February Has Arrived

Upcoming Events

February 4, 5, & 6 ~ Parent Teacher Conferences with Mrs. Jones & Mr. Ward from 4-6:20*
Thursday, February 7 ~ Early Morning Science with Mrs. Bartlett

Friday, February 8 ~ Mid-Quarter

Tuesday, February 12 ~ Shrove Pancake Breakfast

Wednesday, February 13 ~ Presidents' Celebration at 2:00 in North MPR

Thursday, February 14 ~ Valentine's Day Class Parties at 2:30*

Friday, February 15 ~ No School, Teacher In service

Monday, February 18 ~ No School, President's Day

Thursday, February 21 ~ 5th Grade Showcase at 7:00

Friday, February 22 ~ Spirit Day
Monday, February 25 ~ WordMasters Challenge II
Friday, March 1 ~ End of 3rd Quarter
Thursday, March 7 ~ Parent-Teacher Conferences from 12:00-8:00
Friday, March 8 ~ Parent-Teacher Conferences from 7:30 - 12:00

* Valentine's Day Preparations*
Students received class lists on Monday, February 4th to use as they prepare their valentines for their classmates.  We do ask all students to bring a valentine for each student in their homeroom and to write and spell their classmates' names correctly.  If your child wishes, he or she may bring valentines for the other home room as well.  Students should also come to school with a bag or valentine's box to use for collecting valentines given to them.  These will be exchanged during the first part of the class parties on Thursday, February 14.  Please feel free to join us from 2:30-3:15 for our Valentine's party.  This will be the students last class party since next year they will move to the dance format.

Academics
In language arts, students are working on making corrections to the rough drafts of their research paper. This week students will create title pages, bibliographies, and word clouds.  They will also start writing a speech.  Students should also be busy studying the second set of WordMaster words. The test will be Monday, February 25th.

Mrs. Jones' class is currently reading chapter 8 of Jayhawker. Students in Mrs. Nash's reading class read through chapter 16 of Hatchet or chapter 20 of Running Out of Time. They will wrap up both books next week and will take a test over them on Friday, February 8.

 We are continuing to practice the reading comprehension strategies and learning new vocabulary while we read.

This week in science we focused on reading nutrition labels and healthy eating.  Students also participated in a short conversation about growth and development.  We will wrap up the unit this week as we study the importance of sleep.  Thanks to all the students who took extra time to research and present one of the human body systems we didn't study in class.  About 25 percent of the class participated in the enrichment project and stayed after school Friday for a celebration and sharing session. 
 

In social studies, we continued to focus on the events leading up to the American Revolution. We specifically focused on the Boston Massacre. Later next week we will focus on the start of the war.


The information below has been posted on our blog the past few weeks, but if you missed it please read below to learn about some important things going on in fifth grade!

Parent Teacher Conferences with Mrs. Jones & Mr. Ward

Due to the upcoming arrival of Baby Jones, Mrs. Jones & her long term sub, Mr. Hunter Ward, will be having Parent Teacher Conferences on Monday, February 4, Tuesday, February 5, and Wednesday, February 6 from 4 P.M. - 6:20 P.M. We will follow the normal 20 minute schedule that we use in fifth grade, and you can sign up for your conference on Sign Up Genius. The link to the sign-up is http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0E4BAFAE29A57-parent. These will take the place of conferences that would normally occur on March 7 and 8. We look forward to visiting with you!

Presidents' Unit

We are half way through our Presidents' Unit and students are working diligently to prepare for the celebration on Wednesday, February 13.  Students are successfully using Google drive and docs to create their outlines, research papers, title pages, and bibliographies. The students will also be using LiveBinders to create online portfolios of their work. The two user names and passwords students will need are included in the letter that came home in early January which students should have in their research folder.  We hope you will be able to join us from 2-3:15 in the North Multipurpose Room on Wednesday, February 13 for our culminating celebration!

Shadowing in Sixth Grade

Fifth graders have continued to shadow this week. Each day four fifth graders will attend Middle School chapel and the first three classes of the day. This will give them a glimpse into life as a middle schooler while minimizing the amount of time they miss from their own classes. 

Resource

The Professional Development Committee purchased several webinars offered through ISACS for our faculty and staff this year. The latest webinar was titled, "Sugar & Spice But Not Always Nice: Gender, Bias, & Aggression in Adolescent Girls." It was hosted by Rosetta Lee of the Seattle Girls' School and the faculty who attended found the information helpful. We wanted to include access information for you in case you're interested in using this as a resource. If you would like to view the archived webinar you can access it by going to http://www.isacs.org/page/472128_Learning_Bridge_Webinar_Login.asp. You'll then scroll down to the bottom of the page, select “1/15/13 Sugar & Spice But Not Always Nice: Gender, Bias & Aggression in Adolescent Girls” and use the password (beet). Click “Login” and on the next screen select "Click here to replay this seminar". The recording will be available until 4pm Central on Wednesday, February 13.

Volunteer Opportunity

We are in need of a parent volunteer or two who would be willing to help cover novels with contact paper. It's an easy job once you get the hang of it, but it does require a little patience and attention to detail.  Please let us know if you are interested. Though covering our novels is a little time consuming, it helps us prolong their life and our investment, and we truly appreciate the help.