Dear families,

I don't know about you, but I fervently hope we don't have ANY weather issues this week! Good gracious! Hopefully, we will have a normal week. Here's a peek at our week as I have planned it...

Coming Up This Week

• Mon, 3/2: Math homework Reateaching 12-4 (workbook); Box Tops collection
• Tues, 3/3: Math homework Practice 12-4 (workbook)
• Wed, 3/4: Math homework Reateaching 12-5 (workbook)
• Thurs, 3/5: Math homework Practice 12-5 (workbook); PTA Talent Show @ 6 pm
• Fri, 3/6: Reading essays due

Skills/Focus
We are all keeping our homerooms again this week... this weather has just delayed all of our plans! We will be finishing up 2-D shapes from last week and testing one day this week. It will just depend on when everyone has caught up from the snow/weather days!

Reading & Writing
We are reading two different texts this week - "The Mermaid of Kona, Hawaii" and "From City to Farm." Students will be analyzing each story based on all 19 literature and informational text standards. This will be a great practice for the Milestones coming up in April. They will have an essay to write about the two tests; that will be due on Friday.

We are also working on affixes and roots this week! Affixes (prefixes and suffixes) are added to a word to alter its meaning. We will also be studying common Greek and Latin roots to help us understand new words.

Mathematics
We are studying 3D figures and how to measure their volume this week! (We will test next Friday.) We will start off by understanding what volume means and measuring it by counting units that fill up a shape. We will finish off the week learning the formula to find volume.

Social Studies
Students are back with me this week for social studies! We are studying the Cold War and Civil Rights era. Students will receive a printout of the notes. They will have short quizzes along the way for this unit. Our first one will be on events from the Cold War - it will be given on Wednesday of this week. 

Students will focus on the term "iron curtain" and the efforts of the US to stop the spread of communism. We will study the Korean War, the Berlin Airlift, and the Red Scare. They will need to know who Joseph McCarthy and Nikita Krushchev were. We will also discuss the formation of NATO. Check student folders for more details!

Congrats to CAA's Reading Bowl team for placing first in the divisional competition! We are headed to state in two weeks!

Hi families!

Well, last week was a wash! We did get a lot done on Friday in reading, math, and science, so THANK YOU to everyone who sent your kids in to school! 

We are moving into a VERY busy week, so read carefully!

Field Trip
Our field trip from last week to the Atlanta History Museum for the Civil War exhibit has been moved to THIS THURSDAY (2/26). We leave at 8:30 am and will return by 1:30. We will eat lunch when we get back to school, but we have parents who are providing a special snack for the trip down there so the kids aren't starving! :) The permission slips you have already turned in are valid for this trip even though it's been rescheduled. If you still haven't turned in your child's permission slip, please do so by Wednesday.

Our trip to Atlanta in April is becoming more finalized by the day! We are going on Monday, April 27th to Atlanta! We will visit the Georgia Aquarium and the Delta Museum, and we will stop at the Varsity for dinner! We are using Daniels Charters & Tours to plan our trip for us. The first deposit is coming up very quickly - students will need to pay $20 by THIS FRIDAY (2/27) in order to go. If there's no deposit, your child cannot go on the trip. If you have any questions about this, please let me know. 

Parents who wish to chaperone must submit an application. Let me know if you want to be considered. It is possible that not all parents who wish to go will be able to go depending on the number of applicants. The cost for parents is $99 with $55 due this Friday. Please contact me ASAP if you wish to chaperone. Please note that chaperones are held to all expectations and rules as students - no stopping anywhere off the planned route, no souvenirs or spending money, etc.  

Coming Up This Week

• Mon, 2/23: Math HW page (R) 15-1
• Tues, 2/24: Number the Stars test; GMS Band info during activity; Math HW page (R) 15-3
• Wed, 2/25: Need a hanger for math class; permission slips for History Musem due; Math HW (R) 15-4
• Thurs, 2/26: Field trip to Atlanta History Museum; Math HW (R) 15-5
• Fri, 2/27: $20 deposit due for big Atlanta trip in April; Math test (2-D shapes); Science test

Skills/Focus
My homeroom students are with me for one more week of our skills/focus classes. We'll be catching up on reading we missed from last week and doing a little extra math for this week!

