May 7- 12

This week in math we will be working on surface area and volume as well as prime factoring. The students have a salmon colored paper with some cubes on it. We will do one cube per day and draw a factor tree on the back. After we have finished four of these we will hand in the paper for credit. We will also be working on mean, mode, median, range, minimum and maximum. We will take a quiz on these things on Tuesday. We will also be taking our final Utips test. The test is called Standard 2-5 and is found under Mangus Math, Utips, 5th, then standard 2-5. This will be our final preparation for the CRT test that we will be taking on Tuesday and Wednesday of the following week. The students seem very well prepared and should score high on the year end tests.

This week in handwriting we will finish packet #20 and hand it in next week.
 In Math we will do another brain pop paper on Algebra and work on Larson's Integers. We will also review the Utips test #3 under 5th grade titled crt review

Field Trip is coming up May 23rd.  Please have your student return their permission slip as soon as possible.

 Social studies vocabulary test will be Friday, May 11th.
here are the words
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nmfWWVIWsKUMNnf75kVrxMByIPjJ6waWY9cSqebfEnI/edit

Science CRTs will be May 2nd and 3rd.

 There will be no spelling because of the CRT Tests

A electricity unit test will be May 3, 2012.

 3 state report essay due  May 1st

april 23-29

This week in science: we will be practicing for our C.R.T. tests the following week. Electricity unit science test will be May 3, 2012.

this week in Social studies: We will be doing only makeup CRT testing this week. Next week April 30th to May 4 students will be taking the science CRT test. This week in social studies we will continue to study the Civil War. Social studies vocabulary quiz will be Friday, April 27th. here are the words https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Y5AXrOzbjjbk6s97hs8rkcgSHRd-epgiJQBGULCY1nI/edit Remember to keep working on State Reports Essays Due may 1st Whole report Due May 13th
 English

I must compliment the chef who cooked up these great Kids! The students have been working on their History Essay for their state reports. They are coming along wonderfully! I am impressed with the students’ efforts to take notes about the state’s history and then in their own words write the essay. Again I am very impressed with all the students. As a student reading information, understanding the context and then putting it together in a unique way is not a skill I had as an 11-year old 5th grader. (Shhh, don’t let the students know that.) History Essays will be finished Wednesday April 25th. Students who were not able to finish their essay will be given extra time at school to complete the assignment. Unfortunately, that time is recesses. I have not been sending essays home to finish as homework because they can be a family burden, and the chances of all that work, blood, sweat and tears (mostly mine) getting lost is too great. I have found helping students finish during recess is easier on everyone. If you would like to help your student finish their essay at home, jot me a note and I will let your child finish at home. The next essay students are writing is about three interesting places to visit in the state. This piece will be informative and persuasive. Students do really well with persuasive writing, so I am anticipating many kids will reach 30 points on utahwrite. Keep up the great work
 Sincerely, m.thomson


This week in math
 we will be attempting to finish 2 utips tests.  We will review them in class the day before we take them. The first test is the CRT pretest and the second  will be the CRT review.  We are preparing for the test we will take in 3 weeks.  The are no tests this week but next week will be the CRT Science tests.  We will also be finishing and handing in the Brain Pop papers we have been working on the last couple of weeks.  The fifth graders have also started working on the Algebra section in Larson's Math.  Handwriting was postponed last week because of testing and an assembly from the Utah Opera Company. We will hand in #19 and work on # 20 this week.

April 16th-22nd

CRT Testing will begin on Tues. April 17th. We will be doing the Language Arts part of the test on Tues..., and Wed. We will do the other parts of the test at a later date. Please make sure that your student has a good breakfast and gets a good nights sleep.

Writing
A moment of reflecting
Mrs. Thomson

Recently I found a diary that I myself kept when I was in 5th Grade. I shared some of the verses from my “well written” diary with the students. We had a good laugh. I have included one excerpt from this “priceless” document. I hope you find as much humor in the spelling and grammatical errors, as well as the irony of a horrible report card, as I did.

Tuse. February 1, 1977
Dear Diary
Today I wet to school and I got my reportcard it was horible! Tarra came over and she babbysat me we wacht mash, Happy days, levern and sherly. My mom came home at 10:00.

