Week of September 30 - October 4

Weekly Events:
*Spelling pretest on Monday.
*Chapter 5, lesson 2 science quiz on Tuesday. (Not open book)
*First session of Jr. Achievement with Mr. Blocker on Wednesday.
*Spelling test on Friday.
*TFK quiz on Friday.

Coming Events:
*Chapter 5 science test will be on Monday, October 7.  
*Unit 1 English test will be on Tuesday, October 8.


Homeroom Happenings:

Spelling - This week we will be doing a review unit.  The pretest on Monday will have 30 words.  Students will still need to miss only one or none to become a challenge speller.  All spelling homework will be due on Friday.  The test on Friday will be over 20 of the 30 words.  Students should practice all 30 words since they will not know which of the words will be on the final test.


English - We will continue our unit on Sentences.  The children will learn about Subjects in Imperative Sentences, Conjunctions, and Run-on Sentences.  Our test on Unit 1 will be on Tuesday, October 8.


Reading - This week, we will begin learning about "Read to Self" in our classroom.  The children will learn what is expected of them during "Read to Self" and will practice building stamina (reading independently for a length of time).  We are practicing "Read to Self" to allow me the availability to take small reading groups for strategy practice.  We will also finish our unit on Tall Tales this week.

Science - The children will take a quiz on chapter 5, lesson 2 on Tuesday.  On Wednesday, they will receive a chapter 5 review assignment.  The Chapter 5 test will be on Monday, October 7.
Science e-book:  There are directions for the e-book in your Curriculum Night packet.  Visit:  http://www.thinkcentral.com/.  Click "Science and Health."  Click on HSP Science.  Fill in our school information.  Your child's School ID number (without a zero in front) is the username.  The password for all accounts is:  ccsd66.  
Also, we will begin working on our first "tech project."  The students will be doing a brochure on Snow Leopards.  Last year, Prairieview students raised money for the Chicago Zoological Society (through Brookfield Zoo).  With this money, we have adopted a snow leopard named Sabu.  He is at Brookfield Zoo.  If you have the chance stop by and see Sabu sometime.  What a beautiful creature!


Social Studies - We have now completed lesson 1 and 2 of chapter 4.  This week, we will work on lesson 3.  In this lesson the children will read and learn about life in New Spain.  


Mrs. Sulima's Math Class:
Monday - Multiplication Patterns
Tuesday - Problem Solving (using a table)
Wednesday - Quiz on Prime & Composite, Prime Factorization, Powers & Exponents, Multiplication Patterns, and Problem Solving (using a table)
Thursday - Distributive Property
Friday - More Distributive Property

Week of September 23-27

Weekly Events:
*Week 4 spelling pretest on Monday.
*English, lesson 1-3, quiz on Monday. (not open book)
*Magazine turn-in day on Tuesday.
*Picture Day on Thursday.
*Week 4 spelling test and challenge test on Friday.
*Time for Kids quiz on Friday.
*Early Dismissal on Friday, at 11:00.

Homeroom Happenings:
Spelling - We will work on week 4 spelling words.  The pretest will be on Monday.  The final test (in print or cursive) will be on Friday.  All spelling homework is due on Friday.


English - On Monday, the students will take a quiz on lessons 1-3 (What is a sentence?, 4 types of sentences, and subjects and predicates).  The students will not be able to use their books or notes for this quiz.  Throughout this week, we will also learn about simple subject and simple predicates.


Reading - Our unit on Tall Tales will continue.  We will be reading "The Day Pecos Bill Rode Old Twister" and "Old Stormalong."  The children will be working with vocabulary, figurative language (hyperbole, simile, & metaphor), and comprehension questions using these two stories.


Science - We will move onto lesson 2 this week.  In this lesson, we will learn about food chains and food webs.  We will also explore the roles of producers, consumers, and decomposers in an ecosystem.  Finally, we will identify how energy flows through the ecosystem.
I believe I now have the online science textbook ready for student use.  The directions for this e-book are included in the Curriculum Night packet.  I will go over with the students how to access this sometime this week.


Social Studies - On Friday, we discussed the advantages that Cortes & the Conquistadors had versus the Aztecs.  These advantages helped Cortes defeat the Aztecs.  We will continue this lesson this week by learning about the changes the Spanish brought to New Spain and learn about other Spanish conquests.  The children will also have the opportunity to design an Aztec mask this week.  We will discuss the symbolism behind the mask.


Mrs. Sulima's Math Class:
Monday - Algebraic Expressions
Tuesday - Review for chapter 1 test.
Wednesday - Chapter 1 Test (Chapter 1 in My Math and Chapter 1 in 6th grade book)
Thursday - Prime Factorization
Friday - Powers and Exponents

Curriculum Night Presentations

Thank you to all the families that were able to attend curriculum night!  I appreciate that you are taking time out of your busy schedules to come and learn about your child's classroom.

I know that it is not possible for everyone to attend, so I have attached my homeroom and math presentations. Click on the play button in the middle of the screen.  Once the slide show opens, there will be forward and backward arrows (at the bottom) to move from slide to slide.  I will also send a packet of information home with your child.  If you have any questions, please let me know.




