11-26-12

5th Grade Newsletter

November 26, 2012

12/1/12—PTO Christmas Bazaar! DARE bake sale organized by Mrs. Lambeth. If you would like to donate your time or a homemade baked good, please call Laurie at 573-308-7797 or email her at laurielambeth@gmail.com or send a baked good with your student on Friday. Please do not send items earlier!

If you would like for your child to have additional AR time, a quiet place to study for a test, or time to work on an assignment, please let his teacher know. I am here from 7:20-7:50 am on Tuesdays and Thursdays for students to have a quiet place to get a head start on the day.
 Richards—Science:  This week we will complete lessons 6 and 7 from Nature Unleashed.  There will be a quiz over lesson 7 on Wednesday.  By Friday students should have all 4 BIG CHARTS filled out in their green notebooks (100 points).  They will be able to bring them home all week to complete this task.

Thanks,
Mr. Richards
Meurer/Siders—Math: We are jumping back into division- only taking it 3 digits by 2 digits. Division is tricky for kids- so please have your child solve ONE problem a night, and have them check using multiplication and addition (for the remainder). We challenge those who are solving at home, to bring them in and show his/her math teacher!! Our next test is scheduled for Dec. 5th. Tests are worth 100 points and make up 70% of the overall math grade. If your child's math  grade is of concern, please let us get this test in and you should see a better grade. As we did NOT have a math test for the first part of 2nd quarter. 

Sandusky—ELA:  This week students will be starting their book clubs. We are going to be studying realistic fiction so that it goes along with our read aloud, Belly Up. (Book clubs are a HUGE part of your child’s reading grade, I will keep you informed when I grade them with a piece of red paper coming home that has to be signed and returned). We will do a brief lesson on Author’s Purpose (PIE), and then talk about author’s opinion and viewpoint. For grammar we will be looking into verb tense. In writing this week students will continue working on their personal narrative, final copies are due Friday. Rough drafts will be worked on Monday and Tuesday during class, editing on Wednesday, final writing on Thursday. If final copies are not completed Thursday during class it will be homework to return on Friday. These are 5 paragraph essays, 5 sentences per paragraph,using one quote.
Spelling Letters: a,a,e,i,u,l,m,n,p,r,t
real, ripe, mine, time, timer, miner, ripen, paint, plant, planet, unreal, unripe, planter, replant, implant, painter, repaint, planetarium

Shultz-ELA: In our ELA classes this week, we will be reviewing author’s purpose by taking a 2 question quiz daily (called a Doorbuster). We will use the Doorbuster as a way of determining quickly if we understand the concept. I will use this same method in the future with other topics. A grade will be taken at the end of the week for the entire week’s work. Stations will begin this week. They will include audio literature circles, Study Island and ScootPad practice, and handwriting/typing. Mr. Allen and I will also be a station where we will review literature circles and individual needs. Other things this week include: perfect verb tenses, library visit, point of view, and spelling. We will NOT be having spelling tests in this class.

Kemnitzer—ELA:  

Reading- In my class this week, students will be learning about point of view and author’s purpose. We will also be learning how to use context clues when reading.

AR- Students should have completed 70% of their 2nd quarter goal by the end of this week. Please encourage your child to read 30 minutes a night. Please check red folders for your child’s AR weekly progress.  AR is 25% of a student’s reading grade.

Writing- Students will be starting a personal narrative story this week.

Language – We will continue working on linking verbs, verb tense, prefixes, and suffixes.

Spelling- The list this week will include words that have the prefixes of “un”, and “re”, and the suffixes of  “ly” and “y”. The words are: in, run, fun, fund, rude, line, dine, diner, funny, runny, inner, unify, friend, rudely, refund, reunify, unlined, unkind, friendly, unfriendly, The spelling test will be on Friday.

Have a great week!

Mrs. Kemnitzer

Reminders

Just a few reminders as the week comes to an end....

Rough drafts of students' research papers are due Monday. It is VITAL for them to come back with them finished if they did not finish them during class today. If they do not it will hurt their grade!

Book Orders are going out on Monday, due on the 8th.

McTeacher Night for DARE on Thursday the 15th, please let us know if you're interested in volunteering (or your child!) 

Veteran's Day letters are all turned in and graded. I've copied their final copies to send home to you on Monday. If you're child has written to a family member or friend I will be sending home the original final copy (written on bordered blue star paper), it would be great if you could make sure the Veteran in your child's life gets their letter.

Halloween Party

Halloween Party!

Dear Parents,

            The annual Halloween Party is scheduled for Wednesday , October 31^st .  At 1:30 I will be allowing students to get dressed in their costumes. Please make sure the following expectations are met with your child’s costume:

·         No makeup (paint, blood, etc.)

·         No fake weapons

·         School appropriate (no bloody messes, girls aren’t wearing anything revealing)

·         I would prefer no masks (safety issues while walking in the parade)

The parade will begin at 2:00, I will have students lined up and ready to go before that time. If you would like to watch the parade we go in front of the High School, turn right before the train tracks and then go behind the high school back to our classroom.

After the parade we will come back to our classroom for our party. We will be snacking and watching a Goosebumps movie. We’re  in desperate need of snacks! Below is a list of items we need, it would be greatly appreciated it you would send an item in. If you are planning on helping us out, the items can come in any time. We currently have 20 students in our class. Please keep in mind that homemade treats (however good!) are not allowed, all items must be purchased. The Halloween Party will consist of whatever is brought in by the students.
                                                                                                                                                          Thanks,
                                                                                                                                                                           Becky Sandusky

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Child’s Name:__________________________________

________grapes

________cheese cubes

________pretzel sticks

________fruit punch

________apples

________popcorn (in a chip-like bag)

________candy corn

________Dorito Chips
                                               

October 23rd Newsletter

5^th Grade Newsletter
Mrs. Sandusky’s Class

Important Dates:

·         10/22-No School (for kids!)

