December is typically a busy month for many of us, so we will do our best to keep you informed of classroom and school happenings during this festive time of year! First off, PCCS will hold its annual Geography Bee competition this Friday, December 7th. Congratulations to our two finalists, Madeline West and Tristan Padilla as well as our two alternates, Saanvi Gogineni and Michael Alloian. The Bee will be held at 8:45 am if you would like to come and cheer on the contestants!
With our lengthy class Geography Bees as well as the snow day last Monday, we have fallen a bit behind in social studies. I have moved the Election Unit test to Thursday of this week. Study guides will be posted in Google Classroom tomorrow and will be due on Wednesday. Please encourage your students to start the study guide as soon as possible and bring any questions they may have to class.
In ELA we have started an essay writing unit during which your students will be describing an invention that would enhance our everyday lives. We will be working on this essay over the next three weeks, including an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Last Thursday, we also started a Reading Log in Google Classroom. For five nights, your students should be reading a book of their choice for 20 minutes. Then they can choose a prompt or a question to answer from a grid of 25 choices. One prompt should be chosen each night so they should have completed five prompts before turning in the assignment this Thursday. Prompts or questions should be chosen either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally on the grid.
Spelling tests from last Tuesday were postponed until this week due to our snow day last Monday. If your child is in Squishy Bananas, Disney, Yellow Submarine, Banana S’mores, or Australian Hawks, they should expect a test this Tuesday.
Tomorrow we will be visiting the Holiday Bazaar. Information was sent home last week and envelopes with spending money must be returned to school tomorrow. Both 5th grade classes will be going to the Bazaar at 9:55 to shop for immediate family members. We will return to the Bazaar at 12:25 to shop for extended family.
And finally, on Thursday, January 17th, we will be going on a field trip to the Field Museum to visit exhibits that relate to our science curriculum. We will also be eating lunch on site so please send a non-heat up, nut-free lunch. The cost for this field trip is $12.00, covering transportation. Please return permission & payment no later than Dec 14th; you may send payment in an envelope to the business office or pay via Credit Card online through Powerschool/Edutrak (a service fee will apply). Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.