Happy Holidays!

We hope that each of you has a restful, relaxing holiday break. Also thank you so much for the contributions to the Adopt a Family project. We are blessed to have such a giving community here at PLS.

We are also overwhelmed with all of the cards and gifts from the students. Our diets have been shot to kingdom come! Thank you so much!

We will see the students back at PLS in 2011. We are looking forward to a great remainder of the school year.

Mrs. Lockhart
Mr. Nielsen

Care and Share Carnival Tomorrow!

Tomorrow the fifth graders will be attending the Care and Share Carnival put on by the middle school students. Each elementary student is asked to bring a non-perishable food item to donate. This is always a great event for the kids and is a great way to provide for those less fortunate.

Mrs. Lockhart
Mr. Nielsen

J-Term Class Options

Friday folders from Mrs. Lockhart's class didn't get sent home because today was Thursday, and she wasn't thinking about no school tomorrow!
Sorry! I will be sending you an email with the attached documents so you can look over the course options. Please return them to school on Monday so the arduous task of assigning students can begin soon! My apologies!

Mrs. Lockhart

Going on an AAAWWUUBBIS Hunt!!

You're asking, "What is that!?" Students in Mrs. Lockhart's homeroom have been introduced to this acronym. Mr. Nielsen's students will hear about it on Wednesday. Students have been asked to locate sentences in any form of text that use a word from this acronym. They are as follows:
As
After
Although (or Even though)
While
When (and Whenever)
Unless
Until
Because
Before
If
Since

The goal is to try and find as many different uses of the words in the list. These words, when used at the beginning of a sentence, will require a comma after the phrase.

Mrs. Lockhart
Mr. Nielsen

Hats, Boots, Mittens! Oh, my!

'Tis the season! The snow has finally arrived. That means boots! (And mittens/gloves!) Students are strongly encouraged to wear boots outside for recess. Even though they are not to play in the snow if they don't have boots on, snow gets into tennis shoes. That means wet, uncomfortable socks all afternoon. If you need assistance in getting boots for your child, please contact either one of us, or Dr. Cryer. We will provide you with some assistance.

Mrs. Lockhart
Mr. Nielsen

Homecoming Spirit Day - Thursday Dec. 9

Elementary students are encouraged to participate in the homecoming dress up day on Thursday, Dec. 9. The theme that day is "Spirit Day". The other dress up days are considered a "Secondary School Event". The fifth graders can look forward to participating in those events next year.

Mrs. Lockhart
Mr. Nielsen

Blue Geometry Template

We are missing several blue geometry templates from school. Students recently have needed these for math homework and may have forgotten to return them. The templates are easily misplaced as they are very thin. Please ask your child to take a look around your home for one.

Thanks,

Mr. Nielsen

Literature Homework!

While this week's schedule has been a little different because of Iowa Tests of Basic Skills, we are still holding students accountable for work that has been assigned. The students were given approximately 2-3 chapters to read all week. A standard that we are working on in this unit is making reasonable, realistic predictions based on evidence from the text that has been read. Students have been asked to record each prediction in the packet that has been sent home with them. There are a large number of students who have not completed the work, or has not done quality work with the prediction. These students have been asked to redo this work in the packet for this weekend. If your child does not have a literature book at home this weekend, he/she has been given the "ok" by the teacher for having work completed.

Mrs. Lockhart
Mr. Nielsen

There will be ITBS test on Tuesday!

Mrs. Lockhart mistakenly told her students that they would not be having ITBS tomorrow.......they WILL be having tests tomorrow, just not on Wednesday! Sorry for that incorrect information!

ITBS Snacks

If you would like to provide some healthy snacks for the students during their break time this week, please send them to school with your child. There are 14 students in each fifth grade classroom.

Thanks!
Mrs. Lockhart and Mr. Nielsen

ITBS

Tomorrow we will begin the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. At conference time you were given an ITBS practice booklet. These sample items are similar to the items that your child will see on the test this week. Please make sure your child gets plenty of rest and eats a good breakfast each day.

