Dear Parents and Students,
I'd like to take this time to thank each and every one of you for the thoughtful gifts that you graciously gave me for the holidays. The very generous class gift (Downtown Naperville gift card) I will enjoy using very much over the next few months. I also sincerely appreciate all of the other gifts that you so thoughtfully gave me. I am grateful that I have the opportunity to work with such a great group of students and families. I wish you all a healthy, happy and prosperous new year! Here's to 2015!
I would also like to thank all of our parent helpers who have been volunteering their time these past few weeks. Thank you to Mrs. Freedlund, Mrs. Tracy and Mrs. Swords for mixing and serving the hot chocolate to over 100 students in record time! Also, a huge thank you to Mrs. Straub and Mrs. Tegethoff for organizing an incredibly fun Winter party! I couldn't do my job without all of your support!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Bennick :-)
Picture
Asheville, North Carolina
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Saturday, December 13, 2014
5B Activities for the Week of December 15th, 2014
Hello Parents and Students!
Here is the lofty list of reminders for this week:
1. The 800 Minute Book Club celebration will take place on Monday. If your child qualified, please return the permission form for the brownies.
2. Our class recently reached our goal of 1000 paw prints. Therefore, we will be having a pizza snack on Tuesday afternoon. This will not replace lunch. Please return the permission form if you haven't done so already.
3. We will be going to Hill MS for the chorus assembly. The assembly will take place in the morning and we will return to Watts prior to lunch.
4. Our annual movie/hot chocolate event will take place on Thursday. Please return the permission form for the hot chocolate as soon as possible. Also…I am looking for two parent volunteers to help mix and serve hot chocolate. Please email me if interested. I would need you to arrive at 12:30 and it would take about an hour.
5. Our Winter Party will take place on Friday afternoon. Looking forward to a fun time!
Winter Break begins Saturday, December 20th. School resumes on Monday, January 5th. Have a safe and enjoyable break!
Here's what's going on in the curricular areas this week:
Word Study: Our words will stay the same as last week. The students will be responsible for only spelling the words and knowing their meanings. There will be no diagramming. The test will be on Wednesday.
Math Acceleration: Our Unit 3 test will be on Tuesday. We will not begin Unit 4 until after Winter Break. We will be working on problem solving this week. Remember, there will be no math class on Wednesday due to the field trip to Hill MS. Unit 4 will focus on Expressions. I will be sending home the Unit 4 standards after Winter Break.
ELA: We have a multitude of things going on in ELA currently. First, we are continuing to work our way through our anchor text, The Liberation of Gabriel King. We are continuing to gather information on our courageous American. This is for our Quarter 2 performance task. We have been studying how to write an opinion writing piece as this will be our next step in the performance task after we've gathered enough information. The opinion writing piece will be ongoing for the next few weeks. When the writing piece has been completed, the students will be preparing a debate to convince the class why their American was the most courageous in our history. This should be fun!
Science: We completed our unit on Atomic Structure, Magnetism and Electricity. The test will be this Thursday. We completed a study guide in class yesterday and the students should be studying it along with any other information they gathered throughout the quarter.
Social Studies: We will begin SS again this week! Our first topic will be the lost colony of Roanoke. We will be doing a fun and creative crime study investigation (CSI) project with this topic. This project will begin this week and will continue when we return to school in January.
Have a great week, everyone! Please email me with questions.
Thank you!
Mrs. Bennick
Here is the lofty list of reminders for this week:
1. The 800 Minute Book Club celebration will take place on Monday. If your child qualified, please return the permission form for the brownies.
2. Our class recently reached our goal of 1000 paw prints. Therefore, we will be having a pizza snack on Tuesday afternoon. This will not replace lunch. Please return the permission form if you haven't done so already.
3. We will be going to Hill MS for the chorus assembly. The assembly will take place in the morning and we will return to Watts prior to lunch.
4. Our annual movie/hot chocolate event will take place on Thursday. Please return the permission form for the hot chocolate as soon as possible. Also…I am looking for two parent volunteers to help mix and serve hot chocolate. Please email me if interested. I would need you to arrive at 12:30 and it would take about an hour.
5. Our Winter Party will take place on Friday afternoon. Looking forward to a fun time!
Winter Break begins Saturday, December 20th. School resumes on Monday, January 5th. Have a safe and enjoyable break!
Here's what's going on in the curricular areas this week:
Word Study: Our words will stay the same as last week. The students will be responsible for only spelling the words and knowing their meanings. There will be no diagramming. The test will be on Wednesday.
Math Acceleration: Our Unit 3 test will be on Tuesday. We will not begin Unit 4 until after Winter Break. We will be working on problem solving this week. Remember, there will be no math class on Wednesday due to the field trip to Hill MS. Unit 4 will focus on Expressions. I will be sending home the Unit 4 standards after Winter Break.
ELA: We have a multitude of things going on in ELA currently. First, we are continuing to work our way through our anchor text, The Liberation of Gabriel King. We are continuing to gather information on our courageous American. This is for our Quarter 2 performance task. We have been studying how to write an opinion writing piece as this will be our next step in the performance task after we've gathered enough information. The opinion writing piece will be ongoing for the next few weeks. When the writing piece has been completed, the students will be preparing a debate to convince the class why their American was the most courageous in our history. This should be fun!
Science: We completed our unit on Atomic Structure, Magnetism and Electricity. The test will be this Thursday. We completed a study guide in class yesterday and the students should be studying it along with any other information they gathered throughout the quarter.
Social Studies: We will begin SS again this week! Our first topic will be the lost colony of Roanoke. We will be doing a fun and creative crime study investigation (CSI) project with this topic. This project will begin this week and will continue when we return to school in January.
Have a great week, everyone! Please email me with questions.
Thank you!
Mrs. Bennick
Saturday, December 6, 2014
5B Activities for the Week of December 8th, 2014
Hello Parents and Students!
There are no reminders for this week!
Here's what's going on in the curricular areas this week:
Word Study: We will continue our study of prefixes. The words have been posted to the blog. As usual, the students will be responsible for spelling the words correctly, diagramming and learning the meanings of the words for Friday's test.
Math Acceleration: We are nearing the end of Unit 3. We will finish up our last couple of lessons this week. We will then be creating a Unit 3 study guide. The Unit 3 test will be the week of December 15th…either on Tuesday or Thursday of that week. Currently, we are studying reflections and will be moving on to absolute value.
ELA: We finished our close read from the book, The Liberation of Gabriel King last week. We also listened to and discussed the story, Island of the Blue Dolphins, from our reading anthology. We wrote a theme based on this story and then found evidence to support our theme. This week, we will continue in Gabriel King working on vocabulary and text-dependent questions. We will also be studying another story from our anthology entitled, Summer of Fire. We will complete several activities related to this story. We are continuing to research famous Americans who showed courage for our performance task. All students have chosen their American to research and all is going well.
Science: We have been incredibly busy in science these past two weeks. We will finish up our Magnetism/Electricity unit this week by completing three experiments. We will be making a switch, both a series and parallel circuit and an electromagnet.
Social Studies: If time allows, we will be switching back to social studies this week. Our topic will be colonization.
That is it for this week. Please email me with questions.
Thank you and have a great week!
Mrs. Bennick
There are no reminders for this week!
Here's what's going on in the curricular areas this week:
Word Study: We will continue our study of prefixes. The words have been posted to the blog. As usual, the students will be responsible for spelling the words correctly, diagramming and learning the meanings of the words for Friday's test.
Math Acceleration: We are nearing the end of Unit 3. We will finish up our last couple of lessons this week. We will then be creating a Unit 3 study guide. The Unit 3 test will be the week of December 15th…either on Tuesday or Thursday of that week. Currently, we are studying reflections and will be moving on to absolute value.
ELA: We finished our close read from the book, The Liberation of Gabriel King last week. We also listened to and discussed the story, Island of the Blue Dolphins, from our reading anthology. We wrote a theme based on this story and then found evidence to support our theme. This week, we will continue in Gabriel King working on vocabulary and text-dependent questions. We will also be studying another story from our anthology entitled, Summer of Fire. We will complete several activities related to this story. We are continuing to research famous Americans who showed courage for our performance task. All students have chosen their American to research and all is going well.
Science: We have been incredibly busy in science these past two weeks. We will finish up our Magnetism/Electricity unit this week by completing three experiments. We will be making a switch, both a series and parallel circuit and an electromagnet.
Social Studies: If time allows, we will be switching back to social studies this week. Our topic will be colonization.
That is it for this week. Please email me with questions.
Thank you and have a great week!
Mrs. Bennick
Sunday, November 30, 2014
5B Activities for the Week of December 1st, 2014
Hello Parents and Students,
Welcome back! I hope you were all able to enjoy time with family and friends over Thanksgiving break.
Here are the reminders for the upcoming week:
1. If you have not returned your field trip permission form for the Hill Middle School concert, please do so at your earliest convenience.
2. Gates testing will occur this week for all 5th graders. (5H & 5C Tuesday, 5V & 5B Thursday)
Here's what's going on in the curricular areas this week:
Word Study: This week we will spend some time reviewing commonly misspelled homophones. They have been posted to the blog. The students should be able to use each of these words correctly in sentences. They will not need to diagram the words for the test on Friday.
Math Acceleration: We are moving along in Unit 3. This week our focus will be on the coordinate plane, the x and y axes, the four quadrants, units/distances on the coordinate plane and geometric transformations, specifically reflections. Expect a quiz and/or exit slip this week.
ELA: We will continue the study of our anchor text, The Liberation of Gabriel King. We will discuss vocabulary and participate in a close read. We have begun our research for our 2nd Quarter performance task which includes identifying courageous Americans in American history. Last week, we brainstormed a lofty list of people. This week, we will begin narrowing down our choices of who we want to research. The performance task includes researching the individual, writing an opinion piece of how he/she showed courage and then comparing/contrasting their individual with another person. The final presentation will be a debate with a peer in class. We will also be reading a story from our anthology entitled, Island of the Blue Dolphins and partaking in various activities with this story.
Science: We have studied atoms, the periodic table, molecules, magnetism and the magnetic field thus far. We have completed several science experiments and research that align with these topics as well. This week, we will begin by studying and encompassing ourselves in an experiment involving static electricity. We will then move onto electricity and electrical circuits.
That's it for now. Please email me with questions. Have a great week!
Mrs. Bennick :-)
Welcome back! I hope you were all able to enjoy time with family and friends over Thanksgiving break.
Here are the reminders for the upcoming week:
1. If you have not returned your field trip permission form for the Hill Middle School concert, please do so at your earliest convenience.
2. Gates testing will occur this week for all 5th graders. (5H & 5C Tuesday, 5V & 5B Thursday)
Here's what's going on in the curricular areas this week:
Word Study: This week we will spend some time reviewing commonly misspelled homophones. They have been posted to the blog. The students should be able to use each of these words correctly in sentences. They will not need to diagram the words for the test on Friday.
Math Acceleration: We are moving along in Unit 3. This week our focus will be on the coordinate plane, the x and y axes, the four quadrants, units/distances on the coordinate plane and geometric transformations, specifically reflections. Expect a quiz and/or exit slip this week.
