It is hard to believe that this is our last full week of school.  Remember that 12/19 and 12/20 are early release days.  The students will leave at 12:30 p.m.

Here is what we will be studying this week:

Math–The students will learn how to divide using decimals.  This works a bit different than multiplying using decimals .Remember to review all the rules when using decimals to add, subtract, multiply, and now divide.  The rules are a bit different for each operation.

Vocabulary/Grammar--There will be no new vocabulary words this week.  We will be doing a review of all the vocabulary words for this semester. Review nightly bi/tri, quad, co/com, and contra/counter. There will be a vocabulary test on all of these.

Social Studies–we will begin to look at the reasons and impact of the Spanish/American War and the Panama Canal.  A study guide was handed out a week ago to prepare the students for the Unit Test which will be next week.

Reading/Language Arts– we will wrap up our informational writing on a topic of our choice.  The students are hard at work typing up their research.  We shall finish this informational writing piece this week.

Dates to Remember:

12/18–8:45 to 9:30 5th grade holiday party in the classrooms

12/19—Early Release 12:30 p.m. PJ day and funky/fuzzy sock day

12/20–Early Release 12:30 p.m.  PJ day and stuffed animal, blanket, and slippers.

Thank you for a great Immigration and STEM Day!  The students had a great time with both activities.  Thank you parents for your participation and for the delicious food that was provided.

Here is a look at this week:

Math–  The students will continue their study of decimal multiplication using two and three digit numbers as well as multiplying whole numbers with decimal numbers.  Look for a quiz this week.

Vocabulary/Grammar- Our words this week include prefix—contra and– counter.  Examples include contradict and counterclockwise. Homework is always collected on Friday.  Vocabulary quiz on Friday. We will continue to work with commas.  We will have a quiz later on this week.

Social Studies–The students are learning about industrialization.  Our studies include famous inventors.  We will continue to research and discuss these amazing American inventors.  If your child did not complete the Immigration Diary, please have them complete it  and turn it in on Monday, December 2nd.  

Science--High Touch, High Tech will come to our school on December 3rd.  The students will partake in many hands on experiments.

Thank you parents for all the wonderful donations this week for our Acts of Kindness Week.  Our school collected over $2,500 for CCYA.  Our class donated over 35 books for our sister school Brumby Elementary and all of our hygiene bags will be greatly appreciated by Simple Needs of Georgia.  Thank you for all you did to make this happen.

Important Dates to Remember:

Monday:  11/18/2019—Bring in all of your vocabulary homework.  We will have the quiz on Monday. Also, bring in your filled Citizenship Study Guide.  We will go over the answers in class.

Thursday: 11/21/2019–Half day for Target Students.

Friday:  11/22/2019–Immigration Day and STEM Day in the afternoon after Immigration Day

Here is an example of the Immigration  Identity Card the students need to bring in. It’s best to make these from card stock as they hold up better.

What we will be learning this week:

Math– The students continue to learn about decimals.  We have learned so far that decimals are fractions and what each place value to the right of the decimals stands for. We have used pictures to identify decimals and have learned to add and subtract decimals.  Remember, when subtracting and adding decimals, we have to line up the decimals.  When subtracting a whole number from a decimal number, we must think of the whole number as having a decimal and a zero after it.  Example:  372- 4.7.  372 should be written as 372.0 – 4.7.  This week we will continue to add and subtract, but also learn that we can multiple decimals as well.  We will learn the rule of decimals and where they belong when multiplying them.

Vocabulary–No vocabulary words will be given this week.  We will take our  co/com prefix quiz Monday, November 18th.  I will also collect the homework for the week.  Grammar:  Our study of commas continues.

Reading/ELA– After reading numerous books about Immigration, Angel Island, Ellis Island, and the struggles the immigrants experienced,  our informational writing is nearly finished. Some students have already written their informational  piece.  Some other students are putting the finishing touches on their research paper.  We will try to finish our informational writing about Immigration this week.

Social Studies–We continue with Unit 2 in Social Studies.  We will wrap up our study on Immigration and begin the learn about famous inventors like the Wright Brothers, George Washington Carver, Alexander Graham Bell, and Thomas Edison to name a few.

