Lice

I have just learned that several students that have been in my classroom have confirmed cases of lice. To prevent the spread, please check your child's head this weekend. If any nits or lice are found please do a thorough treatment prior to having your child return to school. No nits can be present to return to school per Vision policy.

Please go to the CDC website to learn what they look like, recommended treatment options, and how to clean your child's bedding, furniture, and cars. 

Mrs. O will be coming to the classroom Monday morning to  check all of the student's hair in our classroom. 

Luau Party!

I am so impressed with my class trying new foods!  I made POG,which is the official Hawaiian drink.  It includes Pineapple juice, Orange Juice and Guava nectar.   I bumped up the "yum" factor by adding vanilla ice cream.  If you are interested in the recipe, click the link below.

POG Recipe

I also made Hawaiian pulled pork with passion fruit and pineapple dressing. The kids were hesitant at first but I encouraged them to "taste and see".  Everyone loved it!   We also had a variety of fresh fruit which seemed to bring out the monkey in everyone.  Thank you to all who donated!  

For the week of October 26th - 29th

Please grab your calendars and mark these dates down.  Also . .. no spelling test this week:

Monday - Thursday, October 26th - 29th - Parent Teacher Conferences this week only!  Double check your dates and times or sign up below.                 

Parent Teacher Conference Sign Ups

Wednesday, October 28th - Super Point Hawaiian Day.  Due to the amount of compliments received by the Principal and other staff members, our class earned a themed party.  I will be supplying some Hawaiian style fruit punch and other island treats.  Students may wear Hawaiian shirts, flowers in their hair etc.  If anyone wants to throw in other treats, remember to keep them peanut free. All our lessons will have a tropical feel and there will be free time in the late afternoon. 

Thursday, October  29th - Jungle Book Celebration.  For the month of October we have been reading Kippling's The Jungle Book. I will be dressing up as the wise old snake/ teacher Ka.  Students may also dress up, wear masks, hair dye, or face paint as long as it is part of their character from the book. Students may bring treats to share and we will be watching Disney's version of the Jungle Book in the afternoon.  

Sunday, November 1st - Daylight Savings Time.  Don't forget to set your clocks back 1 hour.

Wednesday, November 4th - October Reading Calendars Due.  Remember they count and choosing not to do them will effect your grade.

Classroom Happenings

  

Science:  We have been busy studying environmental issues around the school.  Student groups have been making presentations based on their findings.  As a class, we will vote on one of these issues and devote our spare time to helping fix the problem.  In addition to our environmental engineering project, I have starting introducing Atoms.  Don't for get to ask about our "hamburger project".  

Writing:  We just finished our "Friendly letter" project where we wrote to our favorite author or personal hero.  Now, we are eagerly awaiting responses.  We also have been tackling descriptive writing and compare and contrast writing with Venn diagram brainstorming.  Ask for your student to log on to their Google Docs account to show you what they have been working on.  

Math:  Currently we are learning the recipes for everything decimals.  Students should be able to show and explain adding and subtracting, as well as, multiplying with more than one decimal.  Please continue to work with your students on multiplication facts at home.  

History/Geography:  We finished our geography/mapping section and will begin with US history this week.  I will be covering how early Americans crossed the land bridge to settle the Americans all the way through the Civil War.  

Art:  In keeping with the seasons for inspiration, we just finished up studying mosaic tiles and completed out pumpkin tile project.  (Don't know how the image ended upside down)

For the week of October 19th - 23rd

Welcome back from break!  Can you believe the end of the first quarter is Friday?  This means report cards and parent teacher conferences.  Conferences will take place starting next week and report cards will be handed out during your conference.  Just click the link below and type your name in the slot.  If you cannot find a space that works for you, just email me and we can either set up a phone conference or schedule you another time.   On a side note, if your student missed school, please keep in mind the absent policy.  It doesn't excuse missing work, it just gives extra days to make it up.  If you miss work right before a report card, you may see an Incomplete instead of a grade until the missing work is made up.

Parent Teacher Conference Sign Up

Spelling List #5 (all about contractions) The spelling test will be given a bit differently.  I realize these words are simple in nature, but remembering where the apostrophe goes and what the contraction stands for is more complex. When I give the test, I will say "I will" and the student will write "I'll".   As a class, we'll also be working on the difference between whose and who's.

1. I'll
2. won't
3. they've
4. don't
5. we're
6. didn't
7. isn't
8. couldn't
9. haven't
10. o'clock
11. you're
12. who's
13. whose
14. aren't
15. it's
16. doesn't
17. there's
18. I've
19. Mrs. Evans  (I have numerous students still spelling my name as Mrs. Evens lol)
20. exasperation

For the week of October 5th - 9th

Hello all!  I feel like we are hitting our stride in 5th grade.  I have re-covered the "basics" and we are now ready to hit the ground running.  Please make sure you are asking your student every night about what is on their agenda.  The work pace starts to pick up from here and missing work is missed opportunities to learn.

Here are a few friendly reminders for your October calendars:

Book of the Month - Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book (unabridged)
The Jungle Book Online

Wednesday, October 7th - Reading Calendars and Book orders are due.  Late calendars are subject to class fines and a 25% off the original grade, each day it is late.

Friday, October 9th - Spelling Test and Enrichment Class

Monday, October 12th - 16th - Fall Break   No School :)

Friday, October 23rd - End of Quarter 1

Monday, October 26th - Thursday, October 29th - Evening Parent Teacher Conferences.  I will be posting an interactive sign up on the blog right after Fall Break.  I want to meet with each one of you and I don't mind having phone conferences if your schedule doesn't allow for a face-to-face.

Thursday, October 29th - All School Jungle Book Party.  Students are allowed to dress up as characters from the book and we will be watching the Disney cartoon version of the book.  I will send out more information as it gets closer.

Friday, October 30th - No School/Teacher In-service


Spelling List 4

1. obey
2. ocean
3. poem
4. awoke
5. hello
6. wrote
7. goal
8. approach
9. owner
10. tomorrow
11. program
12. broken
13. potato
14. throat
15. echo
16. oldest
17. followed
18. spoken
19. vacillate
20. perimeter

Here is a sampling of last week's art project, which was inspired by the changing leaves and Humbert Wolfe's poetic quote, "Listen! The wind is rising and the air is filled with leaves.  We've had our summer evenings and now it's time for October eves."