Week of September 4-7

Language Arts: This week, we are covering Chapter 4 titled, Good Living in our word origins books (Growing Your Vocabulary). Below are the Greek and Latin words, roots, and English derivatives your child will be responsible for knowing for Friday’s test.

Latin Word	English Root (part of word)	English Derivatives
anima (life or spirit)	anim	animate, animosity, animal,
spirare (breathe)	spir	respiration, inspire, spirit, perspire, conspire
sanus  (healthy)	san	sanitary, sane, sanitation

The affixes that accompany this chapter are:

 Prefix: in- meaning “into”

 Suffix: -ary meaning “relating to”

Please ask your child to come up with words that use these affixes.

            In Literature, the students will learn about important literary elements that we will discuss throughout the school year. Check their Language Arts spiral notebooks for notes on these elements! We are also continuing to read and discuss The Secret Garden. Please see the Sign-Up link (coming shortly) to join us for a literature circle discussion on Friday at 11:20 over chapter 14! (*Only parents who are fingerprinted can join us for these volunteer opportunities.*) You may also sign up to join us on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday of next week to discuss chapter 16, 17, and 18. Also, please see the post below about attending a live performance of The Secret Garden on September 21^st! We hope you can make it for a fun night out with your family and classmates!

            In writing and Grammar, the students will continue classifying and diagramming sentences this week. Your children are doing a great job! Has your child shared any of the vocabulary words he/she has learned? How about the analogies? The kids are getting very good at identifying the relationship between words within analogies; it is very impressive! We will also cover important aspects of the writing process by focusing on three-paragraph expository essays. The idiom the students will learn this week is “To kill two birds with one stone”. Is your child speaking in idiomatic phrases at home yet? :)

            As always, we will continue adding to our Latin and Greek words. Be sure to ask your child to share these words with you, as well as their meaning, and a few English derivatives. When we approach 25 words, your children should begin studying at home each night. The quiz will include a matching portion (matching the Latin/Greek word to its meaning) as well as a portion in which the students will be asked to provide an English derivative and definition. See the right side of the page for a progressive list of Latin and Greek words.

             

History/Geography: The students did an EXCELLENT job on the Ancient Civilizations history tests overall! The essays were very impressive! I will be displaying some of these extraordinary pieces of fifth grade writing throughout the classroom.

On Friday, we began our next unit over the Renaissance (which is one of my personal favorites)! The students created a map of Italy (which at the time, was not one nation; it was separated by city-states which operated as unified nations from one another)! The class learned about the transition between the Middle Ages (which is a concept you should ask your child to explain to you) and the Renaissance, which literally means “rebirth”. Be sure to ask your child about inventions like the printing press, inspiring art, like famous pieces by Sandro Botticelli, economic milestones like that of the powerful Medici family, and the fascinating history of Popes within the Catholic Church. Stay tuned for interesting information about events that took place during the onset of this inspiring era in world history!

Science: Has your child taught you about the Tree of Life project? Did you get the chance to see your child’s phylogenetic trees? This week, we will continue studying the five Kingdoms within Linnaean’s classification of living things. Be sure to ask your child to share the fascinating information he/she is learning about animals (vertebrates and invertebrates, specifically), plants, protists, monera, and fungi. The students will take notes each day on a guided notes sheet. I encourage you to ask your child to share these notes with you at home, as revisiting the information will be a great help in internalizing it for the assessment later. The kids will have a test over this information next week. The date is TBD.