April 14th-17th

Upcoming Events

Monday, April 21st ~ WordMasters Challenge 3

Tuesday, April 22nd ~ Exchange City Field Trip from 9:00-3:00*, Mid-Quarter

Friday, April 25th ~ Spirit Day, Eucharist Chapel

Wednesday, April 30th ~ Art Fair from 3:30-7:30

Friday, May 2nd ~ Pillars of SPEDS Luncheon, Bring lunches from home**

Wednesday, May 7 ~ Middle School Book Fair for 5th-8th Grades

Friday, May 9 ~ Mercado Day at 2:00 (Please see the note from Senora Meli)***
 

* Our field trip to Exchange City is almost here! We will leave St. Paul's at 9:00 on Tuesday morning and will return at 3:00. Students should bring a lunch from home if they did not sign up for a lunch with school. Exchange City asks that we try to "be green" by bringing our lunches in recyclable or reusable materials. We have also encouraged students to dress professionally for the day. 


**On May 2, we will be eating lunch in our classrooms due to the Pillars of SPEDS event held in the cafeteria. This means that every student will need to bring a lunch from home. There will be no lunch available through the school on this day.


*** Mercado Day***

On May 9 at 2:00, students in fifth grade will celebrate Mercado day.  Students were  assigned a Spanish-speaking country and have been researching facts about it to share with you.  Your child has a script to memorize for that day. This script was written in class and I have checked it for accuracy.  I am also making an audio file so students will know how to pronounce the words.  Over the weekend,  I will make the audio files and email them to your child.  Please, help him/her practice his/her presentation daily so the script will be memorized by the 9^th. That day, students will have an iPad with a Thinglink display  that will guide their presentation.

Students will also be “selling” an item representative of their country during the second part of the market day.  These items are to be done completely at home. There is no need to spend too much money on them. Examples of products are:

·         bookmarks with the colors of the flag or with pictures of the country, the name of the country written in fancy letters.

·         figurines made of clay

·         bracelets

·         homemade piñatas or rain sticks

·         masks

·         paper flowers

  I am asking students to bring about 20 items to sell. There are only 2 students per class who have a food or drink “permit.”

Parents are invited to come to the North MPR at 2:00 and tour the presentations. At about 2:30, parents will be given 20 pesos to purchase items in the market.  These pesos were designed by the students, too.

Students are working hard on their presentations and we are all looking forward to this fun activity!

Here are some phrases that parents can use to make the experience more authentic:

¿Qué es ésto? – What is this?

¿Cuánto cuesta? – How much does it cost?

¡Muy bien! – Very good!

¡Qué barato! – How cheap!

¡Qué caro! – How expensive!

¡Delicioso! – Delicious!

Sra. Meli

Academics

We are very proud of our fifth graders as they worked very hard to complete standardized tests this week. Their focus and effort each morning as they worked diligently on the test was excellent. 

In language arts, we spent time working on our upcoming WordMasters Challenge. Students will take this test on Monday, April 21st. Next week in language arts we will begin a technical or explanatory writing project.

In reading, Mrs. Nash's class presented their literature circle projects to the class. Miss Laird's class finished Holes. Next week we will compare and contrast the movie and the book. Both classes will begin book contract next week. With the book contract, students will select a book out of five options in the class. While some students will be reading the same books, book contracts are completed on an individual basis rather than in groups like the literature circles unit.

This week in social studies, students spent time working on a project for Unit 5. Students chose to work in groups or individually for this project. They are researching one of the following events in American history: the Louisiana Purchase, the War of 1812, the Industrial Revolution, the Age of Andrew Jackson, or the war with Mexico. They will produce a PowerPoint, board game, diary, or timeline for this project. All work can be completed in class, and we will work on this project until April 29th.

In science we continued our health and wellness unit. We discussed what it means to the importance of having a balanced diet. We also began discussing the importance of sleep especially in growing children. Thank you to everyone that participated in the science enrichment party. We had a great time.