5E News 1

5E NEWS Aug. 26, 2015

Homework Policy!

Just a few quick reminders as we are in the thick of homework and preparing for our first science exam next week:

Students may redo assignments on which they performed poorly for an improved grade. The children are also allowed to retake exams and earn an improved grade. Depending on your child, you may need to remind him or her to take advantage of these policies in order to achieve the scores he or she is working toward. If you have questions about homework, our class website is updated daily with the assignments, as well.

Skyward

I do try to grade assignments daily and enter them on Skyward nightly. There may be some evenings in which I am not able to keep up with this, but overall, your child’s scores should be up-to-date, so feel free to monitor your 5th grader’s progress on Skyward.

“No Birthday Treat” Policy! It is a Unit 5 policy that there are to be NO

edible birthday treats this year. If you are desperate to

send something for your child’s birthday, it would have

to be a pencil, sticker, or such, but it is perfectly

acceptable to send nothing – especially since that will

be the rule next year at the junior high.

Box Tops

If you have any Box Tops, please begin saving them for the fall collection! Last year, we were able to accumulate enough Box Tops for me to purchase some science supplies and some books for our classroom library – which is pretty incredible, if you think about it!

What We Are Doing: Math: This week in math we reviewed area and perimeter, learned to calculate irregular areas, and reviewed fraction skills! Next week we will focus more on calculating volume for a variety of prisms! We have worked on solving various problems during our morning problem-solving time, and students will take their first problem-solving quiz next Friday! Science: As we continue with our astronomy focus, students this week discussed ancient astronomy, the characteristics of stars, star cycles, galaxies, constellations, and our expanding universe. Since we have just about wrapped up the new material in this unit, we should be ready for our first astronomy exam by the end of next week! Social Studies: After reviewing map skills and discussing the importance of geography in history, we concluded our short map unit with a take-home test on Thursday. Our new unit will focus on early Native Americans in North America. Reading: As we continued reading Night of the Twisters, by Ivy Ruckman, the children used their deductive reasoning skills to compose sentence answers to comprehension questions. They also practiced identifying conflicts, discussed connections, analyzed vocabulary words, and employed their artistic abilities to draw what they were visualizing as they read. Since we will conclude this novel next week, the students will then view the movie so that they can compare and contrast the two versions. Language / Writing: In language we looked at the different types of sentences, compound sentences, and compound subjects and predicates this week so that students can improve their writing by varying their sentence structure. The students also planned narratives about “Red Letter Days,” practiced writing conversation, and developed short papers about “things with wheels.” Spelling: Students will begin working in groups on word patterns for their spelling, or word work, next week. You should see the words come home in packets on Monday, and they can complete the practice activities during the week as they prepare for their Friday quiz. Though most of the activities may be completed in class, your child is more than welcome to take the packet of word cards home for further studying, if needed.

5E News 2

Important Upcoming Dates

and events

Sat., Aug. 27 Prairieland Movie

Night!

Tues., Aug. 30 Curriculum Night!

6:10-7:00

Wed., Aug. 31 Late Start (8:45)

Mon., Sept. 5 NO SCHOOL –

LABOR DAY!

Tues., Sept. 6 Institute Day – No

Student Attendance

Mon., Sept. 12 PIECE meeting @

6:30 pm

If you have any questions or concerns,

please feel free to contact me at home or at

school. My home number is 663-8001, the school

number is 557-4424, and my school email address

is elstonjr@unit5.org. For any homework

questions, you may want to check out our

classroom website on the Prairieland website.

Mrs. Elston

Experimenting with UV rays!