ELA: We will continue the study of our anchor text, The Liberation of Gabriel King. We will discuss vocabulary and participate in a close read. We have begun our research for our 2nd Quarter performance task which includes identifying courageous Americans in American history. Last week, we brainstormed a lofty list of people. This week, we will begin narrowing down our choices of who we want to research. The performance task includes researching the individual, writing an opinion piece of how he/she showed courage and then comparing/contrasting their individual with another person. The final presentation will be a debate with a peer in class. We will also be reading a story from our anthology entitled, Island of the Blue Dolphins and partaking in various activities with this story.
Science: We have studied atoms, the periodic table, molecules, magnetism and the magnetic field thus far. We have completed several science experiments and research that align with these topics as well. This week, we will begin by studying and encompassing ourselves in an experiment involving static electricity. We will then move onto electricity and electrical circuits.
That's it for now. Please email me with questions. Have a great week!
Mrs. Bennick :-)
Sunday, November 23, 2014
5B Activities for the Week of November 24th, 2014
Hello Parents and Students!
Here are the reminders for this week:
1. Due to Thanksgiving Break, there is no school on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday this week. Enjoy this time with your family.
2. I have added the PARCC practice test link on my blog. It is on the right side. Please take some time to work through both the ELA and MATH practice PARCC assessments at home. We will continue to practice at school, but the students will become more comfortable with the assessments with additional practice.
3. The GATES testing informational letter went home via backpack mail this past Friday. It is just for your information. We will be testing the first week in December.
4. The field trip form for attending Hill Middle School's Honors Concert went home last week. Please sign it and return to school at your earliest convenience.
Here's what's going on in the curricular areas this short week:
Word Study: Due to the short week, we will not be having word study this week. However, I will be fitting in some grammar practice instead.
Math Accel: Currently, we are working on positive and negative integers in math class. We will continue this practice on Monday and Tuesday this week. We have been practicing placing integers on number lines. We will be working on some real-World practice with integers and we will be having an exit slip on Monday or Tuesday on this skill.
ELA: Last week, the students were introduced to the book, Confessions of a Former Bully. We have been studying this book and have discussed times when we, or someone we know, has been bullied. We have discussed strengths we have for standing up to a bully and tools that we can use when faced with a bully. We have analyzed quotes from this book and have begun relating characters from other books we've read in class this year to identify with these quotes. We will continue this activity this week. We are also moving along in our anchor text, The Liberation of Gabriel King. We have built a lot of background knowledge about this book/time in history and have examined a lot of vocabulary.
We will continue with our journalling activities and reading responses pertaining to this book again this week. We will also be fitting in some current events time this week.
Science: We have been very busy in science these days. We completed a couple of magnetism experiments last week and will finish up our study of magnetism this week. We will be moving forward to electricity and our first topic will be static electricity. We also completed our Science Elements Journals this week and created a model of an atom.
That's it for now. Please email me with any questions.
Thank you!
Mrs. Bennick :-)
Here are the reminders for this week:
1. Due to Thanksgiving Break, there is no school on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday this week. Enjoy this time with your family.
2. I have added the PARCC practice test link on my blog. It is on the right side. Please take some time to work through both the ELA and MATH practice PARCC assessments at home. We will continue to practice at school, but the students will become more comfortable with the assessments with additional practice.
3. The GATES testing informational letter went home via backpack mail this past Friday. It is just for your information. We will be testing the first week in December.
4. The field trip form for attending Hill Middle School's Honors Concert went home last week. Please sign it and return to school at your earliest convenience.
Here's what's going on in the curricular areas this short week:
Word Study: Due to the short week, we will not be having word study this week. However, I will be fitting in some grammar practice instead.
Math Accel: Currently, we are working on positive and negative integers in math class. We will continue this practice on Monday and Tuesday this week. We have been practicing placing integers on number lines. We will be working on some real-World practice with integers and we will be having an exit slip on Monday or Tuesday on this skill.
ELA: Last week, the students were introduced to the book, Confessions of a Former Bully. We have been studying this book and have discussed times when we, or someone we know, has been bullied. We have discussed strengths we have for standing up to a bully and tools that we can use when faced with a bully. We have analyzed quotes from this book and have begun relating characters from other books we've read in class this year to identify with these quotes. We will continue this activity this week. We are also moving along in our anchor text, The Liberation of Gabriel King. We have built a lot of background knowledge about this book/time in history and have examined a lot of vocabulary.
We will continue with our journalling activities and reading responses pertaining to this book again this week. We will also be fitting in some current events time this week.
Science: We have been very busy in science these days. We completed a couple of magnetism experiments last week and will finish up our study of magnetism this week. We will be moving forward to electricity and our first topic will be static electricity. We also completed our Science Elements Journals this week and created a model of an atom.
That's it for now. Please email me with any questions.
Thank you!
Mrs. Bennick :-)
Sunday, November 16, 2014
5B Activities for the Week of November 17, 2014
Hello Parents and Students!
There are no reminders this week!
Here's what's going on in the curricular areas this week:
Word Study: This week we will be focusing on prefixes and their definitions. The prefixes have been posted to the blog. The test will be on Friday.
Math Acceleration: We will begin Unit 3 this week. Unit 3 focuses on Rational Numbers. The learning standards will be sent home with your child this week. Our first lesson will be on defining what a rational number is and integers.
ELA: We continue to move along in our current read-aloud book, The Liberation of Gabriel King. We had some great discussions last week about 1976, Jimmy Carter, the Bicentennial, small town Georgia and other pertinent events that are related to the book. We also completed some awesome posters with words and pictures to describe the previously mentioned events. This week, we will be reading and discussing another book related to our theme of Courage entitled, Confessions of a Former Bully. Our citizenship lessons will continue this week as well which are focusing on bullying.
Science: Last week we began working on our periodic table element journals. We will continue that this week. We will also be discussing magnetism and will complete an experiment or two during class about what magnets attract and repel.
That is it for now.
Please email me with any questions
Thank you!
Mrs. Bennick
There are no reminders this week!
Here's what's going on in the curricular areas this week:
Word Study: This week we will be focusing on prefixes and their definitions. The prefixes have been posted to the blog. The test will be on Friday.
Math Acceleration: We will begin Unit 3 this week. Unit 3 focuses on Rational Numbers. The learning standards will be sent home with your child this week. Our first lesson will be on defining what a rational number is and integers.
ELA: We continue to move along in our current read-aloud book, The Liberation of Gabriel King. We had some great discussions last week about 1976, Jimmy Carter, the Bicentennial, small town Georgia and other pertinent events that are related to the book. We also completed some awesome posters with words and pictures to describe the previously mentioned events. This week, we will be reading and discussing another book related to our theme of Courage entitled, Confessions of a Former Bully. Our citizenship lessons will continue this week as well which are focusing on bullying.
Science: Last week we began working on our periodic table element journals. We will continue that this week. We will also be discussing magnetism and will complete an experiment or two during class about what magnets attract and repel.
That is it for now.
Please email me with any questions
Thank you!
Mrs. Bennick
Saturday, November 8, 2014
5B Activities for the Week of November 10, 2014
Hello Parents and Students!
Here's what's going on this week in 5B…
A huge thanks to Mrs. Karat and Mrs. Tegethoff for helping us carve soap this past Friday afternoon! We hope you enjoyed it! :-)
Reminders:
1. The last round of Parent-Teacher Conferences occur this Monday evening from 4:30-8:00pm. This is a regular day of school for students.
2. Veteran's Day is Tuesday, November 11th. There is no school. Enjoy the day off!
3. Our marble jar is full again! We will be celebrating next Friday. Information to come via email.
4. Congrats to all 5B students! For the month of October, 5B logged the most reading minutes in the school and became the recipient of the BIG ALIEN! Great job!
Here's what's going on in the curricular areas this week:
Word Study: This week will be used for review of the Closed, Open, C-le, VC-e and Exception syllable types. The words have been posted to the blog and the test will be on Friday.
Math Acceleration: On Monday, we will be working on some problem solving and our transfer task. On Wednesday, we will continue the transfer task and review for the test. The unit 2 math test will be on Thursday. If you did not bring in a food label yet, please do so as we will be getting to this lesson on Friday if the students have completed their math test.
English Language Arts (ELA): We finished our digital presentations of the Where I'm From poems. All of the poems were excellent. The poems will be coming home on Monday with a rubric attached to them. These poems will not be graded as this is the first year we have completed this performance task. We completed some pre-reading activities last week for our new anchor text, The Liberation of Gabriel King. We will begin reading/studying the book this week. Vocabulary and text-dependent questions will be discussed and journaled. Students will be introduced to our essential questions for our 2nd Quarter theme, Courage. Our Citizenship focus will continue to be on Bullying and our topic will be, Being an Upstander. Most narrative writing pieces have been turned it, but a few will need to be completed on Monday & Tuesday. Students will also be working on Writer's Workshop projects.
Social Studies: We tested our unit on Exploration and the book Encounter. We have switched back over to science for the time being. However, some students will continue to present their SS mini projects.
Science: Students were introduced to the Atomic Structure vocabulary last week. There will be a quiz on these words on Wednesday. We will begin our research on elements this week. One of the websites that we will be using is www.chemicool.com. Check it out!
That's it for now. Please email me with questions.
Thank you!
Mrs. Bennick
Here's what's going on this week in 5B…
A huge thanks to Mrs. Karat and Mrs. Tegethoff for helping us carve soap this past Friday afternoon! We hope you enjoyed it! :-)
Reminders:
1. The last round of Parent-Teacher Conferences occur this Monday evening from 4:30-8:00pm. This is a regular day of school for students.
2. Veteran's Day is Tuesday, November 11th. There is no school. Enjoy the day off!
3. Our marble jar is full again! We will be celebrating next Friday. Information to come via email.
4. Congrats to all 5B students! For the month of October, 5B logged the most reading minutes in the school and became the recipient of the BIG ALIEN! Great job!
Here's what's going on in the curricular areas this week:
Word Study: This week will be used for review of the Closed, Open, C-le, VC-e and Exception syllable types. The words have been posted to the blog and the test will be on Friday.
Math Acceleration: On Monday, we will be working on some problem solving and our transfer task. On Wednesday, we will continue the transfer task and review for the test. The unit 2 math test will be on Thursday. If you did not bring in a food label yet, please do so as we will be getting to this lesson on Friday if the students have completed their math test.
English Language Arts (ELA): We finished our digital presentations of the Where I'm From poems. All of the poems were excellent. The poems will be coming home on Monday with a rubric attached to them. These poems will not be graded as this is the first year we have completed this performance task. We completed some pre-reading activities last week for our new anchor text, The Liberation of Gabriel King. We will begin reading/studying the book this week. Vocabulary and text-dependent questions will be discussed and journaled. Students will be introduced to our essential questions for our 2nd Quarter theme, Courage. Our Citizenship focus will continue to be on Bullying and our topic will be, Being an Upstander. Most narrative writing pieces have been turned it, but a few will need to be completed on Monday & Tuesday. Students will also be working on Writer's Workshop projects.
Social Studies: We tested our unit on Exploration and the book Encounter. We have switched back over to science for the time being. However, some students will continue to present their SS mini projects.
