WEEK OF JUNE 1

Countdown to the End of the School Year

I know the students are excited for the school year to end and summer vacation to begin. I join them in their excitement, but I also feel a bit melancholy. I will truly miss each student and the many gifts they brought to our team.
We will be doing several activities to help us reflect on our 5th grade year, as we also look ahead to our future middle school experience. Thank you, parents, for being such a wonderful support system for your student, as well as me. Let's stay strong and finish the year doing our best!

Subject Update:

ELA (English/Language Arts)

• Spelling - No lesson!
• English - Students will work with irregular past tense verbs.
• Reading -We will finish our theme, Hardships in History. Our focus as we wrap up this unit will be our essential questions: How does the time period of the hardship impact future decisions and events? How are hardships in history similar and different?

Science - We will finish the year working to better understand the difference between physical and chemical changes.

Social Studies -  The Chapter 9 Test is scheduled for Tuesday, June 2! Now that the Americans have gained their independence, they must decide how to govern themselves. We will end the year learning about the start of the new nation.

Mrs. Strong's Math Class - There will be a Unit 8 Homework Review on Tuesday, June 2! This will cover probability, ratios, proportions, and percents. The students did a wonderful job making connections between fractions and these various concepts.

Mark Your Calendar:

June 5 - 5th Grade Bowling (a.m.)

June 8 - Field Day, Picnic, and Talent Show

June 9 - Last Day of School (11:00 a.m. Dismissal)

WEEK OF MAY 25

Reminder... Let's Keep Up the Good Work

Just a few weeks left of our school year together. Let's stay strong and continue to our best!

Lakeview Book Check-Out
Each year, students in 5th grade have an opportunity to check out paperback books from the Lakeview library for the summer. Mrs. Hagensee will meet with our class on Wednesday, May 27th to share her guidelines for summer check-out, and hopefully students will leave with a small collection of great summer reads!

Subject Update:

ELA (English/Language Arts)

• Spelling - Our final lesson of the school year will be Lesson 35 - the pretest will be given on Tuesday. The students will be assigned homework during the week to practice their words, and a final test will be given Friday. *Students can print 5 words "just in case" their cursive still needs work.
• English - Students will continue working on the different tenses of verbs: present, past, and future.
• Reading -We will continue with our theme, Hardships in History. Students will read various texts to help them answer our essential questions: How does the time period of the hardship impact future decisions and events? How are hardships in history similar and different?

Science - Lesson 3 will help us understand chemical properties and changes. Students will learn some of the signs that help tell if a chemical reaction has taken place, as well as how matter is conserved during a reaction.

Social Studies - We will continue learning about the Americans winning the Revolutionary War. The Chapter 9 Test is scheduled for Tuesday, June 2!

Mrs. Strong's Math Class - There will not be a final test over Unit 7. We will move into Unit 8 and apply our work with fractions to probability, ratios, and percents.

Mark Your Calendar:

May 25 - Memorial Day (No School)

May 27 - LV Book Check-Out for Mrs. Strong's Class

June 5 - 5th Grade Bowling (a.m.)

June 8 - Field Day, Picnic, and Talent Show

June 9 - Last Day of School (11:00 a.m. Dismissal)

WEEK OF MAY 18

Let's Keep Up the Good Work...

As we approach the end of the school year, and as the weather becomes nicer and nicer, students sometimes give less focus and attention to their school work. Please "spot check" assignment books to make sure your child is still using this valuable tool, and perhaps review some of their homework to ensure they are completing it on time to the best of their ability. Thank you in advance for your help and support!

Subject Update:

ELA (English/Language Arts)

• Spelling - The Lesson 34 pretest will be given on Monday. (We are skipping Lesson 33). The students will be assigned homework during the week to practice their words, and a final test will be given Friday. *Students can print 5 words "just in case" their cursive still needs work.
• English - Students will continue their unit on verbs. They will work with linking verbs before learning how to use the different verb tenses correctly. 
• Reading -We will continue with our theme, Hardships in History. Students will read various texts to help them answer our essential questions: How does the time period of the hardship impact future decisions and events? How are hardships in history similar and different?

Science - In the next lesson, students will learn about different physical characteristics and properties of matter. They will learn that matter changing from one state to another is a physical change because the substance's chemical makeup remains the same.