The schedule for the ITBS is as follows:
Monday: Reading Comprehension, Science and Math Computation
Tuesday: Math Problem Solving, Math Concepts and Estimation and Vocabulary
Wednesday: NO Planned tests at this time
Thursday: Spelling, Capitalization, Punctuation and Usage and Expression
Friday: Social Studies and Maps and Diagrams

We will look at the results of these test at the next conference period in March.

Mrs. Lockhart
Mr. Nielsen

Cold Weather Gear!

Even though we have had a mild fall, the temperatures are cooler than they have been in recent weeks. Students are going to need to wear jackets outside for recess. Pants are also a priority. If they wear shorts in the building, they will need to wear sweatpants or other "sporty" pants outside in cooler weather. All students will be going outside unless the temperatures drop below zero.

Thanks!

Halloween Candy

WOW!! Bring on the candy for the troops! There was a nice quantity of candy that was turned into the classrooms today. Thanks for filling the pumpkin....it was overflowing with candy! If you have more that you would like to send to school with your child, please do so.

Thanks!
Mr. Nielsen and Mrs. Lockhart

Reminder:

No School on Friday, November 5 due to teacher's professional development day.

Spelling

This week the students started the week with their review test. This review test covered anywhere from 15-20 words that had been missed on final tests since the beginning of the year. Each student was sent home with a new spelling list for this week. Since we took the review test today, we didn't take a pretest for this list. They will ONLY HAVE A FINAL TEST on THURSDAY.

Litmus Paper Test

Today, students in Mr. Nielsen's class received a small baggy with some litmus paper. They are to test some safe chemicals (with your permission) to see if that liquid is a base, an acid or neutral. We brainstormed a list of possibilities in class today, so they should have a good sized list of items that can be tested. The rules were: NO paints, no toilet bowl cleaner, and nothing from the garage!
Mrs. Lockhart's students will be getting these on a different day.

Thanks!
Mrs. Lockhart and Dr. Stone

Halloween Candy

A reminder that Halloween candy can be brought into the classroom tomorrow to "buy" some free time in the swimming pool this week! Every pound brought in will earn them a certain amount of time?! How healthy can we be? Let's get some swim time!!

Swimming tomorrow! (10/26)

Just a reminder that we will have swimming tomorrow, Oct. 26, 2010.

Spelling

Since this is a shortened school week, there will not be a regular spelling test/list this week. Instead, the students will be going through their spelling notebooks to look for words that have been misspelled on final tests. They will use these words as a review test next Monday. If there are more than 20 total words that have been missed, we will choose the most frequently used words in our speaking and writing to create the final list. There will not be a test in the classroom this week. A one time test of the missed words will ONLY BE ON MONDAY.
If you have questions, please let me know. Thanks!
Mrs. Lockhart

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe

Tomorrow the fourth and fifth grade students will be going to the Gallagher Bluedorn Performing Arts Center for the production of the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The students will be reading the book this year as part of one of their literature units called Books 2 Movies. While we have not yet done this unit, the students will have the opportunity to make some connections from the play to the book when we do start that unit. Please visit with your child about appropriate audience etiquette since this is something that we stress as well; especially since they are representing our school and their family.

Math Homework

Just a heads up...tonight (10/19) students may be studying specific concepts from their concept chart they created for Unit 2. As we checked the students progress today they may have felt that they needed a little more work on certain concepts. They will be using their chart to help guide them to better understanding tonight then complete their "Checking Progress" sheets tomorrow in class.

Mr. Nielsen

Planners

We have several students who are "forgetting" their planners at home. Please help to see that your child has his/her planner in the school bag each evening before returning to school.

Thanks!
Mrs. Lockhart and Mr. Nielsen

Reminder!!!

Spelling test will be on THURSDAY, NOT on Friday of this week.

