April 25th - April 29th

Upcoming Events

Friday, April 29th ~ Art Show from 3:30-7:30

Tuesday, May 3rd ~ Middle School Book Fair*

Wednesday, May 4th ~ Middle School Dodge Ball Tournament**

Friday, May 6th ~ Fourth Quarter Book "Reports" (Book Trailers) Due

Monday, May 9th ~ Mercado Day, 1:00-2:15 pm***

Friday, May 13th ~ Social Studies Enrichment Celebration

Friday, May 20th ~ Science Test, Outer Space

Tuesday, May 24th ~ 3rd - 8th Grade Field Day

Thursday, May 26th ~ Last Day of School

*Middle School has a Book Fair each spring to help students find great books to read over the summer. Fifth grade is invited to participate each year, so each class will be attending the book fair the afternoon of May 3rd. Miss O'Connor's class will visit from 2:00-2:30 and Mrs. Nash's class will visit from 2:30-3:00.

**5th graders are invited to watch the Middle School Dodge Ball Tournament.  Students are asked to bring a $1 donation for our sister school in Haiti.  

 ***Parents are invited to the MPR to listen to students' presentations about their Spanish speaking countries and participate in a market day.  

Academics

In Language Arts, we resumed Wordly Wise this week.  Students completed lesson 17.  Lesson 18 is due next Thursday with a test over the lesson on Friday.  We also began a persuasive writing project with a focus on using adjectives in our writing.  Students have brainstormed, completed a graphic organizer, and started their rough drafts.  We also did a series of mini-lessons on persuasive writing and types of adjectives.  Students will finalize their papers next week.   

In Reading,  both classes began their Book Contracts. Each student in Mrs. Nash's class is reading one of the following books: Out of my Mind by Sharon Draper, Daphne’s Book by Mary Downing Hahn, The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies, or Belle Prater’s Boy by Ruth White. In Miss O'Connor's class, students are reading Indian Captive by Lois Lenski, Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis, Wizard's Hall by Jane Yolen, or The Library Card by Jerry Spinelli.  Each day, students are reading an assigned number of pages and writing a journal response. They will also be completing several other reading activities in conjunction with the book. In Mrs. Nash's Class, all work for this unit is completed in an online class notebook that students can access from home and school. Miss O'Connor's class is keeping all of their work for this project in a Book Contract portfolio.  

In Social Studies, students worked in groups to plan and create their group project about their assigned period of time. While they had several options for how to present their information, most groups chose to make iMovies. We will share these in class on Monday before moving on to our final unit of the year over the Civil War. Students also received an enrichment opportunity this week in class. They may choose to research a specific topic within the context of the Civil War. For the students who choose to participate, we will have a celebration and present projects on Friday, May 13^th from 7:15-8:00. Breakfast treats will be provided at this activity.

In Science, students continued learning about our solar system.  We finished studying the characteristics of the four outer planets and began learning about the life-cycles of stars.  Did you know our Sun is only medium sized in relation to other stars?  The fifth graders now do!  We will continue learning about the life cycle of stars next week and then transition into moon phases.  Our final science test will be on Friday, May 20th and will cover the planets, smaller members of the solar system (asteroids, meteors, comets, and meteorites), the life cycle of stars, and the phases of the moon.