March News Letter

Thank You

Thank you to 11 and 14 for making a very loving bulletin board.

Club Zone

Keep up the good work 5th graders who are working hard to get into a club.
Congratulations to 19 and 18 for making it into 3 clubs, 13, 8, and 3 for making it into 2 clubs and to 11 and 9 who have made it on to one.

Mr. Anderson

Mr. Anderson is the new 6th grade teacher. He will be teaching the 5th grade in social studies and will be taking over their literature circles on Wednesdays.

Upcoming Events

Thursday, March 1st No School Trout Day

Friday, March 2nd 19’s ½ Birthday

Friday, March 9th End of the 3rd Quarter
Book Orders Due

Sunday, March 11th Daylight Saving
Time Begins
Tuesday, March 13th Spring Pictures

Thursday, March 15th Food Power Presentation
Conferences 3-7

Friday, March 16th Conferences 1-5
Early-out 12: 30
Saturday, March 17th 22’s Birthday
St. Patrick’s Day

MAP TESTING COMING SOON

check with your participating student
on his/her basketball game schedule

Native American Research Papers

The research has been complete and we will now begin to revise our papers. We will also be learning how to create a bibliography using all the sources collected from research. After revising our rough drafts we will be typing them on the computer and working on developing skills of typing, but later turning them into a PowerPoint.

Thanks to the High School FFA

We got to visit some of the animals that would be found on a farm here at school during the National FFA week. We extend our thanks to all the FFA members.

Leaning Corner

Math:We just finished up the chapter on how we can changes percents, decimals, and fractions. Unit 6 will be on using data and adding and subtracting fractions.

Reading: The past unit we studied autobiographies and had a chance to write our own. This new unit we are starting will be based on animal encounters. We are also reading literature books that have a little mystery in them. Please ask your child about the book they are reading. Literature Circles meet on Wednesday morning to discuss their book.

Snow (ice) Days

We are beginning to make up the days that we have missed so please pay attention to the change of parent teacher conferences and that we now have school on Friday, March 16th , and Monday, March 19th.

Native American Reseach Links

• These are some sites that will be helpful.
• Don't forget to write down the sites that you use.
• How do you cut and paste information that is important and save for later?
• Hi-lite the words you want on the keyboard hold (ctrl c ) then go to where you want to put it in your Word document and hold (ctrl p) all else fails right click and hit the words or go to Edit on the top of the Word program.
• Remember when we rewrite we do not plagiarize .
• Stay on TASK.....do NOT go to sites that are not on this list while at school.

Native American History
http://www.nativeamericans.com/
Scroll to the bottom for helpful links! Make sure you aren’t going to another search engine

http://www.lib.washington.edu/subject/History/tm/native.html

http://www.ability.org.uk/native_american_history.html

http://www.historynet.com/culture/native_american_history

http://www.americanindiantribe.com/greene/ait_FAQ.htm

http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/native_american.html

http://www.si.edu/resource/faq/nmai/start.htm

http://www.historycentral.com/

http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/

History of Cherokee
http://cherokeehistory.com/

http://www.smokymtnmall.com/mall/cindians.html


Religion
http://www.religioustolerance.org/nataspir.htm

http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/naspirit.html

http://www.native-languages.org/religion.htm

http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/naspirit_old.html

Languages
http://www.native-languages.org/

http://www.bartleby.com/65/na/NatvAmlang.html

WIISINIWAN -- Food Recipes
http://www.kstrom.net/isk/food/recipes.html

Food and more
http://www.indians.org/articles/native-american-food.html


Fighting Styles/ Weapons
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_American_fighting_styles

http://www.cclranchdecor.com/SouthwestSection.html

http://www.snowwowl.com/naarttomahawk.html

http://www.ancient-weapons.com/

http://hands-around-the-world.com/native-american-indian-weapons.html

Hunting

http://www.indians.org/articles/bear-hunting.html

http://ncseonline.org/NAE/hunting.html

Music
http://parlorsongs.com/insearch/amerindian/amerindian0.asp

Library of Congress
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/browse/ListSome.php?category=Native%20American%20History

Weapons (if you click on the bolded words it will tell you what they are made of)
http://nativeway.safewebshop.com/finished_weaponry.html

French and Indian War

http://www.philaprintshop.com/frchintx.html

http://web.syr.edu/~laroux/

http://www.historycentral.com/Revolt/French.html

http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/articles/ushistory/frenchandindianwar1.htm

******Online Encyclopedia*********
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

http://www.bartleby.com/65/

February Newsletter

The time is always right to do what is right. ~Martin Luther King Jr.

Thank You

Thank you to 17 and 20 for January’s bulletin board of New Year bells.