Under my Math Curriculum Night presentation, I have attached a "Flipped Classroom" video that will give more information about this teaching strategy.

Week of September 16-20

Weekly Events:
*Spelling pretest on Monday.
*Chapter 5, lesson 1 science quiz on Monday.
*Curriculum Night (Parents Only) on Tuesday, 6:30-7:30.
*Unit 1, lessons 1-3 English quiz on Wednesday.
*Lakeview Band performs for Prairieview students on Wednesday.
*Crazy Hair Day on Friday.
*Spelling test on Friday - print or cursive.

Curriculum Night:
4th and 5th Grade Curriculum Night is on Tuesday, Sept. 17!
6:30-6:45 Meet in the gym with Mrs. Schultz
6:45-7:00 Meet in your child's math classroom
7:00-7:30 Meet in your child's homeroom

Homeroom Happenings:
Spelling - We will work on Week 3 spelling words.  The children will take the pretest on Monday.  The regular and challenge tests will be on Friday.  Students may choose to write in print or cursive.  All spelling homework is due Friday.

English - We will continue Unit 1 this week.  The children learned about 4 types of sentences last week - declarative (statement), interrogative (question), imperative (command), and exclamatory (exclamation).  We will continue to practice these this week.  We will also review subject and predicates.  On Thursday, the children will take a quiz on lessons 1-3.  We will end the week by finding the simple subject in a complete subject.

Reading - Our Tall Tales unit will continue.  We will read Paul Bunyan and John Henry.  We will also explore a type of figurative language called hyperbole.  The children will also find out about our first trimester reading project on Thursday.  They will be reading a historical fiction book and making a memory bag to show different parts of the story.  This project will not be due until November.  More information will be sent home or posted on my blog during the month of October.

Science - The children will take a lesson 1 quiz on Monday.  This quiz will not be open book.  I am hoping that your child has been completing their homework each night which has been to review their notes and vocabulary.  If they have done that then they should be well prepared for the quiz.  I suggested to the children to take their textbook home.  Rereading the lesson could also be helpful in preparing for this quiz.  We will continue focusing on photosynthesis throughout the week.  At the end of the week, we will record the lesson 2 vocabulary in our science spirals.

Social Studies - Our focus has been on Christopher Columbus and his multiple expeditions to the "New Land."  This week the children will write a letter, as Christopher Columbus, to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella persuading them to fund a second trip. We will work on these in class, but some rough draft work and editing may need to be completed at home.  We will end the week by learning about the Aztecs.

Mrs. Sulima's Math Class:
The students did a wonderful job on their first "Project-Based Learning" activity.  They are stupendous party planners!  We will continue our focus on decimals this week.  The children should be able to add, subtract, and multiply decimals.  We will do some work on dividing with decimals, too.  Knowing these skills will help the children with many activities that we will do throughout this school year.

Week of September 9-13

Weekly Events:
*Spelling pretest on Monday.
*Preposition quiz on Monday.
*Magazine Dive kick-off on Tuesday.
*Spelling test on Friday - print or cursive.
*Time for Kids quiz on Friday.  Don't forget to bring your TFK back to school on Friday.

Upcoming Events:
*5th Grade Curriculum Night on Tuesday, September 17 at 6:30.

Homeroom Happenings:
Spelling - The students did a wonderful job with our weekly spelling routine.  We will take the week 2 spelling pretest on Monday.  On Friday, spelling homework will be due, and the students will take either the regular or challenge test.

English - On Monday, the children will be taking a preposition quiz.  They will need to be able to find the prepositional phrase in the sentence.  Also, they should know where the preposition and object are in each prepositional phrase.  Students should watch out for compound objects.  All of these concepts have been covered in class.  The children should have study tools in their English pocket.

Reading - We will begin our Tall Tales unit.  In this unit, we will identify the elements of a tall tale.  The children will receive a vocabulary list on Monday.  They should review the words each night to prepare for a vocabulary quiz on Thursday.  Throughout the week, we will be reading different tall tales and discussing a type of figurative language called hyperbole.

Science - Hopefully your child told you about the "sewer maggots" experiment.  If not, ask them about it!  We will now begin our first unit on Energy and Ecosystems.  This week we will begin the answer the question - How do Plants Produce Food?  Our vocabulary for this unit included:  transpiration, photosynthesis, chlorophyll, producer, and consumer.  The children will be reading the lesson in class and filling out notes that will help them study for quizzes and test.

Social Studies - We will begin chapter 4 this week.  The children will learn about Christopher Columbus the explorer.

Mrs. Sulima's Math Class:
Monday - We will review rounding whole numbers and decimals.
Tuesday - We will take a quiz (open book/notes) on the concepts we have covered to this point.
Wednesday - We will review estimating sums and differences of decimals.
Thursday - We will do a Project Based Learning Activity where the children will need to apply their knowledge of adding and subtracting decimals.
Friday - We will learn about addition and subtraction expressions.