We will continue to collect items for our Acts of Kindness Week.   Our class needs to bring in playing cards to include in the hygiene pack by Monday, November 11th.  I was told by a parent that the Dollar Tree by Kroger has the playing cards at the checkout aisle.  Our 5th grade parent volunteers will be collecting all the items from different classes and separating them to then pass out to the homeroom classes so that they can then create the hygiene bags on Wednesday.  The playing cards will need to be in our classroom on Monday to allow those parent volunteers to separate all items so the 5th graders can then assemble the bags on Wednesday.

Tuesday, November 12th--Please bring in your gently used or new 5th grade book by Tuesday.  We will be wrapping these books on Tuesday morning. We have a few classroom parents helping us do this in the a.m.

Monday, November 11th we will honor our community veterans.  Our class has already made great American Flags and posters to hold up as the Veterans lineup for the parade within our school.

Friday, November 15th–trip to the movies to see Wonder. Don’t forget to bring in $1 for PJ Day.  We are allowing our students to wear PJs to the movies with of course the class T-shirt.

Here is what we will be learning next week:

Math–The students will continue to work with decimals.  We will add and subtract decimals and revisit some of the concepts that we have learned the last few months like order of operation, place value, reading and writing decimals, and of course long division and multiplication.  We will continue to work with word problems as well.

Vocabulary/Grammar--In grammar, we are learning how to properly use commas not only in a series, but as introductory elements, to set off the words yes or no, in a tag question, or to indicate direct address.  Examples:  This is book belongs to you, doesn’t it?  Blake, park your car in any of the reserved spots.  Yes, you may have another piece of cake.  Our prefix this week will include co-com which mean together, with.   Don’t worry, there are only ten in total and the test won’t be until the following Monday due to our field trip to the movies.

Social Studies— Our students are learning about Immigration and Ellis Island.  Be sure to work on your Immigration Day project.  Paperwork on what to do and how to do it went home a few weeks ago.  We will continue learning about it this week.

ELA/Reading-  The students are doing research on Ellis Island and the Immigrants.They will be writing an Information piece on what they have learned.  We are also working hard on our Raps about famous events or people. A link about the rap is listed below.

https://www.flocabulary.com/warp/beats/

Beats Perform your rhymes over an original Flocabulary beat! Play the beats while you’re practicing or performing for your class.

www.flocabulary.com

Dates to Remember:

• 11/4 –Mt Bethel Spirit Night at Tijuana Joe’s
• 11/5 –No School (Teacher Professional Learning Day) No students at school.

Here is what we will be doing this week:

Math–Students will review decimals…reading, writing, and comparing decimals and then begin to add and subtract decimals.  Continue to practice on Moby Max order of operation.

Vocabulary/Grammar— our vocabulary words this week include Quad—four.  We will continue to learn about correctly placing commas in a series and in general.

We will take our Tri–three test on Monday, November 4th and our Adages, Proverbs, and Idioms test as well.  It was postponed due to Walton Cluster Night and Halloween.

Science Test on Plants on Monday, November 4th.  This was postponed due to Halloween and Walton Cluster Night.

Social Studies--our students will begin Unit 2–The turn of the Century.  Our lessons this week will include Cattle Trails, Black Cowboys of Texas, and the Transcontinental Railroad.

Reading/Writing—Our focus this 2nd quarter is non-fiction text in reading and informational writing. Our writing will focus on immigration.

Next Week:  Week of 11/11-11/15th:

• This is 5th Grade Acts of Kindness Week.
• Monday—A speaker from the Cobb County Youth Association (CCYA) will visit the school to talk to the students about their organization, which provides for homeless youth right here in Cobb County. Mt. Bethel students can bring in $1 on Friday to wear pajamas and this money collect will go to CCYA!
• Tuesday—Students will bring in one book (either gently used or new) to give to another 5th grader at Brumby Elementary.  We will wrap them and send them to Brumby with a message attached.
• Wednesday—We will create hygiene mini-bags to benefit Simple Needs of Georgia – a non-profit organization that helps the homeless and other needs families.  Our class will need to purchase and bring in playing cards to include in the hygiene bags to give to this organization. These can be found at Walmart, Kroger, Publix, CVS, and other stores.
• Thursday–5th grade classes will create posters with messages of kindness and encouragement to be placed throughout the school.
• Friday—Our field trip to Merchant’s Walk theater to watch the movie Wonder.  Permission slips and envelopes were sent out on Friday, November 1st.

