Happy St. Patrick's Day!

It has been awhile, so let me catch you up on what we have been doing in 5th grade!

Religion- We are beginning Unit 6-Worship: In Liturgy and in Life. We have had a few deep discussions already from this unit. We will be talking about vocations this week and relating our desired vocation to serving God. This will be a project the students will start on Tuesday, and present to the class on Friday.

Math- We have finished up adding and subtracting fractions, and we are now working on multiplying fractions. When we return from Spring Break we will finish up multiplying fractions, and begin dividing fractions.

Reading- This week we will finish The Thief Lord. This book has been a joy to read during March. We will have an assessment on Friday reviewing the book. The students will also take the AR test for a grade. This WILL NOT count as the 15 AR points they are required to have at the end of the 9 weeks. The AR points come from independent reading time. We are also discussing figurative language and point of view this week.

English- We are working hard on adverbs right now. When we return from Spring Break, we will begin another writing unit.

Social Studies- We are beginning growth and expansion. The students will have a quiz daily, and a chapter test on Friday. They can choose a test or quiz to use their study guide with, or choose to not use their study guide for a 10 point bonus on the final test. (The essay question will not be a bonus this week) When we return from Spring Break we will begin "The Jackson Era" in chapter 11.

Science- We are working HARD on our Celebrate Science project. We have less than a month now to turn it in.

Thank you all for bearing with me last week. I hope you all had a great time on the field trip, and I enjoyed seeing all the pictures. I am glad that this sickness is gone! Have a great Spring Break!

Love you all,
Mrs. Jones

2014-Weeks 3-5

Religion- We are now studying Jesus as true God and true man. We have also been continuing our devotions with a few of "The Skit Guys" videos. Thank you Mrs. Dahlke for sharing these videos with us!

Math- We are "filling in gaps" right now with 5th grade material they didn't learn in 4th grade (now with Common Core they will learn these concepts in 4th grade), this is why you haven't seen the Go Math! sheets come home in a while. We are preparing for adding/subtracting, multiplying/dividing fractions. We should finish up our preview of fractions the middle of next week. Without the snow we had planned to be finished this week, but we will accommodate! 

Reading- We are continuing our book study of Shiloh/Old Yeller. We are also touching on quite a few important reading strategies such as: main idea and details, point of view, and author's purpose. We will also begin discussing figurative language. 

English/Writing- We finished our study on commas and have now moved on to Expository writing. We have began with a "How-To" paper, and will move into informative after we finish. You may also notice that we have began DOL again. Students are now receiving a grade for turning their CORRECTED DOL sheet in on Thursday, and also a quiz grade on Friday. 

Social Studies- We finished "The American Revolution" and we have began Ch. 7 "The Constitution." We are going to start moving pretty quickly through this, so expect quizzes almost daily. The quizzes come straight from the study guide/Power Point. 

Science- Right now we are studying weather patterns (perfect timing!), and the students are taking notes in a booklet we made for a study guide. I am showing them how to take notes, and giving them what they need to know. This is their study guide so if it is lost they do not receive another one. 

Here is our winning science experiment team from a few weeks ago. Way to go Sophia, Lawson, and Ethan! We learned about polymer and the particles suction to the pencil to keep the water from leaking. It took patience though!

I hope you are all having a blast in the snow! I can't wait to hear all about it! This is how Mrs. Jones feels about it: 

Love you all, 

Mrs. Jones

2014- Week 2

This week we continued "Holes" and also worked on context clues, character traits, and predictions. This week we will be finishing "Holes" and do a book character foldable. The students have already chosen their characters for this. This week the students will also receive a study guide for the vocabulary words. 

In math, we will have our measurement test this week. We will begin a short study on "order of operations". 

In grammar, we are beginning commas this week. This will last about 2 weeks. 

During Science we will work on our abstract Tuesday, then science fair projects are due Wednesday afternoon or Thursday afternoon. We will also continue working on severe weather posters, Arbor Day posters, and our celebrate science project. 

We will begin again in History this week. We are still studying The American Revolution. The students have made a "briefcase" that contains foldables pertaining to this piece of history. They are working in groups to complete this and will receive a grade on their "briefcase", and an assessment on chapter 6. 

February 3-4 I will be attending a conference in Birmingham on Common Core: Reading and Writing. My family and I will also be moving over the next few weeks so please keep us in your prayers!

Love you all, 

Mrs. Jones

Lutheran Schools Week and Math Site

I found a website that would be beneficial in 5th grade math. Just click on a standard and it gives you equations to solve. Currently we are working on measurement and converting measurements. We will be beginning fractions soon, so this would be a great time to practice that section to get a head start! http://www.ixl.com/math/grade-5

Lutheran Schools week kicks off Sunday, January 26th with a church service at St. Paul's. The students will be singing at the 10:30 service. Please plan on being there between 10:00-10:15. We will be collecting money to help out with 2 different missions; one will be for the Lutheran Malaria Initiative and the other will be for a Lutheran school in Detroit to help them with repairs they need for their school. We will also be collecting new or gently used shoes for the "TWO Shoes" program. These are the scheduled events for the week:
(You will receive a hard copy of this list soon)

Monday: Bring an electronic device to play when teacher allows for $1.00. School wide PJ Day to kick of NLSW fun. Bring in your pennies to help repair Detroit Lutheran School.

