Mr. Larosa's Blog

It's been great being back in the classroom for a few weeks. These students have been outstanding and have handled change with a lot of maturity.

Review Geometric terms and concepts using this website:

http://www.infoplease.com/math/knowledgebox/

Immigration Day was great. The students were in character all day and we even had a swearing in ceremony with Mrs. Yates, our Assistant Principal. The family tree projects were great, too. The students were extremely excited to share their heritage.

In Reading, we are halfway through "Scat", a book by Carl Hiaasen. It is extrememly descriptive. Please ask your child to update you as this story unfolds.

In S.S., we are heading into The Great War. The students are excited to learn about the new innovations in warfare since the Civil War, including airplanes, tanks, and trench warfare.

In Science, we are wrapping up States of Matter with Mrs. Vann. The students will have their writing project due to her on February 8. Then the calss gets to stay with in Douglas / LaRosa's room for the "Constructive and Destructive Forces of Nature" unit.

In Language Arts, we are writing persuasive pieces. Currently, we are writing parents a persuasive letter.

In Math, we are working very hard to understand geometry. We will continue to practice vocabulary and previously learned concepts. Students are preparing to find area of solid and 2D figures, find the volume, and circumference using formulae.

Please continue to sign agendas, daily. This is an important tool for us to communicate with. Also, please review ALL material in the Thursday folder, including their behavior update.

In honor of Hispanic Heriatge Month, our class has been participating in a S.S. extension project that includes creating a map of Central and South America, making flags that represent these countries, polling the student population, and advertising the month in a poster. Ask your child what they have contributed to this project.

We had a wonderful visit from the Cobb County Superior Court today, Judge Ingram. She was in extremely informative and gracious. Some students even won prizes for answering questions. Judge Ingram gave a face to our local court system.

Have your child play the Bill of Rights game as a culminating activity to end our unit.

http://www.constitutioncenter.org/BillOfRightsGame/

Please work on mental math strategies at home. Ask your child about BA (break apart) and MAT (make a ten). Refer to their math journals.

Also, next week is our last week with Mrs. Wright for the electricity and magnetism science unit. We will have a test Sept. 22nd on current electricy and magnetism.

August 23, 2011
Welcome to 5th grade.

Mrs. Douglas and I are excited to work with you this year. We have already started getting acquainted with our class and fallen into our routines.

Math- we started math compacting today. These 9 weeks will focus on place value, divisibility rules and functions of numbers, and finally we will multiply and divide numbers with decimals. If your child is in our math class, please review their Math Journal with them and sign the log every Thursday night. The journal is considered a study guide and will be used for everything in math class.

Reading- We will begin these 9 weeks working on building good reading habits, setting reading goals, and implementing the use of the UNRAAAVEL strategy. We tell the class that we must see physical evidence that they used the strategy, so their papers may look messy while we practice.

Science- We will rotate into Mrs. Wright's science class to learn about electricity and magnetism for 5 weeks.

Social Studies- We are beginning to study U.S. geography. We will learn the location of all 50 states and then build in the capitals. We have memorized the first 10. You may use the following website to study.

http://www.mrnussbaum.com/cstates/index.html

http://www.funbrain.com/cgi-bin/wh.cgi?A1=s&A15=usa&A2=0&Submit=Show+Me+The+Maps%21

We are also studying Rights and Responsibilites of citizens.

Language Arts- every day we are completing Mountain Language. We are also reviewing the 9 parts of speech, subjects and predicates, and types of sentences.

Spelling- we are working on spelling sort #1- suffixes -ed
We've published all of our sorts on Spelling City's website. Search for "Big Shanty", then "Jamee Douglas", when looking for a list.

http://www.spellingcity.com/djl12792/

We are excited and looking forward to a great year ahead.

