Friday, September 18, 2009

The end of the second week of the year! Thank you very much for your patience with my absences, and I am happy to report that all is well at the Carlson home as of today.

This is the first week that we've completed a story from our Reading Anthology, and we'll take our Selection Test for "Frindle" this afternoon. Students can expect a test like this every Friday for the remainder of the year.

Looking ahead to next week, students should be ready for their GEOGRAHY QUIZ next Wednesday, September23rd. Also, the GEOGRAPHY TEST is scheduled for Tuesday, September 29th.

Please continue to check PLANNERS daily for student assignments. I check all Language Arts and Social Studies entries, and the other teachers check for the Math and Science entries, so the planners should be accurate each day. This is the best place to check as I do not intend to post work on this blog daily.

If you have questions about homework, please email me in the evening. I often check my emails from home, so I may be able to answer your Social Studies and Language Arts questions in that way.

I wish you all a wonderful fall weekend and look forward to a healthier week three!

Mrs. Melisa Carlson

Summer Reading Recommendations

With all the free time of summer it seems as though we should be able to read a thousand books in June, July and August, but I can never find the time to read all the books I want to! I envy my son, who will be a fifth grader this fall, because he reads all the time. He's recently re-read the "Artemis Fowl" series and recommends each of them to you. I just finished "Surviving the Applewhites," and it was worthwhile. My favorite quote, "Education is an adventurous quest for the meaning of life, involving the ability to think things through." It sounds more complicated than it is, but we'll start our year by talking about this quote and what you think education is!

Want to get a jumpstart on fifth grade Social Studies? Take a look at this video which gives a review of geography and map skills. Can you find the absolute location of Cleveland, Ohio? Here's a hint: The correct answer will be given in degrees and minutes latitude and longitude! You can also use www.googleearth.com

Welcome to Fifth Grade!

I hope you are all having a wonderful summer! Make lots of great memories with family and friends. I'm always looking for book recommendations, so I hope you've read some good ones during the break. We'll see you here at Leighton in the fall!