State Governor report

State Governor Report Due Date: 4/14/2016

1. Look up the name of your state’s CURRENT governor.  Most states have a website page that is just about their governor-- it will end in .gov rather than .com.
2. Take notes on current governor: what political party they represent, how long they have been governor, family and pets, hobbies, favorite foods, what they’ve done as governor that they are proud of doing, where they were born, and anything else interesting.
3. Now write your own sentences and create a paragraph about your governor that describes who they are and what they’ve done.  Make sure you use your own words.
4. Insert a photo of your governor below or above your paragraph.
5. Title the paragraph with your state’s governor’s name and his title. Example:

John Hingleheimer, Governor of Nostate.

6. Include a byline under the title with your name.
7. Make sure you wrote a complete paragraph with interesting sentences, capitalization, punctuation, and correct spelling.  Your topic sentence should introduce your governor.

State recipe

Please note that due date is from a PDF photo I took last year.Click on the link to open the pdf.
https://drive.google.com/drive/search?q=State%20recipe

Parent News 3/29

News from 5th Grade

March 29, 2016

Spring is here! Sun is out. We're enjoying recess and PE!

(Please remind your budding middle schooler to shower every day with soap and if they aren't wearing deodorant yet, now would be a great time to start!

Bible: I am in charge of chapel tomorrow! Whoohoo! Kids are helping me out by reading a few facts about an odd critter or plant in God’s creation that reveal his joy, creativity, and delight. Ask your kiddo which animal or plant they have.  I will fill in details and keep them on track and they will come up to share some interesting details. No practice needed, they have their facts on a sheet.

Bible Verse for Tomorrow: 1 Corinthians 1:4 (this does need a practice!)

Reading: Over halfway  done with “Files” and still laughing out loud at the antics of Jamie and Claudia.   The emphasis on this book is vocabulary and we are loaded with it.  Today we worked on vocabulary in a group activity where students had two vocabulary and then they had to find a friend to fill in the missing 16 they still needed. We’re also continuing to work on gathering information and making inferences, which is an abstract skill for most fifth graders. Since it’s outside the realm of fact or opinion, some students wrestle with this a bit longer than others.  Ask them some good questions about what you can guess from something they hear or read.

BOOK LOGS are due Friday for this month.  I’m really proud of the way several students are working so hard towards a big goal.  THey are continuing to improve their skills and enjoying some great titles.   I will send home a new book log for Spring Break and the rest of April.

BOOK REPORTS FOR this quarter will be done in class.  We’ll do a couple of book recommendations and put it on a wall for all to read.

Language Arts:  ixl skills in O section. Lots of writing for Files book-- we made balderdash cards last week and this week we have my fave, illustrated vocabulary.                                                                                            

Social Studies: States and Capitals # 40-42

State Recipe, Early days of US Government

State Fair planning sheet comes home after spring break-- If you would like it before I can email you a copy. Just let me know by sending me a message on my school email account.

Science:  Finishing up about electricity, starting new explorations after Spring Break

Sample Questions about science on ixl this week

IMPORTANT DATES:

Spring Break: April 4-8

Conferences and ITBS testing: April 18-22  Monday is a full day, but Tuesday -Friday will be half days dismissing at noon.   Having a good night’s sleep and a nutritious breakfast will help your student do well on their tests.  It is tiring in a different kind of way!

STATE FAIR: May 10

Weekly update 3/21/16

5th Grade Parent News 3/21

CLASS PICTURES TOMORROW!

 Envelopes went home a couple of weeks ago, but more are available in office if you need one.

Thanks for all the parents who worked so hard to make our auction a success.  I especially want to thank Jessica Little and Kaci Marsh for putting together our great little package and Debbie Solie for working with our students to create a neat art piece for parents to bid upon.  It was a sweet night! Thank you for all your support. Also, thanks for the tissues.  We are headed into spring allergies and it’s a little sneezy/sniffly after recess.