Learning Cornner

SCIENCE: Water Cycle Project turned out wonderful. Every student had a little something different on each project. We are going to continue working on our weather.

MATH: Fractions are giving us all a little trouble. There will be a test at the end of the month. Please help your students work on converting fractions in to decimals and percents.

READING: We just finished our literature circle and for the next 2 weeks we will be doing centers. Students will have a book that they will need to read aloud to you.
Centers: Fluency, Computer, Guided Reading, Readers’ Theatre, Making Words, Spelling Practice

LANGUAGE ARTS: Students will be starting a research project on Native Americans. We will be taking this project one step at a time. For the first few weeks we will be gathering information and learning how to put it in to paragraphs and recording our sources.

Upcoming Events

Feb. 9 BOOK ORDERS DUE
Feb. 12-23 K-6 Cookie Dough Fundraiser
Feb. 13 4’s ½ Birthday
Feb. 13-16 Homecoming Week (dress up is optional)
Monday 12 Under the Sea
Tuesday 13 Fisherman/Fish Day
Wednesday 14 Switch Day (girls dress up as boys and boys as girls)
Valentine's Day: Party at 2pm
Thursday 15 Pirates of Exeter *no weapons

Friday 16 Red and Black School Spirit
Feb. 16 We have school School HOMECOMING Game
Feb. 19 11’s Birthday
Feb. 19 No School (may change)
Feb. 22 Author Dave Sargent comes to visit
Feb. 23 3’s Birthday
Feb. 24 12’s ½ Birthday
Feb. 30 13’s and 14’s ½ Birthday

Congradulations

Congratulation to all of the students who studied hard for the class spelling bee and the school spelling bee.

Valentine’s Day Party

We will be having a party on February 14th at 2 p.m. We will be decorating bags in class. Students may bring their Valentines cards to school that day to pass out. I ask that they have enough for everyone in the class so nobody is left out. We will be playing games and passing out cards that afternoon.

Computer Lesson:Search Engines

www.Ask.com
www.google.com
www.altavista.com
www.yahoo.com
www.msn.com

Great Reference Sites
www.discoverychannel.com
www.dictionary.com *has other reference sites listed
www.reference.com

If you are looking for just pictures be sure to click on images and not the web on the tabs available on each search engine.

Water Cycle Project

5th Grade Water Cycle Creation
1/11/07 +1 week

□ Title
□ Create a Water Cycle that is 2-D or 3-D (pop up using paper or objects: NOT a drawing on paper)
o Careful
o Colorful
o Detailed

□ Label each step in the Cycle *look at notes, poster on the wall, chart in the back of the book
o Correct (4 labels 1point extra credit of runoff and ground water)
o Defined by the stages of matter example: Condensation: Gas>Liquid

□ Neatness
o Writing/ Type
o Project

□ Creative *you can come up with any way to represent the water cycle

□ Completed on time (due Thursday, January 18, 2007)

Weather Sites

Water Game
http://kids.earth.nasa.gov/droplet.html

Water Cycle
http://www.kidzone.ws/water/index.html

January News Letter

Happy New Year

With the new year will come some new changes, new goals for students, and higher expectations. I hope that you will help encourage your children to read at home. Practice makes perfect as the old saying goes. Remember students should be bringing home their FROG binders every night to be looked at by a parent/ guardian.

Learning Corner

Math: We just finished up with long division in math and with be starting fractions.
Reading: Reading time has been spent on our Literature Circles, reader’s theater, and talking about family traditions.
Science: We are still working on the states of matter and will begin taking a look at the water cycle and how the states of matter apply.
Computers: We were using mapquest.com to plan a vacation and looking at the math involved with the program. Now we will begin working on some typing skills that will be helpful to our future.
English/Writing: We have been working on adjectives and using them in the stories that we have written. Our goal for this quarter is focusing on the quality of our writing and revisions.

Club Zone

What is the Club Zone? It is an opportunity for students to make a goal for themselves. That goal may be to make it in one club or maybe all 5.
AR Club: Meet AR reading goal of 30points by the end of the year.
Math Wiz Club: Complete all problems correctly on Minute Math worksheet in 1 minute or less.
Record Reading Club: Read and record the times that a book was being read. Goal is to read 5 chapter books.
Spelling Bee-utifully Club: 5 spelling tests with 100% or greater by the end of the semester.
Fact Finder Club: A student must know their multiplication facts from 1*1 to 10*10 and prove them verbally to Ms. Gray.
Benefits or Rewards for being in a club:
2 or more Lunch in the classroom with Ms. Gray every Tuesday
3 or more 30 minutes of free time on the computer
4 or more Free book (limits may apply)
5 or more Pizza party at the end of the quarter/ semester in the classroom with Ms. Gray.

