National Day of Mourning

Fifth Grade observing a National Day of Mourning for our 41st President and Patriot, 
George H.W. Bush.  

George Herbert Walker Bush (1924-2018), served as the 41st U.S. president from 1989 to 1993. He also was a two-term U.S. vice president under Ronald Reagan, from 1981 to 1989. Bush, a World War II naval aviator and Texas oil industry executive, began his political career in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1967.  May he rest in peace!

Week 12 News

Upcoming Events

• MONDAY: 
• TUESDAY: Advent Prayer service @ 2:55
• WEDNESDAY:  
• THURSDAY:
• FRIDAY: Tommy Greenwald Skype

Reminders

• Tommy Greenwald book orders if you would like an autographed book.
• Hats, gloves, winter coats...oh my!  The weather is cold, please be prepared.

December 3-7

Happy New Year! (Liturgical, that is)

Religion –We’ve completed our unit on the Liturgical Seasons.  Watch for corrected assessments to come home soon. We started our unit on The 25 Days of Christ.  We are using this theme to learn about 25 major events in Christ’s life. We are learning about these events through scripture, art, videos, and individual reflection.  Please feel free to visit this website for more information. http://25daysofchrist.com/pages/the-25-days-new-testament-edition

We will continue with these lessons through Christmas.  Advent Prayer Services will be held Dec. 4 at 2:55, Dec. 10 at 2:55, Dec. 17 at 2:55. and Friday Dec. 21 at 10:00.

Reading – Mrs. Schaffer’s Class has started the whole class book-A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.  Her class began this week by learning about Charles Dickens and his background as well as reading Stave 1.  Mrs. Anderson’s class will begin this book this week. Comprehension activities will be highlighted throughout the reading of this book. This will be able to count as one of the 40 books students need to read by the end of the school year.  Mrs. Alsin’s Class is continuing to read the novel, Restart, by Gordon Korman. Different comprehension strategies are being utilized to enhance our understanding of the story. We will also still offer independent reading time so that the students can continue working on their 40 books!

Math – Your child will be finishing the Unit 3 test over Geometry on Monday. Look for tests to come home later next week. Please review, sign, and return with your child. We will start Unit 4: Division next.

Science - Our investigation of Matter is almost complete as we Test over this unit Tuesday.  Students have learned about the 3 main forms of matter and how they change from one state to the next.  We explored hand-on about weight, mass, volume, and density. I am so impressed on the excitement to make density towers at home.  YaY! Awesome! I hope to post some of those with student permission soon. We will devote the rest of this week on the Geography Bee activities and get back to force and motion next week.

Language Arts – We continue to work through our verb unit as well as our personal narrative unit.  We’ve spent time identifying action, helping, and linking verbs in sentences. Next week, we will look at verb tense and consistency in verb tense in writing.  In preparing to write the body of our personal narrative, we’ve taken time to learn about the appropriate way to use quotation marks when incorporating dialogue in writing as well as word choice.  Next week we’ll look at pacing, problem and solution and transitions.

Spelling – Our Spelling list next week will consist of homophones!  It will be important to not only know how to spell them, but also know when to use the appropriate form of the homophone.

Week 11 News

Upcoming Events

• MONDAY: 
• TUESDAY: Spiritwear (SFA or DCHS top with Dress code bottoms), Adoration
• WEDNESDAY:  Catholic Youth Camp and Heart Challenge Assemblies
• THURSDAY:
• FRIDAY: NO CLASSES, Teacher Professional Development
• End of Trimester on Tuesday, Nov. 20
• No School on Wednesday, Nov. 21
• Thanksgiving Break Nov. 22 - 25

Reminders

• Hats, gloves, winter coats...oh my!  The weather is cold, please be prepared.

November 12-15

Dear Families,

This will be our last newsletter before Thanksgiving. We want to thank you for letting us be a part of your child’s education. We feel so blessed to be a part of the SFA family and look forward to sharing all the fun activities that December has in store!

