October 19-23

Friday Fun!

Important Dates:

Day 2	Monday, October 19th	6th Gr Band Rehearsal in gym  2:35 Parent Club Mtg  6:30 @ BV
Day 1	Tuesday, October 20th	5th Gr Band Rehearsal in gym  2:35 District Wide Band Concert  7PM  BP Field House
Day 1	Thursday, October 22nd	Fundraiser Order Pick Up  3:15-5:30pm Parent Teacher Conferences  4-7:30PM
Day 2	Tuesday, October 27th	Parent Teacher Conferences  4-7:30PM
	Thursday, October 29th	NO SCHOOL for Students Parent Teacher Conferences  8-11:30AM
	Friday, October 30th	NO SCHOOL

Resource Langauge Arts:

Students will get a new vocabulary and spelling list on Monday. Starting on Wednesday night, students will be expected to get a sheet signed saying that they practiced their spelling sort with a parent. Our spelling words not only help us become better spellers, but also better readers by highlighting key patterns we are missing in our spelling and reading! We will continue our focus on non-fiction text by reading the story, "The Life of George Washington Carver," and talk about the important elements in a non-fiction text in addition to the author's purpose for writing the text. Students will also bring home a weekly reader that they can keep at home for additional reading practice later on in the week. Lastly, don't forget your student needs to either be doing their Reading Plus or Lexia nightly!

Resource Writing:

Your student has been working hard on finishing their personal narrative. We will publish them on Monday and share them as a class. They should be very proud of how far they've come since their first draft! After that we will start on a Halloween story on Wednesday and a special guest will be visiting class on Friday to talk about how to raise the level of our writing! 

Second Hour Math:

We finished the first unit on fractions last Friday and students will get a second try at anything they got wrong on their test on Monday. Then we will begin our new flexible groups based on their pre-assessment for chapter 2 on Tuesday. We learn about decimals and place value this week. 

Advanced Math:

This week we will continue to discover what measurements we need to use when we are deciding if we are looking for perimeter or area on triangles, rhombuses, parallelograms, rectangles or squares.  We will have a quiz on Tuesday on the first five sections.  We will begin to discuss how to find area and perimeter of trapezoids, complex figures, and polygons.  One way to help your child understand complex figures would be to take the figure apart helping them to see the smaller shapes that make up the big shape.  Also be on the lookout for your child’s Unit 1 tests and quizzes – I will be sending them home early in the week – my expectation will be that you take a look at this and then sign and return it.

Science:

During science this week, we will be finishing up our discussion about symbiosis – specifically how does it help organisms live.  We will begin to discuss how an ecosystem rejuvenates itself after a fire or a natural disaster, specifically discussing how it is known as primary succession and secondary succession.   We will then begin reviewing for our first test in Science.

Achieve 3000:

We are reading two articles this week, one on orangutans and one on a boy whose grandfather has given him the gift of independence.  We are continuing to work on identifying the meaning of words using context clues found around it.   We are also looking at continuing to answer critical questions based on our reading.

Language Arts:

Our focus this week remains on identifying theme.  This pairs well with our writing unit as students practice pulling out themes in their personal narratives.  We will practice theme using short passages to identify main character, problem, how that problem is solved, and what the main character learned from his or her experience.  I will be doing some short check-ins with students to better understand their level of understanding on theme.  Students will be assigned a new lesson for MobyMax Stories due Fri.  Students will also be meeting with their new book clubs to decide on pages due by Friday this week.  A book club post will be due on Friday as well.

Writing:

Students will continue to revise this week.  Our first goal will be to better develop the elements of a story.  We will be using our knowledge of story structure to break our stories into a “story arc.”  Their stories will need to have a main character who shares motivations, hopes, or wants.  The main characters’ traits should also be developed throughout the story.  The story should progress to show the main character’s problem, trouble, or tension with some sort of emotional response to the situation.  From there we should see rising action, followed by the story’s resolution.  We will revise stories to make sure all these parts are strongly represented.  From here we will revise even more  to deeply elaborate using dialogue, actions, thoughts, and descriptions that zoom in on the meaning or theme in their narratives.

Social Studies:

We will finish studying Columbus this week. To cover an ELA standard, we will compare and contrast the information from various sources to draw conclusions about this explorer.  Specifically, we will use a historical fiction passage from Jean Fritz, a picture book written from the point of view of a native boy meeting Columbus, and personal passages from Columbus’s sea log about his experiences. In the end, students will explain their conclusions about Columbus based on the resources we studied.

Healthy snack... eating the skin adds more fiber! :)

Nice problem solving and teamwork!

 Hot shots in guided hall for being on task & listening to announcements!

 FRIDAY FUN!!!  Pays off to get homework done during the week!

Unusual talents in the Clubhouse!

Amazing talent!

Beautiful smiles!

Football fun!

Reach for the stars!

Just hangin' out! 

So much fun just getting to be kids together!