For the week of February 1st - 5th

It's the first full week in February!  Only 4 months left of 5th grade . . .crazy thought right?  As usual, grab your day planners for this weeks list of to-dos.

Monday, Feb. 1st
February reading calendars and book orders will go home.  Book orders need to be placed by Monday, February 8th.

Tuesday, Feb 2nd
Ground Hog Day . . .please let spring come early  ;0)

Wednesday, Feb. 3rd
January Reading Calendars are due and check point cookie dough slips.  If you lost yours, please write down on any slip of paper how many items you have sold.

Thursday, Feb. 4th
Math Quiz on Fraction Vocab and Skills.  Study Guide will come home no later than Tuesday.

Friday, Feb. 5th
Spelling Test/ Points party



Tuesday, Feb. 9th
Cookie dough/coupon book orders due . . .no late exceptions

Thursday, Feb. 11th
Valentines Day Party.  More info to come home next week

Friday, Feb. 12th
No School


Spelling List 13

1. urgent
2. Thursday
3. purpose
4. thirsty
5. camera
6. wonder
7. smuggler
8. remember
9. surprise
10. earth
11. certain
12. person
13. dollar
14. color
15. collar
16. early
17. mayor
18. doctor
19. February
20. multiple

For the week of January 25th - 28th

It is another wonderfully wild week in 5th grade.  Today, Mr. Betts from Great American Opportunities came in and got the students very excited about our fundraiser this year. I am going to try to recap all this in bullet-ed points.

1. This is not mandatory. It is on a volunteer basis only.  This is a fundraiser so our class can take a field trip.  Buses and entry fees are expensive.  Fundraisers are a great way to offset these costs.  
2. We are selling 3 things; coupon books, cookie dough and access to an online store.  
3. Coupon books are only $20.oo and ten of that goes back to my class.  
4. Cookie dough is $17.oo a box
5. For access to the online store, click the link below and type in our class code 4460846
6. Great American Opportunities Login Page
7. All monies collected from my class go back to my class for our field trip(s)
8. This is only a 2 week fundraiser  . . .starting today.
9. We are only collecting money 1 time.  That is on the end date of February 9th
10. We will have a 1/2 way point, February 3rd, where you turn in a little tiny ticket with how many items you have sold.  Prizes will be awarded on the 3rd and on or slightly after the 9th.
11. It takes 2 weeks to get the cookie dough in.  You will be responsible for pick up and delivery of your own items
12. There are prizes for students along the way. A prize sheet went home today. 
13. Yes!  You can earn $ for college by selling product.  Just by selling $100.oo worth, you get a $1000.oo in college tuition points through Sage Scholars.  These points are used as cash at certain colleges . . .like NNU!   For more info click the link below.

Coupon and Cookie $ for College!!!!

It is another short week, so there is no school on Friday.  We will still have a spelling test on Thursday of this week.

Spelling List 12

1. countries
2. addresses
3. women
4. lessons
5. people
6. skis
7. friends
8. roofs
9. calves
10. fences
11. flies
12. lives
13. cherries
14. businesses
15. guesses
16. families
17. leaves
18. pictures
19. science
20. biology

Wild Science and Extemporaneous Speaking

It was an exciting week for science labs and extemporaneous speaking!  In science we explored and debated the differences between physical and chemical changes.  We also started our new unit on cells and microscopes.  Today's lab was all about learning how microscopes work, as well as, how to make a dry mount slide.  In extemporaneous speaking, we had several fuzzy visitors.

For the week of January 19th - 22nd

Welcome back after a long weekend.  Here is what to expect this week in 5th grade.
This is also Parent-Teacher conference week (as needed).  If you have any questions, concerns or want to meet, please shoot me an email and I can set up an office visit or a phone conversation.

Monday, January 18th - No School MLK Day (ask your student about this week's quote)

Tuesday, January 19th - Spelling homework will be sent home.  It is due Wednesday

Wednesday, January 20th - We will be reviewing for the Atoms test on Thursday.  It is open notes, but students still should review the information at home.  Click the link below to go to Scholastic Study Jams and review the following info:

Study Jams - Science

1. Elements and Compounds
2. Protons, Neutrons and Electrons
3. Physical and Chemical Changes
4. Mixtures
5. Periodic Table
6. Solids, Liquids and Gases

Thursday, January 21st - Open Note Science Test

Friday, January 22nd - Spelling Test

Spelling Test 11

1. surrounded
2. skiing
3. swimming
4. loving
5. studied
6. traveling
7. carried
8. trading
9. bragged
10. worried
11. beginning
12. exciting
13. finished
14. laughed
15. quickest
16. weaker
17. tiniest
18. lonelier
19. I  (yes, this is a real spelling word.  I am frustrated with the amount of "i's" I see in our daily writing)
20. antidote

For the week of January 11th - 14th

Hello all!

