1/20 Update

We have a vocabulary test tomorrow over the words for Dear Mrs. Parks story in our basal reader. There are seven words this week.

Book Club assignments are due again on Monday, January 24 and each Monday for the next few weeks. Each club has a different assignment. The Ida B. Book Club group is required to do a Moodle post, too. It can be accessed from the links below.

We have a math test coming up next Thursday, January 27. The Unit 6 Study Guide will go home on Monday. If you would prefer your child bring the study guide home this weekend, please have him or her ask me for the papers before the end of the day tomorrow.

We will be wrapping up Chapters 3 and 4 in Social Studies next week. That means it's test time again! We will test over these two chapters during the week of January 31-February 4--midweek probably. We will also review in class for the test.

We WILL NOT have a spelling or vocabulary list next week due to the number of other tests coming up.

Read to Succeed with Six Flags Amusement Parks

A parent letter and student reading log will be coming home on Friday this week regarding a reward program just for reading! Every student who completes six hours of recreational reading and logs the hours, will receive one ticket to a Six Flags Amusement Park nearby. I will submit the reading hours for each student participant by March 4, 2011. Please encourage your 5th grader to begin a lifetime of reading!

Notes for 1/18-1/21

We WILL NOT have a spelling list this week. We WILL have a vocabulary list, however, that will come home today.

We are wrapping up unit 6 this week in Math. We will test over this unit next week--Tuesday or Wednesday. I will be sending home a study guide on Thursday of this week.

Thank you to everyone for the Hershey Kisses and prizes for our reward box. We are still in need of more small prizes for our Postive Behavior System program to be successful. Thank you for helping us out!

Thank you to Mrs. Gillespie for bringing donuts for our December Breakfast Club last Friday! The kids were thankful to have delicious Hilagos (not sure if I spelled that one correctly) donuts for something different!

Study Link 6.2

It's been brought to my attention that Math page 123 (6.2 Study Link) was graded incorrectly. I do apologize for this and promise to correct it as soon as possible. If you have your 6.2 Study Link paper at home, please return it to school by Friday, and I will make the necessary changes. Thanks for understanding!

E-Readers

Many students received an e-reader (Kindle, Nook, iPod Touch with Kindle App, etc) for Christmas, as I did! (Thank you to everyone for this amazing, most exciting, and best gift EVER!) I encourage students to use any media for reading, and if it means the students will read more, I encourage them to bring their e-readers to class. Some already have started this trend, and it seems to be quite beneficial and motivating to work extra hard to get some extra reading time in during the day!

Please keep in mind, I, however, am not responsible for the device, the student will take on that responsibility.

Happy Reading!

Book Club Update: Moodle

All Book Clubs are now on Moodle. Please link to the site at http://moodle.brownsburg.k12.in.us/ and log into the site. It's also a link at the bottom of this blog.

Your username is the same as your SRI username. Your password is either my last name or your third grade teacher's last name. (We created/changed these, if necessary, with Mr. Grimes before break.) The "enrollment key" is [media] without any brackets.

Please plan to complete your reading assignments for the week by Monday, January 10. You must also complete at least 10 sticky notes or notes in a notebook by Monday, too, over the chapters you've read for the week. DO NOT READ AHEAD!

Please plan to complete your Moodle post for this week, too. I will provide time in class on Friday to complete the post should you not have access to the Internet over the weekend.

1/4/11 Update

Happy, Happy New Year! After a whirlwind of a vacation, a bit too fast for me-I'm sure many of the students agree, but nonetheless, we're back at it here in 5th grade in 2011 with 18 weeks of school remaining!

Colts spirit day on Friday! Wear as much blue as you can to show your spirit for their big playoff win against the Jets on Saturday!

TONIGHT'S HOMEWORK:

• Math--Study Link 6.1 page 121, due Wednesday
• Spelling--Packet due Wednesday and test on Wednesday
• Reading--See below regarding book clubs

NWEA:
We will take our winter NWEA test on Wednesday morning for reading. My hope is that the scores improve from the fall, however, we still have many skills to cover before May!

Collages:

We are working on collages from our last ten years of life. We will incorporate these works of art into a monologue-type speech during this month. Today was the last day for cutting out pictures and printing pictures from the computer. If more are needed, this is now a homework assignment for the students.

Book Clubs:
We started reading book clubs yesterday. One group is reading Ida B.with Mrs. Lengerich. Another group is reading Maniac Magee with Mrs. Low. And a third group is reading Eve of the Emperor Penguin with Mrs. Hill. Each book club has a separate reading assignment on the homework board at school. I will do my best to post it here, as well, just to keep everyone informed. All assignments listed below are due Monday, January 10.

Ida B.: Read through Chapter 6, use at least 10 sticky notes and ideas from bookmarks while reading, and check Moodle for a posted assignment (Internet access required, but can be accessed at school if needed).

Maniac Magee: Read through Chapter 8, use at least 10 sticky notes and ideas from bookmarks while reading, and check Moodle for a posted assignment (Internet access required, but can be accessed at school if needed).


Eve of the Emperor Penguin: Read through Chapter 2, use at least 10 sticky notes and ideas from bookmarks while reading, and check Moodle for a posted assignment (Internet access required, but can be accessed at school if needed).