Welcome Back!

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas season and a Happy New Year. We are so glad to be back and are ready to work work work!

We are starting off the year with our first science unit, on Magnets. The students will be rotating to each of the 5th grade teachers to study the different subjects in the 5th grade science core curriculum. We are excited to be learning about Magnets and encourage the students to look around their homes and see what they can find that use magnets.

For math, we are continuing to study about fractions. We find that most students who struggle with fractions usually have a hard time remembering the multiplication tables. Please encourage your students to practice flash cards, worksheets, or whatever else you have to help them get faster on reciting the multiples of each number.

For social studies we will be learning about the United States Constitution. Students will learn about the branches of our government and how they work together. Since the students triumphantly won our "revolution" we now get to learn what it was like to set up a new government. We will be learning how a bill becomes a law and discussing the Bill of Rights. The students were assigned a President and are completing a "Presidential Portfolio" including a portrait. They will also be able to participate in our "Presidential Trivia Jeopardy". We will have a competition with the other 5th grade students and see who knows our presidents the best! We have some fun activities planned so be sure to ask your students what they have been learning about our government in the next few weeks.

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

Hello Everyone-
I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. We concluded our unit on American Colonies with our "Colonial Days". It was a terrific success and we thank everyone for their help.

As we move into our unit on the American Revolution, your students may come home with some comments about being "taxed" and how "mean King George!" is. We have a wonderful simulation that we go through with the students to let them have a feel for being a colonists during the Revolutionary War. Feel free to email or call if you have any questions with regards to our simulation.

We are excited for the Christmas season and all of the fun activities. We are headed to Ballet West on Tuesday December 7th for a performance of the "Nutcracker". Please have your child dress in their "Sunday best", dresses or skirts for girls and nice shirt and tie for the boys. The students will also need to plan on cold lunch that day. If there are any questions or concerns with this, please call or send a note.

In Math we have been working on division. We encourage the students to work on their multiplication facts each night. By doing so it will make a huge difference on how easily they are able to complete their assignments. We will also be working on graphing ordered pairs in the next couple of weeks. A great way to stretch your students thinking is to compare ordered pairs to the layout of the Salt Lake Valley. Have fun with it!

We are wishing you a wonderful holiday season!!!

What's going on in class?

We have started studying about the American Colonies. We have many fun activities planned including our first guest speaker on the Dutch Colonies. We will conclude with our Colonial Days on Tuesday November 23rd - this is always a great way for the students to get a feel for colonial life.

In Math we have been working on geometry. Please ask your student about triangles or quadrilaterals and see "who's smarter than a 5th grader!" We are having a Math Unit Test on November 5th which will cover everything that we have studied so far this year. Students who have done poorly on any of the math assignments for Term 1 are welcome to redo them for a better score. Just make sure that you get them in before Oct. 29th!!

We will also be having a Disability Awareness Assembly, provided by the District, on Tuesday November 2nd. This assembly provides a chance for the 5th graders to experience what it may be like to have a disability. We are looking for some parent volunteer's for the morning between 9-11:30am. If you are able to help, please send a note to school with your student.

Lastly, we are reading the book "The Witches", by Roald Dahl, as a class to get us in the Halloween mood. Also, come see our "spook alley" display case in the main hallway with all of our fun Halloween art projects!

End of Term 1

Hello Parents~

We are slowly coming to the close of our first term, which ends on November 4th. We are sending home a missing assignments report so that the students can complete any assignments that are still missing. These assignments will need to be turned in no later than Friday October 29th, ALONG WITH THEIR MISSING ASSIGNMENT REPORT SIGNED BY A PARENT. Parent teacher conferences will be on November 10th & 11th.

Explorers

Dear Parents, September 29, 2010

We are learning about Explorers at this time. Your child has been assigned an explorer to research. They will need to write a 1-page paper typed or neatly handwritten about their explorer, including: birth date, death date, why he was famous, and interesting facts about the explorer. On Monday October 11th your child’s Written Page, Fact Cube and Visual aid will be due. We will have the students present their reports in class during the week.

For their oral presentation, your child will need to complete a Fact Cube, and also make a poster of some kind or visual aid. The information on the poster needs to include: a picture, birth date, death date, why he was famous, and interesting facts about the explorer. They will share their visual aid and fact cube with the class starting on the 11th of October.

Mrs. Berven and Mrs. Thomas

5th Grade State Fair

Hello Parents~

We will be holding our “5th Grade State Fair” on Friday September 24th from 9:00-10:00am in our classrooms. We would like the students to come with items to decorate their desks to represent their states. They will have their posters and state reports to display as well. They are welcome to bring store bought treats to share with the classes who will be walking through the fair if they would like.

We would like to invite family members to come walk through the fair as well!

See you at the 5th Grade Fair!!!
The Fifth Grade Team

Fantastic Falcon

5th Grade Fantastic Falcon Requirements –
Due May 20, 2011

All students MUST do these three requirements to receive the Fantastic Falcon Award:

1. *Display good citizenship the entire year
2. *Master 100 multiplication facts in 3 1/2 minutes
3. *Master 100 division facts in four minutes

Students MUST do 9 of the requirements to receive the award

1. Memorize and recite the Preamble of the Constitution and 1st verse of Star
Spangle Banner
2. Create a well thought out poster on one of the science units:
Electricity, magnets, land formations, heredity or matter.
3. *Run one mile in ten minutes. (Whole field 3 times)
4. Attend two cultural events; write a paper on each of them.
(These cannot be movies)
5. *Write a paper on each of the characters from P.T.A.
6. Read 4,000 minutes at home and record on your RC card nightly.
7. *Memorize all 50 States and their locations.
8. *Memorize all 50 Capitals and their locations.
9. Perform 10 hours of community service and write a one-page paper
about your experience.
10. Have seven, or fewer, tardies all year.
11. Participate in PTA Reflections
12. *Type twenty-five words-per-minute with zero mistakes
13. Complete a research report/project with teacher approval.
14. Have perfect attendance
15. Memorize one of the following famous historical speeches:
a) I Have a Dream b) Emancipation Proclamation c) Gettysburg
d) Declaration of Independence

*Must be completed at school