Check out these pictures from today! Thank you so much for the generous gift! The 5th graders did a great job during the FAST performance this week! Here are a few photos from the night....feel free to save them to your computer and/or get prints if you would like! Just a reminder that you can find out what we have going on by visiting https://planbook.com/planbook.html?t=1121736&k=MrsPeetz at any time!
This will provide you with the most up-to-date information on what is going on in each class and when upcoming tests and quizzes are. We have started working with Fractions in math. Knowing our multiplication and division facts is still really important, so please keep practicing at home.
I found a great site that has a variety of Fraction games to make learning fun. You can visit it here: http://jmathpage.com/JIMSFractionsrecognizecompare.html Here is what we are working on:
Math: We have been working with decimals since November. We have learned about rounding, ordering, comparing, adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. We will have a test this Friday. This will focus on adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing decimals. We will be reviewing tomorrow, but students should have an entire folder full of old homework assignments they could begin reviewing today if you have extra free time. Religion: In addition to our unit about the parts of the mass, we are focusing on the Mysteries of the Rosary. Students were already tested before Christmas on the Glorious Mysteries. This month we are focusing on the Joyful Mysteries, but also don't want anyone to forget the Glorious Mysteries. To keep these mysteries fresh in our minds, students will be tested EVERY Friday this month. On January 9, 16, and 23 students will have to be able to TELL me the Glorious & Joyful Mysteries in order - they won't be required to write them, each student will just tell me individually. On January 30th we will have a written test on the Glorious & Joyful Mysteries. Students will have to write them in order and spell them correctly. A little practice on these each day will make the test at the end of the month really easy. Students received a book yesterday that has all of the mysteries of the rosary and can be used as a great study tool. Vocabulary: We began Unit 8 this week. Students have been working through the book exercises in class. We will do more activities with the words next week and the test will be Friday, January 16. NEW this week is a requirement to do the Word Map exercise on the Vocabulary Workshop Website. I demonstrated how to do this assignment in class on Monday, but please let me know if there are any questions. Students are only required to print one page from the activity and then get a Parent Signature on it to confirm that they did the activity for all 12 words. Science: This week we began our next chapter on Matter & Energy. Our test won't be until the first week of February. Reading: On Monday we started our new book called Home of the Brave. I think students will find this book quite interesting and hard to put down. To help the students relate to what it is like for our main character Kek, a young Sudanese refugee, to be experiencing everything in America for the first time, we will be doing an activity with an orange next week. Each student needs to bring an orange (not a clementine) on Wednesday, January 14th. Upcoming Events: Friday, January 9th - End of Second Quarter Friday, January 16th - Report Cards will be posted online Monday, January 19th - No School, Martin Luther King Day Saturday, January 24th - Winter Carnival January 25 - January 31 - Catholic Schools Week (more details to follow) I hope you were able to enjoy a wonderful break with family and friends! I definitely enjoyed the time spent with family and the couple of days I got to just relax at my own house. I am so blessed to be at St. Matthew's and absolutely love my job! I was overwhelmed by the amount of cards and gifts I received for Christmas...THANK YOU all so much! I know that a lot of families donated money to our classroom at the beginning of the year, and that some of those funds were used for my gift from the entire class, so I wanted to share it with you.
The count down is on! Christmas is right around the corner! We are still working hard though because we have so much to learn!
Math: we are dividing with decimals. Students are understanding what to do, but we are still making mistakes with our facts. We have begun taking a quick 1 or 2 minute time test at the beginning of class to help us get some extra practice in. Please have your child practice their facts whenever possible (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) Science: We are finishing up Chapter 6 this week, so our test will be Wednesday, December 17th. Students will be given a study guide on Thursday this week. Reading: We have been read a book called Love that Dog which is a story told through poems. We learned about poetic techniques and have written some of our own poems! Vocabulary: The Unit 7 test is this Friday. Next week we will NOT be starting a new unit. We will instead focus on some grammar and editing practice. Religion: The Purely You Unit is now finished. For the month of December we are discussing the virtue of Generosity, which ties into our Advent and Christmas discussions as well. We will return to our textbook after break. I hope you had a great Thanksgiving! I definitely enjoyed a long weekend with friends and family, but I am excited to be back to a routine. We are going to have a busy 3 weeks until Christmas break.
Reading - We started a new book today called Love That Dog. It is a book of poems that tell a story. We are going to be doing a lot of in class discussions to make sure we understand what is happening, so there will not be a lot of homework. Vocabulary - We are going to fit in one more unit of Vocabulary before break. We are also going to use this time to learn more about different types of poetry to go along with our reading book. Religion - This is our last week of Purely You. There will be a test next week on everything we have covered. We will then go back to working with our textbook and study the different parts of the mass. Science - After discussing food webs and how animals impact each other and the environment, we are moving on to learn about biomes and how environments change over time. Math - Facts! Facts! Facts! It is so important for students to know their addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts!!! We worked with adding, subtracting, and multiplying decimals before Thanksgiving, so now we are going to start dividing. Please have your child practice their facts every day!! Book orders will be coming home tomorrow (Tuesday). We will have the orders before Christmas break if you are thinking about ordering anything for Christmas presents. There will be a Math Test on Monday, November 24. On Friday, November 21, students will receive a review packet for the test. To see the answer key, click here.
