New Week

Happy Monday!! We had a very busy day and are working on some exciting things. We talked about growing worms in math today, and our class got to learn more about electricity in Mr. Berrie's class.

A newsletter should be coming home today with upcoming events and important dates. If you don't get one, please let me know and I'll send another one home.

Homework tonight:

1.Study spelling words (same words as last week)
2. Family History assignment: answer these 3 questions -
-My family came from...
-They emigrated in the year...
-Stories I know about them
3. Read 20 mins.

Science Fair

Our 5th Grade Science Fair will be on Friday, February 6th at 9:00 am. Students need to bring their projects either on Thursday or Friday. The fair will last for 1 hour, then Finalists will be judged at 11:00 the same day.

WELCOME BACK!!!

Welcome back from our super long off track time!!

Here are some important things coming up:

February 2nd: Symphony Field Trip
**Students need to wear their BEST DRESS. This decision is up to students and parents together. **We will leave at about 10:30 and will return to school about 1:00.
**PERMISSION SLIPS NEED TO BE TURNED IN BY MONDAY.

February 6th: Science Fair
**I apologize for the lack of communication about the Science Fair and student projects. I have heard some great things from students about what they've been working on.
**Projects need to brought to school either on Thursday Feb. 5th or Friday Feb. 6th.

FAMILY PICTURES:
**We are collecting pictures of each student with their family for our program that is coming up on March 10th. Please email pictures to me at caytlin.sampson@jordan.k12.ut.us. If you don't have a picture to email, you can send one to school with your student and I'll get it back to you after I scan it.

**If you have any questions about upcoming events or anything else, please don't hesitate to call me at school 280-3279 ext 1150 or email me. Thanks for all you do!!

Tuesday...

Today we learned how to do double digit multiplication using arrays. We watched Davy Crockett, because we're learning about tall tales and Westward Expansion. We also learned about Lewis and Clark, and their companion Sacagawea. In the computer lab, we typed our personal writing and our tall tales that we've been working on.

Tonight's homework:

1. Read 20 minutes (make sure you're tracking it for Road to Success).
2. Play a game with your spelling words.
3. Multiplication arrays - 32 x 14 and 25 x 25 (it needs to be on graph paper)

The True Story of the Star Spangled Banner

Today we learned about the War of 1812, in which we fought against Great Britain for the second time in 30 years. During one of the battles, a young lawyer named Francis Scott Key was stuck on a British war ship as Fort McHenry in Baltimore was bombed. Based on his experience on September 13, 1814, he wrote a poem which later became our national anthem. Today we had the opportunity of listening to a retelling of this experience. Ask your student to tell you the details of the story and how they felt about it.

Monday

Just a heads up that I'll be gone on Tuesday and Thursday this week to teach some training courses for other teachers. Because of that, homework this week may seem less than usual. Please make sure your student reads and studies spelling words every night. Thanks!!

Tonight's HW:

Read 20 mins
Sort & Write spelling words

We Did It!

Thanks to all of you that came to parent teacher conferences. We had a great turnout. It was great to meet so many of you and discuss what's been going on in our classroom. I feel like we've been working really hard and getting a lot of good things done in our class the last few weeks since we've been on track.

I hope your students shared with you some of the things we learned about with the election this past week. Because U.S. history and government is the main topic of study in 5th grade social studies, we are lucky because we HAVE to study the elections and government! It was so fun to learn about the issues and candidates as we participated in this historic election. Regardless of which candidate you voted for, it was a great experience.

Make sure you're still reading 20 minutes every night, including on the weekend! Have a great weekend and we'll see you on Monday!!

Mrs. Sampson

Elections and Parent Teacher Conferences

What an exciting day! We talked a lot about the election today and even entered a voting booth ourselves to mark a ballot. Come see the results at Parent Teacher Conferences!

Speaking of which...have you signed up yet? I have 20 students signed up, which means we still have 8 more to go. I'm excited to see you all here and talk about the year so far.

PARENT Homework tonight:

1. GO VOTE!!! Do your duty as a citizen and cast your vote in this historic election that is bound to be a page turner! The polls are open until 8 pm. If you aren't sure which polling location you're assigned to, come see the poll workers here at Columbia (on the stage). You are most likely assigned to Columbia, Terra Linda, or another nearby school.

STUDENT Homework tonight:

1. Read 20 mins.
2. Watch the news (or find a way to follow the election).
Write down the voting percentages before you go to bed then when you wake up in the morning.
I am NOT asking students to stay up all night to watch the results. I think it will be interesting to see how percentages change as the night progresses.

Here's a link to CNN's homepage, which shows a poll counter:
www.cnn.com

Another Monday

Things were a bit crazy in our classroom today. I'm not sure if it was just Monday, or if it was leftover sugar-rush from Halloween. :) We discussed the electoral college and exactly how the presidential elections work.

Here's tonight's homework:

1. Read 20 mins.
2. Write a silly story with your spelling words (same words as last week)
3. Math - Diner word problem (due Weds)

Thursday Homework

Tonight's homework:

1. Read 20 mins.
2. Study for spelling test
3. Comparing Decimals paper
4. Finish Ice Cream problem

Today we spent some time talking about the effects of using tobacco products as part of Red Ribbon Week. Ask your child what they learned about it.

Poems, Poems Everywhere

We just started a poetry unit that we'll be working on the next couple weeks. As part of the unit, each student has chosen a poem to work on and memorize. They will either recite it to me (required) or to the class (extra credit) by the end of next week.

Tonight's Homework:

1. Read 20 mins.
2. Write a short story (about 2-3 paragraphs) using at least 8 spelling words.
3. Work on memorizing your poem. Read it out loud to at least 2 different people.
4. Finish the Ice Cream math problem from yesterday.

