Vacation is almost over already. We track back in on Thursday, January 23. Tracking in on Thursday makes for a pretty easy transition back to school as we will only have 2 days of school before we have a weekend! Hopefully everyone is well rested and ready to get back to work. We have a lot to do this quarter.
First, there is a family fun night this Sunday at the Raleigh Rock Club. Mr. Biles has sent out a sign-up for this event. In case you missed it, here it is again. Pleasant Union PTA Family Fun Night
The Valentine's Day Dinner & Dance is also right around the corner. In next week's Tuesday folder you will find a red heart. Please follow the directions on the heart and send it back to school as soon as possible so it can be hung up to decorate for the dance.
As part of the Valentine's Dinner & Dance, 5th grade is doing a Cake Walk. We did this last year and raised $1,000 to go towards the student cost for our Washington, D.C. field trip. We need a number of volunteers to help run the event that night as well as bring in delicious desserts. Mrs. Woronka has created 2 different sign-ups for this event. Please sign-up for one or the other or both. We would love to try to beat last year's total and save you more money on our trip.
If you have a 3rd grader, you may have read in the newspaper about the new Read to Achieve initiative. I do not have much information about this, however there will be an informational meeting on January 30th at 6:30. More information will be coming home with your 3rd grader.
Our next Early Release will be on February 14th. Even though it is an early release, we will still pass out Valentine's that day. If your child would like to bring in Valentine's that day, I ask that you make sure they bring one for everyone in the class. I will be sending home a class list next week so you can help to make sure everyone receives a Valentine.
In keeping up with the state's EOG results, Case 21 has re-normed the results for their testing. This has made everyone's score drop from what you would have expected based on last quarter's results. We will be reviewing these tests in class throughout the next couple of weeks. I will be handing out the scores to each student so they can bring them home to you. If you would like to schedule a meeting to discuss these results, just let me know.
Friday morning math will be moving to Tuesday mornings this quarter. With Ms. Lefeld having moved to Cleveland over break, I am going to move my reviews to Tuesdays. Those who typically came in on Friday's please make sure that you come on Tuesday (1/ instead of Friday morning
On to curriculum for the quarter!
Reading - This quarter we will be focusing back on fiction texts! We will be focusing mainly on fantasy texts as well as some poetry and various other types of fiction. We will be doing literature circles again this quarter with fantasy texts. Please make sure your child reads some fantasy texts at home during the quarter.
Writing - We will be focusing on fiction writing this quarter. Like reading, we will be focusing on fantasy first and then writing some poetry as well.
Math - We are going to begin the quarter wrapping up some of the things we didn't finish last quarter. We will finish our study of order of operations and do some work with numerical patterns and algebraic thinking. We will then be moving into fractions. We will be studying equivalent fractions, improper fractions, the relationship between fractions and decimals, and adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing fractions and mixed numbers.
Science - Our unit this quarter is the Human Body. The kids always think this means we will be studying Human Growth and Development, we will be talking about this during the quarter, but not as a part of this science unit. The Human Body unit discusses the different body systems, excluding the reproductive and excretory systems, and genetics. Last year's class was the first to do this unit and they seemed to really enjoy it.
Social Studies - This quarter we will be focusing on United States Government. We will be talking about how and why the government works the way it does, or the way it is supposed to. We will not spend much time talking about politics. Our focus is just the function of our government and the different branches. We will also spend some time talking about Westward Expansion and Manifest Destiny.
As you can see there is A LOT to cover this quarter. I think that covers it for now. Make sure to check the Calendar page as there may be some dates you may need that I did not mention. I hope everyone enjoys the last few days of break!