March 12th through 16th

Dear Families,   

    Since this will be the last newsletter before spring break, I hope my students have an enjoyable week off.  Our family looks forward to a relaxing week together.  My wife could save up her vacation time and will have the entire week off with us.

      Next week is Spirit Week at Paxton Keeley, with a focus on respect. Each day, our school will be having a celebration. The schedule is in the Friday Folder. Each classroom will also work on a door decoration for a schoolwide contest.

Pup of the Week-Hattie H.

Hi, my name is Hattie. I live with my mom, dad, and my little sister Clara who is in first grade. I have a dog named Murphy.  He is a Sheepadoodle, which means he is a sheep dog and a poodle mix. I have always loved playing soccer on a competitive team.  Our teams/family travels a lot for tournaments and league games. I look forward to finishing out a great 5^th grade year with my class and Mr. Keenoy.  I can’t wait for summer and going to a soccer camp.  I am going to an all-night overnight camp called camp Kanukuk, and we are also going to Brazen with some of our soccer friends.

The next Pup of the Week is Abbie F.  Please bring any pictures or items that you would like to put on our bulletin board that is located outside of our classroom

Word Study

Student’s spelling lists this week consisted of:

*Words misspelled in their own writing

*Words missed on their last spelling test

*Long U pattern words 

Students took a test over these words today.  Thank you for helping your child study their words during the week.

Writing

Students are really enjoying the invention project that we started working on last week.  Students had to do a lot of preparation work prior to recording their information on the IMovie App.  Many of the groups are putting their finishing touches on their 60 second video about why the invention they selected is the most impactful to the world (since 1700).   Next week we will share each of the videos with the class.  Students will then vote for our favorite two to compete against other top 5^th grade classroom videos. 

Reading

We finished the book, A Long Way from Chicago yesterday.  Students seemed to enjoy Grandma Dowdel’s antics each chapter.  I will start reading the informational book, Children of the Dust Bowl today.  The setting of both books take place during the Great Depression.  I plan to provide more background information on this topic each day as I read.

Math

We just completed topic 5 and assessments were given back today.  Please look for these in your child’s Friday folder.  We also started learning about multiplication and division with decimals in topic 6 this week.  Some of the skills students will be learning in topic 6 include:

*Using estimation and number sense to predict the relative size of decimal products and quotients.

*Learn two strategies for solving decimal multiplication problems.

*Solve a multistep number story using decimals and explained how they knew their answers made sense.

*Discuss how estimation can be used to place the decimal point when dividing decimals by whole numbers.

*Create equivalent problems to help them solve division problems involving decimal dividends and divisors.

Science

Students continue to learn about matter during our unit.  Students are currently learning about mass, volume, and density in learning cycle 2.

Social Studies

We started learning about the Civil War on Wednesday.  The first several lessons will focus on the building conflict between the North and South prior to the war.

Reminder

*March 26-30...No School - Spring Break

Have a wonderful Spring Break!

Dan Keenoy