**PARENTS: Notice that my email has changed with my new last name. My old one will still work, but please make note of the change! Thanks!!

Mrs. Sampson

WELCOME BACK!!

Welcome back on track! Things have been a bit crazy the past couple days since I just barely got back from my honeymoon. But, we're all excited to be here and are back in the swing of things. We're finishing up the Revolutionary War and starting talking about the Constitution. We'll be discussing the federal government and voting, just in time for the election in 2 weeks. In Math, we're working on some beginning algebra concepts.

Tonight's Homework:

1. Read 20 mins
2. Spelling - sort and write
3. Math problem - due Friday
**If an ice cream shop sells thirty-one different flavors of ice cream, how many different double-scoop cones can they make?


Parents, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns as we approach parent teacher conferences in a couple weeks.

Mrs. Sampson

PTA

We had a PTA rep come in today to remind us to have parents sign up for the PTA. If our class has the most parents signed up, we'll receive $50 worth of books for our classroom! So far we only have 5 parents signed up in our class. D Track has at least double that! We need to catch up!

If you haven't really considered PTA before, or if you don't think you have time, consider these points:

1. It only costs $5 for the whole year.
2. That $5 is a direct donation to your child's school.
3. You don't have to do anything for PTA, just the $5 donation is plenty to help out.
4. You get 10% off at the book fairs throughout the year.
5. You'll be helping your child's school and specifically our classroom if we win!

If you're interested, please send $5 to school with your child TOMORROW (or when we come back on track) and we'll get all the paperwork taken care of. Thanks!

REMINDER: Tomorrow is the last day to turn in fundraisers.

Almost Off Track

Just 2 more days until we go off track!! It's been a crazy week and we're getting things packed up so we can go off track. For those of you that aren't aware, in 5th grade we have to rotate classrooms each time we track off and on. So, this week we'll be packing up our classroom and moving our stuff into storage until we come back in a few weeks. When we come back, we'll be in Room 125 (where Mrs. Engh's class currently is).

Parents, sorry for the smaller amounts of homework this week. I've been sick with a nasty cold, plus all the copy machines at school are broken. Combine that with trying to get the room ready for the next class to come on track, and homework has kind of fallen by the way side. I promise once we're back on track homework will resume it's normal pattern. :)

For tonight, make sure you read 20 minutes for the Road to Success (and mark your chart!).

Also, study those vocab words. We'll have a test on Friday.

Road to Revolution

We're making our way to independence in Social Studies. Parents, ask your student how many M&M's they got today and how they felt about it. :)

Here's tonight's homework:

1. Read 20 minutes.
2. Write about 3 events on the Road to Revolution. Write what the event is and what you know about it. Be prepared to share in class tomorrow.
3. Vocabulary - We will have a vocab test this week instead of spelling. Please look up definitions for these words tonight:

revolution
independence
declaration
prime
composite
commutative
weathering
erosion
uplift
geological

Constitution and Car Wrecks

Today is Constitution Day, so we talked a little about what the Constitution is and how it got started. We'll be learning about it more in detail when we get to that point in U.S. history, but we gave it a brief overview today.

In math today, we explored estimating and adding decimals with a real world example. My car got hit in the school parking lot yesterday, leaving my bumper, trunk, and tail light in sad shape. The whole back end will need to be replaced :( So for math, we assessed the damage (with a field trip to the parking lot to see the car) then estimated how much part would cost to replace. We added in labor costs to come up with final estimates. I then listed the actual costs of each part (based on the estimate I got at a body shop) and we added to see the real total. The student with the closest estimate won a treat!

Here's tonight's homework:

1. Read 20 mins
2. Work on your Reflections project (in case your child didn't tell you, I am requiring each student to enter at least one category as a homework assignment.) For more information, visit the Columbia PTA website and click on "Reflections"

2 Weeks Left!!

Can you believe we only have 2 weeks left until we go off track?! This year is flying by already. Today was a usual crazy Friday. We had reward activity/study hall, music, and an assembly about fundraising. Remember: do not go door to door for the fundraiser. It is not safe to go to strangers' houses.

IMPORTANT: Picture day is on Monday (9/15). Come looking your best! If you're ordering pictures, send the order form and a check on Monday. Thanks!!

Have an awesome weekend!!

Remembering 9/11

Today we learned about....

-September 11, 2001 - We learned about what happened and how it affects us today
-The Original Thirteen Colonies
-Landforms in Utah and Utah's Geologic History
-Wrote word problems for double digit multiplication

Homework tonight:
1. Read 20 mins
2. Write and solve 2 double digit multiplication problems
3. Petrified Wood - teach someone about how it came to be

Wednesday Homework

1. Read 20 minutes
2. Sort & Write spelling words (they should be written in your planner)
3. 2x2 Multiplication array for 56 x 23 (this is exactly like what we did in Math today)

Tomorrow is Patriot Day...September 11th. Ask your parents about the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. We'll be doing a writing assignment about it tomorrow.

Current Events

Today we learned about how to do current events from newspaper articles. So, for tonight's homework, each student needs to do a current event report based on a news broadcast or article. Here are some suggestions for where to find the news:

-Watch a news broadcast (channels 2, 4, 5, 13 are good resources)
-Pick up a newspaper and read it! (they're really cheap at the grocery store if you don't have one)
-Look at a news website online:
-KSL
-Fox 13 News
-Salt Lake Tribune

After you read the article, write a summary of it using the 5 W's and H model we talked about it class (Who, What, When, Where, Why & How).

Also, don't forget to read 20 minutes!