Reading & Writing
We are finishing up our Number the Stars novel unit this week! We have loved learning more about this time in history (Holocaust and WWII), and the characters of Annemarie and Ellen have become very dear to us! We will test on Tuesday. We will spend the rest of the week practicing a skill that is very difficult for the students - reading two passages on the same topic and then discussing how the comprehension of one passage impacts the understanding of the other. We will be reading about the history of Hawaii in these passages!

Students will continue to write about what they read, and we will also be working on affixes (prefixes and suffixes) and comma rules! Both are pretty tough topics for 5th graders.

Math
We will be working with 2D shapes this week - focusing on the hierarchy of shapes and how different quadrilaterals relate to each other. We took notes on this on Friday of last week to help us prepare for this week. We will be asking ourselves questions like this: Is a parallelogram always a rectangle? Is a square also a rectangle? Is a rectangle also a square? Students will have to use attributes of these shapes to help them answer these questions. We'll be working primarily with quadrilaterals (4 sided polygons) and triangles (3 sided polygons). Students will need a hanger for our activity on Wednesday. Don't worry - we won't tear it apart or destroy it in any way - and it will come home to you eventually! We will use it to help us organize the hierarchy of shapes. Test this Friday.

Science
Students will spend this week with Mrs. Hawkins finishing up their unit on earth science. They will test on Friday.

Movie This Week
This week, we'll be watching the movie Ruby Bridges to prepare us to start our Civil Rights unit next week. We'll watch it on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons (we won't have science or social studies those two days because on Wednesday, Mrs. Hawkins has the field trip, and on Thursday, we're eating lunch during that time when we return from the field trip). We will finish up on Friday morning if needed. You have already sent in your signed permission for this movie at the beginning of the year. I love this movie, and I bet your students will too!

Dear families,

Welp, what can I say about the weather? I thought I'd be writing this for you from my classroom this morning (Monday), but I am on my couch writing it instead! So far, no big deal weather-wise, but hoping ice does not become a problem tonight or in the morning. Stay tuned to local news to see if anything pops up about school closings or delays. I can assure you that we rarely know before you do if school times change, so be on the alert. Should I find out any news about anything, I'll send out a Remind text. In the meantime, let's take a look at our hopefully-regular school week!

(Before we dive into academics) Congratulations to all the kiddos who participated in Young Americans this weekend! The shows were FABULOUS! I really enjoyed their take on music and movies over the last century, and their talent is phenomenal! Participating from our class were Lainie, Katharine, Margaret, Millie, and Will.

Oh, and congrats to our own Cody Brewer for winning the elementary schools spelling bee for Gainesville City Schools! We are proud of him!

This Week:

• Thurs, 2/19: Math test (coordinate grids); Talent show at 6 pm
• Fri, 2/20: Field trip to Atlanta History Museum for Interactive Civil War display

Reading & Writing
We are continuing our novel study for the book Number the Stars. We will be reading some nonfiction articles on Tuesday about refugee groups in recent history to help us understand why people flee their homelands. This is an important topic in the novel. We will also be discussing point-of-view as we see it in the story. Students have been learning about foreshadowing, and it is at this point in the novel that students will begin to see if their predictions are correct! We are also discussing how characters change in the story based on how they respond to a conflict. Many standards are being covered in reading this week!

In writing, students will be changing some of the text into first person point-of-view. We will also be focusing on affixes - prefixes and suffixes - and how those can help us understand new or unfamiliar words. Students will have an affixes quiz on Friday morning before our field trip.

Math
We are continuing our study of coordinate grids and plotting ordered pairs on the grid. This week, we'll be looking at XY charts for ordered pairs to use x-rules, y-rules, and x-y rules to generate a numerical pattern. Students will then be plotting these points on the coordinate grid. To practice this standard, we have a fun two-day activity called "Willie the Wheelman." 

Homework: Students will have math homework on Tuesday and Wednesday nights from their math workbook. It will only be a few problems each night. I like having homework based on the standard we are teaching; I've seen improvement in homework this way! We will have a math test on Thursday. 

Science
Students are staying with Mrs. Hawkins this week and next to continue their study of earth science.

There are 26 students in our class. If your child chooses to send in Valentines, he or she needs to send them in for everyone.
Jose
Will
Christopher
Wyneshka
Cody
Drew
Margaret
Linda
Lindsey
Millie
America
Melissa
Lainie
Caleb
Vicente
Katharine
Henry
Jan
Jason
Ali
Terrance
Yuliana
Alfredo
Sa'mouge
Angelyn
Hao