Week of 2/1/10 - 2/5/10

Can you believe that January is over?? Soon it will be Valentine's Day and we'll be celebrating! I will be sending home a classroom list for valentines very soon. We will start “music buddies” this week. Some of my students will help the younger students with their recorders in Ms. Wyse's class during their recess. The children are also so excited to visit the multineeds classroom to be their “peer buddies.” What a great way to show our character. Lastly, we have cleaned out our behavior jar!! Keyerra can be (and has been) thanked for helping us. We will decide how to celebrate next week.

Coming up this week:

Spelling: Lesson 19 – VAC words. Pretest Monday/Final test Friday.

Reading: As we continue our study of connecting, we will read another story from our reading series called Katie's Trunk. This story is also set during the American Revolution; however, Katie and her family are Loyalists. We will see things from a different point of view! We will also continue our ISAT practice.

Language Arts: We conclude our study of verbs this week. An intense review will follow with a test planned for Tuesday, Febuary 9. Hold on to your hats, expository writing follows!

Social Studies: Monday is our Chapter 8 test. I do not plan to start Chapter 9 until the week of 2/8. However, the students will be working on their “webquests.” They were introduced to this project already – ask your child about it, please!

Science: We continue our study of weather this week, specifically local and prevailing winds.

Mrs. Klacza's Math Class:
We conclude Chapter 12 this week with a test on Friday. Only two lessons will be taught this week, problem solving and relating fractions and decimals. Of course, we will “pretest” before the actual test.

Important Notes:

2/2 – Teacher's Institute – no school
2/11 – Family Book Night
2/12 – Valentine's Day celebration (end of day)
2/15 – President's Day – no school

Have a great weekend and stay warm! Mrs. Klacza

Week of 1/25/10 - 1/29/10

I'd like to congratulate Mike and Joshua for winning our classroom spelling bee and representing our class in the fifth grade bee on Thursday. They did not win, but they made us proud! I'd also like to make a push for the Family Reading Night which will occur on February 11. I am involved in this activity and would love to see more fifth graders attending. A note went home a week or so ago; please consider coming. Studies show that family involvement improves literacy and this is an ideal way to come together as a family and learn more about great literature. Lastly, some of my students signed up to be “music buddies.” They will help the younger students with their recorders in Ms. Wyse's class during their recess. I am happy to say that I have generous, caring students who love to help the little ones, be it third graders or their peer buddies in the multineeds class!

Coming up this week:
Spelling: Lesson 17 – Review. Test Friday/no pretest this week.

Reading: This week we will finish our novel, Toliver's Secret. After we finish reading chapters 12 & 13, I will be collecting and grading the summary grids and we will discuss Ellen's character. Our new reading skill, connecting, will be started this week, also. In keeping with the American Revolution theme, we will read the short story And Then What Happened, Paul Revere? I think we will have a lot of text to text connections!

Language Arts: This week we will focus on contractions, regular and irregular verbs, and verb phrases.

Social Studies: We will study Lesson 3 this week, “The Revolution Begins.” Our studies will take us to Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill. We will hear about the shot heard 'round the world. Chapter 8 will be tested on Monday, 2/1. I will also be introducing a webquest project to the class this week.

Science: Our owl pellets have been dissected and examined. Many animal bones were found; in fact, we determined that each pellet contained an average of 2 animals. This week we will start our weather unit, specifically focusing on the atmosphere.

Mrs. Klacza's Math Class:
This week we will continue Chapter 12, Fraction Concepts. We will specifically study equivalent fractions, simplest form, and mixed numbers. There will be a quiz on Lessons 1-4 on Thursday.

Important Notes:
2/2 – Teacher's Institute – no school
2/11 – Family Book Night
2/12 – Valentine's Day celebration (end of day)
2/15 – President's Day – no school

Have a great weekend! Mrs. Klacza

Week of 1/18/10 - 1/22/10

We finished Iowa testing!! The children did a great job and I'm very proud of them. Back to normal next week, although we are off Monday for Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday. We have discussed Dr. King and watched a part of his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Ask your child about it!

We started the "Too Good for Drugs" (TGFD) program with Officer David Kotovsky this week. Please remind your child that the homework assigned by Officer “K” needs to be taken seriously and will count toward their science grade!

Coming up this week:

Spelling: Lesson 16 – Silent h words. Test Friday.

Reading: We will continue reading Toliver's Secret, summarizing the chapters as we go. Ellen eventually realizes that she is truly brave. The students will write a short advice column this week and complete a listening and visualizing task.

Language Arts: Back to verbs! We will specifically focus on subject-verb agreement and agreement with be & have.

Social Studies: Due to the short week and the study of owl pellets, we won't start Lesson 3 until next week.

Science: We have begun our owl pellet unit and, this week, we will actually dissect them! First, however, we will do a virtual dissection in the computer lab.

Mrs. Klacza's Math Class:
Back to our normal schedule this week with a lesson on prime and composite numbers followed by a review of the first 4 lessons in Chapter 11. After a review the first half of class on Wednesday, a short quiz will be taken by the students on those 4 lessons only. It will cover multiples & LCM, divisibility, factors & GCF, and prime & composite numbers.

Important Notes:
1/18 – Martin Luther King's birthday, no school
1/18 – Fundraiser at Home Run Inn
2/2 – Teacher's Institute – no school
2/12 – Valentine's Day celebration (end of day)
2/15 – President's Day – no school

Have a great weekend! Mrs. Klacza

Week of 1/11/10 - 1/15/10

Welcome to 2010! We started the new year well, even though the snow was falling fast! Let me tell you about some important events coming up...

Iowa testing in fifth grade will be Monday-Thursday. I hope that all of my students will be well rested and have a good breakfast each and every day so that they will do their very best. Please make sure your child brings along a silent reading book, not only this week, but every day. There are some great incentive reading programs going on so please make sure your child is reading at home, also.

On Thursday, we will be starting the Too Good for Drugs (TGFD) program, sponsored by the DuPage County Sheriff's Department. The students will have a weekly class session with Officer David Kotovsky where they will discuss important issues such as making good choices, peer pressure, and substance abuse. All work done for TGFD will count toward their science grade. Furthermore, I expect my students to act appropriately during the sessions.

Coming up this week:
Spelling: Lesson 15 – Words ending with -ery. Test Friday.

Reading: We have begun reading Toliver's Secret and will continue reading and summarizing the chapters this week. We've met Ellen Toliver, her mom Abby, and her Grandfather. They have just recently moved to New York and their house is occupied by British soldiers (Redcoats.) Something important has been baked inside a loaf of bread and this week we will find out what it is...

Language Arts: Since we will be focusing on Iowas this week, we will take a break from our Verbs unit. We'll start up again the following week with Lesson 8.

Social Studies: This week we will read and take notes on Lesson 2, specifically the Boston Massacre.

Science: Our Chapter 6 test is on Wednesday. Please be prepared! We will then start studying owl pellets. This is a well-loved fifth grade unit!

Mrs. Klacza's Math Class:
After a return to long division to get us ready for Iowas, we will tackle a little geometry and a little measurement before we take those math Iowas on Wednesday and Thursday. We'll then get back to business and return to our chapter in progress, specifically, factors and greatest common factor (GCF.)

Important Notes:
1/14 – TGFD starts
1/18 – Martin Luther King's birthday, no school
1/18 – Fundraiser at Home Run Inn

Have a great weekend! Mrs. Klacza