March 8-12, 2010

Thanks for your support of the CHEROKEE BOOK FAIR this year. I also want to thank all of the students and parents who donated new books to my classroom! :)

SAT/ARMT TESTING: MARCH 25th, 26th, 30th, 31st

Supply check: Parents- please check with your child to be sure that he/she has plenty of school supplies- especially paper, pencils, and crayons.

 * Be sure to check your child's planner nightly for important information, and check the red take-home folder every Tuesday for graded papers and notes. I send updated AR reports home every Tuesday to be reviewed and signed.

READING NEWS

       Skills focuses for March:  Review of all skills; writing summaries; ; writing to compare and contrast; multiple meaning words; functional reading skills. Please check your child's weekly AR report. Please be sure to check over your child's reading homework each night and to monitor your child's independent reading.

                                        SOCIAL STUDIES NEWS

     1st and 3rd Blocks- We will be learning about the Middle Colonies this week. Test on this unit is scheduled for Wednesday, March 10th. On Thursday and Friday we will study the Southern Colonies (no testing on this unit)

2nd Block- We are learning about the New England colonies (including the Pilgrims) this week. Test on this unit is scheduled for Wednesday, March 10th.

I want to thank the Apple Foundation for awarding 5th grade social studies teachers with a grant this year to provide all of our students with U.S. Studies Weekly newspapers!  WOW!! Please check out the apple Foundation website below- Fundraiser for the next years' grants is beginning now!! Please consider donating to help our school system. Also, please thank the businesses and individuals who have contributed to the Apple Foundation!

                        Cherokee Elementary Supports the Apple Foundation

www.applegrants.org

Important Dates for March:

 To set up lunch money in your child's account, please go to:  mylunchmoney.com.  You can pay online anytime as well as receive updates on your child's account balance.  It is easy and convenient!  You also have the option of paying each day at school.  Just send the money and we will take care of it at school.

* CHECK OUT THIS LINK for great children's book reviews- www.carolhurst.com/titles/5th

Here is a fantastic article from www.greatschools.net:

"Your Fifth-Grader and Reading"
In fifth grade your child reads for meaning, expands on his research skills and reads for different purposes.
By Miriam Myers, Great Schools Staff

      Fifth-graders are expected to read complex text fluently, and with strong comprehension. Your child spends a lot of time discussing, reflecting and responding to a wide variety of literature and informational texts. By critically analyzing texts, he gains a deeper understanding of what he reads. He may also read for pleasure, choosing books based on personal interests, topics, genre or author.

     Fifth-graders improve and expand on the research skills they learned in fourth grade. When doing research, your child will continue to gather information from a variety of sources- the Internet, encyclopedias, text books, maps and resources at the library. She'll locate information in different sections of a book, such as the index, glossary, title page, introduction, preface and appendix. Engaging in interactive discussion and exploration centered on a work of fiction with peers allows for a greater in-depth understanding of literature. She'll begin to learn to evaluate and cite sources. She will take notes, highlight important parts of what she reads and make outlines of what she is reading. She will produce research projects on a variety of subjects throughout the year, such as animals and their habitats or early American explorers.
     Fifth-graders read and respond to significant works of literature, delving deeper to find the meaning in what they read. Your child learns about the elements of a plot, including the set-up, the rising action, the climax and the resolution. He engages in a more critical look at characters, settings and themes in stories. He analyzes the author's purpose for writing and understands how that purpose influences the text. He learns about the use of literary devices in text, such as imagery (the use of vivid language to create a picture in the reader's mind), metaphor (a comparison between two seemingly unrelated subjects) and symbolism (the use of an object to represent something else).
Through discussions, journals and other activities, fifth-graders have many opportunities to respond to what they read. They demonstrate understanding of what they've read by creating book reports, skits, illustrations, mobiles, character puppets and time lines.  

       Fifth-graders engage in different levels of questioning to help them identify main ideas, make inferences and draw conclusions from text. A common strategy for teaching questioning is the Question-Answer Relationship or QAR. Students are asked to tell where they found the answers to questions. They discover there are "right there" questions (answers found in the text), "think and search" questions (answers found in several places of the text), "author and you" questions (through high-level thinking, students read information in the text and call upon prior knowledge to arrive at an answer) and "on my own" questions (the answer requires just using your prior knowledge). To prepare for state tests in reading, students continue to practice by reading passages and answering open-ended short answer questions, as well as multiple-choice and true-false questions, to show their understanding of the text and vocabulary.

     Your child may take part in "literature circles," which are student-led book discussion groups. Students choose their own reading material and meet in small groups with other students who are reading the same book. Each member of the group is assigned a role that helps guide the group in a discussion of the book. Literature circles allow for students to share their thoughts, concerns and understanding of a novel. Karen Heath, our teacher consultant and 2005 Vermont's Teacher of the Year, notes: "Engaging in interactive discussion and exploration centered on a work of fiction with peers allows for a greater in-depth understanding of literature. Instead of a teacher explaining or pointing out deeper meaning, symbols, or elements of the author's craft, in literature circles, children discover these for themselves, thereby owning the experience and learning much more from it."

       By the end of fifth grade you can expect your child to be able to:

* Read grade-level material with expression and fluency
* Decode words using root words, such as biblio, meaning book; prefixes, such as auto, meaning self; and      suffixes, such as logy, meaning field of study
* Self-correct and self-monitor for comprehension when reading
* Make informed predictions when reading
* Describe character development
* Identify the conflict, climax and resolution
* Identify themes in literature
* Use a range of strategies when drawing meaning from text

Please check my link on the left side of the page entitled "5th Grade Tips." This should answer some questions that you might have concerning 5th grade.

Thanks for visiting my website- I hope that you find it helpful. Please send an e-mail if you have ANY questions about 5th grade reading and/or social studies. Your child is very important to me. Thank you for helping me to make this a great year!

                                                                                              Michele Brown