Science: Students were introduced to the Atomic Structure vocabulary last week. There will be a quiz on these words on Wednesday. We will begin our research on elements this week. One of the websites that we will be using is www.chemicool.com. Check it out!
That's it for now. Please email me with questions.
Thank you!
Mrs. Bennick
Saturday, November 1, 2014
5B Activities for the Week of November 3rd, 2014
Hello Parents and Students!
Here are the reminders for the upcoming week:
Thank you to Mrs. Vogt and Mrs. Swanson for hosting a fabulous Halloween party for the students in 5B! I sincerely appreciate the time and effort you put into this.
1. The first round of Parent-Teacher Conferences will begin this week on Tuesday. Tuesday conference times run from 8:00-3:00. There is NO STUDENT ATTENDANCE this day.
It is also election day.
2. Thursday evening conferences will begin at 4:30 and end at 8:00. There is a normal day of school for students on this day.
3. 5B will be previewing the May Watt's Book Fair on Monday. The Book Fair begins on November 4th.
Here's what's going on in the curricular areas this week:
Word Study: This week we will be focusing solely on homophones. The words have been posted to the blog. We will be learning the meanings of these words, how to spell them based on their meanings and how to diagram them. The test will be on Friday.
Math Acceleration: We should finish up Unit 2 late in the week or early the following week. We just recently completed our lesson on proportions and the students were introduced to conversions between percents, fractions and decimals this past Friday. We will continue with this lesson on Monday. We will then move into studying calorie use/using nutrition information and then graphing this data on a coordinate plane. Please send in two nutrition labels off of products you have in your home to use with this lesson. Thank you. We will begin this lesson on Wednesday.
English Language Arts (ELA): We finished our 1st quarter anchor text, Becoming Naomi Leon, this past Friday. What a great book that is! In the book, one of Naomi's favorite past times and strengths is carving beautiful objects out of soap. As a fun connection to the book, 5B will be carving their own structures from soap. We will be doing this mid to late in the week. I may need a couple of parent volunteers to assist with this project. On Monday, students will be introduced to our 2nd quarter theme, Courage. The 2nd quarter anchor text will be, The Liberation of Gabriel King. We will be doing some pre-reading activities prior to reading the story. We will be discussing ordinary and extraordinary types of courage and will be completing a graphic organizer on this topic. We will be watching a video about a man who has shown extraordinary courage throughout his life and discussing his situation in detail.
The Where I'm From poems have been incredible! About half the class has presented theirs through digital media and the other half will finish early in the week.
Social Studies: We will be moving out of social studies by late in the week. Students will have a test on the material that was covered in the book, Encounter, mini social studies projects and our textbook. The test will be on Friday. The students will write their study guides on Monday during class to give them the rest of the week to prepare.
Science: By week's end, we will be moving back into science. Our topic this quarter will be Electricity and Magnetism. We will begin the unit researching atoms….including atomic structure vocabulary, maintaining an atomic structure elements research journal and the periodic table of elements. We will be using a couple of great websites to complete our research of this topic.
That's it for now.
Please email me with any questions.
Looking forward to meeting with many of you this week at conferences.
Have a great week!
Mrs. Bennick
Here are the reminders for the upcoming week:
Thank you to Mrs. Vogt and Mrs. Swanson for hosting a fabulous Halloween party for the students in 5B! I sincerely appreciate the time and effort you put into this.
1. The first round of Parent-Teacher Conferences will begin this week on Tuesday. Tuesday conference times run from 8:00-3:00. There is NO STUDENT ATTENDANCE this day.
It is also election day.
2. Thursday evening conferences will begin at 4:30 and end at 8:00. There is a normal day of school for students on this day.
3. 5B will be previewing the May Watt's Book Fair on Monday. The Book Fair begins on November 4th.
Here's what's going on in the curricular areas this week:
Word Study: This week we will be focusing solely on homophones. The words have been posted to the blog. We will be learning the meanings of these words, how to spell them based on their meanings and how to diagram them. The test will be on Friday.
Math Acceleration: We should finish up Unit 2 late in the week or early the following week. We just recently completed our lesson on proportions and the students were introduced to conversions between percents, fractions and decimals this past Friday. We will continue with this lesson on Monday. We will then move into studying calorie use/using nutrition information and then graphing this data on a coordinate plane. Please send in two nutrition labels off of products you have in your home to use with this lesson. Thank you. We will begin this lesson on Wednesday.
English Language Arts (ELA): We finished our 1st quarter anchor text, Becoming Naomi Leon, this past Friday. What a great book that is! In the book, one of Naomi's favorite past times and strengths is carving beautiful objects out of soap. As a fun connection to the book, 5B will be carving their own structures from soap. We will be doing this mid to late in the week. I may need a couple of parent volunteers to assist with this project. On Monday, students will be introduced to our 2nd quarter theme, Courage. The 2nd quarter anchor text will be, The Liberation of Gabriel King. We will be doing some pre-reading activities prior to reading the story. We will be discussing ordinary and extraordinary types of courage and will be completing a graphic organizer on this topic. We will be watching a video about a man who has shown extraordinary courage throughout his life and discussing his situation in detail.
The Where I'm From poems have been incredible! About half the class has presented theirs through digital media and the other half will finish early in the week.
Social Studies: We will be moving out of social studies by late in the week. Students will have a test on the material that was covered in the book, Encounter, mini social studies projects and our textbook. The test will be on Friday. The students will write their study guides on Monday during class to give them the rest of the week to prepare.
Science: By week's end, we will be moving back into science. Our topic this quarter will be Electricity and Magnetism. We will begin the unit researching atoms….including atomic structure vocabulary, maintaining an atomic structure elements research journal and the periodic table of elements. We will be using a couple of great websites to complete our research of this topic.
That's it for now.
Please email me with any questions.
Looking forward to meeting with many of you this week at conferences.
Have a great week!
Mrs. Bennick
Sunday, October 26, 2014
5B Activities for the Week of October 27th, 2014
Hello Students and Parents!
Here are the reminders for this week:
1. The Boosterthon Fun Run will take place this Wednesday from 10:30-11:30 outside. (weather permitting) Parents may come to cheer on the students. Please arrive 15 minutes early to check in. However, in the case of rain, the Fun Run will have to be moved indoors, therefore, parents will not be able to watch due to lack of space. Thank you for all of the donations. Please keep them coming in!
2. The annual Halloween Parade and Party will be this Friday, October 31st! The parade will begin promptly at 2:00. Parents can come to watch if the parade is outdoors.
Here's what's going on in the curricular areas this week:
Word Study: We are on Lesson 8, Consonant "le" words. (C-le) The words have been posted to the blog and the test will be on Friday.
Math Acceleration: We are moving right along in Unit 2. We have discussed ratio and used ratio language to describe a relationship between two quantities. We have also learned the concept of a unit rate. We have written our own real-world math ratio problems, solved them and shared them with our peers. This week, we will begin discussing proportions and then move into percents.
English Language Arts (ELA): Becoming Naomi Leon continues to be our focus this week. We should be finishing this book by week's end. Vocabulary development and answering text-dependent questions will be our focus. Last week, we continued to practice annotating and how to summarize based on our annotating skills. We will continue to practice these skills using our anchor text. Last week, we started recording our Where I'm From poems. This week, some students will begin presenting them while others continue to record theirs. The presentation of the poems will be ongoing. Last week we also began writing our first narratives. We brainstormed some ideas using graphic organizers and some students have begun the writing process. We will continue to work on these narratives during ELA time this week. Also during ELA time, we will be learning about grammar conventions in writing.
Social Studies: We will be finishing up SS by the end of the week. We will continue to research and discuss various explorers and exploration. Some of our topics this week will include the voyages of Columbus, longitude and latitude, different Worlds collide and life in New Spain.
That's it for now. Please email me with any questions.
Thank you!
Mrs. Bennick :-)
Here are the reminders for this week:
1. The Boosterthon Fun Run will take place this Wednesday from 10:30-11:30 outside. (weather permitting) Parents may come to cheer on the students. Please arrive 15 minutes early to check in. However, in the case of rain, the Fun Run will have to be moved indoors, therefore, parents will not be able to watch due to lack of space. Thank you for all of the donations. Please keep them coming in!
2. The annual Halloween Parade and Party will be this Friday, October 31st! The parade will begin promptly at 2:00. Parents can come to watch if the parade is outdoors.
Here's what's going on in the curricular areas this week:
Word Study: We are on Lesson 8, Consonant "le" words. (C-le) The words have been posted to the blog and the test will be on Friday.
Math Acceleration: We are moving right along in Unit 2. We have discussed ratio and used ratio language to describe a relationship between two quantities. We have also learned the concept of a unit rate. We have written our own real-world math ratio problems, solved them and shared them with our peers. This week, we will begin discussing proportions and then move into percents.
English Language Arts (ELA): Becoming Naomi Leon continues to be our focus this week. We should be finishing this book by week's end. Vocabulary development and answering text-dependent questions will be our focus. Last week, we continued to practice annotating and how to summarize based on our annotating skills. We will continue to practice these skills using our anchor text. Last week, we started recording our Where I'm From poems. This week, some students will begin presenting them while others continue to record theirs. The presentation of the poems will be ongoing. Last week we also began writing our first narratives. We brainstormed some ideas using graphic organizers and some students have begun the writing process. We will continue to work on these narratives during ELA time this week. Also during ELA time, we will be learning about grammar conventions in writing.
Social Studies: We will be finishing up SS by the end of the week. We will continue to research and discuss various explorers and exploration. Some of our topics this week will include the voyages of Columbus, longitude and latitude, different Worlds collide and life in New Spain.
That's it for now. Please email me with any questions.
Thank you!
Mrs. Bennick :-)
Saturday, October 18, 2014
5B Activities for the Week of October 20th, 2014
Hello Parents and Students!
Here are the reminders for this week:
1. Boosterthon will begin this week! This is a new fundraising program at Watts. The students will be introduced to it this week. Information will be forthcoming!
2. If you have not returned the Parent-Teacher Conference form, please do so at your earliest convenience. Thank you!
3. The end of the 1st Quarter is this Friday, October 24th! That was fast!
Here's what's going on in the curricular areas this week:
Word Study: This week we will be reviewing all that we've learned in word study during the 1st Quarter. We will be focusing on words and syllable types that are Closed, Open, Open with Exceptions, VC-e and Soft "C" and "G". The words have been posted to the blog and the test will be on Friday.
Math Acceleration: Unit 2 begins this week! We are running just a little behind, so we will be stepping up the pace just a bit. This unit focuses on Ratios, Unit Rates, Proportions and Percents. Our first lesson will be on dependent and independent variables and then we will be moving into ratios. Students have begun working on www.frontrowed.com as well. This is a great resource in which the kids can utilize at home as well.
English Language Arts (ELA): We accomplished a lot last week! We will be finishing up some projects this week as it is the last week of the quarter. We will finish (or get close to finishing) our anchor text, Becoming Naomi Leon. We will continue analyzing our text-dependent questions and studying vocabulary related to this book. We will continue our journal writing as well as comparing and contrasting characters. We will also be summarizing the chapters using our recently learned annotating skills! :-) Our citizenship lessons will continue and our current focus is bullying. Finally, we will be recording our Where I'm From poems.
