Today, on Martin Luther King, Jr's birthday, we celebrated our diversity and uniqueness by switching to different classrooms, mixing students from 2nd-5th grades together.  We spent the afternoon learning more about Martin Luther King, Jr.'s life and his messages:  standing up for yourself, being proud of who you are, recognizing others' uniqueness and standing up for them with respect and kindness.

On Monday, we will continue our Wealthy Elementary tradition of our Silent March around the block (down Wealthy, then Lovett, and then back to school on Lake) to show our unity and commitment to collaboration and respect toward others.  Please make sure your 5th grader dresses appropriately for a walk (could be really cold!) as we will be leaving almost immediately after attendance has been taken in the morning.  We will have specials in the afternoon on Monday.

I forgot to send home class pictures today!  They will be sent home on Monday.  Please look for them then.

Looking ahead...
There is no school on Friday, Jan. 28th, due to records day.  You will receive an email at the end of the following week with a link to your child's report card via Skyward.

We are excited to have Laura Purdie Salas, our visiting poet,  Feb. 8-11th.  We will have an all-5th grade session with her and then have personal classroom time developing our poetry and learning new ways to creatively write.  Due to her visit, our Valentine's Day party is postponed until Feb. 16th, in the afternoon.

There is no school on Friday, Feb. 12th, or Monday, Feb. 15th, due to winter break.  ENJOY :)!

M-STEP testing will begin after Spring Break.  The fifth grade will be taking three tests:  Language Arts (2 days), Math (2 days) and Social Studies (1 day).  Each one of these subject areas will be a separate week.  If you can, please try to refrain from making any appointments during the MORNING times during the weeks of April 11th, April 18th and April 25th.  Thank you in advance for this!

Coming soon...we are looking forward to many exciting field trips that will occur in the spring. Please look for a letter coming home soon that lets you know about the dates/trips as well as the costs for the trips.  We'd like to give the opportunity to pay for these in advance before the spring rush hits!

Updates for the week!

We successfully did an Hour of Code today during math class (code.org/learn).  This is a fantastic way to practice step-by-step and problem solving skills.  There are free coding sessions on the website to be used anytime.  Check it out!  

4th Grade Flea Market...is Thursday!  Please have your child bring in up to $5 in QUARTERS (only) on Thursday.  A small grocery bag will also help keep all the little treasures together if your 5th grader would like to bring one.

Holiday Party & concert...are next Thursday!  We are planning on having our winter party on December 17 between 10:50 -11:50. We will have a Pizza Lunch party with the kids where we will use the first 1/2 hour to do a craft and then eat a pizza lunch together, listen to music, and then go out for a short recess at 11:50.  We are hoping that this frees up parent schedules to attend younger siblings parties that may take place prior to the holiday concert that afternoon at 2:15. New this year:  ALL 4th & 5th graders will be participating in the HOLIDAY CONCERT this year (not just the choir students).  Your child will get to be on stage :) with the rest of the kiddos!

Movie & popcorn morning/pajama day/Paleo Joe/read in (PHEW!)...is next Friday!  Your 5th grader will have an opportunity to watch one of three movie choices in one of the 5th grade rooms Friday morning (Dec 18th).  They may bring in ONE comfort item (pillow, blanket, small stuffed animal...it MUST be able to fit into their backpacks), a drink (NON-caffinated, please) and their favorite book(s) to read.  We will have a fun assembly with Paleo Joe in the afternoon followed by our read-in.  We will have a fun day together as a team celebrating the last school day of 2015!

Our annual 5th grade Spelling Bee (classroom edition) will be Tuesday, January 14th.  The winner & runner-up of our classroom spelling bee will move on to compete in our 4th/5th grade bee on January 25th.  The winners of the school bee will move on to regionals!  Coming home this week is a hard copy of the spelling list used for our classroom bee.  A new list for the school spelling bee will be given to the winners to study.  All this information (including the 2016 Pronunciation Guide) is located on the left side of this blog as well!  

Thank you for participating in our Kids Food Basket drive!  It was a great success!  Our leadership team, consisting of Theo, Clare and Ethan helped the other 5th grade leaders put together the packets on Friday with delivery this week.  Together, we can make such a difference.

Thank you also to Mark Wassink, Carolyn Reese and Alice Noordeloos for helping with swimming last week!  Our next swim date will be January 21st.

Have a great week!

Updates for the week!

