• Language Arts: Simple Solutions - Lesson 2 (p. 4 & 5)
• Reading: No homework
• Social Studies: Simple Solutions - Lesson 1 (p. 2-9) due Thursday; quiz Friday on Lesson 1 (*We will review in class on Thursday.)

• Reading: No homework
• Language Arts: Finish p. 2 of Simple Solutions (if you did not do so in class)
• Social Studies: Lessons 1-4 of Simple Solutions due Thursday

This week, we will work on the following:

• Reading: On Friday, we began preparing to read Frindle, by Andrew Clements, together. We talked about the stages of plot (problem, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution) and placed them on a bell curve, and the students also learned and defined some of the vocabulary words from the novel.  This week, we will begin reading Frindle.  While reading, we will discuss any additional vocabulary words, which the students will write in their notebooks.  After every two or three chapters, we will stop and complete an activity that may focus on character development, character analysis, making predictions based on what has happened so far, and making judgments about a character’s actions.

•  Language Arts: This week, I am going to introduce Daily Oral Language (DOL) to the students. DOL focuses on editing sentences that have various errors, including (but not limited to) capitalization, punctuation, and incorrect verb tenses.  Each day, Language Arts class will begin with DOL.  The students will receive a binder, which they will use exclusively for DOL, and they will receive a new handout that will have 10 sentences on it each week; we will correct two sentences each day.  I will ask for volunteers to come to the board and make the necessary changes, and once everything is correct, everyone will make the corrections on his/her DOL handout. 

The students will begin working in Simple Solutions on grammar lessons, as well.

• Social Studies: Beginning this week, the students are going to learn about maps – how to read a map, physical maps, elevation maps, historical maps, regions, special-purpose maps, and current-events maps. We will also begin learning about our market economy. 

• Reading: No homework
• Language Arts: No homework
• Social Studies: Get a notebook by Monday

• Reading: No homework
• Language Arts: No homework
• Social Studies: Get a notebook by Monday. *If you have an old notebook at home that still has a lot of blank pages left, that's fine.

I want to welcome you to fifth grade. I am looking forward to meeting you and working with your child this year. 

I utilize my classroom web page daily. You will find homework postings, links to online resources, study guide attachments and more. Additionally, each weekend, I will post my learning objectives for the week as well as give you a heads up on any tests or quizzes that are coming up in the near future. To subscribe to my page:

* Visit sjscatholic.org

* Click on "Parents" at the very top

* Click on "Classroom Pages" on the right

* Click on my name on the left side

* On the right, click "Subscribe"

* Enter your information

Then, please be sure to subscribe to Mrs. Ruden's and Mrs. Plascencia’s web pages as well. Your child will have classes with both of them as well, and we will all post our homework on our respective web pages. 

Each evening around 6pm, an email will be pushed out to you with the homework post for the day.  If you do not want to wait for the 6pm email, please just visit my web page after 2:30 to view any homework.  As always, your child should be using their assignment notebook, and my web page should only be used as a back up.

I look forward to a great year!