January Newsletter

Pleasant Hill Intermediate School

1204 E. 163rd Street

Pleasant Hill, MO  64080

816-540-3156

January 2012

Important Dates Jan 4-Students Return Jan 16-No School, Martin Luther King, Jr’s Birthday Jan 24-District Spelling Bee

5B TEAM NEWSLETTER

Rooster Time for January:
We will begin our next round of books for small group reading.  We will also be focusing on fractions, decimals, simplifying fractions, adding and subtracting fractions with like and unlike denominators in focus group time on Wednesday and Thursday’s.  We are also looking for parents to come and help with our small reading groups during rooster time.  Feel free to contact us to help with this fun time.
School and Class Expectations:
We have been working with the students on school wide and classroom expectations.  Some students still need some general reminders about having all of their materials prepared for class and for turning their voices off during class and in the lunch room.  We are still working very hard on traveling to and from lunch.  Some students are still needing extra encouragement when it comes to lunch room behaviors, such as pushing in chairs and cleaning up their areas.  It is encouraged to discuss these positive behaviors at home!  


Planners:  Planners are a great organizational tool for students and a great communication tool for parents. Students are expected to fill out their planner in each core class daily (listing assignments, due dates etc.) and take them home daily. Teachers will sign planners for each class and sometimes may write an important note. We will do periodic planner checks throughout the year spot checking to see if planners are being utilized in this manner. Students may receive a small reward for having a filled out and signed planner (signed by the teacher). Parents are not required to sign planners.

AR/AM Students will need 10 AR points for the quarter and 5 AM tests.  To help your student pace these out, we suggest 1-2 points a week and 1 AM test a week to get the points at an even pace, instead of rushing at the very end of the quarter.  This helps promote good planning ahead skills.  The students may do AM practice at home at the Renaissance Learning website.  If you still need more information about this, contact Mrs. Murray.  She is heading up this information.

Science-Social Studies--Mr. Haight

Social Studies --  We are studying the original thirteen colonies.  We are looking at their economies, geographies, and lifestyles.  We will also be studying the French and Indian War.

Science --  We will begin studying motion and how it is affected by gravity, friction, inertia, mass, and force.  We will be looking at Newton’s laws of motion and simple machines.

Math--Mrs. Lucht
Happy New Year!!  We start 2012 with lots of energy
and excitement for what we will be learning in math this year.  We are
starting out working on adding and subtracting fractions.  We are
working on mastering common denominators and simplifying fractions.
Please remember the extra math support of math club on Tuesday and
Wednesday mornings at 7:25 a.m.  Also, we have homework club on
Thursday after school from 3:30 p.m.-4:30p.m.  Remember that we start
over for third quarter and the students need 5 Accelerated Math tests
for this quarter.  They do not carry over.  You may take practices at
home so your child will mostly take tests here.  Thanks for all your
support and I look forward to working with you for the New Year.
Sincerely, Mrs. Lucht


Communication Arts--Mrs. Murray
Our first week back is a short week, therefore we will be doing a quick what I learned last year!! Also the students will be writing about goals.  The following 2 weeks will be spent on Week 4 and Week 5 of Unit 3.  The week of January 16, we will read Zathura.  The students will be creating a game board that week.  I will be sending home an email with the scoring guide and expectations for this.  We will also begin using our MAP practice books.  We will be doing these as bellwork and the students will be given a grade for them.  This is to let them know how important this work is, and that we want to be super prepared for the actual MAP test in April.    


Ms. Love’s News--
Communication Arts:   Student's focus over the next month will include several areas of concern based upon current Discovery Education scores.  In reviewing the data, making connections and literary techniques were areas of great concern.  We will be working to develop skills.  

Math:   Student's focus over the next month will include one area of concern based upon current Discovery Education scores.   In reviewing the data, our focus will be data and probability.  We will also working on fractions, improper fractions, and mixed numbers


Mrs. Meyer’s News--
   In January, Mrs. Meyer's class will be doing a unit on the life
of Martin Luther King, Jr. which will include reading and writing
activities. We will work on story elements and making inferences.
Students will be writing paragraphs to summarize information they have
read in preparation for a big project which we will do late January or
early February.
   For math, we will work on measurement, fractions, decimals,
multiplication and division. It is important that students practice
their multiplication and division facts. The are numerous games on
www.multiplication.com that can help with learning the facts.