Thank You

Thank you to 7 and 21 for the beautiful bulletin board of our class’s Santa is Missing in Action stories.
Also thank you for the gifts and all the wonderful treats that were brought to our Christmas Party.

Upcoming Events

Jan. 5 18'sBirthday
Jan.8-Jan. 12 STAR Testing
Jan8-Jan 12 Year Book Week (dress up is optional)
Mon. Animal
Tues. Barry County
Wed. Hooville (Dr. Seuss)
Thurs. Toga *must have regular school clothes underneath
Fri. Crazy Hair Day
Jan. 11 Book Orders Due
Jan.15Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday
Jan. 28 8’s ½ Birthday
Jan. 31Mid Quarter Reports

2007 a new year

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! See you all on the 3rd of January.

We Like to Leave Comments

This is the part where you can leave comments just for the sake of leaving a comment or to talk to another classmember.

>>Remember whatever you write gets sent to my email account.

>>Remember becareful of the information you are putting on, use class numbers or initials.

Jouranal Online

If you would like to respond to a question or two please leave a comment. This is for adults and students!


What do you like about the winter season and why?

What did you do over the 4 day break that we had from school?

December Newsletter

Stuck on Good Behavior

Students reached their goal and filled the poster man with tape. In return stuck Ms. G to the wall.
Next goal is to fill the man to get the opportunity to play in a giant bubble and have a movie afternoon.

Encouragement

Encourage your students to read. With practice students become more fluent readers and their language skill will improve.
Encourage your students to study spelling words or even math facts at night for even just ten minutes a night to help improve scores.

Congratulations

Congratulations to our class for earning a movie, popcorn, and extra recess for getting back the parent surveys.
Congratulations to 7 and 11, our Carnival King and Queen. Also a big thanks to the parents and students who helped us collect the pennies to vote.

Upcoming Events

Dec. 12 Music Concert 7p.m.
Dec. 20 End of 1st Semester
Dec. 20 Early out 12:30 p.m.
Dec. 20 Holiday Party at school
Dec. 21-Jan.2 No School
Dec.22 16 & 17's Birthday

Thank You

Thank you to 1 and 10 for the beautiful bulletin board for November.
The carnival was a while ago, but thank you to all the parents and students that helped out in our spooky classroom.

Long Division

D M S B r

Dad's job is to divide
Mom's job is to multiply
Sister's job is to bring down
Brother's job is to bring down
sometime Rover comes around as a remainder

*remember to look back at your notes

Happy Thanksgiving

Don't forget no school Wednesday- Friday this week.

Tuesday we will have class as normal until recess. We earned 30mins of extra recess and we get to watch a movie in the afternoon. Popcorn provided by Mrs. Riley.

Sticky Situation

Two full rolls of duct

tape, 35minutes later, and I have a brand-new outfit!

All Filled

Stuck on Good Behavior is completed. Ms. G gets to be tapped to the wall Wednesday!







Our next goal is to fill the bubbles so we can play in a giant bubble and watch a movie!

Family Tree Project

5th Grade Family Tree Project

What does your family look like?

Start Date November 14, 2006 +2 weeks = assignment due November 28, 2006

Create your family tree. (doesn’t have to look like a tree)

Must Have:
Start with your name at the bottom, top, or one side.
Have a key example : female pink writing, male blue writing
Title to your project
Names of people (try to get first and last names)
Creative Presentation (how are you going to show all your information)


Optional:
Write down details about the person
Where they are from/ lived
Date of birth- death
Pictures

What can I make it on?
Poster board
Computers (PowerPoint, word programs)
Large paper
Card board
Mobile hanging downward
Construction paper
Other

Other information:
Will be looking at organization of information and neatness, as well as how much was completed using the source available to you like your family members.

This project is wroth 50points towards your reading grade.

There will be some class time spent on this project, but very little.

This project is about looking at your history and communication within your family. Use all the resources available to you.

If you need material to create your project please talk to Ms. Gray

Count Down

http://home.valornet.com/sabruf2/countchr.html

Guess that arm?

Arm A (white shirt)

Arm B (red shirt)

Links

POEMS
http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/poetry/

http://www.gigglepoetry.com/

HEALTH
http://www.kidshealth.org/kid/stay_healthy/food/pyramid.html

WORDS
http://www.eduplace.com/tales/

ART/ENGLISH
http://www.stephen.com/enigma/enigma.html

http://www.eduweb.com/pintura/

READING
http://www.starfall.com/

MATH
http://coolmath4kids.com/