The students do not have school on Friday, October 15 due to the Northern Iowa Conference League professional development day that will be held here at UNI and Price Lab School.

Millions, Billions and Trillions

Today we tackled the concept of millions, billions and trillions. The students estimated how long it would take them to tap their desk one million times, then a billion times, then a trillion times. To illustrate the difference between a million, billion and a trillion we used this web site http://www.pagetutor.com/trillion/index.html The website is not exactly what we were looking for because the illustration uses a trillion dollars in $100's. It did serve the purpose. Thought you might like to see it.

Lunchroom Salads

Since the inception of Grassroots Cafe last year, the elementary students have had the option of purchasing a delicious garden salad instead of the main entree. While this is a great option for those who don't necessary like the main dish, it is becoming somewhat of a problem. The problem is they are being purchased, but not eaten. Several students are choosing to eat the bread that is provided with the salad and the cheese (from the top of the salad). The fruit and the salad itself are being thrown away. Not only is this a waste of great food, (and your money!) it is not providing them with the necessary fuel to get through the afternoon. This situation is being closely monitored again this week in the lunchroom. Last week we did speak to the entire 5th grade class about this situation. The menu follows a very similar pattern each week, so students can typically predict if there is something that they don't like. The students suggested writing in their planners on the day(s) that they want to bring cold lunch so they will have something in their system for the afternoon.

Mrs. Lockhart
Mr. Nielsen

School Pictures

School pictures have arrived and will be sent home with students on Friday.

Writing Assignment:

The students have been given 1 of 5 writing prompts for today's writing assignment. Over the course of the last two weeks, we have put a lot of focus on writing complete sentences, using capitalization rules, and getting our ideas to connect to one another. This short story should focus on some of those key concepts from our class time together.

The students always ask, "How long should it be?" There is never a good answer to that question! At this point in their "career" they should certainly be able to develop a story that is more than every other line on a sheet of paper (both sides). The most important thing about their writing is not about length, rather content. Does the writing make sense? Did I make good use of sentence structure? (meaning, sentences vary in the way that they start. Not every sentence starts with "And then...." or "Then....." or "So,.....")

Another strategy that we have used in all areas of writing is to reread a writing assignment out loud to yourself. Read it exactly the way that it is written. By reading it silently they will read it the way they want it to sound, not as it is written. The students can certainly practice this before coming to class tomorrow with a rough draft completed.

Mrs. Lockhart

Walk to school day!

Reminder: Tomorrow is walk to school day. Meet at Seerley Park at 8:00 AM. We will leave the park at approximately 8:15 for the school. Looking forward to good weather.

Book Orders: Order online or send order to school

Below is the information that some of you have requested again about ordering online. Thanks to those who purchased online last month. The books will arrive here at school and I will get them passed out to your child. There are some parents who have ordered books for birthdays or Christmas in the past. Just let me know in advance through an email or a phone call that you would like me to "hold" your purchases until a specified date. We will arrange a way to get the books to you. If you would like another book order flyer, please let me know. Or, they are also available to view online.

Online Ordering Information
Web address: scholastic.com/bookclubs
Class Activation Code: GN23R

In order to make our deadline and have all our books arrive on time, your order to Scholastic Book Clubs is due BY OCTOBER 8.

Use the order form in the flyer your child recently brought home and return it to me with your payment (cash or check made out to Scholastic)

Or, make it easy and send me your order online!

Go to www.scholastic.com/bookclubs and log in using your user name and password.

If it’s your first time ordering online, use the Class Activation Code shown above to get started

* SIGN UP at www.scholastic.com/bookclubs. On the parent page, click the “Don’thave a user name or password?“ link, then register for your own user name and password. When prompted, enter the one-time Class Activation Code shown above. This code ensures that your order is sent to me.

* SELECT the books you’d like to order—choose from thousands of titles—many more than in our monthly flyers.

* SEND your order to me online by the due date and your child’s books will be delivered directly to my classroom.

Ordering online is fast and easy!

