McVay Nov. 1-5

Greetings!
Thank you for making the Potlatch a success!  I enjoyed seeing all the creative ideas expressed through your gifts!  At the end of the day we all had fun at the Fall Festival; the Junior class did a wonderful job providing that FUN for us.


Math
We started on Chapter 6, Algebra with Multiplication.  I will probably take a daily grade later in the week on the first few lessons.  If your child is experiencing frustration over Algebra, you are not alone!  I am working slowly through this chapter in hopes to build confidence.  Some of the students seem to be trying to make the steps harder than they really are.  So, encourage him/her to relax and just take each expression one step at a time.  Also, evaluating or 'checking' an expression by putting the number in the place of the variable will remedy a lot of mistakes.

Social Studies
We are finishing up Native Americans!!  
Tuesday I will give a Quiz on Ch. 2 Lessons 3 & 4.  I sent home a Weekly Reader on the election.  I am giving a daily grade on this issue next Wednesday.  On Friday we will go to Camp Chandler.  The second week in November we will start Chapter 3.

Science
We are slowly working our way into the Unit on Cells.  The microscope quiz kept getting pushed back, but I promise it will be given this week.  I am hoping for Wednesday.   I sent home a few practice pages for the microscope quiz.  The students will need to know how to spell the words correctly by labeling the microscope and by writing the word next to a definition with no word bank.

Please read through Mrs. Smith's notes at the bottom of her post!  She has outlined many important things to ensure success for your child!

Thank you for all you do, to make my time at Trinity a blessing,
Karen


 

Smith November 1-5

Parents and Students:

Today was a busy and exciting day! We thank the Junior class for organizing such a fun afternoon of activities for our Lower School students. The cake walk was very popular, and I saw many going home with "sweet treats" to be enjoyed all week-end! I hope you had a chance to see the displays in the Lower School hallway. The children have really worked hard in many subject areas, and I hope you enjoy their projects when you are visiting Trinity.

Spelling Lesson 13 grade on Wednesday, Nov. 3

English:

We will review Lessons 3-4 (helping verbs, main verbs, and linking verbs) on Monday and Tuesday. (P. 100-103)

Lessons 3-4 grade on Wednesday, Nov. 3

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

Students are certainly enjoying this Newberry Award winning novel. It has been the source of many laughs this past week. Claudia and Jamie are hiding out in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and they are having the greatest adventures. We will finish questions and the title/symbol page for Ch. 4 on Monday and read Ch. 5 on Tuesday. Students will do their Ch. 5 questions and title/symbol page on Wed. I will let each class have one night to take the book home before the Ch. 1-5 grade.

Ch. 5 grade on Thursday, Nov. 4

Wordly Wise:

Lesson 5 will be covered the week of Nov. 8-12.

Writing:

This week we will be printing the remainder of the edited stories for the Holiday Writing Competition sponsored by the Public Library. The school will be notified in December about the winners. The essays will be displayed in the hall during December, and we look forward to sharing them with you.

Bible:

We will continue our study of King Ahab in Lesson 11. Ahab wanted to punish Elijah because he was not willing to admit that it was God who withheld the rain. King Ahab and the children of Israel had to learn that the Lord is God. God showed Elijah, while he was on Mount Horeb, that although He is powerful, He sometimes works in a quiet manner. This is the usual way He works by His Spirit in our hearts. We will cover this lesson but will not test on it until the next week. Lesson 11 test date TBA later.

Memory: Psalm 8:1-4 due on Thursday, Nov. 4

AR Testing:

The last day to AR test for midterm is Thursday, Nov. 4.

Please note the following:

1. The Camp Chandler field trip is Friday, Nov. 5. Keep the information sheet that is coming home in the Monday folder. Please notify your homeroom teacher immediately if you cannot attend the field trip. We are in the process of making name tags and carpool lists.

2. Space Camp: If you are listed to chaperone the Space Camp trip, please notify your homeroom teacher immediately if you cannot attend. Billing for Space Camp is in Nov. and Dec.