Calendar Items:
Thanksgiving Break...November 25-27
Swimming...December 3 in pm
Kids Food Basket items...bring in by December 4
4th Grade Flea Market...December 11
Holiday Party & All-school Concert...December 17 in pm
Holiday Break...begins on December 20, return on January 4th


Book reports are in and looking fantastic. They are so proud of their work.  Thank you for your support at home!

We will be diving into the mystery genre for our first literature circle groupings--and reading aloud the Newbery award winning mystery When You Reach Me.  Expect that your child will have assigned reading most nights that will be recorded in their reading workshop folder.  Since each group will have a different schedule to follow, this will not be on the google calendar.  Which leads into my next segment...

GOOGLE CLASSROOM!

It is fun to dive into new technology that actually enhances your ability to teach and learn and doesn't cause headaches :). Google Classroom is a "hub" of sorts for all google drive apps. When your 5th grader submits a google doc/google slide/google anything, they turn it in to "Miller's Scientists" or "Mrs. Griffith's Social Studies" classrooms--which automatically shares it with their teacher(s). The nice thing? You have access to this as well. Their username/password is the same one they've had for logging into their Chromebooks. You can check out their assignments and their work.  Please have them show you! HOMEWORK NOTE: They will have a google doc to log in their assigned reading schedules for their lit circle books. This will be the place to check for reading homework instead of the google calendar.  

KIDS FOOD BASKET NEWS!   

 Student Leadership Team Updates                                     

Our Student Leadership Team has organized a school-wide service learning project. Together as a school, we are creating Supper Packs for Kid’s Food Basket. These packs are passed out to area schools to ensure that every child goes home to a nutritious dinner. In Addition to the Supper Pack, a fresh fruit, vegetable and protein source are included in each Sack Supper. We are asking each child to donate one of the following items:  individual fruit cups, juice boxes (100% juice, please), small boxes of raisins, granola bars, or  plastic bags. I may follow up with further requests depending on the number of bags we are able to fill and the remaining items.  There will be a designated spot in our classroom to collect these items, so feel free to send them in anytime. Our last collection day will be Friday, December 4. We will be making our packets that Friday morning.  Thank you for your support!

     If your last name begins with…

o   A through B- Quart size plastic Ziploc bags

o   C through H – Small raisin boxes

o   K through M – 100% juice juice boxes  (7 oz. or less)

o   P through S- Individual fruit cup

o  
T through W- Granola bars

Updates for the week

A HUGE thank you to the parents that helped with our Halloween festivities on Friday and our Parade of Homes project these last few weeks...such great events!  Be on the lookout for pictures on the Wealthy Flickr account--coming soon!

Book Reports can come in anytime!  With the variety show being the same week as our first due date, I've encouraged our 5th graders to finish before Nov. 20th so it doesn't sneak up on them!

This week conferences begin this Thursday afternoon/evening and finish next Tuesday (the 10th). I look forward to meeting with you to celebrate your child and look forward to discussing goals for the rest of the year!

The proud architects:

Quick News of the week

Spelling & Vocabulary & Word Work, all mixed into one!  
We started last week...things you should know::
*Each list extends over 2 weeks (pretest on last Monday, post test this Friday!)
*Each list consists of 3 parts:

• words we use everyday
• multi-syllabic words that can be broken down into parts to spell--usually containing a prefix/suffix and focusing on parts of speech
• "transfer" words that follow a spelling pattern (This week it is "ee" words and "ea" words.  Although this seems simple, we will be focusing on asking ourselves, "Which spelling of the word looks right?" If we know the patterns, we can try them all out and through the process of elimination, find the correct spelling).

*The words are located in their homework section of their binder.  These are to stay in the binder, as we will be working with them during school time.
*100% on the pretest means that you only spell the transfer words (8) for the post test.
*There is no homework for these lists except to practice them a few times each week (or as needed).

Book Reports...can start coming in!  If your child finishes the project early, send it in!  The final due date is November 20th. 

And now...to our oh-so-busy week that is coming up...
Monday:  October 26th:  Picture make-ups (bring back picture book if you'd like them redone)
Wednesday:  October 28th:  John Ball Zoo school program in science class!!  Thanks to our PTO for sponsoring this in-school field trip focusing on animal adapations :).
Thursday:  October 29th...Parade of Homes, investigations-style (1:00-1:45)
Friday:  October 30th...Spelling test (morning), early recess (1:45)/parade(2:10)/party(2:30-3:25)