November 21, 2014  

 

  

Important Events

November 24th – 28th – Thanksgiving Break – No School   

Classroom News Science  We are wrapping up our study of how fossil fuels and sedimentary rocks are formed. Your 5th grader built a model to simulate this process. Also this week, we are learning how fossils reveal the types of organisms from Earth's history, as well as the kind of ecosystem that was located there. One of our activities included a simulation of a fossil dig with fossil keys! Reminder: our SCIS website for 5th grade science is a wonderful resource for your child to review each unit. Here is the link: http://scis.lovejoyisd.net/MP.cfm?P=9989 Math 5th graders have finished up making equivalent fractions, simplifying fractions, and finding the Greatest Common Factors this week. Our next unit will consist of multiplying decimals and fractions. We will start this unit by using model representation, then move to the algorithm. PLEASE continue to have your child practice their math facts for at least 5 minutes every night...this can be in the car with an app on their phones, I-Pad's, ETC. Thanks for your support! Also, Don't forget Think Through Math can be done over the break! Have a great week off! GT Math In GT Math, we are wrapping up a unit on Decimal operations. After our unit test this week, we’ll move on to a new unit on ratios next week after the Benchmark tests are completed. For more specifics, please refer to Mrs. Dennis’s weekly email. English/Language Arts After the break students will be working on a fiction-non-fiction project. Students will explore a topic based on one of the characters in their books. We will also continue to read, track our thinking, and use our inner voice. For homework students are still expected to read for 20 minutes, blog, and study on quizlet.

November 21, 2014  

GT English/Language Arts A special project handed to us by a friend, Dr. F.A. Key, is being wrapped up this week. We'll spend this week analyzing and consulting on a traditional literature piece to help our museum friend determine the provenance of two interesting artifacts! We hope to turn in our analysis to Dr. Key by Friday. We also have a vocabulary quiz this Friday. PTA Reflections projects have a hard deadline of Friday by four o'clock. Look for our digital book Postcards from Camp to begin publishing this week.

Social Studies Students this week in social studies examined the Bill of Rights as well as other relevant amendments to them at this age. They applied their knowledge and competed against each other for high scores on “Do I have a Right?”. We also discussed some current events and will continue to tackle those issues when we come back from the break. On Wednesday December 3rd, we will have a test over government. There will be a review sent out before the break starts electronically, and we will go over the review in class before we take the test. Look on scisushistory.weebly.com for the review and additional resources to reinforce what we know already. GT Social Studies  Students examined the lifeblood of our government while discovering the anatomy of the constitution. They practiced their powers of persuasion in letters to the Constitutional Congress and are simulating the world of our federal government while playing “Branches of Power” on www.icivics.org. Next week they will dig deeper into each branch and evaluate the ethical dilemmas created when opposition becomes part of politics. I hope you enjoy some lively discussion as we put forth questions in class. Music Students will begin a project that reinforces the creative expression/performance, historical/cultural heritage, and response/evaluation strands of the 5th grade Music TEKS. Beginning on December 1st, students in each music class will divide into groups of 4 or 5 to prepare a lip sync project we are calling “Airbands 2014”! Songs chosen must be 2 minutes or less in length and be 100% school-appropriate. Students will have class time to work on these projects which will also include costumes and choreography. Parents are invited to enjoy the performances during music classes on December 12, 15 and 16 in the music room, E-100. For more information, rubric, and calendar, please visit the Sloan Creek page at lovejoymusic.weebly.com.

STEM The fifth graders are hard at work writing code to produce a Thanksgiving dinner plate/or greeting card; depending on the week they finish. They will print these on a color printer with the finished product and the code they wrote to the side.

Art Students are going to learn about the artist Dale Chihuly, and create their own mini Chihuly. The elements of art we are going to focus on are color (complementary, analogous and triadic color schemes) and shape (organic and geometric).

November 21, 2014  

PE Students did a great job during the tennis Unit and continue to impress us with their behavior and leadership skills. The next unit will be basketball which should be a lot of fun for the students. We will practice a variety of skills and games during the unit. If your son or daughter in interested in continuing playing tennis I have attached the Junior Development sheet that takes place at LHS.