November 22 is Immigration Day!

• Immigration Day Information and Immigration Day Requirements and Expectations
• Students should be deciding who they will be–name, where they are from, and their back story
• Students should also be deciding what they will wear. Here is a link to the slideshow from last year that may help you as you plan for the costume: 2018/19 Immigration Day 

A study guide will be provided so that students can prepare for the Citizenship test.

Parents:  Due to Halloween and Walton Cluster Night, we will not have any homework this coming week.  That being said, there will be a study guide on plants that will go home on Monday as well as the Vocabulary words of the week.  No homework for vocabulary, but I strongly suggest studying a bit each night.

Here is what we will be doing this week:

Math– Our fabulous 5th graders will continue to work on Order of Operation (P.E.M.D.A.S.) and then move into addition and subtraction using decimals.  Students need to be careful when using Order of Operation, because if one part of the equation is done incorrectly, it will all be wrong.  Many steps are involved in the process.  We will continue to practice this skill all week.  Ask your child about Rally coach and small group instruction.

Vocabulary/Grammar– The students will work on the prefix–tri- meaning three. Our grammar skill this week includes using commas in a series, idioms, adages, and proverbs.

Science— The students will wrap up their study on Animal and Plant Classification.  Look for a study guide to go home on Monday on plant classification.

Information about Immigration Day went home last week.  Please be sure to return the Bottom Portion by October 29th.

Dates to Remember:

Oct. 29th–Immigration Day Information form due

Oct. 30th–Walton Cluster Night

Oct. 31st--Last day of the Patron Drive. Parents:  Thank you for your generous donation to this spectacular drive.  The foundation does amazing things here at Mt. Bethel.  We would not be able to do this without your help.

Also, Bananarama project is due on October 31st.

Parents:  It was great meeting with you last week and sharing all the wonderful things your student is doing in 5th grade.  I really enjoyed spending some time with you and going over your student’s work as well as sharing the report card.

Don’t forget the Patron Drive is going on all of this month.  We would love to have 100% participation.  The foundation provides so many great programs for our students and we would not be able to do this without your support.  Thank you to all who have already participated in the drive.

Wednesday, October 23rd is our field trip to Dunwoody Nature Center.  Please dress warmly as we will spend most of the time outdoors.  We will have lunch at the nature center.  A reminder:  If you are packing your child’s lunch, it needs to be in a paper or plastic bag with his/her name on the outside.  We will store the lunches in a cooler.  

Here is what we will be studying this week:

Vocabulary–Bi is our prefix this week.  Bi meaning two.  Monday’s homework is the sort, Tuesday’s homework is the pictures, and Wednesday’s homework is writing sentences with the vocabulary words.

Science–  Animal and Plant Classifications is our primary study this week.  Look for a study guide to go home Monday.  Test on Animal Classification on Friday.  Please be sure to bring in pictures from the internet of plants(ferns, trees, etc.) and animals.  We will do an in class project with these photos.  Bring them in by Friday.

Math-– Exponents and Order of Operations is our study this week.

Reading–all reading groups are working on their ABC book.  The students have finished reading their assigned novels and our culminating activity will be this book that we will create in class.

You should be practicing skills in math, reading, science, social studies on MobyMax for at least 10 minutes each day.

Conferences will be held this upcoming week.  I look forward to sharing important information about your student’s progress in all of his/her classes. I look forward to meeting with you.

Please make the appropriate arrangements as to how your student will be going home.  Dismissal will be at 12:30 p.m. in order for the teachers to hold conferences.

Learning will continue even though we have early release.  Here is what we will be learning:

Reading–(Mrs. G’s students) we are wrapping up our novel studies this week.  We are one or two chapters away from finishing our fiction novels.  Our class will begin a project in class, but don’t worry, all of it will be done in class.

Math–(Mrs. G’s students) we will finish up with decimals (reading, writing, and comparing them).  We will begin with PEMDAS...an acronym for how to solve two or more operations in a single expression. The order of the letters in PEMDAS tells you what to calculate first, second, third and so on, until the calculation (problem) is solved.  Continue to review with your student multiplication and division fact fluency, as well as simple subtraction.

Vocabulary/Grammar- No vocabulary words this week, but we will continue to work with combining, reducing, and expanding sentences.  Look for a mid-week test!