Apparently,
TV was my
life!
I told the students before, and I wanted to reiterate again, that all the students in 5th grade this year are remarkable writers. I could have never written an essay when I was in 5th grade, as evidenced by my diary. Not only are all the students able to write essays, they use interesting words to express themselves, and they are able to write sentences that entertain, persuade and subsequently inform. I cannot say enough about how remarkable your students are doing in writing.

I wish I could post all the essays students have written this year for your enjoyment, but it would take up volumes of space and I would be afraid that I left someone out. All the essays are excellent. I would encourage you to log on to utahwrite.com and read some of your child’s essays, even print them to keep; then one day, in 36 years, you and your child will enjoy the writing all over again with a new generation.

Social Studies

In the next few weeks in Social Studies we will be studying about the Civil War.

On Monday all of the students will receive a new Voc. list. find it here https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Y5AXrOzbjjbk6s97hs8rkcgSHRd-epgiJQBGULCY1nI/edit
Their test will be on Fri. April 27th.

English and Science
We are still studying about electrical circuits in science this week.

Spelling will resume this week. Spelling packets are due Thursday and a spelling test will given the same day.

April 9-16th

Writing: Students will be beginning to write the introductory essay for the state report.
Soaring Eagle forms are due Tues. April 10th.

social studies:

We are learning about The Underground Railroad and the impact that some of the people had on society during this part of U.S. history.
here is a web cite about it
http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/subjects/undergroundrailroad.htm
Please, have your student bring back their State Fair Project note.

Students will have a social studies vocabulary quiz on Fri. April 13th.
here are the words
https://docs.google.com/document/d/19-WitJN2towOdT8YdkGNOpjJr3ZcysMD8zlt4zq1Wqg/edit?pli=1

Science we will be studying different types of electrical circuits. Electricity vocabulary test is Wednesday, April 11, 2012.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1irMT7WLym3pKT45NPrLnoNyYfLaKkIxuQQfJIqRM0KI/edit
If you’re looking for a really fun weekend project to try out with children this play dough-based electronic circuit project is fun, impressive, and kid-friendly
http://www.howtogeek.com/94291/squishy-circuits-provide-kid-friendly-electronics-exploration/
There will no spelling this week because of the short week.

Handwriting: We will be handing in Packet #18 and begin to work on #19.
Math: Tuesday we will hand in Brain Pop Fraction and review Utips Standard 3 Objective 1.
http://www.myutips.org/~mangusj/
We will take this test on Wednesday. Thursday we will review Utips Standard 3 objective 2
http://www.myutips.org/~mangusj/
and take this test on Friday.
We were very successful this week with 36 students scoring 100% on the Utips Standard 2 objective 1 test.

state fair projects
Please return the signed portion of the State fair projects by April 2nd
there is a hand out document telling about the State fair assignment here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1g2Ctc2leQg4syFQ_CDTvtKTiVGDvsa29D8hPvVdJXAY/edit

April 2-4th

Handwriting: We are working on packet #18. Because of the short week it will not be due until the week of April 9. Mr. Mangus's class is always due on Monday, Mr. Lance's on Tuesday, Mrs. Erickson on Wednesday, and Mrs. Thompson on Thursday.



Math: We just finished taking a Utips test (standard 2, objective 2) this week. We will take standard 2, objective 1 on Tuesday. There are only 17 questions so it will work on a short week. The Utips tests are practice tests to prepare students for the end of year test. We discuss them in class together before we take them. Students can access them at home on the computer by going to Mangusmath.com and clicking on the link at the bottom of the middle column marked utips and accessing any test in Math, Science or Language Arts by standard and objective. We will also be doing an assignment on MG-5 fractions.
http://mangusmath.com/Math%20Grade%20Levels.htm


English and Science
The students are now studying Static and Current Electricity in science. They should study their science notes and vocabulary every night. A vocabulary test will be given April 11, 2012. We are beginning to do review tests for the end of year testing. We will begin testing the latter part of March.
here is the vocab.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1irMT7WLym3pKT45NPrLnoNyYfLaKkIxuQQfJIqRM0KI/edit

There will be no spelling for the next two weeks because of short weeks.

Writing
Students are studying Paul Revere, there is an essay due this Wednesday.