Week of October 31st...

Dear Families, Happy Halloween! I hope everyone enjoyed their long weekend. It was great to see all of you at conferences and get to share all the amazing things your child has accomplished in the first 9 weeks of 5th grade! It was also nice to have a little extra family time on Friday. We spent the day in Lawrence playing as a family. Jim was able to get up and around well so that was helpful for all of us.  • Halloween: There will be NO homework tonight! And YES students can bring in their candy tomorrow. It HAS to be on the peanut safe list. Everything else can wait for them to come home! Here are some things they can bring: o Dum dums o Jolly ranchers o Lifesavers o Skittles o Sweet Tarts o Starburst o Tootsie Pops o Tootsie rolls o Twizzlers • Tuesday is Early Release! They can go outside and run off their sugar high! • Mark your calendars! We have moved our Battle of the Books competition back a few weeks. The students need some more time to read! You are welcome to attend our Battle Rounds: December 13-15th 12:00-12:45pm. The Championship will be held Friday, December 16th 12-12:45pm. The first two days are pool play. After that teams are ranked March Madness style and it is single elimination to get to the Championship round! So much fun! • Homework: I am trying to gauge where we are as a classroom with homework. Thank you to those who have already taken the survey. If you haven’t here is the link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/DRVDD7X • Battle of the Books: I am so impressed with the discussions and journal writing that goes along with BOB. The students and I talked last week that I would start giving an actual writing grade (not just completion for amount) on grammar and spelling last week. You will see that in the gradebook. We are struggling with periods, capitals and run-on sentences. I know they can do this because when we slowdown in class they do great. We need these skills to become a habit so we can communicate effectively. • All School Read Along: This is starting this week at SPE! Get excited! o The purpose it to encourage families to enjoy literature together. Research states, “The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children.” And “It is a practice that should continue throughout the grades.” Jim Trelease o We are asking for families to spend time together reading. This is a time for your family to gather on the couch and share reading. Jim Trelease says that by reading aloud we do 5 things for our kids:  Build vocabulary  Condition the child’s brain to associate reading with pleasure  Create background knowledge  Provide a reading role model  Plant the desire to read o Your child will bring home a baggie that has a book in it. This is the book to share with your family. Included with the baggie book will be a sheet with directions about an activity for your family to share. After you have finished reading, discussing the story and doing the activity return it all in the baggie back to school. We are asking you to complete this activity in one or two days and return it to school. This way we can share with everyone. • Twitter: If you have a Twitter account please follow us at @MrsDugganSPE. I post almost daily the fun things we are up to in the classroom! • Grade Updates: I know a lot of you have been on Parent Vue checking grades. That is great way to keep up with what we have been working on. Please know that grades are updated each week by Tuesday at 10am. If you check on Monday they won’t be updated and there might be missing assignments that aren’t really missing. Same thing for a Friday. If you ever have questions about grades please let me know. • Specials Schedule: (Monday is a Day 3) o Day 1: PE/Music o Day 2: Computer o Day 3: Art o Day 4: Spanish/Music o Day 5: PE/Spanish • Important Dates: (New dates bolded) November 8th: Presidential Election November 9th: Picture Retakes November 14th: Mrs. D starts basketball at BVHS November 23rd: No School: Happy Thanksgiving November 24th: No School: Happy Thanksgiving November 25th: No School: Happy Thanksgiving Math: Topic 4- Division: mental math, estimation Reading: Start Theme 1: Main idea Writing: Revising Memoir Word Work: Synonym Social Studies: Presidential Elections Science: Changes in an Ecosystem Intervention: Election/problem solving