Christ’s peace ~ Micki, Lisa, and Kristin

Religion -Liturgical Seasons Unit is well underway.  We’ve been learning about the different seasons in the church year as well as the colors and symbols that coordinate with each season.  We anticipate completing and assessing over this unit just before Thanksgiving Break. We will then begin a unit titled the 25 Days of Christ.  We will be using this theme to learn about 25 major events in Christ’s life. We are learning about these events through scripture, art, videos, and individual reflection.  Please feel free to visit this website for more information. http://25daysofchrist.com/pages/the-25-days-new-testament-edition

We will continue with these lessons through Christmas.  

Reading/Language Arts –  All three classes are continuing to learn about and apply all of the comprehension strategies.   Following Thanksgiving Break, Mrs. Schaffer’s class will begin the whole class book, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.  This will be able to count as one of the 40 books students need to read by the end of the school year.  Mrs. Anderson’s class will be starting Guided Reading groups. We will apply the comprehension strategies we’ve been learning about to this book.  We will also still offer independent reading time so that the students can continue working on their 40 books!

Math – We continue to work in Unit 3 - Geometry.  Lots of new vocabulary is being introduced. Your child can review his/her spiral and notecards each night to reinforce the concepts covered in class.  Continued practice of basic math facts will improve accuracy and speed.

Social Studies - We have completed our units over Geography and American Indians and their Cultural Regions.  Both of these assessments were taken online in class. Today your child is bringing home a form to sign so I know that you have seen their scores.  All students know how to get into their TCI online textbook. Please let me know if you have questions.

Science - We started our unit over Matter this week, discussing physical properties and the differences between weight and mass.  Lots of fun learning in this unit that we will continue with next week.

Language Arts – We’ve spent the last week listening to example of well written personal narratives and using them to generate our own ideas for personal narratives.  Next week, we will choose one of the ideas generated and begin to take it through the writing process. We also wrapped up our unit on nouns with a test today.  Our next grammar focus will be verbs.

Spelling –  Next week’s Spelling words will consist of words with the suffixes -ness and -ly.  We will also review antonyms. There will not be a spelling list the week of Thanksgiving.  The week following Thanksgiving our list will consist of words with the ei sounds and the ie sound.

Week 10 News

Upcoming Events

• Finally a regular school week

Reminders

• Please send warm clothing for recess.
• NO MORE SHORTS!

November 5-9 

Religion – Our Wax Museum was a huge success!  Thank you so much for supporting your child by helping to put together a costume and listening to him/her practice his/her speech!  We are so proud of all of the students! We also started our unit on the Liturgical Calendar in preparation for the church new year beginning the first week of Advent.

Reading/Language Arts – We will continue with mini lessons on the comprehension strategies next week.  Many students are well on their way to their 40 books! Keep on reading!

Math – We continue to work in Unit 3 - Geometry.  Lots of new vocabulary is being introduced. Your child can review his/her spiral each night as well as the studyguide they are creating to reinforce the concepts covered in class. We began using a half-size protractor this week to measure angles to the nearest degree. Continued practice of basic math facts will improve accuracy and speed.

Social Studies - We will quiz over Lesson 3 on Monday, American Indians and their Cultural Regions.  Students have been reading all about the different regions American Indians settled and how they adapted to that area, what artifacts they left behind, their homes, and animals they ate.  We will be switching gears soon back to science.

Language Arts – We spent the week listening to examples of personal narrartives writtem by Jerry Spinelli and using them to help us brainstrom ideas for our own narratives.  We discussed the importance of sensory details, dialogue, and choosing “seed” topics vs. “watermelon” topics. This will continue next week. We also started a Grammar Unit on Nouns.  We’ve discussed that nouns include more than just a person, place, or thing-they include thoughts, feelings, and ideas as well. We also looked at singular and plural nouns and common and proper nouns.  Next week we will look at possessive nouns. Watch for a test date over Nouns soon!

