April 28th ~ May 2nd

As I typed "May 2nd", the reality of how quickly this year is passing hit me hard. Your kids are an inspiration to me every day and it will be very hard to see this year come to an end. The good news for me . . . we still have 6 weeks together! We will work very diligently over the few weeks remaining to make sure that your child has the skills that he or she needs to move onto 6th grade or middle school.

There is no school this Friday, so enjoy another 3-day weekend!

Spelling ~ We will work with Unit 32 words this week - taking a pretest on Monday, having written assignments on Tuesday and Wednesday, and taking a final test on Thursday.
5th: Suffixes -ent, -ant, -able, -ible
6th: Greek word parts
Language ~ Both grades will work with the Latin root words miss/mitt and sect.
5th: Homophones & Homographs
6th: Latin prefixes and roots
Reading ~
Both grades will wrap up novels this week. The 5th graders have been reading Woods Runner and the 6th graders have been reading The Westing Game.
We are doing a bit of research on the Civil Rights Movement as we prepare to begin the novel, The Watson's Go To Birmingham-1963 as a class.
Math ~
5th: The kids will be working with expressions and equations, as well as the order of operations.
6th: We are finishing our study of statistics and graphing this week.
Writing ~
6th graders will complete their personal narratives.
Social Studies ~
6th grade will study the Shang Dynasty of ancient China and will work on an interactive activity in class.
Science ~
6th graders will learn about the pull of gravity and perform hands-on experiments related to mass and gravity.

There will be no Extended Studies this week due to Mrs. Watterson's testing schedule. ES will resume next week.

This week will be bittersweet ~ it is great to see Mr. Monson complete this milestone, but we will sure miss him. He will be an excellent teacher and I sure hope that SD2 sets him up in a classroom of his own next year. Best of luck to you Mr. Monson!

Have a great week!

April 21st ~ 25th

We'll, the kids ate 60 waffles, 5 pounds of bacon, and 2 gallons of juice on Thursday. It was a great way to begin a long holiday weekend. I hope you had a blessed Easter with your family - and lots of chocolate from the Easter Bunny (except for Kaylee, who does not like chocolate).   :-)

I want to say a huge "Thank you" for making sure your child was in class for the NWEA tests. I did not have to schedule any make-up exams and the kids worked very hard! We all breathe a sigh of relief when the exams are behind us.

We have two short weeks in a row . . and very few weeks left. This year is flying by and I am certainly not ready to bid farewell to this amazing group of kids.

There will be no Extended Studies this week or next due to testing schedules for Mrs. Watterson.

Wednesday is Secretary's Day and I know Miss Vicki would appreciate any well wishes if you are inclined. We are very lucky at Poly Drive!

Spelling ~ Unit 31: We will take a pretest on Tuesday, complete written assignments on Wednesday and Thursday, and take a final test on Friday.
5th - Prefixes con-, pre-, and pro-
6th - Words from other languages
Language ~
5th - Homophones (our, hour, their, there, they're) and Root Words spec, spect, and vis.
6th - Prefixes and suffixes & Root Words spec, spect, and vis.
Reading ~
5th - The kids are continuing with the novel, Woods Runner. They are writing journal entries each day as they read.
6th - Sixth graders are reading The Westing Game. They have vocabulary and comprehension questions to complete each day.
Math ~
5th - We are continuing to work with graphing and measures of central tendency (mean, median, & mode).
6th - The kids will be creating double line graphs and circle graphs this week.
Writing ~
The 6th graders will finish personal narratives this week and then both grades will begin essay research on The Civil Rights Movement. This research and subsequent essay will serve as background information as we prepare to read The Watson's Go To Birmingham - 1963. A portion of this historical fiction novel takes place in Birmingham, Alabama and includes details about the violence that occurred during that time in our nation's history.
Social Studies ~
Sixth graders will continue working on their relief maps of China and will read chapter 19 and take notes.
Science ~ Sixth graders will work with pendulums as we explore speed and acceleration.

Have a fantastic week!