Important Dates
Sept. 30 Last Official Magazine Sales Turn-in Day
Oct. 2 Homecoming
Homecoming Week!!!
In celebration of homecoming week, DMS will have a few “dress up” days. They are as follows:
Wednesday-“Superhero/Villain/Your Hero Day”(superhero shirts or gear, or a favorite villain, or their personal hero)
Thursday- “Pajama Day”
Friday- “Spirit Day” (wear red & blue!!!- but, please no face paint)
*Remember- dress up days are intended to be fun, however, if costumes are a distraction to learning, students will be asked to remove the items/change.
Academic Opportunity
Starting this week, 5th graders are going to be held accountable for completing their schoolwork in a timely manner. Students are expected to complete assignments and turn them in on time. If students develop a pattern of not completing work on time, they will be asked to attend “AO” (academic opportunity). This is NOT a detention, AO is an opportunity for students to complete work (with available assistance), and hopefully develop study skills and time management skills that allow them to be successful in the future. Because we all make mistakes and forget things once in awhile, each student will have 4 “freebies.” After the freebies are used up, students will stay after school (or come in early the next morning) to complete the work and get back on track. If/when this happens, your child will email you notifying you of the need to stay for AO. For more information, please refer to the student handbook in your child’s planner.
Safe School Security
Once students are in the building each morning, all exterior doors will be locked and will stay locked all day. In order to enter to the building during the day, visitors must go to the front door and follow directions to push a buzzer to be admitted.
Magazine Sales
Magazine sales are off to a good start. Remember, magazine sales monies are used for field trips and various projects around the school; all money raised directly benefits students.
Orchestra
There was a wonderful turnout of both students and parents at the orchestra meeting last week. So many people there that the meeting had to move to the cafeteria. The first lessons have already begun. Please check the dates and be sure that arrangements have been made for students to have their instruments and supplies. Thanks for your support.
For your reference, here is an electronic copy of the 5th grade orchestra handout. Also, here are the dates for future lessons leading up to the first official orchestra day.
What’s Needed for Orchestra?
NEWS FLASH!!
From Mr. Peterson. In science we have been constructing food chains and learning how consumers use the food they eat. Next week we will have a short quiz on food chains and begin some experiments about plants (producers) and see if we can “catch” some really tiny critters in the creek. In reading we summarizes narrative text and talked some more about themes. Next week we will learn more about how to cite evidence for our ideas and how to have conversations about our ideas. In writing we are moving into longer narratives after spending some time on short narrative descriptions.
From Mrs. Nowack: In science class we continued observing and measuring weather conditions. This week our lessons have been about measuring weather conditions and about high and low pressure systems. We also wrapped up our “moldy bread” experiment! In reading class, this week our lessons were a review of fictional story elements- characters, setting, plot. We also started learning about theme. You should see your child reading about 20 min/night- ask your child what he/she is reading and what connections he/she can make to what they are reading. In language class, we narrowed and evaluated our memoir ideas. Our writing/grammar lessons were on sequential and descriptive words and tricky verbs. FYI~ next week’s VIP is Seth.
From Mrs. Suhr: Social Studies - We are continuing chapter 2 about Native American cultures in the 1400 and 1500’s. We have been exploring how these early Americans adapted to their environments. I am planning on a test on Wed., Sept. 30. Language: We have been listening to a read-aloud as a sample memoir. We are learning about what a memoir is, then students will be writing a memoir of their own!
From Mrs. Halweg: Your student will be bringing home their first math test tonight. Along with the test, they also have a small white sheet that explains the rubric used to assess the skills we are learning- since they will not be receiving a letter grade for math this year. The white sheet is yours to keep, please look over the test with your student and sign it. Their “homework” assignment is to bring it back to me on Monday with your signature. Our next unit of study includes adding, subtracting, and multiplying with decimals.
From Mr. Kelley: In reading students have worked on summarizing narrative text and finding the theme of a story. We read several short children’s books and discussed what we believed the message was that the author wanted us to learn. In writing, students are composing short narrative pieces working on elaboration of details and dialogue. We finished our geography unit and are currently beginning to study how Native American cultures migrated and adapted to the various environments in which they settled.
Sept. 30 Last Official Magazine Sales Turn-in Day
Oct. 2 Homecoming
Homecoming Week!!!
In celebration of homecoming week, DMS will have a few “dress up” days. They are as follows:
Wednesday-“Superhero/Villain/Your Hero Day”(superhero shirts or gear, or a favorite villain, or their personal hero)
Thursday- “Pajama Day”
Friday- “Spirit Day” (wear red & blue!!!- but, please no face paint)
*Remember- dress up days are intended to be fun, however, if costumes are a distraction to learning, students will be asked to remove the items/change.