Best of all, we earn a FREE book for the classroom library every time a parent places an order online.


Thank you!
Mrs. Lockhart

Take me out to the ball game...........

Due on Thursday: Two paragraphs about an experience at ANY type of sporting event. This could even include a younger sibling's soccer game or watching something on TV! This assignment comes from Miss Moore, a UNI student in Mrs. Lockhart's class. As part of their personal narrative writing unit, they have been asked to think about the event and what they heard, saw, felt, etc. They will be using a thesaurus during the revision stage of writing to improve and enhance some of the words in their writing.

Projectile Motion Web Site

The students have anxiously been waiting for this address to be posted on the blog! This is the web site that we have used in science the last couple of days. The students have worked on changing one variable at a time while using the exact same object (a football) to launch from the cannon. They are free to explore other objects of larger masses to see if their results are similar to that of the football!

http://phet.colorado.edu/sims/projectile-motion/projectile-motion_en.html

Mrs. Lockhart and Dr. Stone

Level II Participant Lessons this Week!

The Teacher Education Program at UNI is respected nationally and internationally as a high quality teacher education institution. A huge part of the teacher education preparation component is what the UNI students do at MPLS. This week our “UNI Friends” are teaching lessons that they have spent the past three weeks developing with the assistance of Mrs. Lockhart and myself. This is a perfect opportunity for our fifth grade students to really focus on their learning and their skill with the MPLS Guidelines for Success (Respect, Learning, Responsibility, Attitude and Integrity). We want our MPLS students adhering to the Guidelines for Success at all times, but we know that an added emphasis during these UNI Friend lessons can add a great deal to the learning of our MPLS students and UNI students. Please remind your child about the importance of the Guidelines for Success. Thank you for your support of this important process.

Projectile Motion

In science this week, the students have learned a lot about projectile motion. One class of fifth graders has used an online simulation game to test different variables. Since the other class has not used it yet, I will wait until they have before I post the URL for the simulation. Please look for that early next week! I know the students will really enjoy testing different objects and variables.

Mrs. Lockhart and Dr. Stone

Time Line Sheet

For a writing project that we will be working on next week, the students have been asked to fill out a time line sheet about themselves. Events can include meaningful moments in their lives, for them personally or for your family. They all have the first event filled in! Their birthday! I showed them an example of my time line and had them recognize that I didn't have something written for EVERY year of my life. Rather, I chose the events that stand out the most. This will be due on Monday.

Silly Bands....Close to being banned

The latest trends for young students is always exciting to watch evolve. A number of students have taken a real interest in the silly band craze, and it seems like the "cool thing to do!" However, these silly bands are causing a distraction to a number of students. They are becoming "chewing bands" during class as well as feeling the need to rearrange them on their arms and/or necks. While we don't like to ban the students from participating in the latest craze, they are becoming a distraction to the learning process. If this continues, we will send a notice home indicating that the students will not be allowed to wear them during the school day.

Thanks,
Mrs. Lockhart
Mr. Nielsen

Math-Partial Sum and Column Addition

Today we will be exploring two methods of addition that students may or may not have been exposed to in the past, the partial sums method and column addition method. Research shows that greatest learning comes when we teach someone else. I light of that I am going to ask that the students attempt to teach you these methods at home tonight or tomorrow night. This could be just simply a show and tell by your child or they may get crazy and give you problems to complete and then check your work!

The two methods are explained in the Student Reference Book on p. 13.

Thanks for your participation in your child's mathematics learning.

Mr. Nielsen

Smile - It's Picture Day!

Reminder: Pictures are scheduled for this Wednesday, September 22, 2010. If your child needs another picture envelope there are extras in the office. Picture envelopes and money should be brought to school on Wednesday.

