February 1st - 5th

Tuesday, February 9th ~ Shrove Tuesday Pancake Breakfast at 7:00am

Friday, February 19th ~ WordMasters Challenge Round 2 

Tuesday, February 23rd ~ Math Club - arrive between 7:15-7:30

Wednesday, February 10th ~ Presidents Celebration at 2:00pm*

Friday, February 12th ~ Valentine Parties** 

Monday, February 15th ~ No School- Presidents' Day 

Wednesday, February 17th ~ Science Test

Friday, February 26th ~ Social Studies Test

Thursday, March 3rd and Friday, March 4th ~ Parent Teacher Conferences, No School***

*We invite you to join us for our Presidents' Celebration on Wednesday, February 10th at 2:00 pm in the North MPR. Students will give speeches, sing patriotic songs, and share their online portfolios that showcase all of their work from the unit. We will also enjoy cookies and beverages. The celebration will last until around 3:15. We ask that students dress up for this celebration. For boys, this may be slacks and a collared shirt. Ties are optional. Girls may wear dresses or dress pants with a nice top. Students are welcome to wear patriotic colors for this event, but it is not required. We hope to see you there!

**We are looking forward to our final class party of the year on February 12th at 2:30. In fifth grade, we ask students to prepare Valentines for each person in their homeroom class. We ask that they put names on the Valentines and have given them class lists so they can spell names correctly. Students are welcome to also bring Valentine's for the other class; however, we ask that if they choose to do so, that they have enough for everyone in the other class. We have asked students that any valentines that are personalized and for a specific individual not be brought to school. We appreciate your help in keeping Valentine's Day an inclusive, whole class activity by limiting individual and personalized valentines to outside of school hours. 

***Please make sure you have signed up for Spring Conferences!  Here are the links to the Sign Up Geniuses:
Mrs. Nash: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0e4bafae28a46-parentteacher3
Miss O'Connor: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0d4eafaf29a4f49-parentteacher 

Academics 

In Language Arts, we finalized all the parts of our President Unit!  We look forward to showing you all of the hard work the students have completed throughout this unit next week.  Students should continue memorizing and practicing their speeches in preparation for the President's Program.  At the end of next week, we will transition into our next grammar unit on verbs. 

In Reading this week, both classes began our literature circle unit.  Students are reading one of the following novels for this unit: Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine, When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr, My Brother Sam is Dead by Christopher and James Lincoln Collier, or Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. As they read each day, students will complete a role that they will then use in a discussion with their group the following days. Roles include discussion director, summarizer, connector, vocabulary wizard, and illustrator. These roles are designed to help students deepen their thinking while they read.

In Social Studies, we learned about the of the first big conflicts in the Revolutionary War. We also focused on the forming of the Second Continental Congress and the writing of the Declaration of Independence. We will be wrapping up our American Revolution in the next few weeks and plan to have a test over the material on February 26^th.  

In Science this week, we learned about the Respiratory System.  Students completed a QR code scavenger hunt to learn about the parts and functions of this system.  On Friday, we did an experiment to test our lung capacity.  Student's then tested if their posture affected the amount of air their lungs could hold.  Students have a test over the human body on Wednesday, February 17th and will receive a study guide at the end of text week.