Spelling – Rule: Prefixes: -in (not), -im(not), mis (wrong, bad), and -il (not).

Saints Wax Museum

Parents,

You are invited!  As reported in our last two newsletters/blog posts, Thursday November 1st following mass at 10:10 a.m, will be our annual 5th grade Saints Wax Museum.  

Students have been researching information regarding his/her chosen saint throughout this past week.  To conclude the research and as a part of the the Museum, students will be asked to write a brief report (paragraph or slightly more) on his/her saint and do their best to memorize as much of their report as possible.  

Students will also be asked to put together a "costume" as well as find props that represent his/her saint.  Please don't feel as though you need to purchase any items.  Look for items around home that could be used.  For example, St. Christopher is pictured wearing what looks like a robe/sheet wrapped around him.  For this costume a bed sheet could be used to just drape around a student's existing clothing. St. Christopher is the patron saint of automobile drivers.  Small matchbox cars could be used as props on the student's desk to represent this particular saint.  If you are unable to find props to represent a saint, a poster could be made illustrating props.  

We ask that you encourage your child to practice memorizing his/her report at home over the weekend.  We also ask that you monitor your child's use of the internet when researching information regarding his/her saint this week to ensure that the information he/she is finding is from a catholic resource.  Additionally, we ask that you assist your child in ensuring costume/prop choices are brought to school next Thursday.

Two online resources include, www.catholic.org/saints/    or www.catholic-forum.com/saints/patron02.htm

Please let us know if you have any other questions or concerns.  We look forward to seeing you all next week!

Thank you.

Mrs. Schaffer, Mrs. Alsin, and Mrs. Anderson

Week 9 News

Upcoming Events

• Red Ribbon Week Activities - "Real Heroes Don't Do Drugs"
• MONDAY: 
• “Your Future So Bright, You Gotta Wear Shades”.   Students & staff may wear sunglasses or any other fun pair of glasses.
• ALICE Training - we will be sharing these strategies with our 5th graders.
• TUESDAY: 
• Be Your Own Hero”  Students and staff may wear a shirt representing an activity they are involved in or a something they are passionate about.  Uniform bottoms must be worn.
• WEDNESDAY:  
• “Favorite Literary Hero”  Students and staff may dress up as their favorite character from a book.“
• Schedule Switch - Our Wednesday and Thursday schedule will flip this week due to All Saints Day being on Thursday.  We will have PE on Wednesday, reminder for tennis shoes that day.
• THURSDAY:
• “Wear Red Day”  Students and staff may wear a red shirt with uniform bottoms.  
• SAINTS WAX MUSEUM - Thursday November 1st 10:10-10:45 in our 5th grade classrooms
• All Saints Day Celebrations in the afternoon Thursday November 1.
• FRIDAY:
• “Even Superheroes Need to Sleep”  Students and staff may wear pajamas.

Reminders

• NOVEMBER 1st NO more SHORTS or CAPRI bottoms.
• As the weather gets colder, please remember to send layers of clothing for outdoor recess.

October 29-November 2

Religion – We have been researching, writing and preparing for the Saint’s Wax Museum this week.  As a reminder, the wax museum will be held on November 1st in your child’s classroom from 10:10-10:45 (after mass).  We hope to see you there! Following the museum, we will begin a unit on the Liturgical Calendar in preparation for the church new year beginning the first week of Advent.

Reading/Language Arts –All three classes are continuing to learn about comprehension strategies.  Lessons revolve around teaching the students about the strategy, using a mentor text to practice the strategy and then suggestions on how to use the strategies in their independent reading.  These strategies will be stressed throughout the entire year. Many students are well on their way to their 40 books by the end of 5th grade! Keep on reading!

