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.