Mrs. Ralston's Weekly Update
1-8-16
Welcome Back!
What a fabulous first week back! I was so impressed with our class this whole week. Even after a two-week break they quickly jumped right back into our routine and started working hard first thing Tuesday morning. I have high hopes for and a great feeling about third quarter!
Important Dates
Jan. 12th
3.1 Spelling HW due & test
Jan. 14th
Weekly Math HW 19 due
Jan. 15th
No School- Staff Development Day
Jan. 18th
No School- Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Jan. 29th
No school- Staff Development Day
Upcoming Learning
English Language Arts: We are currently exploring the essential question of 'What can learning about different cultures teach us?' We are reading realistic fiction texts to learn about this topic. We are practicing summarizing, identifying theme, and using context clues. The focus in our writing is informal and formal voice. Also, they are learning about subject/verb agreement and open syllables.
Math: We are dividing decimals by decimals and applying our knowledge to real world problems.
Social Studies: We are starting research for our heroes project.
Fifth Grade Heroes Project
Historically, Shawnee Mission fifth graders have participated in a research project over a notable hero. This week we started our heroes projects in Social Studies! If you have older children you will quickly notice this year's hero project looks slightly different than years' past. The main changes in our heroes project are:
- The essay is more argumentative/opinion based and students will not only need to share important information about their person's life, but also give their opinion as to why SFT should build a statue of their hero (hypothetical situation.)
- The whole project is paper free. All of their work will be managed via Google Classroom and Google Docs. Your child can show you their work in progress on their iPads.
- We will have an essay contest with one winner from our class and one from Mr. Dial's room. The most convincing and well-written essays will be considered.
- We will be integrating art into this project by having students create a miniature clay sculpture of their hero.
Mrs. Lindsey Ralston
Email: lindseyralston@smsd.org
Location: Santa Fe Trail Elementary School, Overland Park, KS, United States
Phone: 9139935042
Twitter: @mrsralstonsft