Science--We will begin our next unit in Science—Animal Classifications.

AC Math and AC ELA- be sure to check the blogs of the corresponding teachers—Mrs. Vest and Ms. Bingham for their workload and important information, as well of checking the Target blog for those students who have Mrs. Varnedoe.

Please consider supporting the Patron Drive as this fabulous foundation really works hard to help the Buccaneers!  We can’t do this alone and the Foundation funds many great programs. For more information on what they do, please click below:

Wow!  We are approaching the end of the first 9 weeks of school!  I can’t believe we will soon begin the 2nd quarter of the school year!

A big thank you to Aidan’s mom and Brady’s dad for covering our class during TPV day on Friday.  It was a very productive time for our 5th grade team to get together and plan for the next quarter.  Thank you for providing us with 2 hours of planning!  We appreciate you very much!

Upcoming Events:

10/8/19–Field trip to the Woodruff Art Center to see the Atlanta Symphony!  A reminder:  Please dress appropriately…boys in dress pants and girls in dresses or dress pants.  We will have lunch in the classroom when we return later that day.  Please be sure to pack an extra snack or two so that we may enjoy it before leaving for our event.

10/10/19– Early Release-  Please make the appropriate transportation changes and be sure to communicate them with me.

10/14-10-18- Early Release Week:  Thank you parents for confirming your parent/teacher conference forms and for your flexibility and changing some of your appointments.  I look forward to meeting with you and discussing your child’s progress thus far.

The Foundation Patron Drive continues all this month.  We are so appreciative of all that the Foundation provides to make Mount Bethel such a special place.  Please take a moment to watch the video linked here: https://vimeo.com/349108842

What we are doing this week:

Math— The students are comparing decimals this week as well as long division with four digit dividends by 2 digit divisors.  Please have your child use MobyMax to strengthen multiplication and division math fluency.

Vocabulary–The students will review all of the prefixes we have learned so far:  pre-post-mono-uni and will take a mini test later on this week. No vocabulary words will be assigned this week.  We will review through games, etc. all of these prefixes in class.

Social Studies— We will wrap up our study of the U.S. Constitution and move into Science.  Our topic in Science will be Animal Classifications.

ELA/Reading– The students continue reading through our book clubs.  We are approaching the climax of the stories we are reading.  Through our book clubs, we have learned character analysis, theme, plot, sequencing of events, etc.  The students will work on combining, expanding, and reducing sentences through fun and interactive activities. We will finish up our narrative writing unit this week.  I will share their narrative writing during conference week.

A few reminders:

Thank you to all parents who donated books to Mrs. Giordano’s classroom library.  She will appreciate all these great new books.  Thank you so much!

October 8th- Field Trip to the Atlanta Symphony.  Please dress appropriately for this fabulous concert.  Boys can wear slacks (no jeans or shorts)  Girls can wear pants and/or dresses (no jeans or shorts). We also need to be on our best behavior as we are the seniors of Mt. Bethel and want to represent our school in a respectful manner.

PTA Reflections information went home last week.  Deadline is October 15th.

The Mt. Bethel Foundation funded our new initiative the Voyage character development. Our first anchor for this month is Cooperation. Information went home last week.  This is a great program…thank you to our fabulous foundation.  Please consider a donation to our foundation in their October Patron drive.  They are able to provide so many great programs like this one, MobyMax, and teacher trainings, too.

Bananarama information was sent home last week. Due date is Oct. 31.

BananaramaCompetition

This coming week–September 30th:

Math-  The students will continue with long division, but we will introduce Decimals.  We will read, write, and represent decimals as expanded form, standard form, and word form.

Grammar/Vocab.– The students will work with a new prefix–uni and work on expanding, reducing, and combining sentences.

Social Studies- Our unit on the Amendments of the U.S. Constitution continue.  We will look at the 15th Amendment,  19th Amendment (women’s rights to vote), 23rd Amendment, 24th Amendment, and 26th Amendment (Voting Age).

Reading– Our reading clubs continue to work on reading skills. This week we will focus on the following skills:  theme, character traits, text evidence, and main idea.  Each group works on a specific skill each day with guidance from the teacher.  We hold discussions about the chapters read and come with questions and clarifications about the chapters.