It's been a COLD week and 2 days in 5th grade!  The cold weather that blew in didn't keep my wonderful family from learning and working hard.  Just a recap of the last 7 days:

Math: We are still covering fractions and have moved into adding, subtracting and relating our fractions to a number line.  We will continue to work on these skills the week after our Thanksgiving break.  We successfully post-tested on comparing and ordering fractions last week and I have to say I not only had 100% pass but had every single one make huge gains from their pre-test!  Please keep encouraging and motivating your scholar to work hard and practice, practice, practice.  All students are loaded into the Think Through Math and Study Island websites.  Please have them log in and practice daily.  Even 10-15 minutes a night makes a huge difference!

Science: We covered alternative energy sources last week and even did a mini-project that we presented today.  They all did a great job with their mini-research topics and did a fantastic job presenting to our class. Next week we will finish up alternate energy sources and move into our weather and climate unit. 

Social Studies: We finished up covering the Bill of Rights and will be testing on it the Tuesday after we get back.  Please have your scholar log into the History Alive tutorial site and take the Ch. 15 practice quiz to ensure they are familiar with the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 8th amendments and can identify what freedoms they each protect.  We will be playing review games on Monday to help them prepare.  On Wednesday we will move into Ch. 16 and will be covering Manifest Destiny and settling the West! 

ELAR: We finished up talking about test features of non-fiction works and your scholar should be familiar with all of them.  We just pre-tested on text structures and will be spending the next couple of weeks covering the different ways texts are organized.  Inferencing is still an underlying skill that they are all struggling with and it is a very important objective that they MUST master.  Please have them work on Study Island on the reading passages and they now have access to IStation which is also another tutorial site.  They were given their login information last week and should be able to log in from home.

Don't forget we have two different field trips scheduled for next week: a school-wide field trip to Foster HS on Thursday to watch their production of Beauty and the Beast (no lunch is required for this-we will be eating at school their usual way) and the annual 5th grade field trip on Friday.  We will be visiting the Houston Museum of Natural Science.  Please remember to send permission slips back for both (I am still missing a few) and if you want to chaperone, please send back the form and the fee for your entrance into the museum.  Your scholar will need to pack a lunch for this trip.

I truly hope that your family enjoys the time off to be with family and to celebrate all of the many blessings in your lives.  HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!