Extra Math Group: We will start next Monday, October 8^th at 7:30 AM. Our initial focus will be integers. Students should come to the door they usually enter, not the front door. It will be propped open. A note will be in the Wednesday Watch about this. It is optional, but I do want commitment, not just an occasional attendance.

Reading

5^th graders: Finished reading about explorers. We will start reading about scientists

6^th graders: Finished reading Native American Books. Students will be working on a project

Language

More expository writing work. I am introducing the 5^th graders to the “stop light writing method”.

Next week’s LWR & definitions are at the end of the blog.

Spelling—words & sentences are listed at the end of the blog.

6^th grade: Unit 7 (words below & sentences below)

5^th grade: Unit 7 (words and sentences  below)

Math

Geometry: Finishing geometry….hopefully.  J

5^th grade Social Studies

Chapter 1: Map projects are due Tuesday. We will begin Ch 2.

Science—More robots.

LWR  for the week of Oct 1^st  

Focus: macro

Prefix:

Root:

bio                     life

cosm                 universe, harmony

graph                write, written

macro               large, great

scop                           look, view

mania               intense craving, loss of reason

Suffix:

-sis                    action, process

-ic                      like, related to

5^th grade spelling words for the week of Oct 1^st

Unit 7  Vowel sounds: Vowel + /r/ sounds

BASIC WORDS

3 Dictation Sentences (note the commas!)

1.    The winner will bring glory to her school.

2.    The flower colors vary from red to pink.

3.    Body armor protected knights of old.

adore, aboard, bore, warn, torch, soar, absorb, perform, former, aware, dairy, barely, beware, stairway, carton, pardon, barge

CHALLENGE WORDS

discard, forfeit, orchestra, gracious, hoard

6^th grade spelling words for the week of Oct 1^st  

Unit 7       Words with ie or ei

BASIC WORDS

3 Dictation Sentences

1.    Adam had time for only a brief visit.

2.    In his leisure time, he draws cartoons.

3.    The faint sound was hard to perceive.

shield, review, fiery, relieve, grief, siege, yield, receipt, conceited, deceive, perceive, reign, veil, freight, beige, neither, foreign, seize

CHALLENGE WORDS

reprieve, wield, feign, conceive, retrieve

Real World Challenge Social Studies--Government

royalty, absolute, monarch, constitutional, coronation, sultan, regent, emperor

Last week in Extended Studies, kids tried to get out of the "linking loops". It wasn't as easy as they first thought!

The Billings Education Foundation provided the money for the NXT Mindstorms LEGO robotics kits and software we have in our room. They have asked for updates and photos of the kids in action. I sent them some photos to post on their Facebook page. You can view them by clicking on the link below. I do not subscribe to Facebook, so I have not seen them on the Internet. There are a few that I did not send posted below under “Science”.

facebook.com/educationfoundationbps

Reminder: Children can bring up daily grades (not quizzes or tests) if their grade is below a 79%. They need to get a parent signature on the original assignment and have the corrections turned in within 24 hours. The grade is then raised to a 79%.

Games, performances, & competitions: If your child has a soccer game, is in a play, or have a musical performance, I would love to try to come. Shoot me and email or voice mail. If it works out, I will attend. Just a note: I am not a cold weather attendee. I sat through my children's outdoor activities. Now, I can be picky about my attendance during foul weather. :-)  I had fun watching Spencer & Byron's football game "under the lights"!

REMINDER: Thursday, September 27^th NOON DISMISSAL

FYI: We will be having a “district wide emergency drill” sometime this upcoming week. Currently, this is all I know. Just wanted to give you a “heads up” in case your kids come home talking about it.

MMC—The Monday Math Challenge is designed to be a challenge for ALL students to work on at home with their parents. It is not intended to be optional. The only requirement is that the student works on it at least 20 minutes at home  Monday through Thursday evenings. That works out to 5 min/evening. I do check the assignment notebooks on Friday AM for a parent signature OR initials. Your child should be writing in:

“_______ has worked 20 minutes this week on the MMC.” You do not have to write that; you just have to initial or sign that they indeed did spend time on it.

Saturday Live Student Volunteers: Your child may have signed up to volunteer at the Poly Drive booth for 1.25 hours on Saturday, September 29^th. If they did, you will be getting a phone call to verify that you will be able to get them there for their assigned times (which have not been given out yet). Just a heads up.  J

Reading

5^th graders: We began the leveled readers. All of the students are reading non-fiction regarding exploration. We are working on similarities & differences, summarizing, writing good, complete sentences, and making inferences.

6^th graders: Reading books on Native Americans. Also summarizing and working on similarities and differences.

Language

More expository writing work. I am introducing the 5^th graders to the “stop light writing method”.

Next week’s LWR & definitions are at the end of the blog.

Spelling—words & sentences are listed at the end of the blog.

6^th grade: Unit 5 (words below & sentences below)

5^th grade: Unit 5 (words and sentences  below)

Math

Geometry: Finishing geometry.

5^th grade Social Studies

Chapter 1: We are done with map skills. A TEST will be given MONDAY. They have received their project assignment. Expect it to come home at the end of this week(to finish up). They will have in-class time to work but may need to take it home as well.

Science—Beginning robots! A few pics that are NOT on the Billings Foundation web site are below.

Practicing with the programming software.

