5B News for the Week of 12/17/12

Hello Parents and Students:

Here we are....the final week before Winter Break.  This year seems to be moving by very quickly. 

Just a couple of reminders this week.  First, we will be having our Citizenship Celebration this Thursday, December 20th.  The following movies will be shown:  Elf, A Christmas Story, Finding Nemo and Frosty/Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.  If there is a movie that you'd prefer your child NOT see, please let me know and I will point them in another direction.  Thank you.  :-)

Also, on this day, the students can wear their pajamas and bring in a stuffed animal from home, but this is optional.  Hot chocolate will be served.  Please remember to return the permission form as soon as possible. 

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

Spelling:  We are on Unit 14 this week.  The spelling pretest will be on Monday and the test will be on Friday, as usual.  The words have been posted to the blog.

Language Arts:  This week, we will continue to focus on our historical fiction genre.  We will be reading a Reading A-Z book entitled, Historic Peacemakers.  This book discusses people from around the World who promoted peace during their lifetimes.  This is a higher level book with challenging vocabulary, therefore, we will also be completing a vocabulary word-meaning map to go along with it.  Open-ended questions will be asked toward week's end and the students will work in groups to complete discussion questions.  In writing, the students will be doing a structured writing piece.  The topic will be given to them (Plans for Winter Break) and they will need to complete a five paragraph essay which will include an introduction, three main body paragraphs, and a conclusion.  I will model one in class.  We discussed simple and complete predicates in grammar last week and will continue to integrate grammar into our writing lesson this week, most likely focusing on comma usage.

Math Accel:  We are moving along in Unit 3.  We have studied algebraic expressions and dependent and independent variables.  Moving forward, we will be working on rate and ratio reasoning to solve real-world and mathematical problems.  We will also be doing some review with adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing decimals.  We will do a fun, real-world math problem with these skills. 

Science:  We just switched back over into science a couple of days ago.  Atom structure/vocabulary has been introduced and we will be doing some research on elements this week during science.  The students are excited to be back into science and are very enthusiastic about using the online interactive periodic table.  We will be drawing and labeling atoms this week. 

That's it for now. Please contact me with any questions or concerns.  Enjoy the weekend!

Delissa Bennick

5B News for the Week of December 10th

Hello Parents and Students:

We have a lot going on in 5B these last two weeks before Winter Break.  First, our marble jar is filled to the brim again, so it is time for a reward.  The students agreed to have a Talent Show.....and, of course, they can chew gum as well.  The Talent Show will be this Thursday, December 13th.  Most of the kids are planning to participate, but it is optional. 

Secondly, for those students who met and recorded their 800 Book Club MayWattsReads minutes, the celebration for them will also be Thursday, December 13th, during lunch.  Please return your child's permission form if you plan to have them eat the brownies.

Finally, on Thursday, December 20th, we will be having a Citizenship Celebration to reward the students for their hard work these first two quarters of school.  We will be showing movies and will serve hot chocolate to the kids.  Wearing PJ's and bringing in a stuffed animal is optional. Permission forms for this activity will be coming home this week.

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

Spelling:  We are on Unit 13 this week.  The new list has been posted to the blog.  The pretest will be on Monday and the test on Friday, as usual.

Language Arts:  During language arts this week we will be doing a variety of things.  We will be reading a story from our anthology entitled, Rosa Parks, going along with our historical fiction theme.  We will be studying vocabulary, main idea, conflict and common themes in literature.  We will also be reading a TFK this week, as we had no time last week to fit in current events.  We will also continue to work on grammar, silent reading and writing journal entries in our writing response journals. 

Math Accel:  We just finished testing Unit 2 and have begun the first few lessons of Unit 3.  Currently, we are working on Algebraic Expressions.  Expect a short quiz or exit slip later this week.