Bible: Talking today about ways God blesses us with meeting our non-physical needs, we identified some mentors that God brings into our lives.  I loved hearing about the other adults that God has brought into the lives of your kiddos.  Our verse this week is 1 Peter 5:5 and it talks about the importance of mentors and being humble enough to receive input from them.  Important stuff as we head into middle school!  Can you believe it’s just 11 weeks away? I cannot!  

Our next service project will be to collect items that food stamps do not cover such as toiletries, toothbrushes, shampoos, toothpaste, and toilet paper.  This donation will go to the Other Bank or City Gates to help with needs they have noticed in our community.  Please feel free to send any items to the class.  We will make posters and let other classes know about it as well.  We will take them down to the center just after Spring Break.

Language Arts: Progressive tense was a new thing for several students today, but they got the knack of it quickly- it pulls together several skills at once.  iXl is very straightforward but doesn’t let you skip a step. Students must figure out what the patterns are before it allows you to move on. I encouraged them to listen for and try to trick someone into saying past, present and future progressive tense.  This is the tense we are most likely to use when speaking, so I’ll be checking in with them tomorrow to see if that’s still in the neurons after a night’s sleep.  We are also going to work on present perfect  and past/past tense this week along with using a modal verb (we called them something else when I was a kid, but it’s must, might, may, etc. that express condition, ability, near-certainty, advice like “you should!”).  Lots of verbs as we think about the way we write and create language are good growth for writing.

Reading: We’re about ⅓ of the way through our book, “Files” for short.  Students are enjoying Claudia and Jamie’s shenanigans and the author’s knack for interesting words.  We pulled high level words from the text today and are busy creating a game of Balderdash for classroom use.  We’ll also learn about the Renaissance and look at works by Michelangelo and other famous sculptors.   When we’re done, we will write a paper comparing the two books we’ve just read in class. Kids are doing a good job of reaching for new genres in their personal reading.  This time of year is when I notice most of them trying something new, whether it’s a book of fairy tales or one of our poetry anthologies.  I loved that one of my boys picked up a series that isn’t written for girls but which features a set of sisters and plowed right through the whole thing-- and now the other guys are eyeballing it!

Social Studies: Deep into the American Revolution and the initial few years as our country worked out how to combine 13 very different ideas about government.  This is a high interest unit as we observe the current race for president.  We have a neat assignment for tomorrow: write a letter to George Washington about things he might have done differently from a perspective of 200+ years later.   State song is due this week-- state recipe card next week and the governor report after Spring Break.  Then we’ll work on tying it all together with a table of contents and a bibliography, title page, and cover.  “Booth” information  and photos of past years will come home or be up on the class page after conferences. States and capitals #31-39 this week.

Science- we just received some new kits from our TwinStar grant that allow us to build battery powered electrical circuits this week.  We will spend some time with force and energy and motion after this week, then we will spend a little time talking about ecology later this spring. This class gets a LOT of spillover from having the middle school meet in their classroom. They are sponges!

State Song

State Song Expectation Due 3/24/2016

1. Title of the Song
2. Author and Composer or Arranger (may be all the same person, may be different)
3. Year Chosen to be State Song
4. Typed Lyrics of State Song (you can cut and paste, but make sure all your fonts match!)
5. Display your state song in an artistic manner
6. Incorporate the following items into your assignment in a decorative way:

• Colored paper background
• An image of a person, place, or thing from the song’s lyrics
• Music notes, treble clef, bass clef

These may be hand-drawn or clip art.  If hand-drawn, please use fine-point sharpie to outline for a nice finished look.

     7.  Be creative and have fun!

*** If you sing or play the song for us in class, there are 2 points available for you as bonus!

Parent News March 14-18

Classroom news Fifth Grade

March 14-18

The wearing of the green will get you a treat thursday!

Looking forward to spending time with ya’ll at Auction this week!  Our art piece is amazing!  It is truly lovely.  I will put a photo of it on the website once it gets its final styling.

 Our class parent-led project is also amazing and full of summer fun goodness!

I will be leading a day trip to Mt. Saint helens this summer for my teacher excursion.  Space is limited to four, so sign up early at auction.

CLASS PICTURES NEXT WEEK-- Wednesday March 23.