Literature

Sign of the Beaver is our first literature novel of the school year. The text of this book is very different from a lot of the books that they have read. There is very little dialogue between characters as it is a narrative text. We are not opposed to having a shared reading at home. This means a parent or older sibling can read a page aloud (while the student follows along- this helps with accuracy and fluency development) and then the student can read as much as they feel comfortable. Discuss what is happening in the text as you read. What new/different vocabulary words are popping out at your child? For each chapter, they should really try to find 2 words to record in their packet. Chapter titles need to be written for EACH chapter that they read. The title should encompass the main idea of the whole chapter, not an isolated event from the chapter.

Spelling - Week 4

This week there are five different spelling lists- your child has been given a list that is most fitting for them. This list was decided upon from today's pretest as well as the average score of the last 3 weeks of spelling. Please check your child's spelling notebook today as the list for your child is in the notebook.

Glogster............

Yes, it sounds like BLOG, but it's not! It's GLOGSTER! In science Dr. Stone and I have introduced the students to this private website where they will creating posters this year. Each student has been assigned a password and username (Lockhart's students will received their information tomorrow in science). They are going to be creating a poster that shares their knowledge of whirligigs. There are graphics that are available for them to use, but there is also a draw tool with which they can create their own illustrations. As the students know, I love to take pictures! They will have access to a large number of pictures that they will be able to download onto their poster as well. The flip camera has also been used in class, and they will be taught how to embed videos into this poster creation as well. Since this is a website with a membership for our class only, the public is NOT able to view these. Even though these are not open for public viewing, we have asked the students to use ONLY their FIRST name on their posters. When students finish them, they will be able to be viewed by other classmates and the teachers for feedback and comments. If you child would like to explore this glogster page a little more, please google "glogster edu" for the glogster educationpage. They will know how to log in from there.

Math Homework - Naming 100

Tonight students are asked to write 100 in as many different ways as they can. For instance 10*10, 500/5, 25*2*2, I would like them to spend only 15 minutes on this activity.

Mr. Nielsen

Math Homework - Unsquaring Numbers

Tonight the students have an assignment to "unsquare" a number. Basically the students are going to use a calculator to find the square-root of a number WITHOUT using the square-root key. We have learned this week that a square of a number is when you multiply the number by itself. Unsquaring the number will cement this concept. Students should look for a number that when multiplied by itself will result in their assigned number listed below. Each of the unsquared numbers has a 2-digit square-root. Please ask your child the process they used to unsquare the number. We will discuss their thinking processes in class tomorrow.

Mrs. Lockhart's class should unsquare the number 289
Mr. Nielsen's class should unsquare 961

Mr. Nielsen

Math Homework Assignment 9/7

If your child is in Mrs. Lockhart's homeroom their math assignment tonight is Math Journal p. 18. If your child is in Mr. Nielsen's homeroom their math assignment is a sheet called Goldbach's Conjecture p. 8. These will be reviewed in math tomorrow.

Mr. Nielsen

Spelling Lists- Week 3

Because of no school on Monday, the students took their pretest today. Since there wasn't a chunk of time to get all 30 test scored, they do not have their spelling test notebook. It will be sent home tomorrow. The list is as follows:
Long Vowel Sound: A
Words with the long vowel a sound can be written as: a, ai or ay

1. aim
2. holiday
3. paper
4. station
5. able
6. crayon
7. flavor
8. lazy
9. brain
10. anyway
11. remain
12. favor
13. rail
14. taste
15. trailer
16. lady
17. nation
18. relay
19. rail
20. radio

Challenge list: (those missing two or less on pretest) Compound words
Some words are one whole word, some are two separate words, and some use hyphens

keyboard

self-esteem

dining room

classmate

far-fetched

granddaughter

briefcase

self-taught

four-fifths

word processing

newsstand

quick-witted

pencil sharpener

well-known

thirteen-year-olds

textbook

self-employed

study hall

brother-in-law

three-fourths

Reminder: Science Whirligig Materials

Students are working on their garden whirligigs in science this week. A lot of them are extremely creative in their design plans! If you have any materials (colored tape, plastic bottles, old CDs) that your child may bring to school, please send them tomorrow! Thanks!!
Mrs. Lockhart and Dr. Stone

Spelling Note

Tonight students will bring home their spelling spiral. This notebook is where students will complete their end of the week spelling tests. It is important that the pages are not torn out because the students will refer back to past tests throughout the year. Please have your child return the spiral to school on Tuesday. Thank you for your cooperation with this.

