Week of 10/1/07 - 10/5/07

Dear Parents and friends,

We’ve had a very busy week studying properties of air, exploring Jamestown and singing “Mr. Morton”. As we say “goodbye” to September, we look are looking forward to sharing many new experiences together…

HERE ARE SOME HIGHLIGHTS FOR NEXT WEEK:

SPELLING

Lesson 5 – Prefixes & Roots

ENGLISH

We have completed Unit 1. We will wrap up this unit by creating "Pyramid Poems" that apply the concepts of subject and predicate to writing. Students should bring a photograph to school on Tuesday, 10/2 for this project. We will begin Unit 5, Capitalization & Punctuation, on Thursday.

READING

Chapters 5 & 6 in Kid in the Red Jacket will be our focus this week!

“Bite into a Good Book” Program
Students should ALWAYS have a silent reading book with them at school! We are nearly halfway to our deadline of November 16th.

SOCIAL STUDIES

We will continue our study of the pilgrims and puritans.

SCIENCE - Flight and Rocketry

Parachutes and Hot Air Balloons will be our focus this week.

MATH - Mrs. Bell's Class

We will be finishing chapter 2 with lesson 6, Solving Multiplication Equations, on Monday, and lesson 7, Solving Division Equations on Tuesday. We will have a chapter review on Wednesday, and the Chapter 2 TEST will be on Thursday, October 4th. "How to Study" sheets were sent home on Friday, September 28th.

FYI

Tuesday, 10/2 is our last day for magazine turn in.

Movie night is Friday, 10/5.

Sincerely,
Mrs. Bell

Week of 9/24/07 - 9/28/07

Dear Parents and friends,

This week has certainly flown by! We have worked hard this week on keeping our binders organized and being responsible for recording assignments without being prompted. The students are catching on!

HERE ARE SOME HIGHLIGHTS FOR NEXT WEEK ...

SPELLING
Lesson 4 - Prefixes and Base words

ENGLISH
We will be finishing our unit on sentences this week. The Unit 1 TEST is scheduled for Friday, September 28th. “How to Study” sheets were sent home on the 21st.

READING
Ask your child about our friends, Howard Jeeter & Molly Vera Thompson! We will continue our study of the novel, The Kid in the Red Jacket, by reading and summarizing chapters 3 and 4. Vocabulary work will also be included.

“Bite into a Good Book” Program
Students should ALWAYS have a silent reading book with them at school. Many students have signed up for their book presentations. We are enjoying hearing about the books that they have read.

SOCIAL STUDIES
The North American colonies of Jamestown and the French and Dutch settlements will be our topics this week. Students will be taking notes and creating their own creative study guides for Jamestown.

SCIENCE
Flight and Rocketry
We will starting our Flight & Rocketry unit with a look at the properties of air.

MATH - Mrs. Bell's Math Class

We will study lesson 2 of chapter 2, "Words and Math", on Monday. Tuesday is the midchapter QUIZ for chapter 2. Wednesday through Friday, we will cover lesson 3, "Equations & Solutions", lesson 4, "Solving Addition Equations", and lesson 5, "Solving Subtraction Equations".

FYI
Due to the online grading system, I will not be asking for a parent signature on papers that receive a trade of 69% or below. Grades are available to be viewed by parents online at any time. Also, unit tests will be not be sent home for Social Studies in all of the fifth grade classes.

Turn in days for the Magazine Drive are Tuesday, 9/25 and Thursday, 9/27.

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Karen Bell

Week of 9/17/07 - 9/21/07

Dear Parents and friends,

We’ve had a marvelous week! We wrote "Snapshot" sentences, "Souper" paragraphs, and Aztec postcards. We also studied parts of sentences and met Mr. Morton. Finally, after learning about the life and habitat of the Barn Owl, we began our owl pellet dissection.

HERE ARE SOME HIGHLIGHTS FOR NEXT WEEK (9/17/07 - 9/21/07)

SPELLING

Lesson 3 – Words with the suffix "er" and singular possessives

ENGLISH

Our study of sentences will continue with a focus on simple predicates, subjects in imperatives, and conjunctions. And, of course, we will end each lesson with a rousing chorus of "Mr. Morton".

