Week One - August 10-14

Hello parents and welcome to a new school year for your student.  A brief introduction of myself, I am Mr. Maldonado and this will be my 3rd year at St. Mary's Catholic School.  I have been teaching for 6 years and love what I do.  I am extremely blessed to have the opportunity and privilege to teach at a Catholic school and make the most every day to remind your child that they are a gift from God, they are loved by Him, and they have a worth and destiny that He specifically created them to do.  I am confident that we will have a wonderful year and never hesitate to contact me via email with ANY question or concern you have.  I always do my best to respond in a very timely manner.  

Thank YOU for all that you do as a parent and the sacrifices you make to ensure your child has the best educational experience.  With my own children enrolled here at SMCS, I truly believe this is the most special place they can be to grow, learn, and become the best they can be. 

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Lesson plans/what we are doing will be posted in Renweb/FACTS this year.  In years past I would utilize the website to give a weekly update, however, the website is being updated, so I am most likely going to post any announcements via Renweb/FACTS going forward. 

We have had a spectacular week and I am looking forward to all that they are going to learn, do, and share with me as their teacher, their classmates, and school.  At this time there aren't any major announcements -- we are getting the pace and schedule of things down and by next week, students should be able to finally be back in the swing of things.  It went really smoothly thus far.  

 

ELA 

We took our first spelling quiz today.  Grades will be posted by Monday, August 17th.  We will take a spelling and vocabulary quiz each Friday.  For the first 6 weeks there will be a strong focus on grammar, sentence structure and parts of speech.  This will lead to writing and learning how to be better writers and using words to express their thoughts and ideas.  Being a good writer is a requirement in my class.  

Math 

Mrs. Dolan will be in charge of Math this year, so any questions you have regarding math or math homework/assignments/tests should always be directed to her.  She is a GREAT teacher and we are blessed to have her in this role for 5th grade.  

Science 

We are still waiting on our textbooks, however, we did already complete our first STEM assignment which was to design a rover that would be exploring ​our solar system.  It was meant to be creative and fun and the students did really well.  We ​are still waiting on our textbooks, but they should be ​arriving any day.  

History

5th grade history focuses on U.S. History.  For the first ​two weeks we will be focused on ​Native Americans and the early ​European explorers.  We will have a ​quiz NEXT WEEK (Thursday) over some of the tribes, cultures, customs, geographic location, etc. of these peoples.  We will have a full review on Tuesday, August 18th to be prepared for Thursday.  

Religion 

This week we learned about St. Terese of Lisieux and her little way.  We will focus on finding little ways we can do things to show our love of Christ and each other.  

Have a great weekend! 

In Christ, 

Mr. Maldonado