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