The Science Fair was a huge success! Thank you to everyone who came to see the fair. It was very evident that students spent a lot of time and put in a lot of work on their projects! I received a lot of compliments from other teachers about how great everything looked!
It was so wonderful to meet with everyone at Parent Teacher Conferences! As always, please let me know whenever you have questions, concerns, or comments about our class or how your child is doing.
THIS WEEK: Monday:
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thursday:
Friday:
Upcoming Dates:
Please help! If you see this, please send me an e-mail ([email protected]) with Blog Post as the subject line (the message can be blank if you want) so I can see how many people visit my site :) Thank you!! Wow! We have been busy! Friday was the last day of the quarter, so I have been working on Report Cards. They will be viewable online this Friday, October 31st, and handed out during Parent Teacher Conferences.
Students should be working on their Science Fair Project. The Science Fair will be November 18th. Parents and Families are invited to attend in the afternoon. More details to follow. We have started working with decimals in math. We have been learning all about place value and will move in to rounding, comparing, ordering, and adding decimals next. In Reading we just did a short Folk Tale unit where students turned a folk tale into a play. Over the next couple of weeks, we will be working in small groups to read short stories in class. We are on week 2 of 6 in the Purely You unit for Religion. Each week students have Family Homework that requires family discussions and a short activity. These are very important concepts that need to be discussed with family, not just at school. Important Upcoming Dates:
Thank you to the fifth grade families for sponsoring and organizing the teacher luncheon. The teachers and staff of St. Matthew really enjoyed and appreciated it! See below for some pictures of our huge selection of food and treats! The 5th grade teachers also received an awesome bag and a gift card, which is extremely useful and thoughtful. THANK YOU!!!
I received a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a gift card today to celebrate my birthday + 1 month. (With my birthday being at the beginning of the year, the information for Room Moms and Party Coordinators had not been handed out yet.) Thank you to everyone who contributes to our classroom fund. You really made me feel special today and I am already looking forward to all of the fun we will have at our classroom parties this year.
I was at a science conference today, but once again, everyone did great with the substitute teacher. It is really hard for me to leave my students, but I am so thankful to have such a great class that they continue to do their best even when I am not there.
Tomorrow is a half-day - dismissal is at 11:30. There is no school on Monday, October 13. October 15th we will be having our math test, which covers everything we have done so far this year. Students worked on a review in class today, and we will be going over it on Tuesday. October 16th we will be having our science test. Yesterday we discussed as a class what students should be studying. They have lesson outlines that go along with what we read in Chapter 2, and they have a packet of the vocabulary that they need to know. October 17th will be our Unit 1 Religion Test. This will cover all 5 chapters we have done this year, so it is important to be reviewing for the test. A study guide will be handed out on Tuesday, and we will spend Tuesday and Wednesday reviewing in class as well. Friday, October 17th is also Father's Mass. All fathers are invited and encouraged to attend. The mass will be held in the New Gym, with a reception following in the MP room. After being out of town last weekend I have been trying to catch up all week! The students did great with the sub last Friday, so that made things easy.
Here is an update on all of our subjects: Reading: We are coming to the end of Holes. The test will be Friday, October 10. We will be watching the movie in class the following week. Our next unit is Folk Tales, which will involve some in class group work time to turn a folk tale into a play and then present it in class. Science: Plants, Plants, Plants! We have been learning every part of them and the functions of each part. Students have been given a Leaf Book Assignment that is due October 8. We will be doing an experiment in class next week so we can observe roots growing on a bean plant. Our Chapter 2 test will be October 15th or 16th depending on how much we can get through next week. Vocabulary: Each unit takes us 2 weeks. We are doing week 1 of Unit 3 this week and doing some activities out of the workbook. Next week we will do writing activities and then have the Unit 3 test on Friday, October 10. Religion: We just have Chapter 5 to cover and then we will be taking the Unit 1 test on October 15th. We will be beginning the PUREly You program on October 20th. Math: So far this year, we have done multiplication and division of whole numbers. This week, we talked about place value. There is a short quiz on what we discussed this week on Friday, October 3. Next week we will discuss rounding and comparing numbers. Decimals and fractions are coming up next. Important Dates:
It has been another busy week. We celebrated the Feast Day of St. Matthew on Tuesday and had picture day today.
I am headed out of town for the weekend and will not be at school tomorrow. I have told the students this and have worked hard to have everything ready to go for tomorrow. Of course, things don't always go as planned, so if there is a lot of confusion over something, please e-mail me. If I am not able to respond in time, don't panic, I will work with students on Monday to get everything figured out. Have a great weekend! We survived testing! Since everyone worked so hard this week we watched a movie this afternoon to celebrate!