Social Studies: We have a lot going on in SS this week! First, we will be finishing up our mini SS research projects. Presentations will begin on Friday and continue into the following week. Also, we will be working on part of the Think Quest. This part will focus on explorers who sailed for various European countries. The students will also be working in inquiry circles to obtain information about these various explorers. Finally, students have completed their Taino diary entries and will be working on their European diary entries to conclude the week.
That is it for now! Please email me with questions. Thank you and have a great week!
~Mrs. Bennick :-)
Here are the reminders for this week:
1. Boosterthon will begin this week! This is a new fundraising program at Watts. The students will be introduced to it this week. Information will be forthcoming!
2. If you have not returned the Parent-Teacher Conference form, please do so at your earliest convenience. Thank you!
3. The end of the 1st Quarter is this Friday, October 24th! That was fast!
Here's what's going on in the curricular areas this week:
Word Study: This week we will be reviewing all that we've learned in word study during the 1st Quarter. We will be focusing on words and syllable types that are Closed, Open, Open with Exceptions, VC-e and Soft "C" and "G". The words have been posted to the blog and the test will be on Friday.
Math Acceleration: Unit 2 begins this week! We are running just a little behind, so we will be stepping up the pace just a bit. This unit focuses on Ratios, Unit Rates, Proportions and Percents. Our first lesson will be on dependent and independent variables and then we will be moving into ratios. Students have begun working on www.frontrowed.com as well. This is a great resource in which the kids can utilize at home as well.
English Language Arts (ELA): We accomplished a lot last week! We will be finishing up some projects this week as it is the last week of the quarter. We will finish (or get close to finishing) our anchor text, Becoming Naomi Leon. We will continue analyzing our text-dependent questions and studying vocabulary related to this book. We will continue our journal writing as well as comparing and contrasting characters. We will also be summarizing the chapters using our recently learned annotating skills! :-) Our citizenship lessons will continue and our current focus is bullying. Finally, we will be recording our Where I'm From poems.
Social Studies: We have a lot going on in SS this week! First, we will be finishing up our mini SS research projects. Presentations will begin on Friday and continue into the following week. Also, we will be working on part of the Think Quest. This part will focus on explorers who sailed for various European countries. The students will also be working in inquiry circles to obtain information about these various explorers. Finally, students have completed their Taino diary entries and will be working on their European diary entries to conclude the week.
That is it for now! Please email me with questions. Thank you and have a great week!
~Mrs. Bennick :-)
Sunday, October 12, 2014
5B Activities for the Week of 10/14/2014
Hello Parents and Students!
Here are the reminders for this week:
1. There is no school tomorrow, Monday , October 13th, due to the Columbus Day holiday. Enjoy the extra day off.
Here's what's going on this week in the curricular areas:
Word Study: We will use this week for review of the syllable types we've learned so far this year. (Closed, Open, Open with Exceptions and Vowel Consonant Silent "e". There will be no test on Friday.
Math Acceleration: We completed our Unit 1 test last Friday. We will review this test on Tuesday and continue working on Multiplication of Fractions and will then move onto Division of Fractions. Later in the week we will begin Unit 2 which focuses on Rates, Ratios, Proportions and Percents. (The unit order has changed since last year.)
ELA (English Language Arts): Many of the skills/topics that we have been working on in ELA are ongoing. We will continue to focus on vocabulary, comprehension and grammar with our anchor text Becoming Naomi Leon. This book is also a great tool for teaching Social Emotional Learning. Our citizenship lesson for this week is on Bullying. What is a bully? How to you know when bullying is occurring? What should you do when you are faced with a bully? We will discuss these and more questions regarding bullying. We have all finished our Where I'm From poems. If time allows this week, we will be creating our digital media projects with them. They should be awesome when completed! The students will be introduced to narrative writing. We will learn what a narrative is and brainstorm some ideas as far as writing a narrative. We will also be reading a book from our reading anthology, Sees Behind Trees. As I am typing this, I am fairly confident that there's no way we will be able to accomplish all of this plus the other subjects in a four day week. Be prepared to see some of these activities pushed to next week. It's better to go deep than to skim the surface. Thank you for understanding. :-)
Social Studies: In Common Core, many of the subjects all come together or overlap. This is certainly the case with social studies and ELA . This past week, we have been studying a book entitled, Encounter. We have discussed inferences and figurative language and why an author would choose to use inferences and figurative language in text. Of course, vocabulary development and comprehension skills are ongoing. We discussed point of view and perspective and how the Taino Indians and Europeans felt when their land was taken over or when land was discovered. This week, we will continue to discuss these things and take it a step further by writing our own journal entries from these two perspectives. We will also be reading Christopher Columbus Journals. At some point, we will begin our own Think Quest pertaining to Exploration.
We have some ambitious goals this week to meet, but this is a very hard-working group of kids! We'll do our best!
As always, if you have any questions, please email me.
Have a great week!
Mrs. Bennick :-)
Here are the reminders for this week:
1. There is no school tomorrow, Monday , October 13th, due to the Columbus Day holiday. Enjoy the extra day off.
Here's what's going on this week in the curricular areas:
Word Study: We will use this week for review of the syllable types we've learned so far this year. (Closed, Open, Open with Exceptions and Vowel Consonant Silent "e". There will be no test on Friday.
Math Acceleration: We completed our Unit 1 test last Friday. We will review this test on Tuesday and continue working on Multiplication of Fractions and will then move onto Division of Fractions. Later in the week we will begin Unit 2 which focuses on Rates, Ratios, Proportions and Percents. (The unit order has changed since last year.)
ELA (English Language Arts): Many of the skills/topics that we have been working on in ELA are ongoing. We will continue to focus on vocabulary, comprehension and grammar with our anchor text Becoming Naomi Leon. This book is also a great tool for teaching Social Emotional Learning. Our citizenship lesson for this week is on Bullying. What is a bully? How to you know when bullying is occurring? What should you do when you are faced with a bully? We will discuss these and more questions regarding bullying. We have all finished our Where I'm From poems. If time allows this week, we will be creating our digital media projects with them. They should be awesome when completed! The students will be introduced to narrative writing. We will learn what a narrative is and brainstorm some ideas as far as writing a narrative. We will also be reading a book from our reading anthology, Sees Behind Trees. As I am typing this, I am fairly confident that there's no way we will be able to accomplish all of this plus the other subjects in a four day week. Be prepared to see some of these activities pushed to next week. It's better to go deep than to skim the surface. Thank you for understanding. :-)
Social Studies: In Common Core, many of the subjects all come together or overlap. This is certainly the case with social studies and ELA . This past week, we have been studying a book entitled, Encounter. We have discussed inferences and figurative language and why an author would choose to use inferences and figurative language in text. Of course, vocabulary development and comprehension skills are ongoing. We discussed point of view and perspective and how the Taino Indians and Europeans felt when their land was taken over or when land was discovered. This week, we will continue to discuss these things and take it a step further by writing our own journal entries from these two perspectives. We will also be reading Christopher Columbus Journals. At some point, we will begin our own Think Quest pertaining to Exploration.
We have some ambitious goals this week to meet, but this is a very hard-working group of kids! We'll do our best!
As always, if you have any questions, please email me.
Have a great week!
Mrs. Bennick :-)
Monday, October 6, 2014
Halloween Parade/Party Information
|
October 9, 2014
Dear Parents,
On Friday, October 31, May Watts School will celebrate a Fall Festival and Halloween Parade. Various activities integrating curriculum will be occurring throughout the day in all Kindergarten through Grade 5 classrooms. The parade will proceed from the north gym doors and finish up at the south gym doors, weather permitting. We will walk around the building on the sidewalk areas. Please keep this area clear of people, dogs, strollers, etc. The parade will occur at 2:00 p.m. The parade will need to continuously move forward so please do not stop the parade to take photos or talk to your child. In case of inclement weather (i.e. threat of rain), the parade will be cancelled. We will follow the same criteria for any outdoor recess.
The PTA will sponsor room parties for the children. The parties will run from:
Kindergarten - 5 2:30 p.m. to 3:15 p.m.
Children must be in attendance throughout the day in order to participate in the parade and party.
Children will be permitted to wear costumes and clothing to school that does not interfere with physical education, lunch, and outdoor recess. Accessories (props, masks, etc.) need to be carried to school in a bag and will be permitted to be used and/or worn for the parade only. Since it will be the responsibility of your child to dress himself/herself, please consider this when choosing his/her costume.
If your child will require make-up or colored hair spray for his/her costume, please apply the make-up or spray at home prior to sending him/her to school. No make-up or spray should be brought to school. Costumes should be appropriate in taste for elementary school children with no adult or violent themes, and not so big as to cause problems walking in halls or through doors. Children should be able to see adequately so as not to have an accident. Anything resembling a weapon (gun, sword, knife, sticks, etc.) should be left at home.
The PTA will be providing the students with Chocolate Chunk Cookies and Minute Maid Apple Juice. The ingredients are listed below:
Minute Maid Apple Juice – Apple Juice from concentrate with added ingredients of: pure filtered water, concentrated apple juice, less than 0.5% of: calcium citrate (calcium source), Vitamin C (ascorbic acid), potassium phosphate.
**Cookies – bought from Costco. Ingredients: chocolate chunks (sugar, cocoa solids and cocoa butter, soy lecithin (an emulsifier), vanilla, enriched wheat flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), vegetable shortening (palm oil, canola oil), sugar, eggs, invert syrup, molasses, whey powder, natural and artificial flavors, leavening (baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate, corn starch), salt.
**Produced on equipment that also processes peanuts and tree nuts.
If your child is unable to have the treat provided because of allergies, please send the school nurse a note informing us of this. You are asked to provide your child with a treat that he/she can have if they have allergies to the cookies 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 2:00 p.m. Please contact Mr. LeCrone through email in order that appropriate activities can be arranged. His email is: brian_lecrone@ipsd.org.
With the excitement of Halloween, please emphasize the need for safety to and from school.
The May Watts Staff |
Saturday, October 4, 2014
5B Activities for the Week of October 6, 2014
Hello Parents and Students!
Here are the reminders for this week:
1. Track and Field day is Monday. Please dress your child appropriately for the weather and send a water bottle with them.
Here's what's going on in the curricular areas this week:
Word Study: The words have been posted to the blog. This week we will be studying the other sounds of "C" and "G". The test will be on Friday.
Math Accel: On Monday we will be finishing up the last lesson in Unit 1. The Unit 1 test will be on Thursday. The students should be studying their notes and worksheets that they have taken/completed over the past few weeks. We will be reviewing for the test on Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday, we will begin Unit 2 which focuses on different types of graphs and their uses.
English Language Arts (ELA): We have been moving along in our anchor text entitled, Becoming Naomi Leon. It's a great book. We have been answering text-dependent questions in our journals and having some great discussions about the various problems the characters in the book are facing. In Citizenship we will continue our Cool Tool lessons. This week's topic is Understanding Feelings. Our Where I'm From poems continue to be a focus. Some students are putting the final touches on them while others are still completing the template. In the computer lab, we have been working on our typing skills at the Typing Club website. Also, we will be reading/discussing our first TFK of the year this week.