Social Studies - Ask your student to share some of the ideas they are choosing to include in their soldier letters. Are they pretending to be an officer working closely with George Washington, are they one of the soldiers who helped bring the cannons across the Delaware River, or are they a soldier who was in the front lines when attacking the Hessians by surprise? Once we finish our letters, students will learn how other nations like France helped the Americans win the Revolutionary War.

Mrs. Strong's Math Class - We will continue Unit 7 about multiplying and dividing fractions. Students will apply the order of operations, evaluate algebraic expressions, and solve algebraic equations, all involving fractions and mixed numbers. The Unit 7 Homework Review #2 is planned for Friday, May 22!

Mark Your Calendar:

May 20 - 5th Graders Visit to Lakeview

May 20 - 5th Grade Parent Night at Lakeview (6:30 p.m.)

May 25 - Memorial Day (No School)

WEEK OF MAY 11

April PRIDE! Winner

Congratulations to James for earning the award for Determination in April! We are so proud of you!

PARCC Testing Complete!
PARCC testing is over, and I thank the students for working hard and doing their best.

Teacher Appreciation Week - Thanks!
Thanks to all of you who contributed to the events of Teacher Appreciation Week. You made the week truly amazing!

Subject Update:

ELA (English/Language Arts)

• Spelling - The Lesson 32 pretest will be given on Monday. The students will be assigned homework during the week to practice their words, and a final test will be given Friday. *Students will only be able to print 5 words "just in case" their cursive still needs work.
• English - Students will continue their unit on verbs. They will identify action verbs, direct objects, and helping verbs.
• Reading -We will continue with our theme, Hardships in History. Students will read various texts to help them answer our essential questions: How does the time period of the hardship impact future decisions and events? How are hardships in history similar and different?

Science - Ask your student who got SYMBO. This was a game similar to BINGO to help us better understand the periodic table of elements. Next week, we will focus on the three states of matter: solid, liquid, and gas.

Social Studies - Students will work in stations to review the key concepts from Lesson 2. Then they will pretend to be a soldier under George Washington's command and compose a letter home to family. This is a great way for students to mix their knowledge with some creativity!

Mrs. Strong's Math Class - We will continue Unit 7 about multiplying and dividing fractions. An open-note homework review "quiz" is planned for Thursday, May 14!

Mark Your Calendar:

May 14 - 5th Grade "Sneak Peak" of the LV Musical

May 15 - Spirit Day - Favorite Vacation Destination

May 15 - Early Dismissal (11:00 a.m.)

May 20 - 5th Graders Visit to Lakeview

May 20 - 5th Grade Parent Night at Lakeview (6:30 p.m.)

May 25 - Memorial Day (No School)

WEEK OF MAY 4

Open House/Book Fair/Ice Cream Social
I enjoyed seeing so many of you Thursday evening. I know the students appreciated the opportunity to show off their hard work on various classroom projects. Also, I was able to purchase a few neat books that relate to our current Science and Social Studies units using donations from homeroom families - Thank you!

Museum of Science and Industry Field Trip
Thank you to Mr. Brandt, Mrs. Rossi, and Mrs. Kerrigan for joining us on our trip to the museum and our "Colorful Chemistry" lab. Ask your child about the different chemical reactions they experienced,... which one was their favorite? Check out the pictures at the bottom of this week's blog!

PARCC Testing
Students will be taking the PARCC End-of-Year Assessments May 4-6.  Please encourage them to persevere if they encounter any difficult questions, and give their best effort.


Subject Update:

ELA (English/Language Arts)

• Spelling - The Lesson 31 pretest will be given on Monday. The students will be assigned homework during the week to practice their words, and a final test will be given Friday. *Students will only be able to print 5 words "just in case" their cursive still needs work.
• English - Students will begin a grammar unit on verbs. Verbs tell what is or what's happening in a sentence - an action or state of being. 
• Reading -We will continue with our theme, Hardships in History. Students will read various texts to help them answer our essential questions: How does the time period of the hardship impact future decisions and events? How are hardships in history similar and different?

Science - We are learning about the structure of matter. Students will identify the parts of an atom, understand the difference between atoms and molecules, and understand how the Periodic Table of Elements is organized.

Social Studies - Students will discover how the contributions of many different people helped the Continental Army win important battles during the American Revolution.

Mrs. Strong's Math Class - We will continue Unit 7 about multiplying and dividing fractions. Due to PARCC testing, we will only meet for Math on Thursday and Friday.

Mark Your Calendar:

May 4 - PARCC Testing (ELA)

May 5 - PARCC Testing (Math 1)

May 6 - PARCC Testing (Math 2)