Valentine's Day Party Information

February 1, 2012

Dear Parents,

Valentine’s Day is not far off and prior to your shopping for this day, I am taking this opportunity to remind you of the guidelines in our Parent Handbook regarding Valentine’s and treats:

“Please do not attach any treats on Valentine’s cards (i.e. candy bars, etc.), due to the possibility of a child with a deadly peanut/nut/food allergy receiving the items.  Valentine’s with candy attached will not be permitted in any classroom.”   We want this day to be special for all students by keeping everyone safe and we do not want to disappoint any child who may bring items to school to give out and then is not permitted to do so.

The PTA will be providing the students with cupcakes and a Capri Sun during the party.  The cupcakes are from * Whole Foods Market in Naperville.  The ingredients are as follows for the cupcakes: vanilla cupcakes contain eggs, milk, soy and wheat, sugar, enriched wheat flour, dry egg whites, palm oil, leavening, dextrose, modified food starch, dry egg yolk, natural flavor, salt, non-fat milk solids, sorbitan monostearate, soy lechithin, soybean oil, cellulose gum, xanthan gum, water, and canola oil.  The orange frosting consists of powdered sugar, palm oil shortening, unsalted butter, vanilla extract, sea salt and annatto (natural plant based food color). 

If your child is unable to have the treat provided because of allergies, please send the school nurse a note informing us of this no later than Friday, February 10^th.  You are asked to provide your child with a treat that he/she can have if they have allergies to the cupcakes being served. 

Finally, alternative activities will be planned for children whose families choose not to participate in this event beginning at 2:30 p.m.  Please contact Mr. Raczak through email in order that appropriate activities can be arranged.  His email is: mike_raczak@ipsd.org.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Sincerely,

Michael Raczak

Principal

*The May Watts PTA would like to thank Whole Foods for partnering with the PTA.  Whole Foods offered a tremendous price break in order to provide our children with a healthier, more natural and delectable party treat. 

5B News for the Week of 1/30/2012

Hello Parents:

Open House is this Tuesday evening, January 31st.  Please stop by to visit!  Last names beginning with A-L are asked to attend from 6:30 to 7:30 and last names beginning with M-Z are asked to attend from 7:30-8:30.  This helps with overcrowding.  Hope to see you all! 

Here's a snapshot of what will be going on in 5B this week. 

I can't believe that we are already moving into February.  Where does the time go?

Reading- We will continue with our Bully lessons again this week.  This is planned for Monday.  The rest of the week we will focus on non-fiction text using skimming to preview reading materials and scanning to detect major visual patterns.  We will also be identifying text structure prior to reading.  We will make connections to real world situations or related topics before and during reading. 

Writing- It hasn't been easy, but I believe that most of us will have our "All About Me From A-Z Books" ready for viewing at Open House Tuesday evening.  We will still be working diligently on Monday and Tuesday to finish these up.  Then, we will be writing an extended response about a topic in our Time For Kids magazines.  We will also fit in some grammar during this time and our focus will be root words, prefixes, and suffixes.

Flex- Our focus during flex. this week will also be on non-fiction text.  I plan to use mini-books to work on making inferences and connections to real world situations.

Math- We have completed all lessons through 6.9.  This past Friday we began working on extended response questions in preparation for the upcoming ISAT test. This will continue to be our mission through the better half of next week.  Also, I was able to find some sample questions from the IAAT (Iowa Algebra Aptitude Test), which is one of the tests used to qualify students for PA math, which all Math Accel. students will be participating in soon.  I plan to cover these sample questions during class as well.

Science- We completed a digestion experiment yesterday using whole sugar cubes and crushed sugar cubes and water.  Our goal was to find out which one (solid or crushed) would dissolve more quickly in the water.  We wrote our hypotheses and tested them.  The outcomes were unanimous.  We will continue working on digestion this week with a focus on the organs that are involved in the process.

Wishing everyone a great week!  If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me.

Thank you!

~Mrs. Bennick

Social Studies Extra Credit

This week on Monday and Thursday nights there are Republican debates in Florida between the 4 remaining candidates for President. On Tuesday night President Obama will give the State of the Union Address. Any student who watches one of these events and writes a page reflection that explains what they learned about our country and our political system will earn extra credit in social studies. Yes...you can watch one of the debates and the State of the Union address and get double extra credit...but not all three.

These will be due no later than next Monday, January 30th.

Mrs. Bennick

5B News for the Week of 1/23/2012

Hello Parents,

Important notes:  Report cards went home yesterday.  Please keep everything that was inside of the envelope.  Then, sign the envelope and return it to school.  Thank you.  

If you enjoy going to Great America, there is a new way to earn the free Great America ticket this year.  Your child needs to read at least 360 minutes and then post their minutes on the Reading Stars site.  This needs to be done by January 31st.  Most students are well on their way to earning a free Great America ticket!

Please return the Robert Crown field trip permission form with the required fee.  Also, 6th grade class selection sheets should be completed and returned no later than January 31st. 

Here's a snapshot of what's going on this week in 5B: 

Reading-  We will continue with our bully lessons this week.  Our conversations about this topic have been excellent.  It seems that everyone has something to share about this topic.  Also, most students have expressed that they feel May Watts is a great place to be and most students practice respectful and appropriate behavior most of the time.  Also, we will continue working on our Summer of Fire story from our anthology.  We will review a well-written extended response answer and write our own extended response.  We will also read another story related to this topic entitled, Ring of Fire. 


Writing-  We finished our Invention projects this week and got to travel to different classrooms to view their inventions.  The students then voted on their favorite and the winner was announced yesterday.  Everyone created a great invention.  Most of them were very well thought-out and creative!  This week, we will work on our All About Me from A-Z books.  These books will be on display for Open House on January 31st.

