Mrs. Shelton's Blog

So, I know that we have been requesting donations like crazy lately with the can drive, the field trips, the penny wars and the Holiday Gift Basket but I just wanted to update you on where we stood.
So far our class has accumulated $33.62 in pennies!
We’ve had one donation of an UNO card game for our gaming gift basket (for the POQA Holiday Basket Fundraiser).
We collected 46 cans of food from our class. (Thank you to all that contributed).
I will need all of the field trip permission slips returned to me by next Friday for the upcoming field trip in December.  I’d like to have everything ready to go when we return from fall break. 🙂
Please continue to send pennies for the Penny Wars because it will be a very fun and fulling service project as we assemble gift stocking for the children of the Christmas Box House!
Thanks again for all of your donations and I apologize for asking for so many donations this time of year.

***Also, just a reminder that parent teacher conferences are next Thursday.  Please feel free to schedule a time to meet with me if I have not met with you yet this year.  You can do so here:http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0944a8a72ca6ff2-201520161

I had a student today that mentioned to me that she said her parent thought I was assigning too much homework.  Please feel free to come to me if you feel that your child has too much homework.  I assign reading 20 minutes a night as well as spelling work three nights a week (per Quest’s policy).  The digital math that I have recently switched to should be done for a maximum of 30 minutes a night or until the child reaches 75%.  This enables me to see the struggles and not have to manually grade the assignments.  The purpose of the homework is not to take away from family time but simply to reinforce what we have done in class for the day.  If time allows I usually have them work on it or complete it in class.  I understand that students have extra curricular activities that take up their time, I have stated that as long as the work is completed by Friday it is not “missing.”  That does however mean that other nights will require more work.  
Anyway, I am happy to discuss this or any other issue with you during parent teacher conferences November 17th from 3:30-4:30.

Parent Teacher Conference Sign up Link 

Monday:  IXL K.13 (Round mixed #’s)
Tuesday:  IXL L3/L4 (Add/Subtract Fractions with Like Denominators)
Wednesday: IXL L.6 (Add Fractions with unlike denominators using models)
Thursday: IXL L.8 (Add Fractions with Unlike denominators)
Friday: Review any or all of the above. 🙂

Week 5 Spelling Pattern: Contractions (who’s/whose)
I’ll
they’ve
don’t 
we’re
didn’t
isn’t
couldn’t
haven’t
o’clock
you’re
who’s
whose
aren’t
it’s
doesn’t
there’s
won’t
I’ve

It’s time for the first field trip of the school year, Friday December 9th. We will be riding Frontrunner and Trax down to and in Salt Lake to the Gateway. Once we reach our destination we will be spending time in both the Clark Planetarium and the Discovery Gateway Children’s Museum. 

The fifth grade will have a one (1) chaperone to five (5) students ratio. The school will pay for chaperones’ transportation and admission fees. Parents will be randomly drawn from each class to chaperone, please note that if you are a chaperone you cannot bring other children with you on the field trip. Parents that chaperone are not to purchase food or other items for students in their group, except their own child. We will not be taking extra parents with us on this field trip. 

Though we will be eating in the Food Court at the Gateway we are asking that all students bring a home lunch as there will not be adequate time for kids to purchase a lunch there. Remember there will be no will no microwave to warm up food. 

The field trip itinerary is as follows:

8:20-8:40    Arrive at Roy Frontrunner station
8:40-8:45    Board southbound Frontrunner and leave for SLC
9:36-9:46    Arrive in SLC and board Trax (Blue Line 9:42) for Clark Planetarium
9:55-10:00  Arrive at Clark Planetarium

The 5^th grade group will be divided into two groups (designated by your child’s teacher).
Group A
10:00-10:30   Arrive at Clark Planetarium and check-in
10:30-11:15   Watch Extreme Planets movie in the IMAX Theater
11:15-12:00   Lunch in Gateway Food Court
12:00-1:00     Walk around Discovery Gateway Museum
1:00-2:00       Attend CSI Heredity Workshop @ Discovery Gateway
2:16-2:25       Board Trax (Blue Line) and travel to Frontrunner station
2:45-2:50       Board Frontrunner for Roy station
3:45-3:50       Arrive at Roy station and leave to go home

Group B
10:00-10:30   Arrive at Clark Planetarium and check-in
10:30-11:15   Watch Extreme Planets movie in the IMAX Theater
11:15-12:00   Lunch in Gateway Food Court
12:00-1:00     Attend CSI Heredity Workshop @ Discovery Gateway
1:00-2:00       Walk around Discovery Gateway Museum
2:16-2:25       Board Trax (Blue Line) and travel to Frontrunner station
2:45-2:50       Board northbound Frontrunner for Roy station
3:45-3:50       Arrive at Roy station and leave to go home

Parents-Please arrive at the Roy Frontrunner station no later than 3:45 so you are there to pick up your child when they get off the train. If they will be riding with someone other than a parent their teacher needs a note letting them know.

Signed Filed Trip Permission Form is due back at the school no later than Friday, November 18th so we can get a count of those students going to the planetarium and museum and let parents know who will be chaperoning. 

Our class participated in the Kids Vote for President that Studies Weekly hosted.  We will use the results to compare to the actual voting results next week when America chooses their next president!

Kids Vote Link

I am trying IXL.com this week for math homework to see how it goes.  Your students login and password can be found under student links and IXL.  I only have a one month trial so at the end of my trial I will let you know if I will be purchasing the program to use for homework or not.  (It is kind of pricy, so I hope it is worth the investment).
I would like the students to get to 75% or 30 minutes, whichever comes first.  (Those students who are struggling don’t need to get to 75% they only need to do it for 30 minutes.) 🙂

Monday: IXL K.4 (Write Fractions in Lowest Terms)
Tuesday: IXL P.3 (Problem Solving: Guess and Check)
Wednesday: IXL K.6 (Least Common Denominator)
Thursday/Friday 11/7: IXL K.8/K.9 (Comparing fractions)
Friday:IXL G.12 (Convert Fractions to Decimals)

As of October 24th the fifth grade here at Quest has been collecting spare change to raise money for the Christmas Box House in Ogden. (Our class has not brought in any pennies as of yet. 🙁 )We will using the money raised to provide Christmas gifts for the children that live in the Christmas Box House. Penny Wars means that not only are we gathering money we are competing with the other 5th grades to see who can raise the most. We have also decided to complete against the 5th/6th grade at DaVinci Academy  in Ogden to see if Quest can raise more money than they can. It’s all in good fun and for a great cause so start checking in between those couch cushions and under the floor mats of your cars for spare change for our Penny Wars.