November 16-20

Day 2	Monday, November 16th	Parent Club Mtg  6:30 PM  @ BV
Day 1	Tuesday, November 17th	LV/BV Orchestra concert   7PM  BP PAC
Day 2	Friday, November 20th	Family Fun Night 5-8 PM
Day 1	Wednesday, November 25th	Early Dismissal (11:40)
Day 1	Thursday, December 17th	LV Band Concert – Lineville Gym – 5th gr. 6:00, 6th gr. – 7:00
Day 2	Friday, December 18th	LV Talent Show/Silent Auction 6PM BP PAC $5/seat donation

Language Arts

Our focus skill this week will continue to be identifying text structure such as description, chronology, comparison, cause/effect, and problem/solution. We will practice identifying text structure using short nonfiction text.  In addition, students will learn how to select an appropriate graphic organizer to help synthesize the information. We have started a new historical fiction read-aloud called The Sign of the Beaver to help build background knowledge for our colonization unit in SS.  With read aloud each day, students are being taught to record various active reading strategies such as asking questions, summarizing, visualizing, connecting, predicting, etc. For book clubs, we will be waiting until after Thanksgiving break to pick a story.  In place of this, students will be asked to keep a log of Active Reading Strategies along with their independent reading book.  I will collect the log on Friday. A MobyMax stories lesson is due by Friday as well.

Achieve 3000: Students have continued to work toward thinking critically and will continue to develop their ability to read informational text.  Many students have been moving up in Lexile levels to improve their reading skills.  Be sure to encourage them to be reading at home.

Writing:

We detoured last week to spend some time learning how to punctuate dialogue for our narratives.  (This is a tricky grammar skill for 5th graders and a continual work in progress!)  Because of this, our original Lucy lessons were pushed back to this week.  We are starting the final “bend” of the Lucy Caukins narrative writing program. Students will start on new narrative ideas emulating narrative writing they admire.  We will also be looking more in depth at standards and writing checklists to set goals for improvement.

Science:

This week, we are continuing to work on understanding the basics of food webs, food chains, and energy pyramids.  We will then be working on the energy cycles, nitrogen, carbon and water cycles.  We are going to be discussing what the differences are for these cycles and how they are necessary to the processes of life.

Social Studies:

Our focus question this week will continue to be on early English settlements.  Students have already filled in a graphic organizer for Roanoke and Jamestown.  We will finish Plymouth this week, as well as use the Destiny Quest resources to find more in-depth information about these first three settlements, especially information on cooperation or conflict with the natives.  

First Hour Advanced Math:
Students will be reviewing and finishing Chapter 4.  We will be taking our test on Tuesday.  We will then be starting our self-paced unit on Chapter 3 and be working on completing all operations on decimals and fractions.  More information will be coming home on this during the week.

Second Hour Math:
Students will continue with chapter 3 on multiplying fractions. One of the biggest hurdles that many students are struggling with at the moment is converting an improper fraction into a whole number using long division. Please practice long division with your child at home to help them improve. They are fully expected to know how to do this by fifth grade.

Resource Language Arts:
Students started library checkout on Friday. Our next checkout will be Friday, December 11th. We will begin with a new spelling and vocabulary list tomorrow. Students will read the story, “Serious Farm” and work on identifying the problem and solution in the story, as well as mapping out the plot. Last week, students did their running records and many of them moved up either 1, 2 or even 3 levels since the beginning of the school year! We will be celebrating our success on Wednesday in class (Mrs. Sharman’s last day before maternity leave). Mrs. Thieme will take over for Mrs. Sharman on Thursday and will be at Lineville until approximately the end of February. Make sure that you welcome her into our classroom!

Resource Writing:
Students will finish up their food writing using sensory details and onomatopoeias. We will share in class on Monday, and then start a new fantasy writing. All of us have really improved with our writing since the beginning of the school year! Keep up the great work!