Your student may inform you of our new blessing-- Megan Quentin will be joining us for a few hours on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday through a work study program at her college.  She will be assisting us in Math and Language Arts as well as popping into my middle school science class to work with a few students.  She loves kids and her dad is Keith Quentin, retired teacher, volunteer, and frequent sub at our school. I’m really thankful for her capable and willing spirit, whether she’s sorting papers, assisting with a makeup assignment or making copies.

Bible Memory Verse

Acts 17:25  We read about Paul’s speech to the Athenians last week and this verse was tied into how God meets our needs-- he doesn’t have to interact with us and doesn’t need us, but oh, how he loves us!

Reading/Language Art

We just started “From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler” and there are lots of giggles as we follow the misadventures of Jamie and Claudia Kincaid. While technology changes, siblings and children do not and the vocabulary is excellent in this book.  

We should finish this before Spring Break.  We will then write a paper comparing and contrasting Number the Stars with Mixed Up Files.   Several kiddos are still finishing up the work from Number the Stars.

Spelling Lesson 25 Due Friday

We worked on it quite a bit this morning; it should free up time for other projects or just the best thing, reading.

Social Studies

The Revolution!

State timeline due Thursday

States and Capitals 31-36 from list; quiz Friday

(TN,AL,MS,WV,VA,NC)

Science

More magnetism and electricity.  I just ordered a kit to play with different types of circuits and observations about electricity.  This isn’t really a topic we get into in middle school; when the science curriculum was evaluated this past summer we noticed a hole here.  Kids do magnets early on but not electricity.  I’m pleased with the engineering we’ve done this year as well.

Two assignments for notebooks

State Timeline  Due 3/17/16

1.  Make a list of ten dates that are important in your state. Make sure you include the following: the date your state became a territory or colony (if it did), and the date your state became a state.  The remaining eight dates are up to you, but choose things you think are very important to your  state’s history.

2.  Create a visual organizer that gives each event a place in a bigger picture.  An example would be peaches on a peach tree for the State of Georgia.

3.  Each item on your organizer should have a 2-3 word description and a date including the day, month and year.  If the day isn’t available, please make sure you have the month and year. Example: A peach might have the following information on it: Georgia Statehood 1/2/1788.

4.  Make sure you are using colored pencil.  Crayons or marker will smudge. Watercolors can be used but this assignment is hard for that media choice on smaller parts.  It works well for the background.

5.  Arrange your items into a  larger picture.  Your timeline should resemble a scene or item with each item part of the larger whole (peaches on a peach tree, with a sky and field.) You can either draw your items very neatly into the timeline or cut and neatly glue them into the picture.

6.  Make sure your items are arranged in some sort of order.  Top to bottom or left to right works well for most ideas.

7.  Title it “_________ State Timeline”.  Put your state’s name in the blank.  The title goes on the top in the center.  Use a ruler to help you keep it straight as you write.

8. Use ultra fine point Sharpie to go over written details and your title neatly.

9. Put your name lightly in pencil on the back.

10. You’re done!

The assignment below is due today on March 10; if your child was absent or missed it I posted it for your convenience.

This is the expectation, if you need the paper itself, please contact me for a copy.

Statehood Writing Expectation    Due 3/10/2016

1. Use the supplied paper to create your statehood writing assignment. It should be written in the style of a newspaper article.  Use internet resources, books about your state, or books about the states to find information.
2. The article must have an attention grabbing headline and a date on the top which is the date (day,month, year) that your state became part of the United States. Include your state’s name in the headline.
3. A hand-drawn illustration must be part of the article drawn large in the space provided.  Use non-smearing media like colored pencils.  Draw a scene, person, or building important to the day when your state became part of the United States. Write a caption of about 5  words to describe your drawing just under the picture.
4. The article should tell the story about how your state became a state.  Include all important information like date, place, time if known, and people present at the signing.
5. Include interesting information such as whether or not the state was a territory or colony before it became a state.
6. The number order in which it became part of the United States.  Was it first, twenty-third, last?  Delaware was the first state to join.
7. Include your name at the end in a byline.  (By Petunia Picklebottom)
8. Have fun!  Sometimes the path to statehood was wild and crazy - you might find some funny information.