Math Accel.- We had our first Unit 6 quiz last week on lessons 6.1-6.3.  Most students were very successful on this quiz.  We will continue working our way through Unit 6 over the next week or two.  Another quiz will be coming up soon and possibly an exit slip or two. 

Science- We will review electricity on Monday and our Electricity test will be on Tuesday.  It will be one open-ended response question. We discussed the question briefly on Friday which included key words to use when answering the question.  We will continue this discussion on Monday so that the students are well-prepared for Tuesday's test.  On Wednesday, we will begin our unit on Digestion.  We will remain in science for the next few weeks and then we will be switching back over to social studies.

Also, we will attempt to squeeze in some grammar this week!  Our focus will be on pronouns and prepositions.

Have a wonderful week everyone!  Always feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns you might have.

~Mrs. Bennick

Open House Information

MAY WATTS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

800 S. Whispering Hills Drive

Naperville, Illinois 60540

Phone: 630 428-6700

FAX: 630 428-6701

January 11, 2012

OPEN HOUSE

Dear Parents and Students:

You and your family are cordially invited to attend May Watts School’s Open House on Tuesday, January 31, 2012.   We are holding only one Open House this year.  To alleviate being overcrowded, we are asking families whose last name begins with “A thru L” attend from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.  Families whose last name begins with “M thru Z” are requested to attend from 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.  

This is an excellent opportunity for you and your family to see your children's work, meet your child's teacher and see your school.  All members of our support staff will also be available for you to visit.  Please be sure to stop by and visit with them. Due to the informal nature of the night, it will not be possible to conduct parent/teacher conferences.  Our next conference date is Tuesday, February 21^st,  or you can call the teacher anytime to schedule a meeting. 

There will not be a Book Fair during Open House this year.  We will be holding the Book Fair in March and more information will be forthcoming.

Please remember to check our "Lost & Found" which will be on display in the Office hallway during the evening.  Any items not claimed this evening will be donated to a charity.

We will open all outside building doors in order for you to enter the building so that you may park in the rear of the building.   Come on in.  We are looking forward to your visit.

Sincerely,

May Watts Staff

5B News for the week of 1/16/2012

Hello Parents:

Just a reminder that there is no school this Monday, January 16th, in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's birthday. 

Robert Crown Health Museum permission forms will be coming home on Tuesday this week via backpack mail.  Please look for them.  We will be visiting Robert Crown on Friday, February 10th.

Also, Second Quarter report cards will be coming home this Friday, January 20th, via backpack mail. 

Here's what's going on this week in 5B:

Reading-We will continue with our Empathy/Bully lessons this week.  We will also continue to present our non-fiction book reports during reading and we will focus on the story, Summer of Fire, from our anthology.  We will be completing an extended response pertaining to this story.  The question will be, What are the effects of forest fires on the environment? 

Writing-We have a couple of things going on in writing this week.  First, we will be finishing up our Invention project.  We will be having an Invention Open House on Friday of this week.  The students will vote on their favorite invention across the four 5th grade classrooms. The one student with the most votes will win a Target gift card.  For those students who have completed their invention project already, they will begin working on their "All About Me From A-Z Book".  These books will be on display during Open House on January 31st. 

Flex- During flex. time, the students will continue to work on their fluency and comprehension skills.  They will be reading a variety of short stories and mini books to help them with these skills.  Soon, we will be working on developing some strategies to put in place for taking the ISAT. 

Math Accel-The students took the Unit 5 test this past Thursday.  We will be reviewing these tests on Tuesday and then continue on in Unit 6.   At  this time, we are on lesson 6.2.  We will have a short quiz on Friday which will cover lessons 6.1-6.4.

Science-We will finish off our Electricity unit with some hands-on experiments this week.  Then, our next topic will be Digestion.

As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.  Have a great week!
~Mrs. Bennick

5B News for the Week of 1/9/2012

Reading-We will begin a series of lessons about bullying and empathy this week.  These lessons will be presented once per week over the next few weeks.  Also, the students will be exploring the Time For Kids on inventions and will be working individually on creating their own invention.  These inventions will be completed on trifolds and, when complete, all four classes will have an Invention Open House.  The students will number their inventions, without names, and the students will vote on a winner. 

Flex.-During flex we will be focusing on fluency.  We will be utilizing the reading intervention, Read Naturally, to assist with this.  This reading intervention helps to develop speed and accuracy when reading.  It also has a small comprehension piece as well.

Writing-First, we will finish up our Animalia projects early in the week.  Then, we will begin our "All About Me from A-Z Book."  This will be another creative writing activity that will be on display at Open House later in the month.  Mini lessons will be taught on using correct word choice, voice, paragraphing, matching illustrations to text, editing and revising.  The students will also be utilizing online dictionaries and thesauruses.

Math- We will finish up Unit 5 early in the week.  The Unit 5 test will be on Thursday, January 12th.  Study guides will also be due on this date.  Unit 5 is the last unit of the first math journal.  Students will be receiving their new journals later this week.  We have also started to work on some math extended response problems with our own classes.  We will continue to do this in preparation for the ISAT. 

Science- We will begin the week discussing static electricity and flow into balloon experiments. Then, we will move into electrical circuits.  

Have a great week everybody!!

~Mrs. Bennick

Encore Selection Parent Night @ Hill Middle School

Parents:

Hill Middle School will be hosting their Encore Selection Parent Night on Wednesday, January 11th, at 7:00pm in the Hill Middle School commons area. This meeting is for incoming 6th grade parents.  Hill administration will be discussing the process and selections for Encore classes at Hill.  Your child will receive a packet of information on January 9th or 10th from their 5th grade teacher.  Please bring this packet to the information night. 

If you have any questions, please contact Michelle Stoehrmann at 630-428-6200.