The Johnson/Guest Journal

Fall has begun!!!

It's already fall!  Where is the cool weather? 

This week begins a number of changes for our class.  We have our new math classes on Monday.  Your child brought home a note with his/her new math teacher's name.  Should you need to contact her, please do so through the Big Shanty website.  This is our last week of Science with Mrs. Johnson.  Next week we will work with another teacher for our new unit.  Also, we begin 4H this week.  On Monday you will receive further information about what 4H does in our school.  We shall continue working on our research papers.  We've done a lot on the computers, we'll go to the media center for research in encyclopedias and other reference materials, and then we shall use books from the classroom and the media center to enhance our information.  We'll begin the actual writing late this week or next, then progress to our powerpoint presentations the following week. 

CoGat testing is this Wednesday and Thursday.  Please make sure that your child gets a good night's sleep and has a healthful breakfast each morning.  We'll continue testing next Monday through Friday with the ITBS.  Again, a well-rested, well-fed child shows more accurately what he/she knows.  A bottle of water is a good idea for each child to have available during testing.

Our field trip to Kennesaw Mountain is October 15.  If you have not sent in the permission form with payment, please do so by Wednesday.  Thank you.

Below is this week's spelling list with assignments. 

Have a great week!

Eileen Johnson & Nicole Guest

Spelling

paragraph

sentence

punctuation

addition

subtraction

multiplication

division

equals

equation

expression

picture

photograph

autograph

pictograph

phonograph

answer

Alphabetize.

Write each word and illustrate each one (I’ll show an example).

Categorize.

Best writing.

Test on Friday.

 

Wow!!!  What a refreshing change in the weather! 

This week brings a lot of events to Big Shanty.  We have an early release day for students on Wednesday.  The students will leave at 12:15 on that day.  A cultural arts performance is scheduled for that day.  If your child has not returned the Performing Arts permission form, he/she will miss the performance.  Please make sure that your child's form has been given to us. 

On Thursday our Academic Alerts will be sent home to all in the Thursday folders.  Each student's average in the subject areas will be on the report.  Everyone will receive one, not just students who are not working up to their potential.  Please sign the alert and return the bottom portion on Friday.  This information will be in addition to the usual paperwork which goes home on Thursdays.

We will begin our Civil War biographical research this week.   As we are learning how to research in books, encyclopedias, periodicals as well as on the internet, we are going to do the majority of the research work at school.  After we begin writing the essays, we may encourage the students to work at home on this. 

Our new Math units will begin on Monday, Sept. 24.  Pretests will be given this week. 

The students were quite interested in the celery activity.  Some asked whether or not flowers would change color if living plants were watered with colored water.  We are going to test their hypothesis  beginning this week......stay tuned for the outcome.  Retests on the classification system of living things will be this week:  Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species.  A mnemonic device for studying:  King Phillip could order five giant sodas. 

Listed below is our spelling list with activities for the week.  Thanks for helping your child study for this weekly. 

picnic

celery

equation

tragedy

graph

topic

detail

academic

classify

character

mountain

perform

persuade

Bulldog

Yellow Jacket

Alphabetize.

Write in best writing.

Divide into syllables.

Use in a sentence (one sentence per spelling word).

Test on Friday.

Remember that our Big Shanty/Kennesaw Elementary picnic is at KE on Friday at 6:30.  Come join the fun!

Please contact us if you should have any questions. 

Eileen Johnson & Nicole Guest

September 10

We're already in our fifth week of school!  A lot will be happening this month.  Please refer to the calendar below to know what is going on at Big Shanty.  We're finishing our Math unit on place value, addition and subtraction of decimals and integers.  We'll give another pretest before we begin new Math classes on Monday, Sept. 24.

We'll begin our research on Civil War personalities next week.  Students will be given a list from which to choose.  Much of our work will be done at school as we want to ensure they use good organizational and research skills to write their report.  We are going to put it into a power point presentation of the class's projects.  As a culmination of our study of the Civil War, we'll have our field trip to Kennesaw Mountain on October 15.  Information will go home shortly regarding the specifics of the trip.

This week's spelling list is:

calendar                                organize                          national                       vascular
research                                biography                        complete                      general
officer                                   captain                            military                       civilian
Confederacy                           Union                              Civil War                     E Credit: lieutenant

Mon.- Alphabetize    Tues.-Define.     Wed.-Write three times each.  Thurs.- Best writing.  Fri.-Test.

Calendar:
Sept. 10                          Brewster's night
         13                          Pictures at Big Shanty
         19                          Early Release Day
         20                          Progress Updates sent home
         21                          Big Shanty/Kennesaw Elem. picnic @ 6:30
         24                          New Math classes
         25                          Cici's pizza night
         26 & 27                  CoGat
Oct. 1 - 5                         ITBS, Book Fair
          2                           Reading Logs due, PTA @ 6:30
         15                           Kennesaw Mountain Field Trip
         17                           Early Release (two hours early)

Please email Mrs. Guest or Mrs. Johnson should you have any questions.  Thank you for your support. 

Eileen Johnson & Nicole Guest

PLEASE REMEMBER TO SIGN AND RETURN ON FRIDAYS:   AGENDAS, THURSDAY FOLDERS, PROGRESS UPDATES, AND ANY D OR F PAPERS. 

September

Hi,                                                                                                     Sept. 3, 2007

We hope everyone had a restful Labor Day weekend.   We're ready to begin another exciting week in fifth grade.  Each week we'll try to keep you posted on the upcoming projects, units of study, and other news.  We'll also have the spelling list included on the blog with the assignments to go with the words.

We are leading up to the Civil War in Social Studies.  This will finish with a field trip on October 15 to Kennesaw Mountain.  Further information will be given as soon as we have it available.  Parents who wish to accompany us are asked to let us know as soon as possible.

Classification of Living Things is our focus in Science.  A quiz over the five kingdoms of living things will be given on Friday of this week.

We're reading "Whose Side Are You On?" in Language Arts.  Subjects and predicates are still being studied in grammar.

Please remember to sign all the Thursday materials and send them back on Friday. 

Have a great week! 

Eileen Johnson & Nicole Guest

Spelling List:

Georgia                Wednesday                thief               niece               succeed               secede
secede                  recede                      campaign        cease                boast                  height
opponent               site                          cite                 sight

       1.  Alphabetize.       2.  Define          3.  Use in sentences.         4.  Test on Friday

SIGNED  READING  LOGS  ARE  DUE  SEPTEMBER 4.