Academic Opportunity
Starting this week, 5th graders are going to be held accountable for completing their schoolwork in a timely manner. Students are expected to complete assignments and turn them in on time. If students develop a pattern of not completing work on time, they will be asked to attend “AO” (academic opportunity). This is NOT a detention, AO is an opportunity for students to complete work (with available assistance), and hopefully develop study skills and time management skills that allow them to be successful in the future. Because we all make mistakes and forget things once in awhile, each student will have 4 “freebies.” After the freebies are used up, students will stay after school (or come in early the next morning) to complete the work and get back on track. If/when this happens, your child will email you notifying you of the need to stay for AO. For more information, please refer to the student handbook in your child’s planner.
Safe School Security
Once students are in the building each morning, all exterior doors will be locked and will stay locked all day. In order to enter to the building during the day, visitors must go to the front door and follow directions to push a buzzer to be admitted.
Magazine Sales
Magazine sales are off to a good start. Remember, magazine sales monies are used for field trips and various projects around the school; all money raised directly benefits students.
Orchestra
There was a wonderful turnout of both students and parents at the orchestra meeting last week. So many people there that the meeting had to move to the cafeteria. The first lessons have already begun. Please check the dates and be sure that arrangements have been made for students to have their instruments and supplies. Thanks for your support.
For your reference, here is an electronic copy of the 5th grade orchestra handout. Also, here are the dates for future lessons leading up to the first official orchestra day.
What’s Needed for Orchestra?
- AN INSTRUMENT of the correct size and in good playing condition. Cellos and basses are rented from the school. Violin and viola players rent their instruments from Kephart’s or another source.
- Sound Innovations for String Orchestra, book 1 (be sure the book has the same name as your instrument)
- A MUSIC STAND
- A SOFT CLOTH to keep the instrument clean
- A SHOULDER REST for violin and viola players. You may use a foam pad and a large rubber band
- A ROCK STOP for cello and bass players. This is a round black piece of foam rubber, about the size of a hockey puck, that the end pin is placed on to prevent slipping.
- ROSIN for cello and bass players. Violin and viola players will have rosin in their cases.
- A PENCIL and a BLACK 3-RING BINDER- bring to class everyday! Their PLANNER- to record assignments and lesson dates
- A DAMPIT (optional, but highly recommended) to help humidify the instrument in the dry heating season
- A CHROMATIC TUNER (optional) the students will use this to tune their instruments, there are free apps available as well (I like the app Tuner Lite)
NEWS FLASH!!
From Mr. Peterson. In science we have been constructing food chains and learning how consumers use the food they eat. Next week we will have a short quiz on food chains and begin some experiments about plants (producers) and see if we can “catch” some really tiny critters in the creek. In reading we summarizes narrative text and talked some more about themes. Next week we will learn more about how to cite evidence for our ideas and how to have conversations about our ideas. In writing we are moving into longer narratives after spending some time on short narrative descriptions.
From Mrs. Nowack: In science class we continued observing and measuring weather conditions. This week our lessons have been about measuring weather conditions and about high and low pressure systems. We also wrapped up our “moldy bread” experiment! In reading class, this week our lessons were a review of fictional story elements- characters, setting, plot. We also started learning about theme. You should see your child reading about 20 min/night- ask your child what he/she is reading and what connections he/she can make to what they are reading. In language class, we narrowed and evaluated our memoir ideas. Our writing/grammar lessons were on sequential and descriptive words and tricky verbs. FYI~ next week’s VIP is Seth.
From Mrs. Suhr: Social Studies - We are continuing chapter 2 about Native American cultures in the 1400 and 1500’s. We have been exploring how these early Americans adapted to their environments. I am planning on a test on Wed., Sept. 30. Language: We have been listening to a read-aloud as a sample memoir. We are learning about what a memoir is, then students will be writing a memoir of their own!
From Mrs. Halweg: Your student will be bringing home their first math test tonight. Along with the test, they also have a small white sheet that explains the rubric used to assess the skills we are learning- since they will not be receiving a letter grade for math this year. The white sheet is yours to keep, please look over the test with your student and sign it. Their “homework” assignment is to bring it back to me on Monday with your signature. Our next unit of study includes adding, subtracting, and multiplying with decimals.
From Mr. Kelley: In reading students have worked on summarizing narrative text and finding the theme of a story. We read several short children’s books and discussed what we believed the message was that the author wanted us to learn. In writing, students are composing short narrative pieces working on elaboration of details and dialogue. We finished our geography unit and are currently beginning to study how Native American cultures migrated and adapted to the various environments in which they settled.