Items of Business

Dear Parents,

We have a few items of business we would like to make you aware. Tomorrow is our field trip to the Hale Center Theater; please have your child here at 8:10 in our classroom and best dressed. We will be leaving at 8:25.

Next week are Parent Teacher Conferences. We will both be there to meet with you on Wednesday, March 9, 2011. Please use the Skyward to schedule an appointment. If Wednesday doesn’t work for you please contact us and we will schedule a time to meet with you. (801-446-3200)

End of year testing is already being scheduled. We will be taking the Science and Language Arts part of the test in the computer lab. Our Language Arts scheduled time is Tuesday, April 19, and Wednesday April 27 from 11:15-12:15. Science will be on May 2 and 3 from 11:15-12:15. Please plan your schedules so that your child will be here for those testing times. The Math part of the test will not be on the computer and will be scheduled at a later date.

Our DARE schedule will be from April 11-May 5. DARE Graduation will be
May 6, 9:00-10:00.

Thank you for your help and support.
Mrs. Berven and Mrs. Thomas

Civil War Box Books

Our project for our Civil War Unit is to make a “Box Book”. They are very simple to make. We will send home directions as well as putting pictures on our class blog at http://berventhomas5thgrade.blogspot.com. Please choose either an event or a person from the list below, or find other examples in your textbook. The Civil War can be found in Chapter 16 and 17 of your textbook. Once you have chosen, you will create a Box Book, describing the person or event from the start to finish. There will be 10-12 entries that you feel are the most important about your person or event – just make sure you put them in chronological order. You may find out information about this person/event either from your textbook, online, or other sources including the local library. You need to write 3-5 complete 5th grade sentences for each entry. These will need to be typed or written in your best printing. You will need to decorate the box with pictures of the event or person you have chosen.

IDEAS:
Sojourner Truth
Missouri Compromise
Nat Turner’s Rebellion
Seneca Falls Convention
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Compromise of 1850
Jefferson Davis
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Harriet Tubman
John Brown’s Raid
Confederate States of America
Anaconda Plan
Harriet Beecher Stowe
First Battle of Civil War at Bull Run
Frederic Douglass
Monitor and Merrimac
Battle of Antietam
Stonewall Jackson
Emancipation Proclamation
Battle of Gettysburg
Sherman’s March
Robert E. Lee
President Abraham Lincoln
Reconstruction
Abolitionists
Underground Railroad
Clara Barton
…or choose something yourself, but it will need to be approved by your teacher!

Valentines Day!

We will be having a Valentine's Day party on Monday the 14th from 2:15-3:00. If you would like to help, please contact our room mom Alisa Childs. Here is a list of the students in our class, we will also be sending home a list.
Angelina
Emily
Darrin
Dylan
Bryson
Noah
Lexee
Ethan
Erika
Hannah
Mikayla
Eric
Madeline
Alexys
Rian
Bradley
Alissa
Caitlin
Ben
Nathan
Abbie
Emmalie
Baylie
Kaden
Ysabel
and Hadley!

Just the facts...

Since 5th grade has an emphasis on United States history, we thought it would be fun to put on a Patriotic Program for our family and friends. As a grade, we have been working hard on many fun patriotic songs. We will be having our program on Friday February 18th at 9:15am in the Gym. The students in our class will be wearing solid blue shirts and jeans or dark pants. If you have any questions please feel free to call or email us. Thank you for your support and we will see you on the 18th!!

We have been hard at work experiencing the "Westward Movement." In our class we have written pioneer diaries that you can read on our bulletin board. We have had many sad, happy, difficult and exciting adventures! As we conclude with the pioneers and trappers we begin the Civil War by first talking about the pre-civil war United States and the Industrial Revolution. Don't be surprised if your students comes home to talk about child labor laws and the textile mills that had such long hours, strict procedures and gave very little compensation. Once we get into our Civil War unit, ask your students how they feel about the issue that divided our great country: slavery.

The students did a great job on their fraction unit and we even had some get 100% on their math unit test - GREAT JOB!!! We have now moved onto solid figures and surface area. They have gotten quite good at figuring the "net" of some very ordinary household objects. Next we will be figuring out the measurements, including perimeter, of these same objects.

As always, please have your student practice their times tables. Some students are still having trouble with the basic multiplication problems, which can slow their progress with some of our new 5th grade concepts.

In Science, our class is rotating to Mrs Moore and are learning about Heredity. Ask them about some of your family traits and see if they can figure out where they got the trait from. This unit will finish next week with a test on Thursday the 10th. We will be rotating to Mr Harris beginning February 14th for 3 weeks learning about Matter. We do need some parent volunteers for this unit so if you are available, please send a note with your student.

We will be coming to the close of the quarter on March 4th. We will be sending out student Progress Reports on Friday February 11th with all missing assignments listed. These assignments will need to be completed and turned in no later than Friday February 25th at 8:30am. We also ask that you look over the report and sign it before it is returned. If you have any questions about missing assignments, please feel free to contact us.