Tuesday: Pay $1.00 to wear athletic wear. Bring shoes in for needy to Morning Assembly. Bring in nickels to help repair Detroit Lutheran School.

Wednesday: Bring in $1.00 to have extra recess time. Dress-up from a different country (make sure it goes along with school dress code, hats will be allowed). Bring in dimes to help repair Detroit Lutheran School.

Thursday: Bring in $1.00 to wear a hat all day at school. Bring in quarters to help repair Detroit Lutheran School. Bring in quarters to help repair Detroit Lutheran School. Bring in shoes to morning assembly.

Friday: Bring an electronic device to play when teacher allows for $1.00. Wear St. Paul's shirts and athletic pants (only if you wear St. Paul's shirt please). Bring in any money to help with repairs to Detroit Lutheran School.

The class that brings in the most money for our missions will receive a special surprise! Hope you are all having a great week!

January 13-17 Spelling and Memory Verse

Spelling Words

1. verse
2. swerve
3. curve
4. whirl
5. worship
6. hurdle
7. curb
8. purchase
9. thirsty
10. flirt
11. preserve
12. herb
13. nerve
14. swirl
15. worm
16. turkey
17. blur
18. refer

Bible Memory Verse

"To the Jews who had believed in him, Jesus said, If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." John 8:31-32

2014

2014 is here and we are busy in 5th grade! Given that we are in the 2nd semester I want to clarify that I am requiring more responsibility from the students. I don't always grade homework, but if it isn't done they will be doing it in their free time.

We are beginning our 3rd unit in Religion this month. We are talking about creation, angels, and satan.

We are reading "Holes" during the month of January. We have book club meeting days where students will take the skills and strategies we have been working on and apply them to the book. They will be required to have 15 AR points for the 3rd 9 week grading period aside from "Holes". 

In grammar we are applying our parts of speech we learned last semester and working on writing. We are beginning with writing short stories/narratives. The students had an assigned topic this week, but will have free choice next week on a topic.

We began measurement in math this week. We will begin fractions in a couple of weeks. I am trying to teach the students that math does require studying! They have been writing their formulas in their math journals and have been bringing them home to do homework with this week. 

We will move into the American Revolution in History this week! 

Science is our busy subject because we are working on our celebrate science project, sever weather posters, and science fair. We will be doing constellations for our project and the students have been busy bees researching for this! Students will have time during technology to research for their science fair project. This is due January 22nd. 

**Please note that students should be bringing an AR book with them to read daily. 

Congratulations to our spelling bee participants from our room, and the winner of the spelling bee Ethan Jankens!

I would also like to congratulate our "A" honor roll students, and perfect attendance. 

Honor roll- Ethan, Max, Sam, Lawson, Chloe 

Perfect Attendance- Ethan

Congratulations everyone! 

 Stay tuned for a post with spelling words and memory verse for next week.

 

Love you all,

Mrs. Jones

Thanksgiving week

I hope your Thanksgiving break was amazing! I am so thankful for all of you, and very blessed to have you in my life. You make my job enjoyable and meaningful.

We are ending Unit 2 in our Religion books this week. The students will receive a study guide on Monday, we will review for most of the week and look back on some of the stories we learned, then test on Friday.

In Math, we are diving hard into decimal division this week. We will finish up next week, and move into measurement before the semester ends. Please make sure that your child is doing the math homework that is being sent home. I usually take one grade per week on math homework, but they do get punches for one homework as well. Math requires a lot of practice!

We are still reading The BFG by Roald Dahl in Reading. We have been learning about personification, metaphors, comparing and contrasting, cause and effect, and much more! We made dream jars this past week and Frobscottle. We are doing vocabulary a little bit differently with this book. We will take a vocabulary test at the end of the book. The students will receive a study guide for these words next week when we get closer to the end of the book. We are also working on verbs in language. We will finish up verbs next week and have an assessment on them.

I can't wait to see all the Colonist posters tomorrow! I am excited to see which colony you chose to be from, and all of your information. We will finish up Chapter 4 this week, and also get a study guide for the test. We will begin again with our "States and Capitals" quizzes with a study guide on Thursday.

In Science, we are still brainstorming our "Celebrate Science" ideas! We will begin Chapter 5- Earth's Landforms this week, while also brainstorming. Also, we will begin talking about the Science Fair! Whew! It is going to be busy in Science this week! The Science Fair project will be required, and the students will receive a grade. This is not for bonus credit, it will be a REQUIREMENT. 

I can't wait to see you all tomorrow!

Love you all,
Nina Jones