Mrs.

Stonehouse’s
Peek at the Week
March 2010
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
22 23 24 25 26
Day 2 - Music Day 3 – Media Day 1– Phy Ed Day 2 - Music Day 3 –Media

IB Planner Civil
Struggles Spanish
First Grade Buddies Spelling Test

DARE FAD 
(last day)
Book Character Day

SPRING BREAK
Spring Break is March 29 – April 2.
Students are encouraged to continue
reading at home and filling out their
monthly reading log. They also need
to complete a book report. It is also
suggested that students visit Study
Island over Spring Break. This is an
online program that helps students
prepare for tests in the spring.
Students should know their log-in
information and passwords.
http://www.studyisland.com
IMPORTANT DATES:
 3/26 – Book Character Day
 3/29 – 4/2 – Spring Break (NO SCHOOL)
 4/26 – 5th Grade Orientatation 7:00pm
(at Sunrise Park and Central)
CLASS WEBSITE:
We have set up a website for all the 5th grade classes
this year. Please check it out!
http://www.fifthgradeteam.weebly.com
HOMEWORK UPDATE
Fifth graders will no longer be receiving
the homework packet every Friday.
Homework will be given out in
classrooms as teachers feel it is needed.
We will be reminding students to keep
track of their homework in their
agendas. This change will help ease
them into the homework patterns they
are likely to see in middle school.
Students will have to continue to read at
home and will be required to fill out a
monthly reading log. Math homework
will also continue on a regular basis.

WHAT HAVE WE BEEN UP TO?
In math this week, we continued working on
division. We learned two different strategies to use
when dividing long numbers. We also learned different
ways to represent the remainder – including as
fractions and decimals. We will wrap up our unit on
multiplication and division next week and have our unit
test on Thursday. Please continue to practice math facts
at home! There are also some great games and
activities under the math links on our class webpage.
We continued work with our current IB
Planner, titled Civil Struggles. The central idea of this
planner is that societies have civil conflicts due to
differences. Inquiry this week focused on the Civil War
in the United States. Students imagined that they were
Union soldiers in Gettysburg as they visited different
stations around the room to learn about life as a soldier
during that time. Next week, we will look at different
conflicts of the past and present time.
In literacy, students continued working on their
civil struggle book clubs. Students may need to
complete some reading at home if they are not able to
finish it in class. Spelling this week focused on words
with suffixes and words with different endings.
DARE this week focused on peer pressure and
bullying. Students learned several strategies to help
them in different situations.
As we approach the spring, please remind your
child to be responsible with turning work in on time.
We are trying to instill good habits as they make the
transition on to middle school next year.
Eating “hard tack” by the fire and
reading about foods that Civil War
soldiers ate.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO HELP
WITH BOOK CLUBS?
We are in new book clubs;
this is a time when volunteers are
especially appreciated. If you are
able to help out on a regular basis,
or even just once or twice, it would
be great to see you in class! Adults
help out during this time by listening
to students’ discussions and helping
to maintain their focus, reading out
loud with individual students, and
offering support with written work.
Book clubs will happen from 2:15-
3:15 pm, except for Thursdays
which is 2:00-2:45 due to Reading
buddies. Book Club days:
Week of 3/22: Tues, Thurs
Week of 4/5: Mon, Tues, Wed,
Thurs
Week of 4/12:Mon, Tues, Wed
Thank you!

CONTACT
THANK YOU!! INFORMATION:
Thank you to all of the families who came and Julie Stonehouse
supported their son or daughter at the music
performance on Thursday. We appreciate the hard Room 115
work Mrs. Farinella put in to making it a great We had to enjoy some of the (651) 407-7600 x1609
show. Way to go students! beautiful weather we had this week! jlston@wbl.whitebear.k12.mn.us