3. Assignments for Absentees: Parents, please pick up your child's assignments and materials in the Lower School office when they are absent. Your child misses

4 1/2 hours of work in one day while out. It is beneficial to your child to pick his/her work up and to come back prepared.

4. Make-Up work: With multiple classes, it is difficult to get make-up tests done during the day. When students are absent, I arrive at school between 7:00 and 7:10 A.M. ready to give make-up tests. It is quite helpful for your children to arrive early and get made up then. We appreciate your cooperation with this as we work hard to help students stay up-to-date with tests. Also, students are not kept from specials to do make-up work or tests, and we use the P.E. period for conferences, meetings, running off materials, etc.

5. Morning Arrival: It is important that your child get a great start to his/her day. It is most beneficial for him/her to arrive by 7:50 A.M., with the exception of morning doctor and dental appointments of course, so that they can pull their materials for the day, sharpen pencils, and go to the restroom before the day begins. When students come in after 8:00 A.M., they enter the room during the devotion, prayer, and pledges. At midterm, beginning Nov. 8, we will once again be changing classes at 8:10 A.M., rotating homeroom and afternoon classes. The 10 minutes in the morning means a smoother beginning for the start of the day for your child.

Have a wonderful week-end!

Gidget Smith

Smith October 25-29

Parents and Students:

Time is flying by as we enter the last week of October! Students will have fun on Friday at the Fall Festival. Please note the information sheet in the Monday folder. Students may order a wristband which covers all activities at the Festival. Parents are invited to come and join in the fun, but please know that we will take any students in our homeroom to the Festival if their parents are unable to attend. Students who do not have parents attending the Festival will be picked up at regular carpool.

Wordly Wise Lesson 4 grade on Tuesday, Oct. 26

Spelling Lesson 11 grade on Wednesday, Oct. 27

Bible:

This week we will study about King Ahab, one of Israel's most wicked kings. God sends Elijah to warn Ahab and the people of their sinful ways, but Ahab continues to promote the worship of Baal under the domination and influence of his wicked wife, Jezebel.

Lesson 10 grade on Thursday, Oct. 28

English:

We will study main verbs, helping verbs, and linking verbs. (P. 100-103)

Lesson 3-4 grade on Wednesday, Nov. 3

Writing:

The MAC lab will return to our room on Tuesday. We will do final proofreading of the writing for the Holiday Writing Competition sponsored by the Montgomery Public Library. Good luck to all of our 5th graders in the competition!

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

Students are enjoying this novel! Claudia and her brother, Jamie, are about to leave home on a journey into New York City to live at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Claudia has plans to be gone long enough to teach her family a lesson in "Claudia appreciation". We will continue this week with Ch. 2 and 3. Students are doing activity sheets for each chapter, and they will make a booklet when we finish the book. There will be two grades taken (Ch. 1-5 and Ch. 6-10).

Note the following:

Fall Festival is Friday, Oct. 29, from 1:30-3:00.

When students are absent, please pick up their assignments and materials from the Lower School Office.

It is quite helpful for students to be at school by 7:50 A.M. so that they can gather their materials for both classes and sharpen pencils before we start devotion at 8:00 A.M.

Have a great week!

Gidget Smith

McVay Oct. 25-29

Can you believe the last week of October has arrived?  On Friday afternoon, we will celebrate the annual Fall Festival.  Please read the red insert in the Monday folder on how to buy a wrist band instead of tickets.  Before we go out to play, we will celebrate the ending of our Native American unit by having a Potlatch.  I hope you have been working on your potlatch gift and will be ready to bring it in on Wednesday.  We will exchange gifts on Friday and I hope we'll have a Native American snack too!

Math

We will finish up Chapter 5 on Tuesday with a Chapter Test.  I sent home a practice homework over the weekend.  It has the answers on the back, so you could coach your child on the proper procedure in completing the Algebra equations.  It was not a graded assignment, however, a tool to use in practicing the tested skill.  If you have not seen it over the weekend, use it Monday night to study for the test.  

