Week of January 29th

Open House is tomorrow! Open House is Wednesday 6:30-7:30. We will be doing our best to prepare for you tomorrow. 

Also this Friday, students will have the "Robert Crown Follow-Up". This takes about an hour, and happens at school. 

Hill registration forms are due by this Friday! 

Here are our plans for the shortened week:

5H Math: Students will get their Unit 5 Tests back tomorrow. We will be starting Unit 6, which is mostly about measurement and conversions. I'll start tomorrow by seeing how much students remember about the units of measurement and their relation to one another. We will spend the rest of the week understanding how to convert measurements within a system of measurement (inches to feet or centimeters to meters). The links for this unit are updated in the math tab. 

Language Arts: We will be starting a new theme this week, "At a Crossroads". We will tie this theme into our studies across subjects. We will read "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost and discuss subject and theme in pieces of writing. We will practice this skill with other poems and writing pieces as well. 

We will continue to review common grammatical errors this week. 

Social Studies: This week we are starting our Revolution Unit- one of my favorites! We will begin this week by trying to understand the causes of the American Revolution. Students' homework Thursday night will be to go through a PowerPoint I created and take notes on the events that lead up to the Revolution. I will be posting this either on Edline or through Googledocs for them. 

Kids should also start thinking about what they will do for their next current event presentation. 

January 21-24

I hope everyone's enjoying their weekends. Here are the plans for the week:

-Interim Assessments take place this week. Kids will take 2 Math tests and 2 Language Arts tests. These will take place on Wednesday and Thursday. These tests are to measure the changes we're making in our curriculum as we implement the Common Core Standards. 

-The Robert Crown field trip is this Friday, January 24th. 

-Please remember to turn in the Hill Middle School class designation form at your earliest convenience. 

5H Math: We will take the Unit 5 test this Wednesday. There are optional study sessions Tuesday during lunch and/or recess as well as after school until 4:10. Tuesday we will work on adding and subtracting mixed numbers in story problems and review comparing decimals. Students have several handouts as well as notes that will be helpful in studying. They can also refer to the unit 5 links in the math tab. 

Language Arts:

This week we'll finish up Red Kayak, one of our read aloud books. The main character has been struggling with a tough decision which has led us to some discussions about courage and decision making. We will finish up our courage unit this week by returning to our original definitions of courage and revising them as necessary. Students will reflect on all the topics we've connected to courage and determine what they believe to be the best example of courage (could be from a read aloud, independent book, current event, personal experience, etc.). Students will explain why they believe this example shows courage by connecting it to their definition.  

Word Study: Kids will take a quiz on words that contain suffixes this Thursday. The words are the same as I emailed you last week. Kids will need to spell the words correctly, as well as circle the suffix and underline the base word. 

examine
masculine
feminine
chlorine
routine
college
privilege
voltage 
proposal
denial
personality
equity

Science: On Tuesday, we will focus on circuits. Students will learn what a circuit is, and the difference between a parallel and series circuit. Wednesday, we will review what we've learned in this unit. We will take our Magnet and Electricity test this Friday. Students should focus on the concepts below.

• The basic parts of an atom and how they relate to magnetism and electricity
• Properties of magnets
• Circuit electricity: parallel and series circuits (what is a circuit? what is the difference between these two types?)   
• The 2 types of electricity (static and current) and their similarities and differences
• The relationship between magnets and electricity- how can electricity magnetize another object? (electromagnet) 

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Young Authors

The Young Authors information went out on our website before break, but many families have not gotten the word. Here are the specifics:

-Be in by the deadline 2/14/14. (Late manuscripts will not be eligible for awards.)

-Include a rough draft. (Handwritten or typed. The final copy should reflect revisions.)

-Have a cover with pages securely attached.

- Have a detachable title page including the child's name, grade, and title of the book. (This page will be removed for anonymous judging.)

-Writing must be done by the student. The final manuscript should reflect the student’s writing ability and developmental stage. (For example, an excellent kindergarten submission may use very basic language and may have some grammatical errors.) PARENT INPUT SHOULD BE MINIMAL

Letters of intent to participate were supposed to be in Friday, but Mrs. May has extended the deadline. You can find the Intent to Participate form in an email from me! 

