Parent Bulletin: For the Week of 8/7 and 8/10-8/14

Parent Bulletin: For the Week of 8/7 and 8/10-8/14

Language Arts:
We will be studying the eight parts of speech!
EQ: What are the eight parts of speech and how are each one used?
GPS Standard: ELA5C1
person, place, thing, or idea
Noun
is a word that is used in place of noun or pronoun
Pronoun
A word that expresses strong feelings or emotion
Interjection
word used to show the relationship of a noun or pronoun to some other word in the sentence. Examples: in, under, near, behind, to, from, over
Preposition
word that joins words or groups of words
Conjunction
A word that modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. They generally answer one of four questions: how, when, where, or to what extent.
Adverb
a word that modifieds a noun or pronoun and answers the questions what kind, which one, how many or how much
Adjective
word expressing action or state of being
Verb

Reading: Main Idea (What’s the Big Picture!)
GPS Standard: ELA5R1
EQ: What is the main idea? How can we identify the main idea?
The Main Idea is the most important idea about a topic.

Details: are used to support the main idea!

Humanities:
Effective Citizenship – GPS Standard: 5CG1A, B; CG4, E3A
EQ: What does it mean to be an effective citizen?

Vocabulary: responsibility, citizen, volunteer, naturalization, register, E pluribus unum, Bill of Rights

Welcome Fifth Grade Students!

Welcome Students and Parents,

I want to welcome you to my classroom website, this website along with my weekly Friday Notes email will serve as an important communication tool for you. I plan to post assignments, classroom experiences and important due dates!

In the coming weeks, I will have a wealth of information on this site for you! Feel free to email me at Dana.Roberts@Imagineschools.com and I look forward to having a wonderful year!

See you Soon!

5th Grade CRCT Parent Night!

CRCT Parent Night will be on Thursday, April 2nd from 6:00 to 7:00.

Please plan now to attend!

In Mrs. Roberts room.

IF your child is not in 5th grade - please know you are welcome!

New Unit: Vocabulary

Our new unit is going to focus on Vocabulary - this has been ongoing in the classes however Vocabulary encompasses more than just learning the meanings of words.

The following will be addressed and should serve as a review in all grade levels. In addition to working on this, we will be reviewing for the CRCT and reading out of our class novels.

GPS standards:

5R3

6R3 a-c

7 R1

Vocabulary Unit:

Determining the Meanings of Unknown Words
Context Clues - the words or phrases or sentences around or near an unfamiliar word that helps you understand the meaning.

Using a Dictionary or Thesaurus

Common Roots - the main part of the word that gives you the meaning.

Common Prefixes - a group of letters added to the beginning of a word that changes the word's meaning.

Common Suffixes- a group of letters added to the end of a word that changes the word's meaning.

Words with Multiple Meanings - words that have more than one meaning - using context clues to figure out the meanings.

Antonyms - words that have opposite meanings.

Homophones - words that have the same pronunciation but are spelled differently and have different meanings.

Synonyms- words that have the same or almost the same meanings.

Family Reading Night!

Imagine Wesley International Academy's

Family Reading Night

Multi-Purpose Room
March 18, 2009
6:30 PM – 7:30 PM

Join us for a fun evening celebrating reading!

Please RSVP to Ms. Hall at
Marcia.Hall@imagineschools.com

ITBS Testing Schedule for 5th grade ONLY!

5th grade students will test next week! Please allow your students to get plenty of rest! Please bring two #2 pencils and they may bring a snack. Please have the students bring a book to read in between testing periods.

The following is the schedule:

Monday
Reading 80 minutes

Tuesday
Language Arts 88 minutes

Wednesday
Math 85 minutes

Thursday
Social Studies 70 minutes

Friday NO TEST

Monday
Maps/Reference Materials 65 minutes

5th grade WRITING PEP RALLY!

WHAT TIME IS IT?

WRITING TIME!

Please join us for the 5th grade writing pep rally
to get our students

PUMPED UP
for the WRITING EXAM on March 4th!

WHEN: Tuesday, March 3rd

TIME: 3:45 – 4:30
(students must be picked up promptly at 4:30!)

WHERE: BYRON AND ROBERTS ROOMS

STUDENTS MUST TURN IN PERMISSION SLIP TO STAY AFTER SCHOOL!!

ALL STUDENTS MUST BE PICKED UP BY 4:30!

Week of 2/27!

All MYP students created centipede text feature organizers. These organizers were created by the students to allow them a more visual and constructivist approach in learning textbook features. The MYP students also participated in a textbook feature scavenger hunt.

All MYP students began presenting their Barack Obama Biography Web Projects this week. These projects were based off the biography "Yes We Can" and the students created poster biography webs listing facts about six categories of Barack Obama's life.

MEN DO READ VOLUNTEER DAY!

I would like to say a very special thank you to our

MEN DO READ VOLUNTEERS!

Mr. Ashante Roberts
Mr. Bryan Buckner
Rev. Rayford Nance

The girls thoroughly enjoyed their readings.

