5E News 1

5E NEWS Oct. 28, 2016

Fund-Raiser Delivery!

The items ordered from our fund-raiser (Great American fund raising) will arrive the week before Thanksgiving. The orders are tentatively scheduled to arrive on Wed., Nov. 16. All orders will be boxed and labeled with each student’s name for easy sorting and delivery. Thanks to all of you parents once more for your support with this endeavor!!

Ready for Our Space Mission! Our Challenger Space Mission will occur

next Thursday morning, and students spent this

week working intensely in their teams to prepare

for their astronaut duties. This weekend you may

want to help your child study the information that

they will need to know for a successful space

mission.

Conferences Are Coming!

I still do not have conferences scheduled for a

few students, so if your child is one of those, please

contact me, and hopefully we can schedule

something for Tues., Nov. 15. Thanks!!!

What We Are Doing: Math: We have been working with fractions, and this week we solved fraction word problems and generated equivalent fractions. Next week we will practice changing improper fractions and mixed numbers, comparing fractions, and adding and subtracting fractions. We also took our Friday problem-solving quiz today, so you can look for that to come home on Monday. Science: During this week of preparations for our Challenger mission, students designed mission patches, focused on following oral and written directions, and worked on vocabulary essential for their positions. Next week our teams will practice tasks similar to their astronaut duties as they prepare for our rendezvous with a comet on Thursday! After our mission, we will discuss technology and conduct more experiments as a follow up. Social Studies: Since we wrapped up our short chapter on colonization of the Americas by the Spanish, French, and English this week, expect an exam covering this material on Wednesday or Thursday of next week. Then we will look at life in colonial America for a few weeks. Reading: Students are once again working in literature circle groups for reading, and this week we just about wrapped up our novels as we discussed inferences, conflicts, connections, plot, and theme. Next week we will analyze nonfiction and focus on main events and supporting details as we examine several editions of Scholastic News. Don’t forget to check those reading journals to see exactly what your student has been working on in his or her group! Language / Writing: In language, we focused more on pronouns and quickly reviewed adjectives. During our writing time, we wrapped up our stowaway stories, wrote short pieces about “a place I want to visit” for the Flying Horse, and developed expository papers on this week’s VIP, Olivia Arbez. Spelling: This week our Words Their Way groups worked on suffixes ment/ness/less, spelling variations for the g-sound, and compound words. Your child should be acquiring knowledge about language while learning how to sort and spell his or her words.

5E News 2

Important Upcoming Dates

and events

Sat., Oct. 29 Trunk or Treat! (5:00-

6:00)

Thur., Nov. 3 Challenger Mission!

Wed., Nov. 9 Late Start (8:45)

Nov. 15-17 Parent-Teacher

Conferences

Nov. 23, 24, & 25 No School –

Thanksgiving Vacation

If you have any questions or concerns,

please feel free to contact me at home or at

school. My home number is 663-8001, the school

number is 557-4424, and my school email address

is elstonjr@unit5.org. For any homework

questions, you may want to check out our

classroom website!

Mrs. Elston

Who REALLY Discovered America?