Mrs. Lockhart

Science News

The students have been working on Whirligigs for the last two weeks. What in the world are whirligigs, you ask? Folded paper that spins and floats to the ground. What does this have to do with science? Variables.....air.......motion.......testing.....experimenting with change..........
The students have conducted many tests using different types of paper, different sizes of whirligigs as well as different weights. The data has been collected and shared with the class through discussion and writing. Now they are ready to create their very own Garden Whirligig. A list of materials was brainstormed during class this week. While Dr. Stone and I will be providing some materials for them to use, if they have something that they would like to bring to use on their own, or even to share with others, we are open to that. Since the goal is to use this outside, and it must move, the type of materials used has to be considered.
Plastic bottles
Duck tape
Electrical tape
Aluminum foil pans (or just foil)
Plastic paper plates and cups
This is just a list of examples......their items are definitely not limited to the items just on this list

The students will be designing their whirligig and building it next week. At the end of the unit, we hope to have them design a Glogster (a type of web page that is very student centered and it is created by them!) page that will so their depth of knowledge. Videos of pictures will be out soon on Animoto. I will send them through email.
Thanks!
Mrs. Lockhart and Dr. Stone

Swimming Reminder

Don't forget those swimming suits, towels and plastic bags tomorrow for swimming!

Math Homework Assignment 8/31

Tonight students should complete pg. 14 of the Student Math Journal. Parents please use your best judgment on how much time students spend on this. Some of the items may be review and some may be completely new to the students. If they don't know the process try the Student Reference Book for help, the page numbers on listed in the boxes. If you feel like the student is spending too much time on the problems stop. We will go over the items in class tomorrow.

Mr. Nielsen

Writer's Workshop- Rough Draft Due

For the last week, we have been focusing our attention on BOLD BEGINNINGS in our writing. How does a writer capture the attention of the reader from the first part of the reading? One way is by showing action. What kind of strong action words can be used to allow the reader to SEE what is happening?
The students have been given an idea sheet (8 boxes about a story idea) that is in their binder. Last week they worked on brainstorming ideas for a story that is TRUE and about them. They know that these boxes are just places to record ideas so they have them when writing the actual story. Some students are still working on the completion of these boxes, so please check your child's.
BY THURSDAY: A rough draft (written every other line on the loose leaf paper in their binder) of the story. This story is not going to be a chapter book! It is not going to be 3 paragraphs long either. Focus on a strong beginning, but also be able to tell the story in a succinct manner. Editing and revisions will be done here in class as we continue through the writing process.

Daily Oral Geography and Daily Oral Language: These are two of the five rotating stations that your child will be visiting each week at the start of their school day. There will be four questions about geography that they will need to answer in complete sentences. A strategy that we have worked on in class is taking part of the question and using it as part of your answer. For example: What is the capital city of Iowa? ANSWER: The capital city of Iowa is Des Moines.
Daily oral language includes two sentences that include spelling errors, grammatical errors and punctuation errors. Students rewrite the sentences to make them correct. If they do not finish these at school during the week, they will be sent home on Thursday night. Using atlases for geography is definitely encouraged! They are also encouraged to use the Franklin Spell Checkers to find spelling errors.

Spelling Lists- Week 2

Spelling Lists- Week 2
This week's spelling skills cover the long a and the long e vowel sounds. There are different ways in which each of these sounds can be written in a word. We have talked about three of them this week.
1. The long a sound can be represented by: ai (as in the word claim), a-consonant-e (as in the word populate) and the letter combination ei (as in the word neighbor).
2. The long e sound can be represented by: ee (as in needle), ea (as in the word feature) , y (as in foggy), e-consonant-e (as in the word complete)

Since there are so many different vowel combinations for the English language, it is uncommon for the students to ask, "How do we know which one to use?" One strategy that we have discussed last year and again this year is to write the word three different ways. Out of those three spellings, which one looks like one that you have seen before in reading? Choose the one that looks more familiar.