Thanks again to everyone who provided the snacks and drinks this week! We really enjoyed them and the snack/break time was perfect to break up testing time. There is Religion, Reading, and Social Studies homework this weekend. School pictures are on Thursday. The order form is coming home today. Please return them on Monday. If you order online, please make a note in your child's assignment notebook so I know your order is taken care of by the deadline. This weekend is the Feast of St. Matthew. As a school, we will be celebrating on Tuesday. Students can wear any St. Matthew's apparel - uniforms are not required as long as you have something St. Matthew's on. A hot dog lunch will be provided to students, or students may bring a lunch if they would like. Book Orders also came home this week. They are due October 9th. Every student received a coupon for a FREE $5 book if you place an order of at least $10. Enjoy the great weather this weekend! Testing has been going well so far. Today was an easier day with only 2 tests, but tomorrow we will be testing for the entire morning, so that may be tough. We are really enjoying the snacks during our break and wish we had time for snack every day! Thank you to everyone who has provided the snacks/drinks.
We have started giving out some homework again. Everything will be due next week, but students may want to start working on it now so they don't have to do it all over the weekend. Yearbook orders are due by Friday. The order form is available here. The Kona Ice truck will be in the parking lot after school on Friday. Next week: Tuesday - Celebration of St. Matthew feast day. Wear any St. Matthew apparel. Thursday - School picture day It was a tough day today! It is hard to focus on a test on a Monday morning! Plus, the rain was a great distraction and prevented us from being able to go outside for recess. Even though we had a lot of built up energy, everyone cooperated and we made it through!
Hopefully the weather cooperates for the rest of the week as testing continues. We rearranged our schedule a little bit and now have time every day to fill out our assignment notebooks and then have me check it over. You will notice a smiley face or star towards the bottom of the page to let you know I have looked it over. Hopefully this helps everyone!
UPDATE: Your child may have "Science Review Sheet" written in under science for tonight. After we had it written in, I determined it would be better for us to do it as a class tomorrow. Instead, their homework is to continue working on their animal creation that is due on Friday. I submitted the book order on Friday, and it should be here this week, so watch for your order to be coming home in your child's backpack on Friday. Thanks to everyone who ordered! We had a large enough order that they included 10 free books and $25 worth of books for us to add to our classroom library, so that is wonderful!!!
Students have an English Quiz tomorrow (Wednesday) with Ms. Starwalt. There will be a science test on Chapter 4 on Friday. We finished Chapter 2 in Religion, so that quiz will also be on Friday. Next week is the ITBS testing. Some families had signed up at Parent Night to bring snacks, so please double check if that was you. It is very important that students get a good night sleep and have a good breakfast so they can concentrate during the test. There will be no homework assigned during the week. We have changed the layout of Vocabulary lessons. Please see Vocabulary on the Classes page of my website for the updates. The next spelling quiz will be September 26. (it got moved due to testing). Any parents who would like to volunteer in our classroom, be a part of our classroom parties, or go on field trips with us need to attend the Safe Environment Training TOMORROW at 5:30 in the MP Room. If you have not already registered, please contact Mrs. Brown in the school office at 359-4114.
All grades will be updated online (there was not internet yesterday) by 5 pm tonight. We will be checking for eligibility tomorrow morning. We started reading Holes this week and students received their first assignment (Chapters 1-4 due Thursday). The homework does take some time, so please help your child find a quiet place to read and do their homework each night. They will also need a dictionary to look up words for each chapter. Division is quite challenging for students who do now know their facts (up to 9x9). Daily practice is the only way to get these facts memorized. - Hot Lunch Thursdays begins tomorrow! Pizza - PUREly YOU order forms are due this Friday if you are interested. - Book Orders are also due this Friday. Thank you to everyone who was able to come to Parent Night. I hope you found it helpful. I enjoyed meeting all of you!
We survived a full, hot week! As a treat, there is NO official homework for math this weekend - enjoy the long weekend! IF you do have extra time, practicing multiplication facts and how to divide is always helpful! Next week we will start reading Holes in reading, continue talking about life cycles in science, work with long division in math,, and do some writing with our vocabulary words. Due Dates:
It was a tough Monday with it being hot and everyone adjusting to a school schedule again. We were all a little sleepy. Our lunch is at 11:45, and a lot of students complain about being hungry before then, so please make sure they are eating a good breakfast.
Things to be aware of this week: Thursday - no hot lunch (Hot lunches will start in September) Grade 4-8 Parent Night @ 6:30 Friday - no buses Grandparent's Mass at 8:10 in the new gym Monday (September 1) - no school. Labor Day Students should be practicing their multiplication facts every day at home. We really need them to be completely memorized so we can focus on multiplying bigger numbers. If you have any questions or need some practice pages, please let me know. Otherwise, there are a lot of great websites that make pra |