Newsletter 3-25-12

We had fun with the math bee last week! It was a tough competition, but we found three winners to represent St. James at the final math bee at St. Pius. Our winners are Olivia, Kevin, and Chase. Hopefully they can bring back a trophy on April 27!

The Week Ahead:

Religion: We will start chapter 13 Pentecost, A Scripture Story.

I will also be sending home a form for our upcoming religion unit. Each grade level is required by the diocese to present a Circle of Grace lesson. Circle of Grace is our personal safety curriculum. The fifth grade covers safety in the media. We talk about positive and negative media that the kids encounter today. There will be a permission slip sent home this week where you can opt out of the lessons. This is separate from the "Family Life" unit that is coming up near the beginning of May.

English: We have finished our 5-paragraph recycling essay in class. The kids should be taking everything that we are doing in class and applying it to their non-fiction book at home to complete their March book report.

Math: We will be completing lesson 9.3-9.6 and 9.8 this week. The kids will be learning about coordinate graphs, area, and volume.

Social Studies: We will be continuing to read about the events that led up to the Revolutionary War.

On Thursday, we will be taking a virtual field trip to Ellis Island!

Reading: We have started our new novel, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle. We will keep reading it throughout the week and the kids will complete activities in their reading logs.  

We will be working on a Scholastic News issue on Monday.

*Remember that the March book report is due this Friday, the 30th.

Science: Last week the kids got to build a hand drill to learn about the simple machine, the screw. This week, the kids will get to build a catapult, spinning top, and egg beater.

FYI:

-Reconciliation on Monday

-Lifetouch Class Picture is on Wednesday

-Accreditation visit is on Tuesday

Table Talk Questions:

1.      Ask your child to share their topic sentences for their book report 5-paragraph essay. Really try to stress the importance of starting their essay with an attention grabber that gets the reader excited about the topic.

2.      Ask your child about the simple machines that they are building. What type of simple machines are they? How do they work? Did their group use cooperation and team work to build their simple machine?

3.      Keep current with our last novel of the year. Ask your child about the events in the novel. If you would like to read along with us, I can send a copy home.

It looks like we get a break from the rain!!! Enjoy the sunshine!

-Julie Alley