Dates to remember:
January 29th to February 3rd: Catholic Schools Week! We will start on January 29th with Mass.
February 14: Valentine's parties in the classroom!
February 16 and 17th: No School
February 22nd: Ash Wednesday
So what have our 5th graders been up to.
Can you believe that we have started to prepare for 5th grade graduation? Students have picked their colors, planned a meal for their families on graduation night, selected a motto for their class and a color theme. We still need to take a class picture outside when it warms up and write our 5th grade essays about going to school at St. James.
Speaking of essays, some of your kids wrote an essay about the American Flag. I have been in contact with the person in charge of the essays. He informed me that parents would receive an email stated if they had won something or placed in the top 5 for Washington. So far I have had 2 students inform me that their parent received an email. So watch your emails to see if you get an email.
Reading, Grammar, Spelling, and writing:
We are working on reading and writing poetry. Students are reading and analyzing poems from various books. They have also started writing poems. So far they have an acrostic poem and a hyperbole poem. Today we talked about a poem with Alliteration. Next week, we will be adding simile and metaphors.
Every day we learn or practice grammar. We also work on editing our writing, and Friday, we write something that includes a skill that we have worked on in class. We also work on spelling daily.
In writing, we are working on opinion papers. Students have worked on understanding what is an opinion paper. They have read an opinion paper on school uniforms and discussed this paper. They are learning how to state their opinion clearly and support it. Parents, watch for opinion letters to come home. They have a choice of writing a letter to their parents or to their principal. We will be writing the letter next week.
Math:
We are currently working on dividing decimals. The students are doing great with this. As soon as we have finished dividing decimals, we will move onto fractions.
They are doing great and I feel very good about the things we are accomplishing.