This Week 2/6!

This week we finished with Organizational Structure - the last structure was Categorizing. I'm excited as now we moved into Informational Text Features Unit. This is a very important unit - more than half of the questions from the CRCT will be based on Text Features and Graphic Features. We started defining the text features using a special book in which provides examples of each feature. We then started on our first Informational textbook "Searching for Lost Tombs" this book has a chapter on the Chinese Terracotta Army which we have a field trip quickly approaching! With this prior knowledge walking in the door, it will help enhance the educational experience of our field trip and the students should be able to ask thought provoking questions to the guides and answer some of their questions as well!

MEN DO READ VOLUNTEER DAY!

Dear Parents,

Our school is sponsoring MEN DO READ DAY - which is a day in which we have men come in and read works from African American authors. I'm asking for volunteers for the entire day which is on February 10th. Please feel free to email me with your time and I will have the selections ready for you!

If you would like to see more information please visit http://www.ncte.org/action/aari for information.

This is a perfect way to get your volunteer hours!

February Novels due by 2/9/09!

We have enjoyed reading about our new president!

Now, we are moving on to our February novels.

Please have these books in the classroom by 2/9/09.

5th grade BOYS:
Bud Not Buddy - Christopher Paul Curtis

5th grade GIRLS:
Bud Not Buddy - Christopher Paul Curtis
The Watson's Go To Birmingham - Christopher Paul Curtis

6th grade GIRLS:
7th grade GIRLS:
Chandra's Secret - Allan Stratton

6th grade BOYS:
7th grade BOYS:
Elijah of Buxton - Christopher Paul Curtis

New Unit: Text Features and Graphic Features

New Unit: Text Features and Graphic Features
Starts Feb. 4th

All grades will be introduced to this new unit:
Text Features and Graphic Features

Text Features of Informational texts are parts of a selection that help you locate facts quickly.

Graphic Features of Informational texts show information that is easy to read and interpret.

IB Profile Attributes: Knowledgeable, Inquirers

GPS Standards: 5R 1W3, 6R2(C),7 R2(C)

This unit will encompass learning to identify in literature and define the following:

Captions
Photos
Illustrations
Heading
Glossary
Table of Contents
Title
Subheading
Subtitle
Charts – table
Graphs – Pie, Line, Bar
Index
Boldface Terms
Italics
Preview
Timeline
Bibliography
Footnotes
Maps – Descriptive, Statistical, Weather
Sidebar
Introduction
Conclusion

CRCT - Online Practice Tests

Your child has been given their CRCT online practice test user id's and passwords. They have also been assigned a test and due date. Please initial their CRCT online chart, stating that they did complete the test and you saw the results. We will each week go online in the classroom and review each test.

Website: www.georgiaoas.org


Test Due Date: 1/28

Test Number to complete:
5th grade: 89
6th grade: 93
7th grade: 96

Week of 1/21/09

Happy Week to all!

We are continuing with organizational structure - we will be working on

Compare/Contrast
Problem/Solution

also all classes will be given a Latin/Greek vocabulary/spelling packet, these words will be tested on Monday of next week. These packets will now be given on a weekly basis.

YES WE CAN -- We will be reading to chapter 9 this week and will have a quiz on 1 - 4.
Essay is due on Friday from study guide.


If you have any questions - please feel free to email me.

Update for Week of 1/16!

I hope all you had a productive week! I know we did! We focused on Cause/Effect and Sequencing. We also stopped to talk about Martin Luther King and his dreams. We then followed up with our own DREAM CATCHER BOARD - students wrote down their dreams and attached them to our bulletin board. These dreams will stay up the entire month of January, I want to show the students you can start NOW fulfilling your dreams. Please see attached pictures - they will also be on the blog.

For those of you all who are so blessed to attend next week's historic events - your absences will be counted as excused as this is a very important historic and educational experience. I have asked all of my students to keep a journal of their experiences so they can share their voices from this momentous occasion.

New Unit: Organizational Structure

All grades will be introduced to this new unit:

Organizational Structure.

Organizational Structure - is the way text (literature) is arranged.

IB Profile Attributes:
Knowledgeable
Inquirers
Principled

GPS Standards:
5R 1
6R1(C)
7R1(C)

This unit will encompass the following:

Cause/Effect
When reading, ask yourself the following: Why? --- (cause) What happened? --- (effect)

Problem/Solution
When reading ask yourself "What is the problem in the story?"
Ask "What attempts are made to solve the problems?"
Ask "When did things change? What happened to make the solution clear?"
Finally, ask "How was the problem solved?"

Compare/Contrast
When reading ask yourself "What is similar about these things?" and "How are they different?"
Similar -- Compare
Different -- Contrast

Categorizing
As you read, think about what things have in common.
Think about how you would group these things together.
Think of a title or label for each group.

Sequencing
When you read, ask yourself "What happened first, then what happened after that?"
Look for the dates or signal words such as first, then, next, finally for clues to the sequence of events.