The Putney Post
West Homer Elementary--5th Grade
Dates to Remember
April 22- Spring Music Concert 7pm
April 25- Pratt Museum Field Trip 12:00-3:00
April 29 and May 6- Boys and Girls Health Classes
May 1, 2, 3- Fifth Grade Mystery Field Trip
May 15- Sandwich Book Report due
May 17- Landmark Exhibit due
May 21- Parent Night 4:30-6:00
May 22- Last Day of School
Classroom Happenings
Although it was only four days, this past week was filled with great learning! We are over half way through our poetry unit and well on our way to understanding of how to multiply fractions.
In reading students read their self-selected poetry book with their reading partner. In their response journal, students identified main ideas, literary devices and interesting words within their poetry reading. We also completed our April reading fluency test. Each month I assess students' reading fluency through timed reads. Although this test does not provide data on students’ ability to comprehend, it does give me an idea of how their reading fluency is improving. It was so much fun to sit down with each student this week and look at the fluency growth they have made over the course of the year!
In math we continued our work with fractions. We discussed similarities and differences between multiplying fractions and multiplying whole numbers. Students have realized through repeated practice, and many visuals, that when multiplying fractions your answer is smaller than your two factors.
Finally, in writing students continued their work with poetry. We started the week off with personification. Students were asked to take off a shoe and then give their shoe human qualities. We had talking, singing, and dancing shoes full of personality! Then students wrote a concrete poem personifying an inanimate object. By the end of the week we took a look at onomatopoeia. Students created an onomatopoeia rap with their table groups and then each student wrote a sounds poem. The sounds poem asked students to think of a favorite place and then describe that place based upon the sounds that can be heard while in that specific location.
What's Next?
This next week we will begin our research projects. The first hour of each day will be spent in the computer lab using online sources to research our topics. Students will be taught the skills of annotating text, highlighting and summarizing. On Tuesday we will make a visit to our school library to find print resources that relate to student's topic of study. In math we will be exploring division of fractions. By the end of the week students should be able to recognize that all division problems can be solved by inverting the dividing factor and then multiplying.
Health Curriculum Notice
The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District has an adopted health curriculum. This curriculum is taught in schools throughout the district in accordance with the School Board's directive, and students within West Homer Elementary will be receiving instruction on April 29 and May 6.
Growth and Development- Discussion of puberty and anatomy of the reproductive system
Video "Healthy Teens: The New Me" (one video for the girls, another video for the boys)
In accordance with District policy, parents may opt out of the health lessons. You are also welcome to preview the videos at school, if you would like. Please contact Laura Peek, our school nurse, with specific questions regarding the content of the curriculum.
· If you do not want your child to participate I need to know before April 29th. Thank you!
Spring Music Concert---April 22 @7pm
Our spring concert is this Monday at 7:00pm at Mariner Theater (Homer High School). Students need to arrive at 6:30pm. Looking forward to seeing you there!
Quarter 4 Research Project: Historical Landmarks
It is your child's responsibility to construct an exhibit of their landmark at home. Please discuss the plan for completion of the exhibit with your child. The final product is not officially due until May 17. However, students should have materials gathered and start constructing their projects this week.
Overnight Field Trip: May 1, 2, 3
This Friday students will be introduced to their camp chaperones. Each student has been placed in a work group and a yurt group. While at camp, students will spend a majority of their day in their work group as they rotate through their natural history stations and rope course experiences. Yurt groups will be the students and adult that your child spends the evening with. This coming Friday students will eat lunch with their work groups. Students will discover who is in their yurt group during a scavenger hunt on the first day of camp.
Field trip permission slips and money were due last week. If your paperwork has not been turned in and I have not heard from you, I will be touching base with you sometime this next week.
Hershey Track and Field Meet-- Saturday, May 25th
Hershey Track & Field Meet!
Do you want to go the distance, learn new activities, make new friends, and come out on top no matter what place you take? You’re on the right track! Welcome to HERSHEY’S Track & Field Games.
You don't need to be a star athlete to participate in track & field. You just need to have fun. And you’ll start having fun from day one. Check this out, the fun part isn’t winning (of course, that’s pretty fun too), but it’s running and jumping and throwing. It’s meeting lots of kids just like you. It’s not a video game, it’s a real game. It’s not watching others on a TV show, it’s being the star of your own show. In one word, it’s awesome. Every HERSHEY’S Track & Field Games meet offers running events, like the 50-meter dash and the 800-meter run, and field events, like the softball throw and the standing long jump. And that’s just for starters. If you work hard enough and qualify in your events, you’ll get the chance to compete at the North American Final in Hershey, Pennsylvania. P.S. The trip to Hershey is totally FREE and you get to do a lot of cool things like go to Hersheypark, visit HERSHEY’S CHOCOLATE WORLD Attraction, and tour HERSHEY'S state of the art chocolate factory.
If you're between 9 and 14 years old and everything we said sounds pretty cool, you can sign up now for a HERSHEY'S Track & Field Games meet that will be held at Homer High on Saturday, May 25th! Call 235-6090.
If you have any questions, please let me know. Please forward to anyone else may be interested.
Thanks,
Mike Illg, CPRP
Recreation Coordinator
City of Homer Community Recreation
907.235.6090
www.homercommunityrecreation.com
Late Start or Early Release Survey
Parents, please take two minutes to offer your preference about an early release or late start seven times in the coming school year. The KPBSD survey is online, and open until April 20. Thank you.
Link: http://bit.ly/SurveyEarlyReleaseLateStartKPBSD
IXL Math Practice
Spelling and Vocabulary Practice
http://www.spellingcity.com/eputney/
Play games and get extra practice with our weekly spelling and vocabulary words on SpellingCity.com. If you need your child's password please let me know!