Coming Home TODAY:
1.) Wake County Assignments for your child's middle school
a flyer from Mr. Martin, the counselor, to inform you of a middle school transitional meeting.

This was a short week, packed with lots of work! As we have started another class novel! We have a very lofty goal to finish the book before track out! Im sure we can do and the students are well on their way!

In science we are beginning our ecosystems unit and we are in need of 2 litter bottles. We need TONS of 2 litter bottles. Please send in as many as you can so we can have enough  for the lab to study and observe a live ecosystem.

Wow!!! I can't believe that we are half way through the year. Second quarter ended with great educational experiences and lots of hard work from the students. We were in serious work mode the entire second quarter and it paid off! The students completed our class novel 'Hoot' and completed seconded quarter benchmarks with great progress.

This quarter we are stepping it up yet another notch as we begin to prepare for the end of grade assessments and Middle School.

Just a few things:

Please be mindful that we have homework 98% of the school year. Be aware that students should complete homework each night (this includes reading).

Weekly Assignments:

                What’s Happening Wednesday- 1 page written summary of a current event

                Spelling: Vocabulary words are given each week and the rubric can be found on the weebly
                Read every night for at least 25 minutes.

Benchmarks:
Coming home today are the benchmark scores from 2 quarter. Please share them with your child. Remember benchmarks are great pieces of data for us to use in order to insure overall understanding of concepts. It’s just a snapshot!

Track Out:
We track out Friday Jan 18. This is an early release day!!!!! We track back in on February 5!!!!!

School News!!!
Please be sure to read Dr. Chambers’ weekly emails  or  listen to the Sunday phone calls. They are packed with information about what’s happening at the school.

Also be sure that the school has your most current contact information. It is imperative that we have your info in case there is an emergency.

This week:

Reading: We are reading a new class novel, ‘Maniac Magee’. This is a realistic fiction novel where we will study the author’s purpose, word choice, and character development. We are also introducing the genre Fantasy and all of the components.

Writing: The students will begin writing their own fantasy stories as we study fantasies in reading.

Science: We are introducing the basics of ecosystems which is our next unit of study.

Social Studies: We are wrapping up the Revolutionary War.

Math:   We are working on fractions !!!!

Parents we are in out last week of the quarter! The students have been working super hard to wrap up this quarter with a BANG!
We just finished our Human Body unit in Science. We begin our next unit of study which is Weather!
In math, we have FINALLY completed the unit on adding and subtracting decimals. The unit of “many” polygons is next.
Literacy has been very interesting! We have been comparing characters, analyzing their actions and recording our thinking as to feel sympathy vs. empathy for the characters…… Our whole class book study “Nothing’s Fair in Fifth Grade” has been a great read! I didn’t have to “persuade them too much this week, as they learned didn’t techniques to persuasive writing.

The “Core” of the week:
Reading: Benchmark Monday, Continuing to understand and analyze characters in higher leveled thinking strategies. Asking questions to generate discussions in a group.
Math: Benchmark Tuesday, Sorting and Idenifying Polygons (5G.3&4)
Science- Benchmark Wednesday, Identifying weather tools and understanding what weather is (5.E.1)
A Few Reminders:
***Please sign-up for a 1st quarter conference with me (if you have not done so) through sign-up Genius!
***Friday is an Early Release!
***Picture Day is October 4, 2012 -They are full body pics, that will be in the yearbook!!!!!
***Please, please, please donate to our class Donor’s Choose Project! Pass along to friends and co-workers! Emails have been sent with many "matching" opportunities, let's take advantage of theses great deals
 ***Our class Razoo is up and rolling to fundraise for the Washington D.C trips! The students wrote letters in class and brought them home to mail to a distant family member!

We are definitely back in the swing of things this week after our long and much needed break! Last week flew by and this week is nearly over! The students have, slowly, hit the ground running!
The “Core” of this week:
Reading: Reviewing C.A.F.E strategies
Math: Decimals and Place Value
Social Studies: Economics (Division of Labor)
Science: The Digestive System
Updates and Reminders:
School Business
September 5, 2012- The First Parent Academy
September 7, 2012- Screen on the Green “The Lorax”
September 28- Early Release
If you would like to chaperone the Washington D.C trip, please register to be a volunteer with Wake County Public Schools and give your information to Mrs. Howey’s Google Doc.
All information about the Washington D.C can be found on the 5th Grade Washington D.C weebly or my weebly.
Class Business
·      Word Work/Spelling- In a quest to differentiate I am using a program called “Word Their Way” to divide students into ability groups to better meet their needs as spellers. All word work activities are listed on the weebly and are due every Friday!
·      Fluency Practice- Each week I will send home a passage for the students to read. They need to read it 3 times (3 different days). Please sign the passage upon completion.
·      Agendas- Please use the agenda as a means of communication! I sign the agenda each day to be sure students have recorded homework and may include a note about behavior.