The Season of Mists

Okay. Wow. I've just planned out this week in full and next week in most. Here are the broad strokes of what will matter on your end as a parent:

• Camp Jameson: The kids will need a completely disposable sack lunch for Friday. Be at school at 5:30pm on Friday, October 4. That's when we are supposed to get back. Please don't be late! Thus far, we have the following volunteers: Mr. Neukam, Mrs. Mallon, Mr. Lundy, Mrs. King, Mrs. Hurdle, Mrs. Detamore, Mr. Cobas, Mrs. Beutler, and Mr. Anderson. If you notice that I've left your name off this list, let me know ASAP. Thanks so much, guys. It makes me happy that 5-1 has such involved parents. 
• States and Capitals: We will have a quiz over the Western States on Tuesday. That same day, I will give the kids their next list of states and capitals for a quiz the next Tuesday.
• Science: We've been in the midst of a unit called Matter since last week. The kids have been recording information on the differing states of matter and we're learning all about the way different states of materials react and exist. We will continue this throughout this week and into about three or four days into next week. On Thursday of this week, we will have a vocabulary quiz (so be on the lookout for the kids' Science notebooks to come home to study), and then either Wednesday or Thursday of next week, we will have our unit test.
• Language Arts: This week, we will learn about proper nouns (again), we will begin our guided reading (uh...again), we will be reading about the science of sound (hey, that's new!), and we will also be brainstorming ideas for our procedural projects. We will watch a few procedurals throughout the week as well. For this project (which is still a couple weeks away), the kids will be creating posters that provide understanding and the steps for their how-to exercise, and they will also be writing a speech to give to the class. This will be a lot of fun in the end.
• Math: In my Math class, we've been learning the basics of Geometry. Don't worry; we're not doing proofs with theorems or postulates or anything like that. We are, however, laying down the ideas for their future by having the kids learn about things like opposite angles (a.k.a. vertical angles), perpendicular angles, lines, segments, parallel lines, and even skew lines. 
• Spelling: Because of our field trip on Friday, we will not have spelling this week. We will, however, have our Latin root still. And on Friday morning before we leave, we will have another Quick Quiz on that Latin root. Should be pretty easy with a little nightly review.

I've learned from past experience that if we don't keep moving ahead like a runaway train, we will not get everything in by the end of the year that we need to get done by the end of the year. Let me know if you have any questions. But if your child has a question, make sure they let me know.