5th Grade Important Dates
May 6 Library Books Due
May 9 Parents’ Night at Awtrey—7:00 PM
May 13 Charges no longer permitted in the lunch room after May 13.
May 18 Field Day—12:00-1:20
May 19 Fifth Grade Celebration—10:30-1:30
May 24 Dismissal— 1:30
May 25 Last day of school for students - 1:30 Dismissal
***Wear your 5th Grade T-shirt!***
Award’s Ceremony—5A 8:00 / 5B 9:00
5th grade Walk— 1:00 pm
June 3 Report Cards
~ mailed home if stamps were received by teacher
*or available for pick-up on date specified on website
We look forward to a wonderful ending to the 2010-2011 school year and wish our 5th graders the very best!
The Fifth Grade Teachers of Big Shanty

Authors' Night was a huge success. Thank you to all the parents who came early and helped set up. This assignment, What is War?, is an example of the problem based learning that your child has been doing all year. Since the social studies curriculum begins with the Civil War and ends with the current wars in the Middle East, it is important for us to check for understanding through this performance based project. If you did not get a chance to see our students' displays, we will be sending out invites to our Wiki page soon. We are very proud of how our students used their creativity and empathy to illustrate the impact war has on the individual.

Reminders: The BSI Spring Carnival is tonight, April 29th, from 5:30 - 8:30. Tickets are available at the event. Relay for Life will be hosting a mock relay on Friday, May 6th during their specials. Students can buy a healthy popsicle at school for $1 to eat while they walk. All proceeds go to Relay for Life. It's not too late to join Relay for Life and walk with us at Jim Miller Park that night at 7:00.

The Tenessee field trip was a big success. Thank you to all our volunteers for making it possible.

The 5th performance will be held Tuesday, March 8th at 6:30pm in the cafeteria. Students need to be in their homerooms by 6pm.

LET’S BE POSITIVE.
Dear Parents,
CRCT is just around the corner, and many children do have test anxiety even though they may not show it. So, to help ease their anxiety and make them feel more confident and comfortable before the test, please send in 5 small notes of encouragement (one for each day of the CRCT), to be left on his/her desk each morning. You can label them Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, etc… or Math, Reading, Language Arts, Science and Social Studies, if you’d like to be more specific. The notes can be as simple as “do your best”, “you’re awesome”, ”I know you can do it”, “good luck”, or just a simple “I love you”. If possible, please place them in separate envelopes and send them together in one larger envelope or paper bag before April 2nd. Thanks for your cooperation. A little note can make a big difference.

Fun Math Games for finding and exploring area:

http://www.hbschool.com/search/search.html

Congratuations to Khalil Jackson. He is now Big Shanty's Geography Bee champion and Spelling Bee champion. We are extremely proud of him.

News from our PTA ~

Hello Everyone,

I just got word from our Yearbook Rep. that 5th grade dedications, which are found on the final pages of our yearbook, are only available for purchase until this Sat. 1/22. I know that seems rushed, but with last week's unexpected cancellation, everything is being rushed. If you know anyone with a 5th grader, please pass this info onto them.

The Jostens site for the dedication is http://jostensadservice.com?REF=A09859750

The instructions are simple, as is the ease of composing the dedication, due the available template for your chosen photo and send-off message. Each ad is an 1/8 of a page and cost $25. It must be purchased and paid for with a credit card on the Jostens site.

We hope you all had a wonderful break. We are beginning a new semester, so we are beginning a new math compacting rotation. Your child may have a new math teacher. Ms. Douglas and I are continuing our unit on fractions and will be moving on to geometry.

Our students began a fictional narrative before the break. The published work is due Friday, January 14th.

We are wrapping up Reconstruction in social studies and preparing immigration.

The fifth grade geography bee will be held Friday, January 7th, and the 5th grade spelling bee is Friday, January 14th.

Please continue to check your child's agenda nightly and sign their Math Masters folder that is due every Friday. You may notice that we are slowly increasing the homework load. We are doing this to prepare them for middle school as well as the CRCT that is just four months away.

Thanks again for a successful Reader's Theater during our holiday party.

Online textbooks
Online Access to Textbooks

Science - www.thinkcentral.com username - school id number password - school log in

Social Studies - www.eduplace.com/eservices username- cobbstudent4 password-password
Math- www.eharcourtschool.com - In progress (this one involves quite a bit more set up)-- when this is fully operational you will have your username and password on the inside of your agenda (it's different for each student)

Also, please remember to have your child dress in their "Sunday best" for the symphony field trip Tuesday, 12/7. No jeans, sneakers, or t-shirts, please.