Science: Science will end for the First Quarter on Tuesday when we take our Weather test. The study guide was sent home last week. We will also be reviewing in class on Monday for the test. Please have your child bring their electronic device to school as we will be using them to review for the test.
If they do not have an electronic device, they can use a school laptop.
Social Studies: Social studies begins this week! We will begin with Exploration and Early Explorers. The students will be starting an online Think Quest that will take a week or two to complete. We will also be reading/discussing/analyzing a book entitled, Encounter. We will be composing diary entries, making inferences and completing graphic organizers about this story.
It's going to be a BUSY week!
If you have any questions or concerns, please email me.
Have a great week!
~Mrs. Bennick :-)
Here are the reminders for this week:
1. Track and Field day is Monday. Please dress your child appropriately for the weather and send a water bottle with them.
Here's what's going on in the curricular areas this week:
Word Study: The words have been posted to the blog. This week we will be studying the other sounds of "C" and "G". The test will be on Friday.
Math Accel: On Monday we will be finishing up the last lesson in Unit 1. The Unit 1 test will be on Thursday. The students should be studying their notes and worksheets that they have taken/completed over the past few weeks. We will be reviewing for the test on Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday, we will begin Unit 2 which focuses on different types of graphs and their uses.
English Language Arts (ELA): We have been moving along in our anchor text entitled, Becoming Naomi Leon. It's a great book. We have been answering text-dependent questions in our journals and having some great discussions about the various problems the characters in the book are facing. In Citizenship we will continue our Cool Tool lessons. This week's topic is Understanding Feelings. Our Where I'm From poems continue to be a focus. Some students are putting the final touches on them while others are still completing the template. In the computer lab, we have been working on our typing skills at the Typing Club website. Also, we will be reading/discussing our first TFK of the year this week.
Science: Science will end for the First Quarter on Tuesday when we take our Weather test. The study guide was sent home last week. We will also be reviewing in class on Monday for the test. Please have your child bring their electronic device to school as we will be using them to review for the test.
If they do not have an electronic device, they can use a school laptop.
Social Studies: Social studies begins this week! We will begin with Exploration and Early Explorers. The students will be starting an online Think Quest that will take a week or two to complete. We will also be reading/discussing/analyzing a book entitled, Encounter. We will be composing diary entries, making inferences and completing graphic organizers about this story.
It's going to be a BUSY week!
If you have any questions or concerns, please email me.
Have a great week!
~Mrs. Bennick :-)
Saturday, September 27, 2014
5B Activities for the Week of September 29th, 2014
Hello Parents and Students!
Here are the reminders for this week:
1. Track and Field Day will be next Monday, October 6th. If you would like to volunteer, please contact Ms. Andrews.
2. The May Watts Reads Program begins on Wednesday, October 1st. You can begin logging your reading minutes then.
Here's what's going on this week in 5B:
Word Study: This week we will be reviewing closed, open and vowel consonant silent "e". The words have been posted to the blog and the test will be on Friday.
Math Accel: We are moving right along in MA. This week the skills that we will focus on are powers of 10, exponents, long division and possibly scientific notation if we have time. Expect an exit slip on powers of 10 Monday or Tuesday.
ELA: In ELA we recently finished up our citizenship lessons regarding the first 20 days of school. This week we will begin our Cool Tool lessons which will focus on Empathy/Bullying. We will also continue to write our own Where I'm From poems. These are coming along nicely. Some students will begin typing them this week. We will also be discussing the digital media that the students will be using to present their poems. We are in about chapter 7 of our new read-aloud book, Becoming Naomi Leon. Our discussions about this book have been excellent. The students are also journalling about the topics/situations in this book. We will be completing a close read using this book later in the week and will also be learning how to annotate.
Science: We completed another experiment last week on how air takes up space. We also discussed air, air pressure and air temperature. We also studied the water cycle. This week we will be discussing fronts and completing a barometer activity. We will also be researching types of clouds. Expect a study guide to come home sometime this week to help prepare for our upcoming test on the Weather Unit.
That is it for now. Please contact me with any questions.
Have a great week!
Mrs. Bennick :-)
Here are the reminders for this week:
1. Track and Field Day will be next Monday, October 6th. If you would like to volunteer, please contact Ms. Andrews.
2. The May Watts Reads Program begins on Wednesday, October 1st. You can begin logging your reading minutes then.
Here's what's going on this week in 5B:
Word Study: This week we will be reviewing closed, open and vowel consonant silent "e". The words have been posted to the blog and the test will be on Friday.
Math Accel: We are moving right along in MA. This week the skills that we will focus on are powers of 10, exponents, long division and possibly scientific notation if we have time. Expect an exit slip on powers of 10 Monday or Tuesday.
ELA: In ELA we recently finished up our citizenship lessons regarding the first 20 days of school. This week we will begin our Cool Tool lessons which will focus on Empathy/Bullying. We will also continue to write our own Where I'm From poems. These are coming along nicely. Some students will begin typing them this week. We will also be discussing the digital media that the students will be using to present their poems. We are in about chapter 7 of our new read-aloud book, Becoming Naomi Leon. Our discussions about this book have been excellent. The students are also journalling about the topics/situations in this book. We will be completing a close read using this book later in the week and will also be learning how to annotate.
Science: We completed another experiment last week on how air takes up space. We also discussed air, air pressure and air temperature. We also studied the water cycle. This week we will be discussing fronts and completing a barometer activity. We will also be researching types of clouds. Expect a study guide to come home sometime this week to help prepare for our upcoming test on the Weather Unit.
That is it for now. Please contact me with any questions.
Have a great week!
Mrs. Bennick :-)
Saturday, September 20, 2014
5B Activities for the Week of September 22nd, 2014
Hello Parents and Students,
Here are the reminders for this week:
1. Curriculum Night is this Monday, September 22nd. Kindergarten through 5th grade Session I is from 6:30-6:55. The whole school session is in the gym from 7:05-7:25. Kindergarten through 5th grade session 2 is from 7:35-8:00. This schedule allows parents of more than one student to visit both classrooms. Also, please remember to sign up for November Parent-Teacher Conferences in the multi-purpose room on this night. Curriculum Night is an adult only evening.
2. If you have not done so already, please send our room parent, Jen Straub, your email address as soon as possible. Her email address is fpjlstraub@yahoo.com.
3. Track and Field Day will be Monday, October 6th. Ms. Andrews is looking for parent helpers. Please contact her if you are interested.
Here's what's going on in the curricular areas this week in 5B:
Word Study: This week we will be studying Part II of Open Syllables. The words have been posted to the blog. The test will be on Friday. This week's word study lesson went very well since we had five full days to get through it. :-)
Math Accel: We are currently working on our Transfer Task in MA. The students are in groups and practicing their drama skills! We completed our menus and are now doing some restaurant role-playing. They are pretending that they are in a restaurant and one group member is a waiter/waitress who is taking all of their orders. They are then responsible for calculating their total cost, determining the gratuity and adding taxes. All is going well! We should finish up this activity Monday or Tuesday and will then begin working on powers of 10 and exponents. Possibly, late in the week, we may begin whole number division.
ELA: We finished up the book, Because of Mr. Terupt last Friday. The kids really enjoyed the ending! Monday, we will begin our first CCSS anchor text, Becoming Naomi Leon. We will finish up our first 20 days of citizenship this week. Our topics will include common courtesies and times when it's best to mind your own business. We will then begin our Cool Tool lessons and our first one will focus on empathy. We have had some great discussions about the Where I'm From poem by George Ella Lyon. We enjoyed watching the video clip. This week, we will continue to answer the pre-write discussion questions which will better prepare us for writing our own Where I'm From poems.
Science: We've been very busy in science lately! We completed two experiments this week (both about molecules) and this week we will be discussing air pressure, air temperature, and air. We will discuss how air takes up space and complete an experiment on this topic. Later in the week we will focus on Fronts and what happens when a warm and cold front meet. There will also be an experiment to demonstrate this. If time allows, we will also practice reading a barometer. If not, that will move to next week.
That's it for now. Any questions or concerns, please email me. Thank you!
Mrs. Bennick :-)
Here are the reminders for this week:
1. Curriculum Night is this Monday, September 22nd. Kindergarten through 5th grade Session I is from 6:30-6:55. The whole school session is in the gym from 7:05-7:25. Kindergarten through 5th grade session 2 is from 7:35-8:00. This schedule allows parents of more than one student to visit both classrooms. Also, please remember to sign up for November Parent-Teacher Conferences in the multi-purpose room on this night. Curriculum Night is an adult only evening.
2. If you have not done so already, please send our room parent, Jen Straub, your email address as soon as possible. Her email address is fpjlstraub@yahoo.com.
3. Track and Field Day will be Monday, October 6th. Ms. Andrews is looking for parent helpers. Please contact her if you are interested.
Here's what's going on in the curricular areas this week in 5B:
Word Study: This week we will be studying Part II of Open Syllables. The words have been posted to the blog. The test will be on Friday. This week's word study lesson went very well since we had five full days to get through it. :-)
Math Accel: We are currently working on our Transfer Task in MA. The students are in groups and practicing their drama skills! We completed our menus and are now doing some restaurant role-playing. They are pretending that they are in a restaurant and one group member is a waiter/waitress who is taking all of their orders. They are then responsible for calculating their total cost, determining the gratuity and adding taxes. All is going well! We should finish up this activity Monday or Tuesday and will then begin working on powers of 10 and exponents. Possibly, late in the week, we may begin whole number division.
ELA: We finished up the book, Because of Mr. Terupt last Friday. The kids really enjoyed the ending! Monday, we will begin our first CCSS anchor text, Becoming Naomi Leon. We will finish up our first 20 days of citizenship this week. Our topics will include common courtesies and times when it's best to mind your own business. We will then begin our Cool Tool lessons and our first one will focus on empathy. We have had some great discussions about the Where I'm From poem by George Ella Lyon. We enjoyed watching the video clip. This week, we will continue to answer the pre-write discussion questions which will better prepare us for writing our own Where I'm From poems.
Science: We've been very busy in science lately! We completed two experiments this week (both about molecules) and this week we will be discussing air pressure, air temperature, and air. We will discuss how air takes up space and complete an experiment on this topic. Later in the week we will focus on Fronts and what happens when a warm and cold front meet. There will also be an experiment to demonstrate this. If time allows, we will also practice reading a barometer. If not, that will move to next week.
That's it for now. Any questions or concerns, please email me. Thank you!
Mrs. Bennick :-)
Monday, September 15, 2014
Please read! A note from our room parent, Mrs. Straub
Hello parents,
My name is Jennifer Straub and I am excited to be Mrs. Bennick's Room Parent this year. I will be coordinating volunteers to work both in the classroom and from the home. These opportunities include hosting 3 separate parties (fall, winter and Valentine's Day), supporting math explorations & science projects, reading to the kids, donating supplies, sharpening pencils and contributing in other ways that may arise throughout the year.
My name is Jennifer Straub and I am excited to be Mrs. Bennick's Room Parent this year. I will be coordinating volunteers to work both in the classroom and from the home. These opportunities include hosting 3 separate parties (fall, winter and Valentine's Day), supporting math explorations & science projects, reading to the kids, donating supplies, sharpening pencils and contributing in other ways that may arise throughout the year.