Chapter 6 builds on the Algebra theme by bringing in multiplication with Algebra.  I will walk into this chapter using a lot of preparatory practice on Thursday and Friday.

Social Studies

I am finishing up Chapter 2 Lesson 4 this week.  A daily grade will be taken on Thursday. I'll send home the Lesson 3 & 4 graded paper in next week's Monday folder for you use in preparing for the Lesson 3 & 4 Quiz that will be given on Monday, Nov. 1st.

Science

I will be sending home a copy of the labeled microscope.  We will have a quiz on the parts of the microscope this week so practice filling in the blanks without a word bank.  In addition, I am sending home a Weekly Reader that will have a grade associated with it this week.  There are several good Science articles in this particular issue.

Happy Fall Y'all,

Karen

McVay Oct. 18 - 22

Friday was an amazing experience!  Having an opportunity to spend a few minutes with each child's parents is such a gift.  You are a wonderful group of parents and the proof smiles in my classroom each day!   I want to give a special thank you to the parents that assisted us in starting our weaving project, we had about 12 families represented between the two classes.  We appreciate you taking time out of your day to make ours more enjoyable!!

Math
We are still working through Chapter 5 and I hope to test on it by Friday.

Science
We are staring the long awaited Unit on Cells!!  This Unit is notorious for bringing many challenges.  Stay ahead of the curve by reading and reviewing often.  The Science book can be accessed on line.  The link is on the blog.

Social Studies
Chapter 2 Lesson 3, Southwest Desert Native Americans will be our focus this week.  The concepts are similar to the other two lessons with different information.  We will finish Chapter 2 before we go to Camp Chandler on Nov. 5th.  In the meantime, please be working on your potlatch gift at home.  The potlatch will be on the same day as Fall Festival, Oct. 29th.  In our spare time we will be weaving!

Smith October 18-22

Parents and Students:

I certainly enjoyed seeing and talking to all of the parents at the conferences. Thank you so much for your time and effort in helping us to be most effective in teaching your children. Please know that we are only an e-mail or phone call away if you need to meet with us.

Spelling Lesson 10 grade on Wednesday, October 20

Writing:

We will be drafting and typing Holiday essays for the Holiday Writing Competition sponsored by the Montgomery Public Library. I will encourage students to use action verbs with direct objects and prepositional phrases in their writing as an extension of our study of grammar. We will have the MAC Lab in our room on Tuesday and Wednesday. Students will be able to type their creative essays and add a "splash" of green and red color for a seasonal touch.

Wordly Wise:

Lesson 4 definition cards are due by Tuesday. We will do parts A, B, C, D, and E in class throughout the week. Lesson 4 grade will be on Tuesday of the following week.

Reading:

"A Boy Called Slow" grade on Monday, October 18

Students may want to reread this story and should study the vocabulary words as well as review the skills. The prep sheets should be in their reading folder.

From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

Later this week we will begin reading the novel, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg. The story is about a sister and brother who run away from home and live in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Claudia finds a statue of particular beauty at the museum and must find out the maker, a question that baffled even the experts. The former owner is Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, and without her help, Claudia might never find her way back home. I hope students will enjoy this humorous story filled with suspense and intrigue. One class set of books for this novel will be shared by students. Reading will be done in class.

Bible:

Lesson 9: The Kingdom Is Divided (I Kings 12-13; 14:1-20)

Bible Guide Pages 36-39

Rehoboam was the successor to the kingdom of Israel after his father's death. Because of Solomon's attention to his foreign wives and their gods, God divided the kingdom of Israel, giving only one tribe, Judah, to Rehoboam. The remainder of the kingdom of Israel was ruled by Jeroboam. At this point, the students will first study all the kings of Israel and then repeat this Bible history by studying all of the kings of Judah. This amazing Old Testament history proves to be interesting to students as well as challenging.