News from Mrs. Steele March 7

FIFTH GRADE NEWS AND COMMUNICATION

MARCH 7-11, 2016

UPCOMING DATES: Auction March 19

No school March 14- Teacher Inservice

BIBLE: Proverbs 3:5-6 We’re spending some time exploring the ways God provides for our physical and nonphysical needs.  We’re going to be working on a service project again soon.  Stay tuned!

READING:  We’re finishing up on Number the Stars. We took our test over it today. I’ll grade all our work in that packet this week and get those back to you.

Then we start  From the Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler - this is such a fun book!  It also has incredible vocabulary.  It wasn’t historical fiction when I first read it, but it is now.  Technology has really changed how this story might work nowadays.  We learn a little about the past  pre-smart phones and internet.

Reading logs for March: goal is 4 titles that are fully text (no graphic novels, etc.) and at least 100 pages in length. Books can be fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or biography.

LANGUAGE ARTS:  Verb tenses- past, present, and future, state of being verbs-- we’ll also work with correcting inappropriate subject and verb matches!  Then we’ll work on helping verbs.

SPELLING: Lesson 24 review, Test 24 Friday

SOCIAL STUDIES: The first few decades of our country were marked by growing pains as we tried to determine what kind of country we were going to be!  This is a neat section of history for most children.  Please help your students study for their states and capitals if they are struggling.  They might need a reminder to look over their maps each night.

State notebooks- Statehood Writing Assignment due Thursday.  

STATES AND CAPITALS:

#31-33

SCIENCE:  We’re learning about electrical circuits this week.

PE :M, T, F

MUSIC: W, Th

ART : T,Th

Spring Break April 4-8

Conferences/ITBS 18-22

State Fair May 10  **Note date change

March 1, 2016

FIFTH GRADE NEWS AND COMMUNICATION

MARCH 1, 2016

UPCOMING DATES: Auction March 19

No school March 14- Teacher Inservice

TOMORROW WE CELEBRATE THE BIRTHDAY OF DR. SEUSS.  WEAR PJs, BRING BLANKIE OR SLEEPING BAG, PILLOW OR STUFFED CRITTER, AND IF YOUR KIDDO WANTS TO BRING  A FAVORITE  PICTURE BOOK FOR A LITTLE FRIEND TO SHARE, that is GREAT! WE WILL READ A LOT TOMORROW AND START OUR FRESH READING GOALS OFF WITH A BIG FLOURISH.

Bible: Isaiah 61:10

This is a long verse, but gives us a beautiful picture of salvation, and righteousness as garments and robes that the Lord gives to us; it is a beautiful thing and how God provides for our spiritual needs.

READING:   Number the Stars by Lois Lowry will finish up this week.  Our next book is From the Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler - this is such a fun book!  It also has incredible vocabulary. Students also should be reading good novels of their choosing.   

Reading logs for March: goal is 4 titles that are fully text (no graphic novels, etc.) and at least 100 pages in length.   300 page books  count as two.

LANGUAGE ARTS:   iXl skills, G, I , J...continuing to practice what we learn in terms of word choice, subject/verb agreement and sentence structure.

SPELLING: Lesson 23 review, Test 23 Friday

SOCIAL STUDIES:  Revolutionary Rumblings and also a quick note: I sent home a weekly lesson over slavery and its causes.  There will be several non-graded assignments that I still want the students to have access to in order to learn about important topics in our country’s history.  We cannot cover them all due to time constraints so I look for areas of overlap or continual coverage; we cover several topics in more than one lesson and so we only assess one module.

State notebooks- State Map Assignment due Thursday

STATES AND CAPITALS: 2nd round of 1-30 Review

SCIENCE:  Electricity and magnetism

PE : M, T, F

MUSIC: W, TH

ART : T, TH

Spring Break April 4-8

OJP April 18 12:30

ITBS Testing and Parent Teacher Conferences April 18-22