I will be using a simple scheduling website called www.signupgenius.com. This will allow you to view availability online and plug yourself in to your desired slot. This is a very user-friendly site and an efficient way of planning.
Because our school is so careful about everyone's privacy, I need to please ask for your e-mail directly. When you send me your e-mail address, I will add it to my distribution list. I would appreciate having all e-mail addresses by Monday, September 22nd, as we need to start the fun and get organized!
Thank you in advance for your help.
Jennifer Straub
630-220-0749
Sunday, September 14, 2014
5B Activities for the Week of September 15th, 2014
Hello Parents and Students!
***Graded papers will be coming home tomorrow in your child's take-home folder.***
Here's what's going on in 5B this week:
Word Study: We are on part I of the Open Syllable type. The words for this week have been posted to the blog. We will be discussing word meanings, diagramming and separating the words into syllables. The test will be on Friday.
Math Accel: This week we will begin studying multiplication of decimals, powers of 10 and exponents. We finished our mini grocery store project last week. Included in the lessons this week is another project. This project is fairly lengthy so we will most likely be working on it most of the week. It includes creating a detailed menu with prices, adding and subtracting decimals, multiplying decimals and adding taxes and gratuity. We will be doing some role-playing in which we will pretend that we are patrons at a restaurant and we have to figure out how to pay our bill.
ELA: We have a lot going on in ELA currently. We should be finishing up the book, Because of Mr. Terupt this week. It is such a great book! Late in the week, I plan to introduce one of our anchor texts, Becoming Naomi Leon. We will continue working on our culture projects this week. We will be discussing vocabulary and how words/phrases come about. We will do this by using the book, For Good Measure. In citizenship this week our topics will be considering the other person's feelings (empathy), how to talk and listen…communicating our feelings, accepting outcomes and making up with friends. We will also begin to discuss the vocabulary from the Where I'm From poem by George Ella Lyon.
Science: This week in science we will be completing our layers of the atmosphere project. Hopefully, these will be completed by mid-week. We will then be moving on to air, air temperature and air pressure. We will also discuss how air occupies space. We will be doing at least two experiments this week in science. :-)
That's it for now. Please contact me with any questions.
Thank you!
Mrs. Bennick
***Graded papers will be coming home tomorrow in your child's take-home folder.***
Here's what's going on in 5B this week:
Word Study: We are on part I of the Open Syllable type. The words for this week have been posted to the blog. We will be discussing word meanings, diagramming and separating the words into syllables. The test will be on Friday.
Math Accel: This week we will begin studying multiplication of decimals, powers of 10 and exponents. We finished our mini grocery store project last week. Included in the lessons this week is another project. This project is fairly lengthy so we will most likely be working on it most of the week. It includes creating a detailed menu with prices, adding and subtracting decimals, multiplying decimals and adding taxes and gratuity. We will be doing some role-playing in which we will pretend that we are patrons at a restaurant and we have to figure out how to pay our bill.
ELA: We have a lot going on in ELA currently. We should be finishing up the book, Because of Mr. Terupt this week. It is such a great book! Late in the week, I plan to introduce one of our anchor texts, Becoming Naomi Leon. We will continue working on our culture projects this week. We will be discussing vocabulary and how words/phrases come about. We will do this by using the book, For Good Measure. In citizenship this week our topics will be considering the other person's feelings (empathy), how to talk and listen…communicating our feelings, accepting outcomes and making up with friends. We will also begin to discuss the vocabulary from the Where I'm From poem by George Ella Lyon.
Science: This week in science we will be completing our layers of the atmosphere project. Hopefully, these will be completed by mid-week. We will then be moving on to air, air temperature and air pressure. We will also discuss how air occupies space. We will be doing at least two experiments this week in science. :-)
That's it for now. Please contact me with any questions.
Thank you!
Mrs. Bennick
Saturday, September 6, 2014
5B Activities for the Week of September 8, 2014
Hello Parents and Students!
Here are the reminders for this week:
1. There is NO SCHOOL for students this Monday. It is Building Articulation Day. Enjoy the extra day off!
2. Student picture day is this Wednesday, September 10th. Please return your picture form if you plan to order pictures.
Here's what's going on in the curricular areas this week:
Word Study: This week we will study the Vowel Consonant "e" syllable. (VC-e) The words have been posted to the blog. The students will need to know how to spell, diagram and separate the words into syllables. This week they will also need to know the meaning of each word. We will review all of this in class. The test will be on Friday.
Math Accel: This week in MA we will be working on adding and subtracting decimals. To help the students better understand this skill, they will be doing a small project. Towards the end of the week, we will be moving onto multiplication of decimals.
English Language Arts (ELA): We will continue to discuss identity by doing a close read of the song, True Colors by Cyndi Lauper. The students will then be introduced to the poem, Where I'm From. We will analyze and discuss this poem in great detail as it is quite difficult. If time allows, we will begin writing our own Where I'm From poems. This activity may go into next week. In Citizenship, we will be discussing comfortable and uncomfortable feelings and controlling our emotions. Our read-aloud book continues to be Because of Mr. Terupt and it is getting very interesting now. We will also go to the computer lab and create Wordles about ourselves.
Science: Our Soda/Mentos experiments were awesome! We learned all about the Scientific Method and then tested our hypotheses. Ask your child which soda exploded the highest! This week in science we will be studying weather tools and we will make an anemometer. Late in the week we will begin learning about the layers of the atmosphere.
That's it for now! If you have any questions or concerns, just email me.
Have a great week!
Mrs. Bennick
Here are the reminders for this week:
1. There is NO SCHOOL for students this Monday. It is Building Articulation Day. Enjoy the extra day off!
2. Student picture day is this Wednesday, September 10th. Please return your picture form if you plan to order pictures.
Here's what's going on in the curricular areas this week:
Word Study: This week we will study the Vowel Consonant "e" syllable. (VC-e) The words have been posted to the blog. The students will need to know how to spell, diagram and separate the words into syllables. This week they will also need to know the meaning of each word. We will review all of this in class. The test will be on Friday.
Math Accel: This week in MA we will be working on adding and subtracting decimals. To help the students better understand this skill, they will be doing a small project. Towards the end of the week, we will be moving onto multiplication of decimals.
English Language Arts (ELA): We will continue to discuss identity by doing a close read of the song, True Colors by Cyndi Lauper. The students will then be introduced to the poem, Where I'm From. We will analyze and discuss this poem in great detail as it is quite difficult. If time allows, we will begin writing our own Where I'm From poems. This activity may go into next week. In Citizenship, we will be discussing comfortable and uncomfortable feelings and controlling our emotions. Our read-aloud book continues to be Because of Mr. Terupt and it is getting very interesting now. We will also go to the computer lab and create Wordles about ourselves.
Science: Our Soda/Mentos experiments were awesome! We learned all about the Scientific Method and then tested our hypotheses. Ask your child which soda exploded the highest! This week in science we will be studying weather tools and we will make an anemometer. Late in the week we will begin learning about the layers of the atmosphere.
That's it for now! If you have any questions or concerns, just email me.
Have a great week!
Mrs. Bennick
Sunday, August 31, 2014
Hello Parents and Students!
Here are the reminders for the upcoming week:
1. The annual May Watts Ice Cream Social is this Wednesday evening at 6:30. Hope to see you all there! :-)
2. Whole group CBM testing is this Thursday and individual CBM testing is on Friday.
Here's what's going on in the curricular areas:
Word Study: We will begin word study this week. Our first lesson will focus on Closed Syllables. The students will need to practice spelling the words that are posted on the blog under word study and they will also need to know the word meanings. We will work on this in class and I will also be teaching them how to separate the words into syllables and diagram them. The first word study test will be this Friday.
Math Accel: Math begins this week! In 5B MA, our first few lessons will be review. We will be discussing reading and writing large and small numbers, place value and then head into addition and subtraction of decimals.
ELA: In English Language Arts we will be begin presenting our Me in a Bag projects. We will be doing this on Tuesday and Wednesday. Our first read-aloud book is entitled Because of Mr. Terupt. We have already had our first activity with this book which was finding "dollar words." We will continue this next week. We also did a character analysis of each of the characters. We will also be focusing on our ELA theme for the first quarter which is Identity. We will be listening and analyzing the song, True Colors and completing various activities with it this week. Writer's Workshop will also be introduced this week and, hopefully, we will create wordles that are all about us!
Science: We will begin with science this year. (For those of you new to Watts, we rotate between science and social studies every few weeks.) However, I will weave social studies into our ELA curriculum as well. In science we will begin studying the Scientific Method and then move into weather focusing on weather instruments such as the barometer, anemometer, etc.
That is it for this week! If you have any questions or concerns, please email me. Enjoy the rest of this long weekend!
~Mrs. Bennick :-)
Here are the reminders for the upcoming week:
1. The annual May Watts Ice Cream Social is this Wednesday evening at 6:30. Hope to see you all there! :-)
2. Whole group CBM testing is this Thursday and individual CBM testing is on Friday.
Here's what's going on in the curricular areas:
Word Study: We will begin word study this week. Our first lesson will focus on Closed Syllables. The students will need to practice spelling the words that are posted on the blog under word study and they will also need to know the word meanings. We will work on this in class and I will also be teaching them how to separate the words into syllables and diagram them. The first word study test will be this Friday.
Math Accel: Math begins this week! In 5B MA, our first few lessons will be review. We will be discussing reading and writing large and small numbers, place value and then head into addition and subtraction of decimals.
ELA: In English Language Arts we will be begin presenting our Me in a Bag projects. We will be doing this on Tuesday and Wednesday. Our first read-aloud book is entitled Because of Mr. Terupt. We have already had our first activity with this book which was finding "dollar words." We will continue this next week. We also did a character analysis of each of the characters. We will also be focusing on our ELA theme for the first quarter which is Identity. We will be listening and analyzing the song, True Colors and completing various activities with it this week. Writer's Workshop will also be introduced this week and, hopefully, we will create wordles that are all about us!
Science: We will begin with science this year. (For those of you new to Watts, we rotate between science and social studies every few weeks.) However, I will weave social studies into our ELA curriculum as well. In science we will begin studying the Scientific Method and then move into weather focusing on weather instruments such as the barometer, anemometer, etc.
That is it for this week! If you have any questions or concerns, please email me. Enjoy the rest of this long weekend!
~Mrs. Bennick :-)
Friday, August 15, 2014
Welcome to 5B!
I am looking forward to meeting all of my new students! Enjoy the last few days of Summer and I'll see you soon.
~Mrs. Bennick
~Mrs. Bennick
Sunday, June 1, 2014
5B Activities for the Week of June 2, 2014
Hello Parents and Students!
It's the last week of school! We made it!
Here's what's going on this week:
1. The Naperville Public Library will be visiting Watts tomorrow to discuss their summer reading program with the kids.
2. The 5th Grade Farewell is this Tuesday evening from 6:00-8:00pm.
3. The last day of school for students is this Friday, June 6th. It is a FULL DAY of school. It is also Field Day. Please have your child wear comfortable clothing and bring a water bottle/sunscreen.
