homework:  Read a minimum of twenty minutes nightly (bump it up!) at home starting in October. Please assist your student in making sure this is done.

LANGUAGE ARTS

Spelling: Lesson 6 came home last Friday. Students should complete the packet and write the words for practice on a separate sheet of paper, stapled to the packet.  TEST is Thursday morning and lesson is due upon arrival in class. The test is moving to cursive although students still may use print alongside on the test.  It may help to practice the packet in cursive as well.  

Language arts is busy with prepositions, practicing descriptive phrases (and illustrating, very fun!) We learned about infinitives and imperatives this week along with helping verbs, verb phrases and compound verbs.  We began writing our VFW essays in earnest today.   This is completely student driven, I just provide some thinking and talking points along with some guidelines on word count and grammar/spelling rules. We’ll write, proofread, and rewrite. Essays will be picked up by the VFW representative on October 31.

SCIENCE
This week is rock types and the rock cycle.  We have beautiful rock samples that the school invested in several years ago.  This type of hands on learning teaching earth science much more interesting for both sides!

US HISTORY and SOCIAL STUDIES
We are moving into Native American  studies for the week next week.  This is a brief overview of which major language/culture groups lived in what regions of the US.

Bible looks a little different in Spirit week; we take time to celebrate and enjoy the goodness of friends, joy, and laughter.  We do a modified devotion, prayer time, and still work on our verse.  The verse test was this morning and it looked like most students did well.

GENERAL INFORMATION

PE is Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday-- please help your fifth grade student remember athletic shoes and good clothes for running and jumping.

MUSIC is Monday and Wednesday.  Technology is Friday just after PE.

CHAPEL is every Wednesday.  Please encourage your fifth grade student to wear chapel clothes and bring their worship voices!


GLOW RUN  October 18, RAC in Lacey.  THIS WEEKEND!  Come get your glow on!


NO SCHOOL October 17  Teacher Inservice


PHOTOS- October 22- just after Chapel. I have extra order forms, but check your child’s folder.
PIZZA FRIDAYS return on 10/24!  Order forms came home this week. $2 per slice.