Lesson 9 grade on Friday, October 22

Camp Chandler:

The first of our 5th grade field trips is Camp Chandler on Friday, Nov. 5. Look for an information sheet in the Monday paper folder.

*If any parents listed for this trip will not be able to attend, please notify your child's homeroom teacher immediately. We will be forming carpools for this trip so therefore we need confirmation of our parent chaperones ASAP. Also, there are parents not listed for a trip who would like to attend if chaperone spots open up. Thank you to all of our parents for your patience and support in organizing all of our field trips!

Have a great week-end!

Gidget Smith

McVay Oct. 11 - 15

This past week has been unusual with the SACS visiting team in the building and I was unexpectedly absent for a day and a half, but we persevered on through to Friday and spent a stress free day being creative!  The posters are mostly completed.  Your children were introduced to basic skills on the MacBooks that assisted them in completing research:  cutting and pasting from the internet to a word document, clicking and dragging pictures for printing, finding good information using a search engine, and basically completing a group project from start to finish on their own!

This week we are going back in time to learn a Native American skill, weaving.  Each child needs to have a skein of yarn by Thursday.  Any yarn will do, but the thinnest yarns are harder to work with, so I recommend a heavier weight. Fancy, frilly yarn are acceptable and make a nice piece of woven art.

Friday is Parent Conference Day!  I am looking forward to seeing you at your appointed time.

Math
Congratulations, we are finished with the first Unit in Math and we are moving on to Unit 2, Chapters 5 - 8 "Algebra, Data, and Graphing".  We will plunge into Chapter 5, using unknown variables with addition on Tuesday with no graded work in math this week.

Science
Due to my absences last week and the amount of time we spent on the Social Studies research, Science was not finished up as planned.  I hope to wrap up Chapter 10 this week.  Our next unit of study is on the cells.

Social Studies
We are continuing on with the Native American studies and reading through Chapter 2, Lessons 3 & 4.  Our weaving projects will be started on Thursday and continued on throughout the next two weeks until completion.  Please look for information coming home about the Potlatch activity we will celebrate as we finish this Unit on Native Americans.

As always, thank you for the blessings of working with your children.
Karen McVay

Smith October 11-15

Parents and Students:

This has been a very busy but exciting week! The children have now finished the first nine weeks period in fifth grade. The days have gone quickly, and the weeks are flying by as we work and learn together. Your children are delightful, and I treasure our time together.

Reading:

We have tested out of Call It Courage this week with the Compare/Contrast grade taken on the novel and the movie. It proved quite interesting to the students how different a movie can be from the book that it is based on. One interesting thing that came out of this novel is that one student got a new dog and named him Uri after Mafatu's little yellow dog and faithful companion in the story.

Wordly Wise Lesson 3 grade is on Tuesday, Oct. 12

"A Boy Called Slow"

We will read this story from the basal reader next week. It is a true story about a Plains Indian Chief and relates to the children's study of Plains Indians in Social Studies. The grade for this story will not be until Monday, Oct. 18.

Spelling Lesson 9 grade is on Wednesday, Oct. 13.

*Students need to review these words carefully as they are homophones. They need to know what the words mean in order to spell the correct word used in a sentence.

English:

Students enjoyed writing poetry with prepositional phrases this past week. These will be displayed in the hall sometime next week. When you have time, please come by and enjoy your child's creativity. The illustrations of the poems are too funny!

We will begin the unit on verbs. We will cover action verbs and direct objects in lessons 1-2

(P. 96-99). Lessons 1-2 grade will be Thursday, Oct. 14.

Bible:

Next week's Bible story is about how riches and honor turned Solomon's heart away from the Lord. Even with all the wisdom that God had bestowed on Solomon, he let his heathen wives turn his heart to other gods.

Bible Lesson 7 grade is on Thursday, Oct. 14.

Please note the following:

1. The field trip list was e-mailed this afternoon. Please let us know ASAP if you cannot attend a trip in which you have been listed as a chaperone.

