Update!

Happy Monday!

First off, please remember that camp materials are due as soon as possible! The camp fee is $49.00 for your student and an additional $49.00 if you are an overnight chaperone. We would love to have you come along and share in this experience!

Secondly, students with missing work will be bringing home a missing work slip. Please make sure you take a moment to have a conversation about keeping motivation and work ethics high as we near the end of the year. These must be signed and returned by tomorrow.

Thirdly! Our students did amazingly on the MAPs tests! Wow. They literally knocked my socks off! Okay, maybe not literally, but I was impressed. Our language usage testing went up, as a class, 242 points from the beginning of the year! WOW. Both Reading and Math also went up well over 100 points as a class. So, as a reward, we will have a pizza party, with a beverage and dessert. I am asking each student to contribute a little money towards the pizza and I will provide the drinks (soda, crystal light) and desserts. This will take place on May 26th starting at 11:50. I will send home more information about this later this week.

Now, on the subject front:

Reading:
We are starting a new unit on Biography. Please be aware of the parameters of this project. Your student will choose a biography subject of their liking, read the book, fill out a planner to organize their ideas, and finally create a final presentation to present to a small group. We will presenting these on Monday, June 6th. It would be wonderful to have parents in our small group audiences! Please let me know if you are interested.

Here is the assignment:

Biography Book Project

Choose a biography or an autobiography for your last book project. You MAY NOT choose a sports figure… find someone else that interests you – a musician, an actor or actress, an author, a president, a politician, historical figure, etc!!

You must have your book selected by WEDNESDAY, MAY 18. You will need to report your title and author Ms. Angel on that day.


Your book and the attached notes sheet must be completed by TUESDAY, MAY 31. You will use some in class time to complete the writing portion of the project using both your book and notes sheet.

The final project will be presented in small groups on Monday, June 6.

Please note that there will be classtime given to work towards the completion of this project. This is independently driven with check-ins. Also, the final project could be done in several ways:

• powerpoint, smart notebook, blogger (with parent permission)
• become the character and present as the person
• create a poster, newspaper

Spelling:
We have completed our formal Spelling units, but will continue with word work and grammar for the remainder of the year. Those of you who received word lists - we will not have anymore! However, on May 31st, we will have a Spelling Achievement test which shows the progress from the beginning of the year.

Math:
We are continuing to work on multiplication and division with whole numbers and decimals. The students are learning new strategies for both operations. Have them show you!

Writing:
Students finished our District Writing Assessment last week. I will have a substitute in on Wednesday while the 5th grade team scores the DWAs. This week, we are working on completing our citizenship papers, sharing how we helped be a good member of our community. The format for this essay is a five paragraph essay, with focus on the 6+1 traits. One of the essays will be chosen and rewarded by Mrs. Carter, based on the community involvement.

Social Studies:
As our year winds down, we are testing on the French-American war tomorrow. We will touch upon the American Revolution with our time left.

Science:
This week we are beginning our new unit on Mixtures & Solutions. It will be exciting to learn about how chemistry works!

Thanks and have a great day!