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.