WEEK OF NOVEMBER 30

2nd Trimester Tidbits
Students will now be responsible for checking themselves out at the end of the school day. Students will remain independent as long as there are no issues with late homework. If a trend of late homework begins for a student, he/she will be put on a teacher check-out system.
5th Grade Late Homework Policy for 2nd Trimester:
1 day late - minus 15 %
More than 1 day late until unit test is taken - minus 25%
After unit test is taken - 0% earned
*Ungraded work - 1 point deducted from "Homework Completion" bank of points

Junior Achievement
During our 4th session of Junior Achievement, Mr. Blocker discussed STEM, job skills, resume writing, and interviewing. We look forward to his final visit on Tuesday afternoon when students will receive a certificate of participation in the program. We will also present Mr. Blocker with a token of our appreciation.

Too Good For Drugs
On December 2nd, our class will begin the fifth grade "Too Good For Drugs" program. Deputy Seward from the DuPage County Sheriff's Department will be coming to our classroom weekly to discuss topics such as values, good and bad influences, good decision-making, and drug prevention. A letter explaining more about the program will be sent home after our first session.

Subject Update:

• ELA (English/Language Arts) - We have begun our culminating project for our theme, "Challenges." This project is a Glog, or interactive poster, about a well-known person who has faced challenges in his/her life. Each student has already chosen a person, so the next step will be research. Students will be learning all they can about their person to discover some of the challenges they faced, how they managed those challenges, and how people were affected by them. We will also continue our work with word parts, and finish an acrostic writing activity.
• Science - Students will practice their owl presentations to be ready to share them with 3rd grade classes on Thursday afternoon.
• Social Studies - We will begin the next lesson which tells how the search for the Northwest Passage led to the founding of French and Dutch colonies in North America.
• Mrs. Strong's Math Class - We will continue Topic 3 about equations and inequalities. Students will learn how to keep an equation "balanced" while using inverse operations to isolate the variable.

Mark Your Calendar:

Dec. 1 - Junior Achievement (Session 5)

Dec. 2 - Too Good For Drugs (Session 1)

WEEK OF NOVEMBER 16

Technology Talk with Mr. Hummel
Mr. Hummel, Director of Technology for the district, met with our 5th graders to clarify the use of district issued Chromebooks. Here is a recap of his talk to help you monitor these expectations at home:
*Students should not download any extensions to Chromebooks.

*At home and at school, students should only use Chromebooks for school-related activities.

*School-appropriate backgrounds, themes, or wallpaper may be downloaded.

Junior Achievement
During session 3, Mr. Blocker taught the students about unit and mass production. The students had fun assembling ballpoint pens to better understand how to make a product as efficiently as possible. We look forward to his next visit on Tuesday, November 17th.
*I thought it might be nice to present Mr. Blocker with a token of appreciation on his last session of Junior Achievement. JA representatives visit schools on a purely voluntary basis, and Mr. Blocker really goes beyond what is expected in regards to preparing lessons and materials. If you would like to contribute to a classroom gift, please send in $1 before Thanksgiving Break!

Subject Update:

• ELA (English/Language Arts) - We will finish up our work with chapter 6 of Touching Spirit Bear. Students have been doing a wonderful job identifying the challenges of the main character and the way in which he responds to those challenges. There is a quiz over titles, conjunctions, interjections, and prepositions scheduled for Tuesday, November 17th. There will not be a new list of word parts introduced this week, but rather we will take some time to review and extend our work with all of the word parts learned so far.
• Science - Students will continue their collaborative research projects on their chosen owls. We learned and are applying the "PARA" strategy to paraphrase the information found, and we are making sure we cite all sources where information is taken.
• Social Studies - We will continue to learn about Jamestown, England's first successful colony in North America. Ask your child about some of the people who contributed to the success of this colony.
• Mrs. Strong's Math Class - There is a homework review (open note) over Topic 2, L. 4-7 on Monday, November 16th. On Tuesday, students will have several choices of activities to prepare for the Topic 2 Test scheduled on Wednesday, November 18th. Then we will begin Topic 3 which makes the transition from expressions to equations and inequalities.

Mark Your Calendar:

Nov. 17 - Junior Achievement (Session 3)

Nov. 20 - End of 1st Trimester

Nov. 25 - 27 - Thanksgiving Break (No School)

WEEK OF NOVEMBER 9

Junior Achievement
During session 2, Mr. Blocker reviewed the profit model: revenue - expenses = profit. He also discussed the three types of resources (natural, capital, and human) and the concept of supply and demand. We look forward to Wednesday when Mr. Blocker will share about production.

October PRIDE! Awards
Congratulations to Nina for earning the award for Respect in the month of October! Nina has shown respect to her classmates, teachers, and school. I look forward to next month when I can acknowledge another one of our students. Keep up that Panther PRIDE! 



Subject Update:

• ELA (English/Language Arts) - We will continue our work with chapter 6 of the book, Touching Spirit Bear. We will also have a quiz over the vocabulary from this story on Friday. We will begin working with List #5 word parts, continue working on our "challenge" narrative, and learn about prepositions.
• Science - Students will be selecting an owl native to Illinois to research. They will work collaboratively in partners to create a slide presentation.
• Social Studies - Ask your child to tell you about the lost colony of Roanoke. Which theory did he/she think explained the disappearance of this settlement? We will continue to learn about England's attempts to establish a colony in North America, and how they were successful at Jamestown.
• Mrs. Strong's Math Class - As we continue Topic 2, students will apply the Distributive Property to create equivalent expressions, use prime factorization to identify the LCM of numbers, and problem solve with the help of the various properties learned so far. Looking ahead, I anticipate a homework review over Topic 2, L. 4-7 either Friday or the following Monday, with a Topic 2 Test scheduled soon after.

Mark Your Calendar:

Nov. 9 - No School  (Teacher Institute)

Nov. 10 - Junior Achievement (Session 3)

Nov. 13 - Bingo Night (Mrs. Strong will be there!)