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

We will be celebrating Halloween on Friday with our 1:00 parade and 1:30 party. Thank you in advance to all the moms who have volunteered to organize and run it, and send in treats and drinks. Students need to bring their costume to school on Friday. The costume might need to be simplified for school purposes since students need to be able to change in a short amount of time. Changing will take place in the classrooms. The fifth grade will have designated classrooms for girls to change in and for boys. Washrooms will not be available for costume changing. No weapons, even fake, are allowed at school.

Junior Achievement will start this week (Wednesday) in Room 208. We have a wonderful instructor, Mr. Blocker, who will visit us once per week for 5 weeks and teach us about business!

Coming up this week:

English: We continue our study of Verbs this week. We will specifically learn about main and helping verbs, linking verbs, and present tense verbs.

Social Studies: This week we will learn about life in the cities, towns, and farms of the 13 colonies. Trading and bartering was very important to the colonists and in order to learn a little more about trading and supply and demand, we will be having our annual trade fair on Thursday, 10/28. Every student needs to bring at least one of something homemade to trade. We've discussed it extensively in class and there is a parent permission slip due back to me on Monday. Ask your child about it!

Science: The “leafy critters” were fabulous! We had such a ball exploring all the different types of leaves and using them for various animal parts. We will have our “lesson review” on lesson 2 Monday. Students may use their notes and textbook.

Mrs. Klacza's Reading Class:
Our CORE reading skill this week continues to be analogies. All fifth grade students will learn how to analyze and complete various types of analogies. In addition, all students will continue to focus on the important skills of drawing conclusions and making inferences. We will specifically be using short written pieces this week. I find that short mysteries work well with inferencing and drawing conclusions!

Spelling: Lesson 8: Pretest on Monday. Homework due on Thursday; Test Friday.

Mrs. Klacza's Math Class:
We will work on Chapter 5 this week, focusing on place value with decimals, equivalent decimals, and comparing with decimals.

Important Dates:

10/11-12/3 – Read to Succeed program (Chicago Wolves)

10/22 – Buona Beef fundraiser

10/29 – Halloween parade and parties

11/2 – Election day/teacher institute – no school

Have a wonderful weekend! Mrs. Klacza