A closeup of the computer screen with the programming icons.

Building the 'bot.

Proud "parents" of the first "baby 'bot".

LWR  for the week of Sept 24th^th

Focus: cycl, klept

Prefix:

bi-    two

tri-   three

Root:

biblio                book

cycl/o               circle

gen                    birth, produce, race

klept/o             to steal

mania               intense craving, loss of reason

meter               measure

phob                 fear

Suffix:

-ia                      condition

-ic                      like, related to

5^th grade spelling words for the week of Sept 24th

Unit 5  Vowel sounds: /ou/, /o/,  /oi/

BASIC WORDS

3 Dictation Sentences (note the commas!)

1.    One eighth of a cup is an ounce.

2.    At first, I felt awkward on skates.

3.    Will the cat pounce on the toy mouse?

scowl, pounce, coward, announce, sprawl, launch falter, haunt, naughty, saucer, August, auction, awkward, loyal, avoid, moist, destroy, poison, royal

CHALLENGE WORDS

poise, loiter, exhaust, assault, alternate

6^th grade spelling words for the week of Sept 24^th

Unit 5       Homophones

BASIC WORDS

3 Dictation Sentences

1.    Her dress was belted at the waist.

2.    Learning any skill takes patience.

3.    A monk performed a solemn rite.

NOTE: I will use the sentences that are in the book for the words below:  waste, patients, right, wright, muscle, mussel, principal, principle, summary, summery, sight, cite, site, stationary, stationery, coward, cowered

CHALLENGE WORDS

barren, baron, burrow, burro, borough

Real World Challenge Health—Keeping Fit

stamina, aerobic, resistance, repetition, flexibility, metabolism, alertness, dietitian

FIRST AUCTION IS THIS THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20!!

Students can bring items any time this week. The auction sign up (where they state their item and starting bid) will be out Monday AM.

6^th grade students: Mrs. Reitz encourages you to be selling your coupon books! If you are not going to sell them, then your parents can write a check and send it with you for your part of the 6^th grade activities.

Online math book

Both the 5^th & 6^th grade math books are available online to ALL students. We are currently working mostly out of the 6^th grade book. If your child forgets the pages that I print off for them, they can access the same pages online.

Each 5^th grade student received a sheet that gives them their username and password. Basically, their user name is their last name and first two letters of their first name.

The password is the first 2 letters of their last name and the first 2 letters of their first name PLUS 05. So mine would be pote05. All of it is lower case.

Example: My information would be as follows…

Username: porischte

Password: pote05 (or 06 if they are a 6^th grader)

6^th graders will get their printouts next week, but the setup is the same for username and passwords.

https://www.pearsonsuccessnet.com/snpapp/login/login.jsp  

NWEA Schedule—Almost done!

Monday, September 17^th: 1-3 PM                MATH

Snacks are taken care of! J  Many thanks to those of you who were able to brighten the kids day after a somewhat arduous task!

Reading

5^th graders: We began the leveled readers. All of the students are reading non-fiction regarding exploration. We are working on similarities & differences, summarizing, writing good, complete sentences, and making inferences.

6^th graders: Reading books on Native Americans. Also summarizing and working on similarities and differences.

Language

More expository writing work.

Next week’s LWR & definitions are at the end of the blog.

Spelling—words & sentences are listed at the end of the blog. There is some repetition of the words this wekk since we changed to the book. However, this may ensure a better pretest this week.  J

6^th grade: Unit 4 (words below & sentences below)

5^th grade: Unit 4—(words and sentences  below)

Math

Geometry: Circles, tessellations, transformations, classifying triangles.

5^th grade Social Studies

Chapter 1: We are done with map skills. A TEST will be given Tuesday. They will receive their project assignment this week. Expect it to come home either this week or next (to finish up). They will have in-class time to work but may need to take it home as well.

Science—Beginning robots!

LWR  for the week of Sept 10^th

Focus: hypo (a prefix is the focus)

Prefix:

hypo- under, below

Root:

chrom              color

derm                 skin

gen                    birth, produce, race

geo                    earth

mania               loss of reasoning

therm               heat        

Suffix:

-ia                      condition

-ic                      like, related to

-ous                           having the quality of

5^th grade spelling words for the week of Sept 10th

WEEK4—Vowel sound /oo/ & /yoo/

BASIC WORDS

3 Dictation Sentences (note the commas!)

1.    Never accuse someone falsely.

2.    The ruby is my favorite jewel.

3.    What makes a cartoon funny?

glue, flute, youth, bruise, stew, choose, loose, lose, cruise, jewel, dilute, route, cartoon, avenue, include, assume, souvenir, view, confuse

CHALLENGE WORDS

conclude, pursuit, intrude, subdue, presume

6^th grade spelling words for the week of Sept 10^th

Unit 4 Vowel + “r” sound

BASIC WORDS

3 Dictation Sentences

1.    Memorize this math formula.

2.    Zip your parka and put on mittens.

3.    A delivery service left a parcel for you.

flirt, hurdle, earnest, urban, smirk, rehearse, surface, yearn, source, scorn, afford, mourn, radar, discard, starch, frontier, fierce

CHALLENGE WORDS

horizontal, circuit, reimburse, formidable, monarchy

Real World Challenge Science—Radar

transmitter, antenna, electromagnetic, encounter, forecasting, surveillance, physicist, innovation