2. Students have a four day week next week (Mon.-Thurs.)

3. Parent Conferences are on Friday, Oct. 15. Report cards will be given out at the meeting. I look forward to meeting with you.

Have a wonderful week-end!

Gidget Smith

McVay Oct 4 -8

Congratulations to Mrs. McVay's homeroom for winning the door decorating contest!  A picture of the door and other homecoming fun is in the slide show at the top of our blog.  A special thank you to Mrs. Farris and Mrs. Parkman for assembling our door.  Your kids are very creative!!

Math 

We are finishing up Chapter 4 and taking the Chapter test on Thursday.  This concludes a Unit of work that we have forged through with great success!  Congratulations!!

Science

Our discussions surrounding renewable resources have been amazing!  Our souls have been stirred and we have renewed an interest in being more diligent with recycling.  We will be finishing up Chapter 10 by the end of the week with a daily grade.  

Social Studies

We will be completing a class poster project this week on the different regions of Indians.  All work will be completed in class.  However, you can support us by sending in requested materials to enhance our creativity.  The guidelines will be handed out tomorrow.  The groups will be meeting together each day this week and using the laptops to do research on their region.  Discuss the groups ideas at night around the dinner table and see if you can add to the conversation or suggest materials that you have around the house (dried food, special paper, natural resources, etc) that will make the poster more interesting.  This will be a graded project and the rubric is on the back of the guidelines sheet.

At home I am asking the students to read Chapter 2 Lesson 2.  We will take notes and discuss this in class as well as take a daily grade either at the end of this week or the beginning of next week.

Notes

The nine weeks ends on Friday with grades due the following Wednesday, Oct. 13th and conferences on Friday, Oct. 15th.

The weather has blown a cool breeze into the start of October.  A great season for renewal!  I pray you are experiencing God's blessings!  I am, through your children.

Karen

Smith October 4-8

Parents and Students:

This is the last week of the first nine weeks of this school year. Time is flying by, and I am enjoying your children very much. They worked very hard last week, even with all of the Homecoming activities. Thank you for your support throughout the week!

Call It Courage

Students finished this amazing story of courage and survival last Friday. Many were a bit stunned by the surprise ending. Students will enjoy the Disney movie based on this novel on Monday! They are very excited. They may bring popcorn and bottled water to enjoy during the movie. On Tuesday students will work in groups to compare similarities and contrast differences. After class discussion and review, students will have a Compare/Contrast grade on the novel and the movie.

Call It Courage Compare/Contrast grade on Thursday, October 7

Wordly Wise

We will prepare Lesson 3 this week. Students will complete the Lesson 3 vocabulary cards and parts A-E in the Wordly Wise book and test on this lesson the next week.

Lesson 3 grade on Tuesday, October 12

Spelling

There is no spelling grade this week! We will begin preparing Lesson 9.

English

We will work with prepositional phrases in a poetic way this week. Students will write poems using prepositional phrases. The next unit of grammar that we will study will be verbs. I expect that we will begin verbs later this week or early next week.

Writing

Students finished their candy opinion paragraphs last week. The display is up in the hall, and I hope that you will have time to come by to take a look. They worked hard, and it shows! I hope that the children realize that writing is a process and that perseverance throughout the process will result in work in which to be proud. They had a lot of fun, and we actually learned many interesting facts about the different candies! Thank you for your trips to the store to buy their favorite candy to help enhance this fun piece of process writing!

Bible

This week we will study Lesson 6 "Solomon Builds the Temple". Students will examine why God chose Solomon to build the temple and not David. Students will learn the importance of making personal choices according to God's plan. The scripture for this lesson is I Kings 5-6; 8. Students will complete Bible Guide pages 24-26 in class.

Bible Lesson 6 grade on Friday, October 8

Remember:

Parent conferences are on Friday, October 15. I look forward to meeting with all of you! Report cards will be handed out at the conference.

Have a great week!

Gidget Smith