This week in the curricular areas, we will just be tying up some loose ends. We will be finishing up our All About Me from A-Z books. We will also complete our current social studies project on the Civil War. The students will be presenting these in their groups mid-week. We will be reading a variety of picture books and doing various activities with those as well. Our last day of math is Wednesday.
I hope all of you have a safe, relaxing and enjoyable Summer Break! It has been a pleasure to teach all of your children this year. I wish them all the best as they move on to 6th grade in the Fall!
~Mrs. Bennick :-)
It's the last week of school! We made it!
Here's what's going on this week:
1. The Naperville Public Library will be visiting Watts tomorrow to discuss their summer reading program with the kids.
2. The 5th Grade Farewell is this Tuesday evening from 6:00-8:00pm.
3. The last day of school for students is this Friday, June 6th. It is a FULL DAY of school. It is also Field Day. Please have your child wear comfortable clothing and bring a water bottle/sunscreen.
This week in the curricular areas, we will just be tying up some loose ends. We will be finishing up our All About Me from A-Z books. We will also complete our current social studies project on the Civil War. The students will be presenting these in their groups mid-week. We will be reading a variety of picture books and doing various activities with those as well. Our last day of math is Wednesday.
I hope all of you have a safe, relaxing and enjoyable Summer Break! It has been a pleasure to teach all of your children this year. I wish them all the best as they move on to 6th grade in the Fall!
~Mrs. Bennick :-)
Monday, May 26, 2014
5B Activities for the Week of May 27th, 2014
Hello Students and Parents!
Here's what's going on in 5B this week:
First, we will be having a Read-In on Tuesday. Your child may bring in books of their choice to read, a towel/blanket, extra snack, gum, stuffed animal and wear pajamas if they'd like. If the weather is nice, we may go outside.
Word Study/Spelling: This week, I am combining two of the last lessons together. They are both short lessons. The Latin/Greek roots that we will be focusing on will be -sym, -ped and -pod. This will be the LAST word study lesson of the year! :-) The test will be on Friday.
Math Accel: This week in MA, we will continue working in Unit 9. There will not be a unit test for this unit, but I will be assessing their learning through exit slips and quizzes these next two weeks. This week we will be working on the Distributive Property/Law and simplifying and solving equations.
English Language Arts (ELA): We will continue working on our All About Me from A-Z books this week. They are coming along nicely. We will also be reading a TFK for current events. Our current read-aloud book is entitled, The Journey Back, which is the sequel to Red Kayak. We will also be using some of this time for our new social studies project on the Civil War.
Social Studies: We will be starting our study of the Civil War this week. This will be a group project and there will be several topics that each group can choose from to research pertaining to the Civil War. Each group will then be required to present their project to other groups. The kids will learn
more about this project tomorrow.
Science: We are finished with Science for the year!
That is it for this week.
I hope that you are all enjoying this beautiful Memorial Day weekend!
If you have any questions, please email me.
Thank you!
Mrs. Bennick :-)
Here's what's going on in 5B this week:
First, we will be having a Read-In on Tuesday. Your child may bring in books of their choice to read, a towel/blanket, extra snack, gum, stuffed animal and wear pajamas if they'd like. If the weather is nice, we may go outside.
Word Study/Spelling: This week, I am combining two of the last lessons together. They are both short lessons. The Latin/Greek roots that we will be focusing on will be -sym, -ped and -pod. This will be the LAST word study lesson of the year! :-) The test will be on Friday.
Math Accel: This week in MA, we will continue working in Unit 9. There will not be a unit test for this unit, but I will be assessing their learning through exit slips and quizzes these next two weeks. This week we will be working on the Distributive Property/Law and simplifying and solving equations.
English Language Arts (ELA): We will continue working on our All About Me from A-Z books this week. They are coming along nicely. We will also be reading a TFK for current events. Our current read-aloud book is entitled, The Journey Back, which is the sequel to Red Kayak. We will also be using some of this time for our new social studies project on the Civil War.
Social Studies: We will be starting our study of the Civil War this week. This will be a group project and there will be several topics that each group can choose from to research pertaining to the Civil War. Each group will then be required to present their project to other groups. The kids will learn
more about this project tomorrow.
Science: We are finished with Science for the year!
That is it for this week.
I hope that you are all enjoying this beautiful Memorial Day weekend!
If you have any questions, please email me.
Thank you!
Mrs. Bennick :-)
Sunday, May 18, 2014
5B Activities for the Week of May 19th, 2014
Hello Parents and Students!
Here's what's going on in 5B this week!
Word Study/Spelling: We are on Lesson 27 this week. We continue to study Latin and Greek roots. This week our focus will be on the roots, -mis/-mit. The words have been posted to the blog and the test will be on Friday, as usual.
Math Accel: This week in MA, we will be reviewing for our Unit 8 test, which will be on Tuesday. Monday will be the review day. On Wednesday, we will be starting Unit 9, which is our last unit of the year, and it will focus on Variables, Formulas and Graphs.
English Language Arts (ELA): We finished the book, Red Kayak, this past week. Early in the week, we will be reviewing the book and there will be a test on it on Wednesday or Thursday this week. We will begin reading the sequel to this wonderful book entitled, The Journey Back, later this week. We will also be starting our last writing assignment of the school year. This will be our All About Me from A-Z book. The guidelines for this writing project will be coming home early in the week.
Social Studies: In SS this week, we will be discussing "The People's President", how inventions changed factories and farms, early railroads, the struggle for reform, fighting against slavery and women's rights.
That's it for now. Please email me with any questions.
Have a great week!
Mrs. Bennick :-)
Here's what's going on in 5B this week!
Word Study/Spelling: We are on Lesson 27 this week. We continue to study Latin and Greek roots. This week our focus will be on the roots, -mis/-mit. The words have been posted to the blog and the test will be on Friday, as usual.
Math Accel: This week in MA, we will be reviewing for our Unit 8 test, which will be on Tuesday. Monday will be the review day. On Wednesday, we will be starting Unit 9, which is our last unit of the year, and it will focus on Variables, Formulas and Graphs.
English Language Arts (ELA): We finished the book, Red Kayak, this past week. Early in the week, we will be reviewing the book and there will be a test on it on Wednesday or Thursday this week. We will begin reading the sequel to this wonderful book entitled, The Journey Back, later this week. We will also be starting our last writing assignment of the school year. This will be our All About Me from A-Z book. The guidelines for this writing project will be coming home early in the week.
Social Studies: In SS this week, we will be discussing "The People's President", how inventions changed factories and farms, early railroads, the struggle for reform, fighting against slavery and women's rights.
That's it for now. Please email me with any questions.
Have a great week!
Mrs. Bennick :-)
Baby Photo
Please turn in a baby photo of your child no later than Tuesday, May 20th. Write your child's name on the back and class.
Also, email three K-5 photos taken at May Watts or a May Watt's event ONLY to linda.knotter@gmail.com no later than Tuesday, May 20th. List each child in the picture and the date/event.
Also, email three K-5 photos taken at May Watts or a May Watt's event ONLY to linda.knotter@gmail.com no later than Tuesday, May 20th. List each child in the picture and the date/event.
Sunday, May 11, 2014
Volunteer Luncheon Information
The Volunteer Luncheon is Friday, May 16th from 11:00-1:00 in the LMC.
Any and all parents who have volunteered throughout the year should mark their calendars and plan on having lunch at school! There will be pizza, pasta, salad and dessert along with video entertainment provided by the wonderful May Watts students. Visit with the staff and meet some new friends! Our school is very fortunate to have such dedicated helpers. Please allow the staff to show our heartfelt thanks by attending. Hope to see you there! (This is an adults only event)
Any and all parents who have volunteered throughout the year should mark their calendars and plan on having lunch at school! There will be pizza, pasta, salad and dessert along with video entertainment provided by the wonderful May Watts students. Visit with the staff and meet some new friends! Our school is very fortunate to have such dedicated helpers. Please allow the staff to show our heartfelt thanks by attending. Hope to see you there! (This is an adults only event)
5B Activities for the Week of May 12th, 2014
Hello Parents and Students!
Here's what's going on in 5B this week!
Word Study/Spelling: We are on Lesson 26 Part II this week. Our Latin/Greek Root this week is -tract. The test will be on Friday and it will be the same format as the last few weeks.
Math Accel: We are just about to finish up our nutrition project. We will be finishing up Unit 8 this week and our topics will be comparing ratios and polygons. The Unit 8 test will be early next week.
English Language Arts (ELA): Just as last week, much of our ELA time will be spent doing social studies. However, we will be presenting our Fortunately books this week! This will be a listening/speaking grade. We will also get back to our TFKs this week and we will be finishing up Red Kayak. What a great book that is!
Social Studies: We have just about finished up our War of 1812 project and our Star Spangled Banner close read. Our next topics of discussion will be the Indian Removal Act, the Trail of Tears, Industrial Revolution and the cotton gin.
Science: We will finish up science on Tuesday. We have been working with the microscopes almost non-stop this past week and a half. On Monday and Tuesday we will be viewing both paramecium and euglena. These are live specimen that you can only see with the help of a microscope. Just a reminder that we will be having our parts of a microscope quiz tomorrow.
That's it for now! Have a great week!
Mrs. Bennick :-)
Here's what's going on in 5B this week!
Word Study/Spelling: We are on Lesson 26 Part II this week. Our Latin/Greek Root this week is -tract. The test will be on Friday and it will be the same format as the last few weeks.
Math Accel: We are just about to finish up our nutrition project. We will be finishing up Unit 8 this week and our topics will be comparing ratios and polygons. The Unit 8 test will be early next week.
English Language Arts (ELA): Just as last week, much of our ELA time will be spent doing social studies. However, we will be presenting our Fortunately books this week! This will be a listening/speaking grade. We will also get back to our TFKs this week and we will be finishing up Red Kayak. What a great book that is!
Social Studies: We have just about finished up our War of 1812 project and our Star Spangled Banner close read. Our next topics of discussion will be the Indian Removal Act, the Trail of Tears, Industrial Revolution and the cotton gin.
Science: We will finish up science on Tuesday. We have been working with the microscopes almost non-stop this past week and a half. On Monday and Tuesday we will be viewing both paramecium and euglena. These are live specimen that you can only see with the help of a microscope. Just a reminder that we will be having our parts of a microscope quiz tomorrow.
That's it for now! Have a great week!
Mrs. Bennick :-)
Monday, May 5, 2014
5th Grade Musical Info.
Parents:
Next Thursday, the 15th, is the fifth grade musical here at Watts. The program begins at 7:00 pm in the gym, but the kids need to be in the classroom at 6:45. After the program, the kids will be in the classrooms waiting for you to pick them up.
Next Thursday, the 15th, is the fifth grade musical here at Watts. The program begins at 7:00 pm in the gym, but the kids need to be in the classroom at 6:45. After the program, the kids will be in the classrooms waiting for you to pick them up.
Sunday, May 4, 2014
5B Activities for the Week of May 5, 2014
Hello Parents and Students!
Here are the reminders for the upcoming week:
1. Monday is our field trip to Hill Middle School (morning) and Jump Rope for Heart (afternoon).
Please dress comfortably and bring a water bottle.
