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High Five Highlights

January 2 10, 2014 Happy Birthday!
Soham Jan. 30

Important Dates:
Jan. 13 Science-Go-Round (9:20a.m. 11:55a.m.) Jan. 17 Early Release @ 1:15p.m. Jan. 20 Holiday SCHOOL CLOSED Jan. 22 Night of the Arts & Morrisvilles Got Talent (6:30p.m.)

Notes from Ms. Allen:

Morrisville Cares and S hares: During the month of January, we will be collecting food of all types at MES. All donations can be placed in the large box in the lobby. All of your donations go to Wake Relief Food Pantry in Raleigh. Parents, please check to make sure your child has enough pencils, erasers, highlighters, and glue sticks. It helps our day run much more smoothly when everyone has the supplies they need. If you would like to send in extra supplies for our classroom, we can always use more pencils, pencil-top erasers, glue sticks, and highlighters. Thanks! Thank you so very much to our room mom, Devon Siege, for organizing and helping us create our Night of the Arts project! The students worked hard this week to create strips of t-shirt loops, which will be sewn together into a fun and colorful rug by Devon! We have had lots of fun with this project, and cant wait to see the finished project!

What Were Working On:

Reading: In reading, we have been practicing determining the theme of a fiction text and
determining whether or not a fiction text falls into the fantasy genre. Students have practiced these skills with several texts independently and in small groups. We have also started literature circles back up again, and students have enjoyed rich discussions about the novels their literature circle is reading. We will move on next week to discuss character interactions in fiction text.

Writing: In writing, students are working on using narrative techniques, such as creating
dialogue between characters, describing events in detail, and adequate pacing to develop a small moment fantasy. Students will work next week on adding transitions to their fantasy to help it flow better. After they have practiced all of the necessary techniques, students will put them all together to create a small moment fantasy.

Science: In science, we have begun our study of ecosystems. Students have practiced
categorizing organisms as producers, consumers, and decomposers, and we have begun studying the differences between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Students have

used the soda bottles they brought in at the beginning of the year to set up terrariums with grass, mustard, and alfalfa seeds. We hope to see some sprouts soon so that the live crickets and pill bugs we add to the terrariums will have something to eat!

Social Studies: In social studies, we have begun a unit on the origins, structure,
and function of the United States government. Students have investigated the ancient government systems that inspired our Founding Fathers while writing the Constitution, and we have begun discussing the people who make up the 3 branches of the government and the roles and responsibilities they have. We will have a quiz on the U.S. government next week.

Math: In math, we have begun a unit on fractions, which we will be studying for the
students have retained from 4th grade! This will be very helpful to them as we move

entire 3rd quarter. I have been so impressed with the knowledge of fractions that the forward in adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing fractions. Students will first gain practice with representing these operations with models, and then we will move on to practicing with the standard algorithm. We will have a test on adding and subtracting fractions in 2 weeks.