Spelling list:
1. eighty
2. daily
3. operate
4. claim
5. freight
6. neighbor
7. explain
8. straight
9. contain
10. populate
11. needle
12. beneath
13. foggy
14. gasoline
15. complete
16. scary
17. screen
18. police
19. feature
20. memory

If your child missed 2 or less on the pretest, a challenge list is sent home. The list for this week is:
1. notify
2. raven
3. climate
4. vehicles
5. alien
6. idol
7. trial
8. basis
9. creature
10. motivate
11. species
12. notion
13. prior
14. reality
15. idle
16. trophy
17. premium
18. oval
19. mutual
20. noble

Math Homework

Homework for this weekend...
Math - Sheet called "Making Dot Arrays" should be completed and returned to school on Monday. On that sheet you will see a highlighted line at the bottom of the page. Students should look for arrays around the house and bring in examples. Please DO NOT send anything to school with your child that would be valuable. If there were something that they would like to share with the class and it is valuable or too big, a short description or drawing of the item would be just fine.

Mr. Nielsen

Fifth Grade News

We have had a good week of school. Nice temperatures, good thinking and getting use to our routines all have been pleasant experiences for the fifth grade. The students are doing well adjusting to our schedules and are learning their responsibilities.

Part of the student's responsibility is coming to class ready learn. We have had a few instances where students have brought things to school that have distracted them from learning. If your child wears a bracelet or necklace to school please remind them that these items should not get in the way of learning.

This year the students will be bringing home Friday Folders. The folder is bright orange and will have the student's name on it. Please sign the INSIDE of the folder when you look at the materials and send it back to school with your child each Monday. Because of a late Citizenship Assembly dismissal today (8/26) Mrs. Lockhart's students didn't get their folders. They will be bring it home on Monday.

Good job remembering swimming suits and towels on Thursday and being leaders at the Citizenship Assembly on Friday! Way to go Fifth Graders!

Mrs. Lockhart
Mr. Nielsen

Swimming Reminder

Tomorrow is our first swimming day. Please make sure your child has their swimming suit, towel and plastic bag for the return home. We are looking forward to a great day!

Early Years Assignment

In writer's workshop, we are starting the year off by writing our memoirs. The students will be writing a lot of short stories about themselves in the next couple of weeks. The questions below are part of the first assignment for your child. They will need to visit with a family member about themselves by asking the questions and recording the answers themselves. They will be using the information from this activity for a writing project. In the past, the students have always enjoyed this activity and have shared funny things with the class about what they did when they were younger.
The questions will be sent home on a hard copy on Monday. Please return the sheet and answers to school no later than FRIDAY, AUGUST 27.
Thanks!
Mrs. Lockhart

THE EARLY YEARS
The following questions' answers will be all about YOU! Ask a family member (or two!) about what you were like when you were younger. Record the answers on the sheet. If you run out of space, you can use the back of this sheet, or another sheet of paper.
1. What did I like to do when I was 2 or 3 years old
2. What did I like to eat when I was little?
3. What didn't I like to eat?
4. Do you remember my first birthday celebration? What was it like?
5. What was my first day of school (preschool or k'garten) like for me? What was it like for you when I went to school?
6. What was my first word?
7. Is there something funny that I said or did when I was younger that made everybody laugh?
8. Is there anything else that you can tell me about when I was little?

5th Grade Spelling Information

This week's spelling list has words that are plural. To make a word plural, most of the time it is easy to just add the letter S to the word. However, with most spelling rules, there are exceptions. This is the spelling strategy:

Plural nouns name more than one person, place or thing.

