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

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

October 8th Newsletter

5^th Grade Newsletter
Mrs. Sandusky’s Class

Important Dates:

·         10/10- DARE starts

·         10/13- Old Iron Works Day (go learn some local history!)

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

·         10/19- NO SCHOOL

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

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

ELA (Sandusky)-
If you meet with me for Parent Teacher Conferences your confirmation notes with your scheduled time have been sent out! If you need another one, just shoot me an email (bsandusky@stjschools.org) or write me a note. I tried to give everyone their ‘first place’ choice, but it was on a first come, first serve basis for the popular times. J Book Orders are due tomorrow, they were sent home Friday with students. For every book purchased, we earn points that help us build our classroom library!

This week we will be working on Subject/Verb agreement, writing a story from a wordless picture book (how images play important roles in literature), and we will also be choosing a famous inventor to later be writing a research paper on. You can let your child get online at home and check out some sites to help them make their decision!
Spelling Words:
List 6
quarterbacks
set
seat
rest
back
bake
baker
truck
track
trace
skate
skater
tracer
backer
tracker
trucker
quarter
setback
backrest
backseat
***October 12^th is the last day for students to take AR tests and reach their goal.

ELA(Shultz)- We have a full week ahead of us! Students will not bring home new spelling words this week, because we will be working with the past 4 lists and with adding the prefix "re" and the suffixes "er" and "est." On Thursday, we will have a quiz to test our understanding of these prefixes and suffixes. STAR testing will continue for our ELA students as we look to see growth in students over the first quarter. 5th grade students will begin a research project on inventors during this unit, so our class will be looking at inventors throughout history and considering one to focus on for a research project (each student will choose his own). First quarter AR ends on Friday, so please help me to encourage your student to bring home reading--if she isn't already. Our new focus for grammar is verb tense, and we will continue with this focus throughout the next few weeks. There are so many things to cover! Have a great week, and as always, contact me with any questions or concerns at kshultz@stjschools.org.

 SCIENCE: Today we went to the park to compare pond ecosystems.  We will be researching schoolyard birds and making bird feeders from recycled goods, so students may bring in materials to use on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Friday we will take a quiz over Lesson 2, pages 4-9. The quiz will be the last grade for the quarter.
EXTRA CREDIT:  Students can design a poster to illustrate their home or neighborhood ecosystem.  Due by Friday.

Math: In math this week we will be starting Unit 2 which will begin with multiplication patterns and multiplying sets of numbers ending in zeros.  We will also be focusing small group instruction to meet the needs of the areas that each student missed on his/her post assessment from Friday. This will include missed items from numerical expressions (i.e. 6 less than 10 = 10 - 6), Order of Operations, and writing sequences for a given rule (i.e. rule add 3 =  0, 3, 6, 9, 12).

Students took a post-assessment on Friday, but you might notice that tests are not in your child's red folder.  We are keeping the tests for a short time so that we can use them as instructional items to help your child work through the missed problems