Mrs. Whalen's page

The New Year is starting with a month of interesting, educational, and fun filled activities that are part of Catholic Schools’ Month. Please refer to the monthly calendar and Mrs. Wirkus’s weekly newsletters to keep abreast of all the exciting events of the month. Catholic Schools’ Month will end with a Sunday Mass on January 29^th at 9:30am. I hope all fifth graders will attend and represent our class as we celebrate the Mass with our church community. Students will have to work hard to keep focused on assignments and studying. As we wrap up the second semester, I have no doubt the third will bring many successes to my students.

Don’t forget DARE Graduation is Thursday, January 5^th, at 1:00. Everyone is welcome to attend.

The reading project for the third semester will be a Poetry File. Students will be receiving information shortly on this project. It is one of my favorites because the children really enjoy finding, reading, and sharing their favorite poems. At the end, they have a collection they will treasure forever.

In English, the fifth graders will be delving into the world of Pronouns. Click on the new pronoun game sites at the bottom of my Classroom News page for added practice. Students will get their creative juices flowing as we learn about advertising techniques. They will write and perform their own commercials using the techniques they have learned.

In social studies, we will be learning about Hernando Cortes in Chapter Four and his mission for Spain with the Aztec people and their leader, Montezuma. We will be watching a wonderful History Channel movie about the Aztecs and Cortes. In science, the students are learning about plants in chapter four and will soon be studying chapter five, Interactions in Ecosystems. It is important for the students to save the reviews for each lesson that they complete and use them to help with their studies before a test. Also in science, we are continuing to go to the lab and completing experiments. It is important that the students take their time and do a neat and accurate job when writing their lab reports.

In math, we are almost done with division and will begin Topic 6, Variables and Expressions. Students usually enjoy doing the problems in Topic 6. Soon we will be on to Topic7, Multiplying and Dividing Decimals. Students should remember to go online for practice and to boost their grade.

Congratulations to Grace Lawrence, Melissa Massicott, Celia Bajrami, Silvio D’Agostino, Dennis Cawley, Maggie Galvin, and Allyson Knorr for representing the fifth grade as readers at the Veteran’s Ceremony, Thanksgiving Prayer Service, and at the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. I was very proud of all of them and I look forward to seeing other members of our class participate as readers in upcoming school events.

I wish all of you a healthy, happy, and productive New Year.

Helpful websites:

http://www.sfsocialstudies.com/activities.html

http://www.eduplace.com/rdg/hme/k_5/practice.html

http://sfscience.com/english/grade_5/index.htm

http://www.sadlierreligion.com/webelieve/main.cfm?sp=student&section=activity&grade=5

www.voyagesinenglish.com

http://www.freetypinggame.net/

http://www.eduplace.com/cgi-bin/hme-quiz-directions.cgi?Grade=4&Unit=6&Topic=Pronouns

http://www.ezschool.com/Games/Pronouns.html

http://esolhelp.com/Possessive-Pronouns-and-Adjectives-Millionaire/millionaire.html

http://la http://www.quia.com/pop/35480.html?AP_rand=1951264828nguageartsgames.4you4free.com/pronouns.html http://www.wartgames.com/themes/grammar/pronouns.html