5th Grade Newsletter
February 11th , 2013
Upcoming Dates:2/14/13- Valentine’s Day Parties, Homeroom Teachers will send home more information
2/15/13- No School, Teacher Professional Development Day
2/18/13-No School for President’s Day!
3/21/13- 5th Grade Music Program. (New Gym) Students should dress nicely. Students should arrive no later than 6:45 p.m. Program starts at 7:00 p.m.
Parents- The St. James School District will have a proposition on the April ballot of this year. It is called Prop KIDSS. For more information please click on this link: Prop KIDDS, or feel free to contact your child’s teacher with any questions you may have. Thank you to all parents who attended Parent/Teacher Conferences last week. If you were unable to attend- please contact your child’s teacher! It is NOT too late!!
Six Flags Forms- Due February 22nd, this is an EASY way for students to earn a FREE SIX FLAGS TICKET!! Students have to log 360 minutes (6 hours) of reading, and turn the form in. In Mrs. Sandusky’s class students are already reading two hours a week!
Music Solos-Fifth Grade Opportunities:
All students that are interested in auditioning for a solo for the upcoming concert are encouraged to practice on the following dates in Mrs. Uffmann's room from 8:00 a.m.-8:15 a.m.
For the Rodgers and Hammerstein solos rehearsals will run from Monday, February 11,-Thursday, February 14. Auditions will be held Friday morning, February 15, starting at 7:50 a.m.
Meurer/Siders/Richards—Math: Students are working on multiplying and dividing decimals this week!
Sandusky—ELA:
Book orders are due Tuesday February, 12th! Students will be completing their Native American research papers this week. This is a large part of their language grade! Monday we will be working on rough drafts, if they’re not finished it’s homework, Tuesday we will be peer editing and doing an analytical grid, Wednesday we will be working on the final draft. If final drafts are not finished they will be homework, due Thursday (beginning of class). If we have time on Thursday I’m planning on having the students create a Google Docs presentation on their tribe. Students have been told about the new ‘rule’ in Mrs. Sandusky’s room. Whenever they are completing constructed responses they are expected to write in complete sentences. However, if they miss capitalization, punctuation, or spell a word that is on the same page wrong, I will be taking a half point for every mistake on all assignments.
Book Logs will be due Thursday, with 2 hours. Spelling is going to look a little different this week, instead of giving letters we’re going to focus on two prefixes. The spelling words will be: subway, subject, submerge, subset, subterranean, translate, transfer, transform, transparent, transplant. I’m going to give the students time to look up other words that begin with these prefixes to see who can come up with the biggest list, there will be a prize!
If you’re not getting my weekly/homework emails please send me an email at bsandusky@stjschools.org and I’ll add you to my list!
Shultz-ELA: Book orders are due on February 13th. You can order online at Scholastic.com/bookclubs with our class code of GR6VY. This week we are continuing our practice of looking for specific information in non-fiction texts. As part of their grades and assignments, I am requiring them to “prove” their answers, by returning to the text to point out where they found their answer choice. We are also continuing with root words, prefixes, and suffixes as part of our spelling and as a way for students to determine the meaning of a word.
Our speech paragraphs will not be returned until next week, as I will be out on Monday. Our newest writing project will be a group research project on a Native American people of their choice. If you have internet access, you can find this project by going to my class page, going to the 5th Grade ELA tab, Unit 3, Activity 4. Students will be writing a 3-5 paragraph essay with citations and a short slideshow presentation.
Kemnitzer-ELA:
Reading- Students will be enjoying Native American art and music this week as we complete two activites in Unit 3. They will be discussing and writing how the culture of a nationality is presented through their music and art. We will continue to learn about prefixes and suffixes. There will be no homework this week.
AR- Students should have completed 50% of their 3rd quarter goal at this time. Please make sure that your child is reading at least 30 minutes a night. The end of mid-quarter is February 15.
Writing- Students will be writing a Valentine poem and responding to cultural questions from Indian pictures and music.
Language - The students will be taking a short quiz on verb tense and prefixes on Wednesday.
Spelling - Students will not have any spelling words or test this week.
Have a happy Valentine’s Day!
Mrs. Kemnitzer