Social Studies:  We will be presenting our historical fiction projects this week on Tuesday and Wednesday.  We will have some classtime on Monday to finish up the final details of the project.  We will also be creating a timeline of major events that occurred throughout chapter six and seven in our social studies book.  We will write six word summaries to describe each event.  We also discussed Pearl Harbor yesterday and watched a short video about it.  The kids were all very interested in this topic.  It was such a sad day in US history.  There is an extra credit opportunity to go along with this that is listed under the 5B homework section, if interested. 

Science:  The Fifth Grade Team decided to squeeze in some science prior to our Winter Break.  We will be discussing chemistry which will include atomic structure.  We will be doing some research on various elements which will include characteristics and uses.  We will also be drawing models of atoms.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Delissa Bennick

Winter Class Party Info.

December 10, 2012

 

Dear Parents,

 

On Friday, December 21, we will be holding our holiday parties from 2:30 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. for all our students.  Two room parents or their designees will run the parties for the children.  Due to space limitations, we ask that you refrain from attending these parties. 

 

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 lecithin, soybean oil, cellulose gum, xanthan gum, water, and canola oil.  The 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 Thursday, December 13, 2012.  She needs to compile a list of what students cannot have the cupcakes.  You are asked to provide your child with a treat that he/she can have if they have allergies to the cupcakes being served. 

 

Please do not send in any other treats for the classrooms because of possible food allergies.  Treats brought to school will be sent home.

 

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. LeCrone through email in order that appropriate activities can be arranged no later than Monday, December 17, 2012.  His email address is:  brian_lecrone@ipsd.org.

 

 

As a reminder, winter break begins on Friday, December 21, and classes will resume on Monday, January 7, 2013. 

 

We wish you and your family a safe and restful winter break. 

 

 

Sincerely,

 

The May Watts Staff

 

*We would like to thank Whole Foods Market in Naperville 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.  – Mrs. Moranchek, Room Parent Coordinator.

 

5B News for the Week of December 3rd

Hello Parents and Students:

Just a reminder that Family Math Night for grades 3-5 is this Monday evening, December 3rd, from 6:30-8:30 and Family Math Night for grades K-2 is on Wednesday, December 5th, from 6:30-8:30. 

Walk to School Day is this Friday and it's also Spirit Wear Day! 

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

Spelling:  We are on Unit 12 this week and the words have been posted on the blog.  This week in spelling, we will be taking a look at compound words and words that we may think are compound words, but are not.  Look closely.

Language Arts:  This week in language arts we will be doing a combination of reading, writing and social studies.  We will begin the week working on our new social studies project of portraying a person in history.  The students have the guidelines for this project and have already chosen the person that they will be researching.  On Monday, we will be using the laptops to begin researching our historical person and we will be deciding how to do our visual.  Most students have already chosen to do a poster, Prezi or Powerpoint presentation.  Also during our language arts time, we will be doing some group work using a Reading A-Z book and the students will be given discussion cards to talk through with their group and also answer in writing.  Grammar and independent reading will continue to be a focus this week.  We will try to squeeze in a TFK late in the week for current events.

Math Accel:  Our Unit 2 test will be this Monday.  The students should be using their study guide and the other work we did during class to prepare for the test.  We have already started Unit 3, which does NOT focus on Geometry like I had mentioned last week.  Unit 3 focuses on variables, formulas and graphs.  I apologize for the misinformation.  We have already studied using variables to describe number patterns and will begin discussing two variable patterns and algebraic expressions.

Social Studies:  During our regular social studies time, we will continue on in Chapter 6.  The topics of discussion will include cities, towns and farms in the colonies, everyday life in the colonies and slavery in the colonies.  I will be sending a Chapter 6 study guide home late in the week.  The Chapter 6 test will most likely be the following Tuesday.  We will finish Chapter 6 by Wednesday of this week and then we will be doing group work to cover Chapter 7 the last two days of this week.  We are almost to the Revolutionary War and taxing!  We have a lot going on in SS currently!!! 

That's it for now.  Enjoy the rest of the weekend! 

Delissa Bennick