Last post before break....

Well, I hope that all of you have a terrific winter break. It has been a great 2010 for our 5th graders. I can't believe the amount of growing they have done. We still have MUCH to do when we get back! Parents, a big thank you for all of the support you have given your student and their teachers :) in the last few months.



I am sending home this newsletter in print as well as putting it on the blog, to make sure that all get to see it. A reminder, I post assignments and announcements daily on the blog. If you go to the blog address, you can sign up to get the announcements by email. That is a great way to keep caught up, as you don't even have to remember to check the blog! From the blog address, you can click on the link to the wiki. This is where you will find our weekly spelling and vocabulary terms, as well as the dates for the next test. For the kids...there are MANY websites to practice the skills that we are learning in reading, language and technology. I update this site on a weekly basis (at least). For those of you who don't have access to a computer on a regular basis, please remember to check the kids' planners. They write the same information in their planners as what I post on the blog.

Assignments due by Tuesday:
Diary of a Wimpy Reindeer story
Pen pal letters
Vocabulary test Monday (study the 6 multiple meaning words)
Reading response
Cause and effect packet

Reading counts quizzes: By the time we head out for break, we will have had 7 required reading counts quizzes. If a student doesn't have enough quizzes passed, I will be sending a note home to make you aware. Although I am not requiring reading over the break, these students could use this time to get caught up and come back ready to take some quizzes.

Curriculum update

Reading: Our current unit in reading deals with the use of several skills/strategies. Students are learning the importance of recognizing cause and effect within stories. They are also practicing finding the author's purpose in their writing. We have discussed that the three main purposes for writing are: persuading, informing, and entertaining. Finally we are learning to pick out the point of view of the author and/or characters in a story. Each of these strategies, if used, will help students become better readers.

Language: Our concentration for the last 2 weeks had been nouns. We have now moved on to verbs. Action verbs are fairly easy for the students, the hard ones are the being verbs. We'll tackle those when we come back from break.

Writing: We are writing friendly letters (with the correct format) to our pen pals. Meyer's group writes to some students from Texas, while Haugen's group writes to some 5th graders in Colorado. This is a great and fun way to learn correct letter writing skills. We have also been writing a story this week called Diary of a Wimpy Reindeer. The format is similar to Diary of a Wimpy Kid. The kids are very creative and I look forward to Tuesday when they will be sharing them.