10-23-16

We've taken our second SRI test this year.  Ask your child how they did!  If a student goes up, they are given an award.  Students who don't are encouraged to do a few things to help raise their score by next month.  They are given a lexile level that their independent books should fall into.  They are asked to read over the weekends, not just on school days.  They are asked to focus on their books when they are reading them!  Our next RC quiz is due on Monday, October 31st.  It is quiz #4.

Our October practice sheet is also due on the 31st.  This month kids are asked to do 5 reading labs, pass 2 RC quizzes, do 2 mouse coding activities, 2 Newsela articles, and 2 peer tutoring (help someone study, or do their homework) sessions.

This week's spelling words are:
hare, harsh, warn, snare, gorge, scar, sore, floor, carve, barge, torch, lord, tore, bore, flair, soar, flare, lair, fare, and rare

The spelling skill we are working on is words that rhyme may or may not share a word ending.  The pretest will be Tuesday, but the test will not be until next week!

This week's vocabulary words are:
The Fear Place Vocabulary Definitions
1. cautious - careful and not taking chances.
2. concentrate - to give your full attention to.
3. discomfort - a feeling of mild distress.
4. dismayed - filled with sudden concern or distress.
5. excitement - a stirred up feeling.
6. immobile - fixed in one place.
7. stamina - the strength needed to keep doing something tiring or difficult.
8. terrified - filled with overpowering fear.
9. unsure - not certain and having doubts.
10. futile - having no useful result or useless.
11. momentum - the force or speed of motion.
12. engulfed - swallowed up or overwhelmed by something.

These words will also not be tested until next week.

In language arts this week, we'll be finishing our verbs unit with a couple of days on verb consistency.  When writing, often times students change verb tenses in their writing. This makes their writing confusing.   We will also begin our lesson on using possessive nouns and apostrophes.

Our writing this week will be finishing up our tall tales, and beginning our Veteran's Day essay.  If you have a veteran in your family's history, please fill out the Veteran's form that your child is bringing home tomorrow.  We'd love to have you send a picture, or a photocopy of a picture, with your child, of your family's veteran.  We'd like to hang it up on a bulletin board for the next couple of weeks.  We'd also LOVE to have a veteran come and talk to our class if you know of anyone who would like to do that.

Reading this week will revolve around the skill of inference.  We will be using the skills to try and solve a mystery.  The mystery on Monday-Wednesday involve a man named Harris Burdick, who has gone missing!  On Thursday and Friday, our mysteries will revolve around some "discovered" WANTED posters.

Science:
On Monday we will be doing our Computer Science coding.  Tuesday-Thursday we will continue our plant science unit.  We've discussed the parts of a plant, the types of plants (vascular and nonvascular), and now we are moving onto the uses of plants.

Friday is our Halloween movie.  We do not dress up, or have a party in 5th or 6th grade, but we do get to watch a movie and eat snacks while the other grades are having their parties.  We will be voting on which movie we are watching later in the week.  Remember, kids can bring a pillow, a snack, and a drink for Friday!