Miss Bower's 5th Grade:

Sneak Peek at the Past Two Weeks

Math: My students have been learning how to identify congruent polygons as well as learning how to find the area of squares, rectangles, parallelograms, triangles, and irregular polygons. We will continue reviewing these skills next week. Please continue to review at home with your child.

Reading: We have been reviewing figurative language and sound devices in order to help us uncover meaning in poetry. My students should be able to explain the following types of figurative language and give examples of each type: similes, metaphors, personification, and hyperboles. Your child should be able to explain the following sound devices: onomatopoeia, alliteration, and rhyme scheme.

Language Arts: During Language Arts, my students have been learning about adverbs. We have also begun our Persuasive Writing unit. Please ask your child to tell you his/her persuasive topic he/she will be writing at school.

Science: We have begun our Electricity and Magnetism unit. I hope your child told you about our static electricity stations he/she participated in during Fun Friday last week. My students will learn how to make an electric circuit and be able to distinguish between conductors and insulators by the end of the week. Next week, my students will learn about bar magnets and electromagnets.

Looking Ahead

January 19th- CRCT/Curriculum Night

January 26th- iMoms

February 2nd- Cosmic Bowling (more information to come)

February 9th- All Pro Dads

School Wide Reminders

1. Parents and students are not allowed to return to the classrooms after dismissal. My students have ample time to pack up and write in their agendas.

Reminders to Parents

1. Please encourage your child to put his/her name on homework assignments. We do this at school, but I still have at least 4-5 "No Name" papers for each assignment I give. This worries me for middle school.

2. Please encourage your child to check his/her homework to ensure he/she has completed every question. I have many papers that are turned in, and they are incomplete. This has turned into a big problem in our classroom. My students are aware of it, and I have been giving "Captain's Consequences" to help my students learn from their mistakes. If they are not checking over their work, they are not following my verbal directions and this concerns me.

Crew Compliments!!

I would like to congratulate my crew for EXCEEDING our class goals for our Language Arts and Math Benchmark scores. I am so proud of their hard work and determination!

I would like to congratulate Kade D. and Victor O. for representing our class as Safety Patrols.

I would like to compliment my crew members for coming back from winter break and choosing to follow school rules and remembering the high expectations I have for each one of my crew members.

Ways to Help at Home

1. Please engage your child in a conversation every night about the skills he/she learned that day. They can use their agenda to help them remember everything we learned that day.

2. The following websites are good resources to help your child:

adverbs

http://www.ezschool.com/Games/Adverbs.html

figurative language

http://library.thinkquest.org/J0112392/simile.html

sound devices

http://interactives.mped.org/preview_mg.aspx?id=736 (onomatopoeiaa)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/starship/english/spacespins.shtml (alliteration)

congruent figures

http://www.beaconlearningcenter.com/weblessons/congruentconcentration/default.htm

Lisa Bower