Note from Mrs. Donaldson, Music Teacher

Dear Fifth Grade Families,

Due to health issues, I will be on medical leave for six weeks beginning Friday, January 24th.  As a result, Mr. LeCrone and I have tentatively rescheduled the Fifth Grade Music Program to Monday, April 14^th at 7:00 PM.  My substitute, Mr. James Anderson, will continue to prepare the students for the program while I am gone.  I say “tentatively” in the event something unforeseen happens; however, it is my intention to do everything possible to provide this experience for our 5^th graders as it is their last year at May Watts.  Mr. Anderson will also continue holding chorus rehearsals as scheduled.  If you have any questions, you may email me until January 23^rd.  After this time, please direct your questions or concerns to Mr. LeCrone. 

 Thank you,

Danielle Donaldson

Music Teacher/Choral Director

May Watts Elementary School

Danielle_Donaldson@ipsd.org

One School/One Book - How it Works

 

• Every family at May Watts gets a free copy of the same book (Thank you, May Watts PTA!)

• • Students received their books Friday at the end of the day, with a reading calendar 

• Nightly reading assignments (Try to follow the schedule. Don’t read ahead!)

• Read aloud as a family – even big kids!

• Already read it? Read it again!

• Daily trivia questions (Get the right answer to put your name in a raffle – Every grade level will have a winner!)

• Friday activities 

 

 SIX FLAGS Read Across America

· Students in Grades 2-5 must enter their minutes online on maywattsreads.com. The cutoff for Grades 2-5 will be January 31^st.

January 8-10

Happy New Year! I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays and had some time to relax and enjoy family and friends. Hopefully everyone is staying out of the cold!

Events this week:
Representatives from Hill Middle School will be coming this Friday to talk to all fifth graders about scheduling options for next year. Please ask your child to share the information they receive with you.

Kids will be taking CBMs this week.

Friday is the end of second quarter! Students are supposed to present on a current event by Thursday, but kids may present on Friday if they need to. Several students have already done this, but there are MANY that still need to do so. The current event presentation counts as a social studies grade and a speaking and listening grade. Students have a sheet to fill out describing the current event of their choice; there are news web site links in the Social Studies tab, or kids may find an event through a different source.

After adjusting my plans a few times because of the weather, here's the plan for our now shortened week:

5H Math: Before the break, kids had practiced adding and subtracting fractions, as well as simplifying fractions. We'll start this week with a quick review and move into adding and subtracting mixed numbers. Students will follow this process:
1. find a common denominator
2. add or subtract the fractions
3. add or subtract the whole numbers
4. simplify as necessary
On Thursday, kids will work on subtracting mixed numbers where they have to regroup. So, for example in order to subtract 6   1/8 - 2   3/4, kids will need to regroup 6  1/8 after they find the common denominator. Students will need to make turn 6  1/8 into an improper fraction to make the problem easier to solve:  6  1/8 = 5   9/8.

Finally on Friday, kids will practice word problems of both adding and subtracting fractions and mixed numbers. Kids will have homework on Wednesday and Thursday. The unit 5 test will be the week of the 13th, probably that Friday (1/17).

Language Arts/Social Studies:  Kids will continue their inquiries about slavery this week, and will need to spend some time researching at home as well (Wednesday night). One of the major goals for kids is to be able to gather information from multiple sources and demonstrate their new learning by combining the information they've gathered.

This week I will again be modeling for kids how I gain new learning from gathering information about my topic (as well as how my questions drive my research) and we'll start thinking about the best possible way to share what we've learned. I will again model this, by presenting what I've learned in an interesting way (we're trying to move beyond the powerpoint!), and kids will brainstorm with their inquiry groups how to best share what they've learned. Kids will present next week.

Of course, kids will have time for independent reading as well this week and I will meet with kids for conferences.

Word Study: As we continue studying prefixes, I am giving kids a list of words that contain the prefixes we've learned about. Because these words don't contain a particular pattern, other than the prefix, I want the kids to study the specific words this time. Kids will take the quiz on the words below this Friday. They will need to be able to spell them correctly as well as identify the prefix and base-word in each word.

subway
semifinal
postpone
multivitamin
ultraviolet
antidote
counteract
internet
overtime
nonjudgmental
ultraviolet
extraordinary

Citizenship: We will continue some of our Bully Prevention lessons this week, which will include discussions about how to be an "upstander" instead of a bystander in a bully situation, cliques, and gossip.

Science: Students will learn about Maglev Trains beginning this week and will research how these trains work. Then kids will be able to create a Maglev Pencil. It's a really fun experiment, but also challenging to actually get it to work. On Friday, we will begin the transition to learning more about electricity and the connection between magnets and electricity.