       We are wrapping up the last week of second quarter.  I will have Infinite Campus updated by this Friday so you can login and get a sneak peek of your student's report card.  If you have questions or concerns or would just like to meet, I will have open office hours Tuesday and Thursday of this week, plus Tuesday-Friday hours the week of January 19th - 22nd.  I can also schedule phone conferences if that's what works best too.

       This week we will be wrapping up Winter MAP testing.  I should have all the scores by this Friday.  If you are interested in seeing where your student scored, please shoot me an email.  Because of the MAP testing, there will be no spelling test this week. However, there will be a Science test coming up soon.  Study notes will appear on the blog when the test date is set.  I am thinking Wednesday, January 20th.  Don't forget to check out the last blog entry where we practiced our knowledge of atoms by building them.

       This quarter in 5th grade your student can look forward to learning:

1. Everything Fractions and competing in an on-line math competition with a grand prize of every student earning their own Kindle Fire.  (More info coming home this week)
2. Cells, Microscopes, Genetics,  Plants and Plate Tectonics 
3. Finishing our book study on Mary Norton's "The Borrowers" and starting a Lit Circle book group
4. Optional Cookie Dough/coupon book sales to earn money for a field trip
5. The Revolutionary War and how government works
6. Sketching 3 dimensional objects in art
7. Story Writing techniques and publishing our own book

Grab your planners for this week's to do list:

1. Monday, January 11th - MAP Reading
2. Wednesday, January 13th - MAP Math, Book Orders Due
3. Friday, January 15th - No School - Teacher In service
4. Monday, January 18th - No School - Human Rights Day

Building Atoms

We are almost finished with our chemistry unit.  As a way of making sense of what an atom looks like, we built rather tasty atom models.  Check out our pics below.  All the atoms are "standard" and have atomic numbers of 5-18.

Fractions!

Hello all!  As I start my unit on fractions, I instructed the students that there is a large amount of vocab attached.  It is imperative that they learn to speak "fractions", in order to do fractions.  One of the only ways I know to learn a new language, is to practice, practice and practice.  Starting tomorrow, there will be a math quiz about every 3-5 days reviewing all these new terms.  Of course we will be reviewing and speaking fractions everyday, but it is important that you review at home too.    Here are this weeks terms and definitions:

1.  What is a fraction?
a.  a broken number - think of a graham cracker (a whole) being dropped and broken into pieces (fraction)
b.  a number divided by another number  1/2
c.  a fraction is not a whole number

2.  Parts of a fraction:

  3    numerator       part or pieces of the number      top number
10   denominator    whole                                           bottom number

3.  What is a factor?
Factors are the numbers you multiply by to get another number.

example:  Factors of 10
                1 x 10=10    2 x 5=10   or   10:  1, 2, 5, 10
                10 has 4 factors

4.  What is a prime number?
 A prime number only has 2 factors

example: Factors of 3
                1 x 3=3  or  3: 1,3  
                3 has 2 factors making it a prime number

5.  What is a composite number?
A composite number has 3 or more factors

example:  Factors of 8
                 1 x 8=8  2 x 4=8  or  8:  1, 2, 4, 8
                 8 has 4 factors

For the week of January 4th - 8th

Welcome back!  I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas break and that you all are well rested, ready to hit the ground running.  We only have a week and a half until the end of 2nd quarter!  It is rather crazy to think that half of the school year is over.  Grab your planner for this week's happenings.

Wednesday, 1/6 - December Reading Calendars are due.

Friday, 1/8 - Research Paper due and Spelling Test 10.  Parents, please read over these and help your student edit before submitting a final draft.


Spelling List 10

1. stalk
2. off
3. because
4. brought
5. called
6. drawn
7. awful
8. awkward
9. lawyer
10. daughter
11. fault
12. author
13. always
14. already
15. although
16. belong
17. haul
18. office
19. January
20. perimeter