2. CBM testing will occur this week.
3. We will be having our Marble Jar Celebration on Thursday weather permitting. We will be having a picnic on the hill. The students may bring in an extra snack, stuffed animals and gum. We will be playing either electronics games or board games on the hill or just relaxing! The rain date for this event will be Friday.
Here's what's going on in the curricular areas this week:
Word Study/Spelling: We will continue our study of Latin/Greek roots. The root we will focus on this week is -min. The words have been posted to the blog. Please have your child study the words AND the meanings as both will be tested on Friday.
Math Acceleration: We will continue our nutrition project. Last week, we calculated our heights and weights and figured out our caloric needs. We began reading our food labels to identify calories from fat, calories from carbs and calories from protein. We completed our first set of proportions and will figure out our percentages this week. We will be completing a daily menu plan for practice. We will not have math on Monday due to the field trip.
English Language Arts (ELA): Our main focus during ELA time this week will be social studies. We started our Star Spangled Banner/War of 1812 project on Friday and will continue it this week. We will be making mini books of the main events listed in the Star Spangled Banner and making a timeline of the important events from the War of 1812. We will continue reading the book, Red Kayak and will try to fit in a story from our anthology about America.
Social Studies: Please see ELA above.
Science: Science will begin again this week! We will begin our last unit of study entitled, Small Life. First, students will be introduced to microscopes, learn the parts of a microscope and learn how to prepare a specimen correctly on a slide.
That's it for this week!
Have a great week!
~Mrs. Bennick
Here are the reminders for the upcoming week:
1. Monday is our field trip to Hill Middle School (morning) and Jump Rope for Heart (afternoon).
Please dress comfortably and bring a water bottle.
2. CBM testing will occur this week.
3. We will be having our Marble Jar Celebration on Thursday weather permitting. We will be having a picnic on the hill. The students may bring in an extra snack, stuffed animals and gum. We will be playing either electronics games or board games on the hill or just relaxing! The rain date for this event will be Friday.
Here's what's going on in the curricular areas this week:
Word Study/Spelling: We will continue our study of Latin/Greek roots. The root we will focus on this week is -min. The words have been posted to the blog. Please have your child study the words AND the meanings as both will be tested on Friday.
Math Acceleration: We will continue our nutrition project. Last week, we calculated our heights and weights and figured out our caloric needs. We began reading our food labels to identify calories from fat, calories from carbs and calories from protein. We completed our first set of proportions and will figure out our percentages this week. We will be completing a daily menu plan for practice. We will not have math on Monday due to the field trip.
English Language Arts (ELA): Our main focus during ELA time this week will be social studies. We started our Star Spangled Banner/War of 1812 project on Friday and will continue it this week. We will be making mini books of the main events listed in the Star Spangled Banner and making a timeline of the important events from the War of 1812. We will continue reading the book, Red Kayak and will try to fit in a story from our anthology about America.
Social Studies: Please see ELA above.
Science: Science will begin again this week! We will begin our last unit of study entitled, Small Life. First, students will be introduced to microscopes, learn the parts of a microscope and learn how to prepare a specimen correctly on a slide.
That's it for this week!
Have a great week!
~Mrs. Bennick
Monday, April 28, 2014
Hill MS Walk-In Registration Information
HILL WALK-IN
REGISTRATION
Hill walk-in
registration for 2014 / 2015 will be:
Monday, May 12,
2014
Tuesday, May
13, 2014
From 3:30 to
7:30 p.m.
All incoming 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students must be registered for the upcoming school year. By now you should have received an information letter regarding the verification and registration process. Please note that this process involves an online verification step which should be completed before you come in for the walk-in process.
Sunday, April 27, 2014
5B Activities for the Week of April 28th, 2014
Hello Parents and Students!
Jump Rope for Heart will take place Monday morning. Come ready to jump!!!
Our last Interim Assessment will take place this Wednesday.
Here's what's going on in 5B this week!
Word Study/Spelling: We will be doing the second part to lesson 25. We are still studying Latin and Greek roots. In fact, this will be our focus for the remainder of the school year. This week, we are learning about the root (-man/-manu). The words have been posted to the blog. The test will be on Friday and it will be the same format as last week's test.
Math Accel: We started Unit 8 last week. We have studied rates, unit rates and rate tables. We are currently working on proportions. This week, we will continue with proportions and then begin studying caloric use and using nutritional information. Please bring in one or two food labels!
English Language Arts (ELA): We will continue our study of the book, Red Kayak. We will be finishing up our trifold activity this week and will be doing a character analysis. (We ran out of time last week to do this.) We will also be completing our Fortunately books. They will be due on Wednesday. We will also fit in a Time For Kids issue this week. The topic will be Mind Games/Video Games.
Social Studies: We have a lot going on in SS currently. In fact, some of our ELA time will be used for SS work. I backtracked a little bit last week and discussed the Westward Movement, the Louisiana Purchase and Lewis and Clark. We will have a couple of activities to complete on these topics this week and then we will move onto the War of 1812 and the Star Spangled Banner. We will be completing a mini project on the War of 1812/Star Spangled Banner which will include a close read, history, facts, vocabulary, and a couple of extra credit opportunities.
That's it for this week!
Have a great week everyone!
~Mrs. Bennick
Jump Rope for Heart will take place Monday morning. Come ready to jump!!!
Our last Interim Assessment will take place this Wednesday.
Here's what's going on in 5B this week!
Word Study/Spelling: We will be doing the second part to lesson 25. We are still studying Latin and Greek roots. In fact, this will be our focus for the remainder of the school year. This week, we are learning about the root (-man/-manu). The words have been posted to the blog. The test will be on Friday and it will be the same format as last week's test.
Math Accel: We started Unit 8 last week. We have studied rates, unit rates and rate tables. We are currently working on proportions. This week, we will continue with proportions and then begin studying caloric use and using nutritional information. Please bring in one or two food labels!
English Language Arts (ELA): We will continue our study of the book, Red Kayak. We will be finishing up our trifold activity this week and will be doing a character analysis. (We ran out of time last week to do this.) We will also be completing our Fortunately books. They will be due on Wednesday. We will also fit in a Time For Kids issue this week. The topic will be Mind Games/Video Games.
Social Studies: We have a lot going on in SS currently. In fact, some of our ELA time will be used for SS work. I backtracked a little bit last week and discussed the Westward Movement, the Louisiana Purchase and Lewis and Clark. We will have a couple of activities to complete on these topics this week and then we will move onto the War of 1812 and the Star Spangled Banner. We will be completing a mini project on the War of 1812/Star Spangled Banner which will include a close read, history, facts, vocabulary, and a couple of extra credit opportunities.
That's it for this week!
Have a great week everyone!
~Mrs. Bennick
Monday, April 21, 2014
Information on the Book Exchange
Donated books may be hardcover or paperback, should be in very good condi-tion, and appropriate for K-5 students. Students will re-ceive a credit for each book donated (up to 5) and can use the credit to "buy" books that someone else has donated.
A book is not only a friend, it makes friends for you. When you have possessed a book with mind and spirit, you are enriched. But when you pass it on you are en-riched threefold. – Henry Miller.
May Watts’ 6th Annual
Book Exchange
Saturday, April 19, 2014
Hello Parents and Students,
I hope that you are all enjoying this beautiful weekend!
There's a lot going on this week so here goes.....
First, we have a field trip to WVHS Planetarium THIS Monday. We will leave Watts at approximately 10:00 and return to Watts at around 12:00. We will eat our lunch at normal time.
Next, Interim Assessments begin this week. We will be testing on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week and finish up next Wednesday.
Mahatma Gandhi's grandson, Arun Gandhi, will be appearing at Anderson's Bookshop on Saturday, April 26th, at 7:00pm. He will be promoting his new book, Grandfather Gandhi, at that time. If you'd like to pre-order the book, please ask your child to ask me for a form. (Some students already asked for the form.)
Here's what's going on in the curricular areas this week:
Word Study/Spelling: We are on Lesson 25 this week. Our focus continues to be on Latin and Greek roots. This week, we will study the root, -ject. The words have been posted to the blog.
Math Acceleration: We finished up our Unit 6 test last week. This week, we will be doing some problem solving and will also begin our next unit of study, Unit 8...Rates and Ratios. (There is no Unit 7.)
English Language Arts (ELA): First, we will be finishing our Fortunately/Unfortunately books this week. They are looking great! We will continue to read Red Kayak. We completed a review for chapters 1-7 last week. This week, we will be completing a trifold comprehension activity that goes along with the book. We will be having a figurative language quiz on Wednesday. We have discussed similes, hyperboles, alliteration, metaphors, personification, oxymorons and onomatopoeia. We have written our own examples of these and also found examples of them in the text. We will also be working on a Time For Kids magazine activity. Busy, busy, busy!!!
Science: We are finishing up our Space unit this week. We will be drawing, with colored chalk, one of the types of galaxies we've been discussing in class. We will also be viewing a couple of informative videos at Discovery Education that go along with our galaxy topic.
Social Studies: SS is back! We will begin at about year 1823 with the Monroe Doctrine and move through about 1838 with the Trail of Tears. We will be comparing and contrasting Andrew Jackson and James Monroe.
It's going to be a very busy week!
If you have any questions, please email me.
Thank you!
Delissa Bennick
I hope that you are all enjoying this beautiful weekend!
There's a lot going on this week so here goes.....
First, we have a field trip to WVHS Planetarium THIS Monday. We will leave Watts at approximately 10:00 and return to Watts at around 12:00. We will eat our lunch at normal time.
Next, Interim Assessments begin this week. We will be testing on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week and finish up next Wednesday.
Mahatma Gandhi's grandson, Arun Gandhi, will be appearing at Anderson's Bookshop on Saturday, April 26th, at 7:00pm. He will be promoting his new book, Grandfather Gandhi, at that time. If you'd like to pre-order the book, please ask your child to ask me for a form. (Some students already asked for the form.)
Here's what's going on in the curricular areas this week:
Word Study/Spelling: We are on Lesson 25 this week. Our focus continues to be on Latin and Greek roots. This week, we will study the root, -ject. The words have been posted to the blog.
Math Acceleration: We finished up our Unit 6 test last week. This week, we will be doing some problem solving and will also begin our next unit of study, Unit 8...Rates and Ratios. (There is no Unit 7.)
English Language Arts (ELA): First, we will be finishing our Fortunately/Unfortunately books this week. They are looking great! We will continue to read Red Kayak. We completed a review for chapters 1-7 last week. This week, we will be completing a trifold comprehension activity that goes along with the book. We will be having a figurative language quiz on Wednesday. We have discussed similes, hyperboles, alliteration, metaphors, personification, oxymorons and onomatopoeia. We have written our own examples of these and also found examples of them in the text. We will also be working on a Time For Kids magazine activity. Busy, busy, busy!!!
Science: We are finishing up our Space unit this week. We will be drawing, with colored chalk, one of the types of galaxies we've been discussing in class. We will also be viewing a couple of informative videos at Discovery Education that go along with our galaxy topic.
Social Studies: SS is back! We will begin at about year 1823 with the Monroe Doctrine and move through about 1838 with the Trail of Tears. We will be comparing and contrasting Andrew Jackson and James Monroe.
It's going to be a very busy week!
If you have any questions, please email me.
Thank you!
Delissa Bennick
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