Math – We began Unit 3: Geometry this week. We are using a different study strategy to learn the concepts and all of the vocabulary that accompanies this chapter. The strategy focuses on the students not waiting to be assessed, but on the learners assessing themselves throughout a unit of study. We learned about this strategy on our last professional development day. It’s amazing how motivating using different colors of pens, highlighters, etc. and writing on anything other than lined paper. :) I am hopeful that it will also provide me the formative assessment information I need to make decisions to direct my instruction. This does not mean that we are taking a break from computation - please encourage nightly practice of math facts at home.  :) Thank you!

Social Studies -  We Are reading about American Indians and the Cultural regions they lived in and how they adapted to those environments.  Next week we will continue and also discuss why the Europeans came to America and the routes of exploration to the New World that were taken. All three 5th grades have started lessons from parent volunteers introducing Junior Achievement.  There are 6 lessons, so we will see these parents each week. This is wonderful preparation for 5th grade Biztown that will begin in January.

Language Arts – We wrapped up our non ficton quick write by writing a paragraph  detailing a battle scene similar to a scene found at the end of a Who Would Win book by Jerry Palotta.  We discussed how to write a paragraph and how to strenghthen our sentences.  We also started our Personal Narrative Unit by using Jerry Spinelli’s autobiography, Knots in my Yo-Yo String as a mentor text for ideas for our own personal narratives.  This process will continue next week. We will also begin a short grammar unit on Nouns.

Spelling – Next week’s Spelling list will consist of more plural words/rules.  We will also review synonymns, antonymns, and homographs.

Week 8 News (week 7 was conference week)

Upcoming Events

• IOWA ASSESSMENTS - We will be taking Iowa Assessments each morning this week, Students may bring a healthy snack and drink.
• MISSION AWARENESS DAY - Friday October 26th.  Students may dress down with a donation 
• SAINTS WAX MUSEUM - November 1

Reminders

• SHORTS, CAPRI bottoms - May still be worn until November 1st.
• LATE-SLIPS - Students will receive 3 lates in each subject.  On the third late in the same subject, they will serve a detention on the following Wednesday after school until 4:00.
• Extra Layers - As the weather changes, so does the temperature of our classrooms.  Students must be in SFA approved sweatshirts /fleece inside the building.  They may wear whatever they want out to recess. 

October 22-26

Religion –  We began our unit on Saints this week.  This will lead us to the annual 5th grade Saint’s Wax Museum.  Please save the date! The wax museum will be held on November 1st in your child’s classroom from 10:00-10:45 (after mass).  For this project, the kids will choose a saint to research. They will then write an informative report about their saints and dress up as their saints for our wax museum.   It is always a lot of fun to see the kids dressed up as their saints. Look for more information to come home soon regarding this special event.

Reading – All three classes are learning about comprehension strategies and how to apply them to independent reading (fiction or non-fiction).  The comprehension strategies that we will focus on throughout the year include schema, questioning, monitoring and fixing up, synthesis, sensory image, determining importance, and inferring.  Many students are well on their way to their 40 books by the end of 5th grade! We are advising that students be around 13 books by Thanksgiving. Keep on reading!

Math – We are finished up with Unit 2 and are going to begin Unit 3: Geometry.  You will be receiving your child’s Unit 2 results next week. Please encourage continued practice of basic math facts. Thanks!

Social Studies - We have been discussing Native Americans and their Land, how they adapted to different environments, and the routes they took to North and South America.  We will continue this discussion next week and also look at European Exploration.

Language Arts – We have wrapped up our unit on The Sentence.  Corrected tests will be handed back next week. We will now take our sentence knowledge and begin a unit on paragraph writing in Grammar.  In Writing last week, we used the mentor text Water Dance to help us brainstorm ideas to write about an object from the object’s point of view.  This week we worked on a non fiction piece of writing by using the mentor text, Who Would Win?  Students had to choose two animals to research and then determine who would win in a battle based on their strengths etc.   We will begin the writing process for our first formal, graded paper next week-the personal narrative.

Spelling – We will NOT have a spelling test next week due to Iowa Assessments.