·         10/23-24; 5^th Grade Field Trip

·         10/31- Halloween Parade

Monday	PE 2
Tuesday	Music 1
Wednesday	Art
Thursday	PE 1
Friday	Music 2

***Car tags and pick up slips go into effect THIS WEEK. Make sure that your tags are clearly visible when you pick your child up. Also, if your child is doing something different in the afternoons from their regular routine, PLEASE SEND A NOTE. The office will not take any phone calls for change of routine after 2:30. These procedures are to keep our kids as safe as possible, thank you for your support and understanding! J

ELA (Sandusky)- 
This week students will receive their AR goal and levels for second quarter. I will be sending home a slip of paper with the necessary information on it for you to sign and return. We will be finishing up prefixes and suffixes and taking an assessment on Thursday. Students will also be choosing their inventor this week and completing research. Starting next week they will begin writing/typing their research papers. We will take the papers through the entire writing process and they will be a large part of the Language grade. No spelling this week. We will be introducing Author’s Purpose towards the end of the week.

ELA(Shultz)- Because we have a shortened week and a field trip this week, we will spend much of our class time reviewing and working in small groups. I would like to take this opportunity to tell you about 2 new things we will start this quarter in our ELA class.

#1: Reading Rewards—I will begin rewarding students for working beyond their AR goals. It will likely require students to read more at home in order to earn the rewards. Here is how it will work—if a student earns 150% of his AR goal, he can earn the right to sit in my teacher chair for the entire class period. When she reaches 200% of her goal, she will earn 15 minutes of supervised free time on the iPad or computer, and when she reaches 250% of her goal, she can receive a McDonald’s Happy Meal lunch! This will be effective for only 2^nd quarter. It is possible that we will continue it 3^rd and 4^th.

 #2 I will begin sending home “homework” each week. After Parent/Teacher conferences, I found out that many parents would like to see work come home so that they know how their student is doing. As a parent, I understand this request. As a teacher, I know that if I make it a requirement, I will have a lot of zeroes and bad grades just due to homework. Therefore, what I send home will be noted in the newsletter. I will send it on Monday—starting next week—and it will be due on Thursday. It will be extra credit. We will be doing a lot more in class with a lot of grades being taken and almost every student will be able to take advantage of the extra credit. I will try to make it go back and forth between reading and language. I encourage you to do the practice with your child and to encourage him to do the additional reading it will take to earn those Reading Rewards! 

 SCIENCE:  Tuesday and Wednesday will be our field trip to the Bray
Conservation Area.  Thursday we will research inventors for
communication arts.  Friday we will continue making outdoor
observations.  Our next quiz will be a week from today

Math: Tuesday/Wednesday Mr. Siders and Mrs. Meurer are helping with the Science Field trip!! What an experience for the students. We plan to get a day of RTI in with students, meaning: we are pulling small groups (5 or less) and giving instruction based on the last Post Test and skills that individual students missed.

October 15th Newsletter

5^th Grade Newsletter
Mrs. Sandusky’s Class

Important Dates:

·         10/15-10/18- Parent Teacher Conferences

·         10/18- Early out

·         10/19- NO SCHOOL

·         10/22-No School (for kids!)

·         10/23-24; 5^th Grade Field Trip

Monday	Music 1
Tuesday	Art
Wednesday	PE 1
Thursday	Music 2
Friday	Computers

ELA (Sandusky)-
First day of second quarter! It’s like a breath of fresh air for AR. We went to the library today, and both Mrs. Hunter and I reminded them to make good book choices. This week we will be working on prefixes and suffixes, and students will be choosing their inventor that they will later write a research paper on. We will not have spelling this week due to the shortened schedule.

As you know Parent/Teacher Conferences are this week. I’ve sent home a confirmation paper with every student (that’s in my afternoon class) for their time. If you haven’t received it or it’s been lost please get in touch with me and I’ll let you know when your time is. Please remember to be prompt, as I have allowed 15 minutes for each conference this year. If it’s possible I’ll try my hardest to take you in early.

ELA(Shultz)- With our short week, we will not have new spelling words. We ended our spelling unit on using the prefix re (to do again) and the suffixes er (one who does), er (more), and est (most). While we will continue to use these, we will now look at other root words and endings. This week, I hope to include even more students in literacy circles. We are focusing on capitalization of holidays, clubs, and government offices as well as author's purpose to improve on our next benchmark testing. You can help your child with this by noticing things like titles of people in offices, on signs as you are going down the highway, and in anything you read at home. As you are reading with your child from a magazine article, newspaper, or fiction book, take time to discuss why the author might have chosen the subject and what his or her opinion might be about what he wrote. I look forward to talking with you during parent/teacher conference week. Please contact me with any questions or concerns.

 SCIENCE:  This week we will be evaluating our bird feeders, discussing camouflage, and connecting the components of what it means to be cold-blooded.  NO quiz or test this week.

Math: In Math this week we will continue to work with Unit 2. Students took a pre-assessment over Unit 2 on Friday to show what they already know going into this Unit, so we can better teach each individual student. Mr. Siders and Mrs. Meurer both attended a training on Friday called Kagan! We, both are VERY excited to integrate new structures/strategies within our classrooms. Don't forget, Parent Teacher Conferences this week! If you need us, and we are not with families, you are welcome to come visit with us about your child's Math