Mrs. Whalen's page

Welcome back to school! The 2010/2011 school year will be an exhilarating one. There will be a few changes this year in the fifth grade. The students will no longer be switching classes for math or science, however Mrs. Wirkus will be joining me in the teaching of math as we break the class up to better serve the children. We will be using a brand new math series which has many technology components that will be beneficial to the students’ learning.

Homework is a very important component of learning. It allows students to practice new concepts taught in school. Though most homework assignments are not graded and are for practice purposes only, they do count towards a student’s grade. It is very important that the students stay organized and use their assignment pads daily. It may be a good idea for parents to check their child’s assignment pad regularly to assure it is being used. We are trying to build responsibility in each student. It is important that parents work with us in this respect. Each semester students will be assigned book reports and projects. It is crucial that they budget their time and begin these projects at home early. If they take their time and complete these assignments little by little, they won’t feel overwhelmed and will be successful.

In Reading, fifth graders will be graded on vocabulary sentences, quizzes on each story, and standardized tests that evaluate the student’s knowledge of skills taught in each unit. In addition, students will write in a weekly response journal.

The students will be studying English grammar and will be exploring different writing techniques throughout the year. In September the students will be learning about sentences and their structure. In addition to this, students will be assigned book reports, oral reports, and various projects. It is very important for them to be prepared on the day a project is due. Any late projects will result in lost points.

Each week the fifth graders will have two spelling tests. The first will be a states and capitals test. It will be given every Thursday. During most weeks students will receive one or two new states and capitals to study, but they will also be responsible for those previously assigned. By the end of the year the students will not only know how to spell all our states and capitals, but they will be able to locate them on a blank map. The second test will be on words from the new vocabulary workbooks. Tests will alternate every other Friday. The first test of the new lesson will be on the spelling of the vocabulary words and the following week I will test the students’ knowledge of the meaning of those same words.

I will be sending home social studies, science, and math CDs for parents to download on their home computers to assist their child in studying for chapter tests. I ask parents to send these CDs back to school with their child the next day as I only have a few of them, and all students need to download them. I encourage students to utilize these Mind Point Quiz Shows when studying as it is an extremely valuable tool when preparing for chapter tests.

Once a week I will be taking the students into the Computer Lab. We will begin the year learning keyboarding. This will take us quite a while, and then we will be exploring Word and PowerPoint. I am asking parents to purchase a flash drive for their child. We do a lot of creative writing and the students will be expected to type their papers in school on older laptop computers. These computers are very heavy and are better kept in school. With a flash drive, students can copy their papers to work on at home.

I am looking forward to spending a wonderful school year filled with much learning, lots of hard work, and some fun too!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Whalen

We are studying:

English – Unit One - Sentence structure

Social Studies – Chapter One

Religion – Chapter 26- The Church

Science - Life Science- Classifying Organisms

Math – Chapter One Numeration

Helpful websites:

http://www.gamequarium.com/sentencestucture.html

http://www.sfsocialstudies.com/activities.html http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/clubhouse/index_pre.html