DeLass

Driftwood Pictures

Dear Students, Parents, Chaperones, and Teachers,

Please upload all of your Driftwood photographs to our Driftwood Shutterfly Account so that we may all share pictures from the trip.  The login information is as follows:

email address =   gm.grade5@gmail.com
password = gmill2011

Thank you!

September 25

Dear Parents,

We are looking forward to our fieldtrip this week at Driftwood.  As of right now, the weather looks like it is going to cooperate for us.  Those students staying back will have the wonderful opportunity of working with Mrs. Brindley for 3 days. 

Lee has surrendered at Appomattox Court House and the Civil War is now over.  The assessment is Tuesday.  Students have a study guide which covers all of the standards for this time period. 

Student grammar workbooks have finally arrived.  Our current area of study is subjects and predicates, nouns - common,proper,singular,plural, and possessive.  We are planning a grammar assessment for Monday, October 10th.  Our vocabulary assessments are every other Friday.  Students can study from home on the Wordly Wise website:  http://wordlywise3000.com/games/book05.cfm

We are currently on lesson 3.  Due to the field trip, students get an extra week of practice.  The next vocabulary assessment is scheduled for Friday, October 7th. 

The last edmodo assignment for all chapter books is to be completed by Tuesday, September 27th.  At this time, all students should have finished their chapter book.  Students will be creating a "newspaper" about their book with their group members.  Students will be choosing their assignment this week.  Some examples include:  feature news article, advertisement for the book, editorial, entertainment article, and more. 

Please continue to encourage your child to read nightly at home.  In order to make progress towards our 40 book goal, they should have read approximately 5 books to date. 

Math - check Mrs. Hazlett's blog for information on Skills Tutor and how to utilize this website for practice.  Mrs. Hazlett also includes the standards for this 9 weeks.  It is imperative that students know their math facts and how to mulitply and divide two digit numbers.  These skills are not part of the fifth grade standards.  The expectation is that they left previous grade levels with these skills intact.  The fifth grade standard is multiplication and division of decimals. 

If you know your child is struggling with these skills, please review and practice at home nightly.  There simply is not enough time to re-teach these basic skills.  Mrs. Hazlett must move forward and teach the standards and expectations for fifth grade. 

Have a great week.

Mrs. DeLass

Progress reports

Progress reports are coming home tomorrow (Thursday, September 22) for any student with a C average or below in any subject area.  You may keep the progress report for your records, but please sign the accompanying document and return in the envelope.

Reflections entry form is coming home this week.  Do not misplace it.  ALL 5th grade students are to complete a Reflection entry.  This is a MANDATORY assignment.  Students can choose the area in which they would like to enter.  We would like these entries two days prior to the entry deadline on the form.  This will give us a chance to check over entries and applications.  This is an at-home assignment. 

STATE TEST - I hope all students are learning their 50 states.  Reminder - the state test is set for October 5th.  That is now 2 weeks away.

Don't forget the MANDATORY parent meeting tonight.  We expect to see ALL parents there.  If there is an emergency and you absolutely cannot attend, nor can you send another adult in your place, it is up to you to contact me for the information that will be presented at this meeting. 

Students need to be studying their spelling words each night.  They are in their agendas.  Spelling assessments are on Mondays. 

The Civil War is done!  We will have the assessment on Tuesday, September 27th.  If students have been listening in class, they will be fine!  Students are currently working on their study guide.  I have been encouraging them to bring it home to work on as well.  Due date was scheduled for Friday, but it is possible since we have lost some time that was set aside for completion of the study guide that I will extend this deadline. As of right now, students should still work to complete it Friday. 

Many students have been doing a wonderful job discussing their chapter book on edmodo and completing all assignments.  Some students have failed to keep up with any assignment.  As a consequence, they were required to take a test on the book.  Please encourage your students to log on to edmodo frequently.  There are some great book discussions happening.  The final assignment is due before we leave for Driftwood.  I will not accept any late assignments, nor will there be an assessment for those that did not complete it.  Students that do not complete this assignment will get a zero. 

We have had 18 students join the 96% club for math facts!  Congratulations! 

Congrats to Makenna Brindley and Anna Hurst that finished 1st and 2nd in the Fun Run for our class.  Way to go girls!   

September 11

 Students have been very busy this past week getting better acquainted with edmodo.com.  Their reading assignments for their chapter books on the Civil War or the Underground Railroad are currently posted on edmodo:  www.edmodo.com  They all have passwords and have been show repeated times where to place assignments.  I chose edmodo for a number of reasons - texting/online chatting is something the students know and like to do; responding to the assignments still shows me their understanding of the book; and using this method encourages student participation.  I am at a loss as to why a student would NOT want to complete their assignment in this manner, but if this occurs again, they will be given a test on the chapters for the week.  This will not be online, but rather a paper-pencil test to show that they have read and comprehended their chapters.  They will also lose points for the late assignment.  Please encourage your students to log-on, read my posts, discuss with their classmates, and complete the assignments.  Over 80% of the students have already shown me that they are enjoying this online discussion and are capable of handling this type of assignment.  I hope to be up to 100% by the end of the week. 

We will be having a vocabulary opportunity (our word for test) on Friday.  Students can practice their vocabulary words at home by going to:  http://wordlywise3000.com/games/book05.cfm  We are currently on lesson 2. 

Students are currently working on the trait of ideas in writing.  They are using a button as an inspiration for a narrative piece.  It is exciting to see how creative the students can be, even with an everyday, inanimate object. 

Social studies - the Civil War has begun!  As we continue through this unit, students will be creating a Civil War "foldable".  This foldable will be graded, but can also be used as a study guide for the unit assessment.  The foldable will address every standard required for this historical time period. If your child did not show you the "State Test" letter, please be advised that we are asking all students learn the 50 states and their locations by October 5th.  There are weblinks on the GM notebook to help them study.  They should not wait to begin to the states.  It is extremely hard to discuss the Northern and Southern states during the Civil War when they do not know their locations.  We appreciate your help. 

Reminder - if you have not returned the medical information for Driftwood, please do so as soon as possible.  There is a MANDATORY parent meeting on September 22nd.  We will use this time to answer all of your questions regarding the field trip.  A power point of previous trips will also be shown. 

Progress reports will be going home in next week's Thursday communication folders.  Fifth grade teachers do not give progress reports to all students, only to those that currently have below a B average. 

I am sending home a Scholastic book order and letter attached regarding online ordering.  If you are interested in ordering, please follow the link on the letter and log-in for our class.  All online orders help build our classroom library.   www.scholastic.com/bookclubs  Class activation code: GLPPH

If you did receive a call about student absences/tardies, disregard the message.  There was a county-wide glitch with the system. Yes, your students have been coming to school! 

Have a great week,

Mrs. DeLass and Mr. McGill

Upcoming Science Test

Your child's science journal/notes will be essential for the upcoming Science test on Tuesday.  Mrs. Longyear emphasized this in class, yet many students chose to leave their journal here at school.  Students must be take accountability for their success and accept the consequences if they do not.  Check with your child to see if they do indeed have their science journal to study with this weekend.