Weekly Highlights
Mrs. Jaeger's 5th Grade Classroom
News and Notes
Wednesday, March 23rd - Reading Olympics Meeting @ 8:00am
Thursday, March 24th - Monday, March 28th - Spring Break
Tuesday, April 5th - Social Studies Assessment - Chapter 10
Monday, April 11th - Thursday, April 14th - PSSA (English Language Arts)
Monday, April 18th - Wednesday, April 20th - PSSA (Math)
Friday, May 27th - Philadelphia Field Trip
Social Studies
Tensions Grow in the Colonies
This week in Social Studies we will tackle the Stamp Act and touch on the Boston Massacre. To help students capture a clearer picture of this major event leading up to the war, we will be watching an Unsolved History: Boston Massacre video. Scientists will take a look at the claimed events from Paul Revere's engraving and explore (through science) if the events happened the way the colonists say they did. It is an incredible video - I know many of the kids will want to discuss it with you.
I am also working with students at the end of our Social Studies class time to create and develop flash cards to help prepare them for independent study at home. Hopefully they will begin to add their own questions to their flash card pile as more information is presented.
Ask your child:
Tell me about how the colonists felt during the time period you are studying. Why?
What does the phrase "taxation without representation" mean?
What was the Stamp Act?
Who were the two sides that fought during the French and Indian War?
What did King George III Proclaim in 1763?
What happened at the Custom's House in Boston?
Who's famous engraving tells the events of the Boston Massacre?
Who do you think is to blame for starting what was named the Boston Massacre?
More review resources posted on my Social Studies - Chapter 10 webpage. See below.
Reading
This week in reading, students will be evaluated on their reading comprehension, specifically in the areas of; cause and effect, making connections, recall and retell; and author's message. Students will also have several opportunities to showcase their analytical and essay writing skills through the written response questions on the LEAD 21 assessment. Students appear to need two reading periods to complete this assessment (largely due to the amount of writing required) and it will take up the bulk of our time together in reading this week.
On Wednesday, I hope to work with the students on analyzing two additional poems, Tugboat at Daybreak and Spring Storm. Students will be 'digging deeper' to determine the theme, message, and examples of literary devices incorporated in both poems.
Please remind your child to review their vocabulary words nightly to help them build their personal dictionary.
Writing
This week in writing we will focus on our grammar skills, specifically with helping verbs, appositives, and possessive nouns. To help the students gain and understanding of what these items are, I show them examples from books we are reading together so they can see the parts of grammar in real writing. Students try to then imitate sentences of their own that incorporate the topic skill and finally try to find published examples in their novels.
Ask your child:
What is a helping verb?
What is an example of a sentence that uses an "appositive"?
How is the phrase "Luke's book about the Population Police..." different than "Lukes book about the Population Police..."?
Megan Jaeger
Email: mjaeger@cbsd.org
Website: http://www.cbsd.org/Page/2963
Phone: 267.893.3700