The plural form of most nouns is created simply by adding the letter s.
Words that end in -ch, x, s or s-like sounds, however, will require an -es for the plural:

* more than one witch = witches
* more than one box = boxes

With words that end in a consonant and a y, you'll need to change the y to an i and add es.

more than one baby = babies
more than one pony = ponies
more than one monkey = monkeys (don't drop y and change to i because there is a vowel in front of the y!)

The spelling list for this week is as follows: *(your child will have a hard copy of the list for at home. Please take note of your child's list since some modifications are made to meet your child's spelling level)
1. monkeys
2. babies
3. teams
4. lunches
5. factories
6. scratches
7. trays
8. libraries
9. members
10. ladies
11. slippers
12. coaches
13. memories
14. friends
15. patches
16. adults
17. boxes
18. branches
19. inches
20. sandwiches

SPELLING PRETEST: Given on Monday *(If your child receives 100% on the pretest, a challenge list of words will be given and those words will be studied for the final test on Friday).
Throughout the week, we will do classroom skills that will practice our spelling words, but it is imperative that students break down the list throughout the week at home and study the words
SPELLING FINAL TEST: Given on Friday

Mrs. Lockhart

Book Orders

There are two book orders that are being sent home today. You can purchase books from either, neither or both. If you write a check, please make it out to SCHOLASTIC. The book orders will be due to your either fifth grade teacher on or before Friday, August 27.
You can also submit an order online! Our classroom earns free books if parent order online, so if you would like to earn us books, great! Please read the letter that is in your child's Friday folder that explains how to set up an account on Scholastic!

Swimming will begin on Thursday August 26

Please have a swimsuit and towel each week for swimming. If you're in need of a suit for swim classes, please contact one of the teachers.

Homework Assignments

Math
Complete p. 2 of Student Journal (will need the Student Reference book!) In the space under the directions on p. 2 write 4 numbers that are prime and 4 that are composite. The numbers written should not be any of the same numbers in either question 1 or 2.

Math News- Student Reference Book

Throughout the course of the year, your child will be doing math homework through various assignments. One of those will be the Everyday Mathematics Journal, a paperback workbook. While your child will have received instruction on the work in the classroom, there may be questions that your child has about a problem in the book. This journal does not include example problems that may be similar to the math textbooks that we all used as students in elementary school. In ADDITION to the journal, there is a hardcover Student Reference Book (SRB) that should accompany the journal each night. In the event that a question arises, the SRB is a place for you to refer to for help. The math boxes that are assigned (in the journal) may have a small symbol in the corner of the box that has SRB and a page number on it. This symbol provides you with the page number that will directly relate to that particular skill. Hopefully this will help you with any questions that come up at home.

Mrs. Lockhart
Mr. Nielsen

Additions to the Supply List

We inadvertently left off some of the supply list that was posted on the school website. While we support being green we are not quite green enough to completely go paperless in the classroom. Please have your child bring the following items to school as soon as convenient for you.

2 packages of wide rule lined paper
1 ream of white paper
3 spiral notebooks (wide rule)

We are sorry this was not included in the original list.

Mrs. Lockhart
Mr. Nielsen

Welcome to 5th Grade

Welcome to fifth grade! We are glad that you chose MPLS as your school and are happy to be your teachers. We will have lots of interesting things for you to do to make your fifth grade year a memorable one. You will have a homeroom teacher and much of the instruction will be departmentalized. Mrs. Lockhart will teach writing and science and Mr. Nielsen will teach math and social studies. Both, along with Mrs. Miller, will be teaching literature. You will also go to Art and Music twice a week, Spanish four times a week, P.E. five times a week, Guidance one time a week and Library one time a week. Our swimming day will be on Thursday's. You will get to meet really cool teacher education students as we will have lots of UNI Friends visit our classes during the school year.

We are looking forward to a great 2010-11 school year with you.

Mrs. Lockhart
Mr. Nielsen