READING

We have finished our study of paragraph writing. This week we will begin a novel study of the book, Kid in the Red Jacket. This book tells the story of Howard Jeeter, a boy who moves to a new town, and has many adventures, least of which, meeting a new redheaded friend. This unit will focus on the reading strategy of summarizing and the study of vocabulary in context.

“Bite into a Good Book” Program

Students should ALWAYS have a silent reading book with them at school! Don't forget that a book presentation is necessary to reach your goal!

SOCIAL STUDIES

Our first Social Studies TEST is scheduled for Tuesday, September 18th. The test will cover Chapter 4. Students were given "How to Study" sheets on Thursday, 9/13.

After an activity on map reading, we will begin Chapter 5, which focuses on the early colonies, including Jamestown. We will begin by trying to solve the mystery of the lost colony, Roanoke Island.

SCIENCE

We will be finishing owl pellets this week. There will be an open note QUIZ at the end of the week, tentatively scheduled for Thursday, September 20th. The quiz will include information from their video notes, the lab sheet, and the bone sorting sheet. Watch your child's assignment notebook for a final quiz date.

MATH

In this section, I will be writing about math for my math group. To read about what your child is doing for math, you will have to visit your child's math teacher's blog. You can do this by going to our District website: http://www.ccsd66.org/ , click on Prairieview, click on 5th Grade, then click on your child's math teacher's name. Their blog will come up. Find the teacher's math section to read about what your child will be doing in math class.

Mrs. Bell's Math Class:

The Chapter 1 TEST is scheduled for Wednesday, September 19th. Review for the test will be on Monday, and on Tuesday, there will be no math due to early dismissal. On Friday, we will begin Chapter 2 - "Introduction to Algebra".

SPECIAL EVENTS

The Magazine Drive, one of our district’s largest fundraisers, will be “kicked off” on Monday. Look for information to come home with your child.

Also, don’t forget about early dismissal on Tuesday, 9/18. Students will be dismissed at 11:00.

Finally, picture day is Friday, 9/20.

Have a great weekend!

Sincerely,
Mrs. Karen Bell

Week of 9/10/07 - 9/14/07

Dear Parents and friends,

It was a pleasure to see so many of you at Curriculum Night. I hope that you found our discussion to be helpful. If you were unable to attend, I am sending the packet and other sheets home with your child. There are two sheets I need parents to complete and return to me: the 5th Grade Policy sheet and the Student Information Sheet. Please send both of those to school as soon as possible.

HERE ARE SOME HIGHLIGHTS FOR NEXT WEEK...

SPELLING

Lesson 2 – Words with the suffix “-able”

ENGLISH

We will be continuing our study of sentences with a focus on the four types of sentences and subjects and predicates. Students will be completing a project titled "Snapshot Sentences" that focuses on identifying and writing sentences in each of the 4 categories.

READING

We will be finishing our study of main ideas and details and how to write a good paragraph. Students will be writing about what they will do to have a "Souper Year", and designing their own soup can to go with the paragraph. We will also focus on practicing what we have learned about main ideas and details in the ISAT practice book.

“Bite into a Good Book” Program
Students should ALWAYS have a silent reading book with them at school!
They should be close to finishing their first book and activity.

SOCIAL STUDIES
We will be finishing Chapter 4, Lesson 3, “Life in New Spain”. The Chapter 4 test is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, 9/19. Students will receive their “How to Study” sheets on Thursday. We will have a group review on Monday, 9/17, but students are encouraged to study independently as well!

SCIENCE

We will be dissecting owl pellets this week. Ask your student about how a pellet is formed, and what he/she finds inside of it!

SPECIAL EVENTS

My students will be taking the OLSAT test on Thursday, 9/13. Please be sure that your child gets a good night sleep the night before!

I am looking for another parent to help with making copies for our classroom. This would involve coming to school on Thursday morning every other week for about 1-2 hours. I already have one volunteer, but it would lighten the load if we could split the work between two people. If you're interested, please email me at kbell@ccsd66.org.

Please check that your child is bringing home his/her assignment notebook and binder everyday. As I mentioned at Curriculum night, one of our fifth grade goals is that your child be responsible and independent with homework.

Have a great weekend!

Sincerely,
Mrs. Karen Bell