5B Activities for the Week of 12/16/2013

Here we are!  The week before Winter Break!

Here are the reminders for this week.  

1.  If you haven't returned the movie/hot chocolate permission form, please return it at your earliest convenience.  We will be watching a movie and sipping hot chocolate on Friday.  The students have also been told that they can wear pajamas, bring in a stuffed animal and a pillow if they so choose to do so.  The celebration will take place Friday morning.

2.  The Winter Party will take place on Friday afternoon.  I'm confident that the party planners have some fun things planned for us.

3.  Winter Break is from 12/21/13 to 1/5/14.  School resumes on Monday, January 6th, 2014.  Enjoy your time off!

Here's what's going on in the curricular areas this week: 

Word Study/Spelling:  There will be NO Word Study this week!  We have a lot going on later in the week, and I feel that we will not have the opportunity to cover all the lessons that are needed for the students to be successful.  Enjoy the week off of studying!  :-)

Math Accel:  We are moving along in Unit 3.  The students took a quiz last week on ratios and algebraic equations.  This week we will continue discussing ratios and unit rates.  We will also be fitting in some problem solving.  The Unit 3 test will occur after we return from Winter Break.

ELA (English Language Arts):  Courage continues to be our topic for this quarter.  We are approaching about halfway in our Wonder read-aloud book.  We are making the finishing touches on our Courage books.  They are looking great!  They will be due on Wednesday.  If your child still has a lot of work to do on their Courage books, I would recommend that they take them home to work on them.  Science, SS and Language Arts are all overlapping a bit at this time.  For part of our ELA time, we will be working on a Reading A-Z book entitled, Seeds of the Revolution, where we will focus on vocabulary, cause and effect and inquiry/discussion circles.

Social Studies:  We continue to work towards the Revolutionary War.  Through our tic-tac-toe activities we have learned a lot about the events leading up to the war such as the Boston Tea Party, the Boston Massacre and Paul Revere's famous ride.  The tic-tac-toe projects were amazing!  The last one, #3, was due this past Friday, and I am currently in the process of grading them.  Several students challenged themselves by completing more than the required 3 activities.  I am so proud of them for this!

Science:  Science is back!  Last week, the students learned some vocabulary on Atomic Structure.  We watched a Study Jam video.  (The video link is on my blog under homework.)  It would be a good idea for your child to rewatch the video as we will be having a quiz on these key vocabulary words on Wednesday.  We will be using our electronic devices this week to go to Today's Meet to review for the test.  This week we will be spending a good amount of time in the computer lab or cluster doing research on atoms.  We will be creating our own elements research journals.

That's it for now.  Have a great week!

As always, please contact me with any questions.

~Mrs. Bennick

5B Activities for the Week of December 9th, 2013

Hello Parents and Students:

Here are the reminders for this week:

Our field trip to Sci-Tech will take place this Friday, December 13th.  We will need to leave school as soon as possible, so please arrive by 8:55 if possible.  When all of the bus riders arrive, we will be leaving.  Also, please have your child bring a SACK LUNCH.  We will not be returning to school until after our scheduled lunch time, therefore, hot lunch will not be available.

Here's what's going on in the curricular areas this week:

Word Study/Spelling:  We will continue with suffixes this week in Lesson 13.  The words have been posted to the blog.  The students will need to be able to spell each word, know their meanings, be able to identify the suffix in each word and separate the words into syllables.  The test will be on Friday.

Math Accel:  Last week we discussed variables and learned the difference between an independent variable and a dependent variable.  Students were also introduced to algebraic equations.  This week we will continue our study of algebraic equations and then move onto ratios and equivalent ratios.  Expect an exit slip and/or quiz later in the week.

English Language Arts (ELA):  We are moving along in our current read-aloud book, Wonder.  It is getting very good now.  The students are really enjoying it.  Our theme continues to be Courage and we discussed how Auggie has shown courage throughout his short life.  This week we will discuss one of Nelson Mandela's quotes about courage and create our own courage quotes.  We will also be incorporating social studies into our ELA time by completing our last tic-tac-toe activity which will be due this Friday.  Most of the students have finished about half of their own Courage books which are coming along nicely.

Social Studies:  The last of the tic-tac-toe activities are due this Friday, the 13th.  This week we will be working in inquiry circles as we work our way closer to the Revolutionary War.  We will also be focusing on key vocabulary this week.

Science:  For the next few weeks, science and social studies will overlap.  About mid-week the students will be introduced to atomic structure vocabulary and will be starting their elements research journals.  Some key vocabulary words that we will be working on include element, atom, proton, neutron, electron, compound, mass and molecule.

That's it for now.  Have a great week.  As always, please contact me with any questions.

~Mrs. Bennick

5B Activities for the Week of December 2, 2013

Hello 5B Parents and Students!

Here are the reminders for this week.

1.  Gates testing will occur on Wednesday, December 4th.  This is an assessment to check reading comprehension and vocabulary.

2.  Culver's Night is this Thursday evening.  I will be there from 5:00-6:00pm.  Hope to see you!

Spelling/Word Study:  This week we are on Lesson 12, suffixes.  The words have been posted to the blog.  The students will need to know how to spell the words, know their meanings and how to diagram some of them.  The test will be on Friday.

Math Accel:  We just finished up Unit 2 and had a couple of days to work on problem solving before Thanksgiving break.  Monday we will begin Unit 3 which will focus on variables, both independent and dependent and algebraic expressions.

English Language Arts (ELA):  We will continue our empathy/bully lessons this week.  Our topic will continue to be using manners and showing common courtesies.  Our read-aloud book continues to be, Wonder.  We created a t-chart of ordinary and extraordinary courage.  We will be reading the book, Courage, by Bernard Waber this week.  The students will then begin writing their own books about courage.  Our TFK this week will focus on the life of Abraham Lincoln.  We will be doing some close reads of passages in the TFK.  We will also be comparing characters from history to the main character in the book, Wonder, Auggie.

Social Studies:  We will continue with our second tic-tac-toe project this week.  We will be spending some time in the computer lab to work on it.  The second activity will be due this Friday.  Also, we will soon be integrating some science back into our curriculum by the end of the week.  I will be teaching both SS and Science moving forward and our topic in science will be electricity and magnetism.

That's it for now.  Please email me with any questions or concerns.  Have a great week, everyone!

~Mrs. Bennick