The end of the first nine weeks is Monday, November 4th.  Conferences will be held on Monday, November 4th from 2:30-6:10.

Monday, October 28th is a half-day for a student

GAES News

From Mrs. Sitter, our school counselor:

Red Ribbon Spirit Week is October 28th– November 1st

Respect Yourself. Respect Others. We will be celebrating Red Ribbon Spirit Week by having the following spirit days next week:

Monday ~ Wear RED to show that, at Glen Allen Elementary, we respect ourselves and others.

Tuesday ~ Wear a bandana to show that Glen Allen Cubs “band together” against bullying!

Wednesday ~ MIX-IT-UP DAY!!!!  Wear “mix”-matched socks for Mix-It-Up Day when we mix it up at lunch to get to know new friends.

Thursday ~ Wear your sunglasses to show that when we make healthy choices our futures will be so bright, we’ll have to wear shades!

From Mrs. Pruden:

Please join us to recognize and honor Glen Allen Community Veterans on Monday, November 11th at 8:30AM. All families and school patrons are invited. Veterans are encouraged to wear their uniforms to the Program. Each veteran will be introduced along with the student(s) or member(s) of the staff who invited him/her. The Veterans Day Program and 1st grade musical performance will take place in our auditorium and will be video-streamed in to all of our classrooms.

Please complete the google doc below ON/BEFORE November 4th to be included in the program.

https://forms.gle/R5W3mVaEgpiqsb8G8

We have some fun fall themed activities planned for this coming week. Please note that school policy does not allow costumes, candy, or other goodies to be brought to school. We hope you and your child will enjoy whatever holiday festivities you choose to partake in as a family at home.

MATH

We will celebrate the season with fun holiday math review on Thursday.  The students will continue practicing decimal computation.  There will be a test on the decimal computation on Wednesday, October 30th.  Your student has notes in their math notebook to help prepare for this test.  Next, we will start to review equivalent fractions, simplifying fractions, finding common multiples and lowest common denominators to get ready for our next unit.  Weekly Math (goldenrod logic puzzle) is due on Wednesday, October 30th.  As a reminder, this is an in-class assignment.  If your student is completing it at home on Tuesday evening, they have not used their time well in class.  The students also need to be asking me questions on how to complete the puzzle.  If your student is not getting an A on this assignment regularly they need to be talking to me.  We talked about this as a group on Friday.  This assignment is supposed to be challenging but at the same time one that they are successful with.  Thanks so much for your support!

LANGUAGE ARTS

The students will choose one of their county scored 4-squares and write a 5 paragraph essay from it this week.  We will be working on elaborating details as well as writing interest grabbing hooks.  The students will have 15 word each week on their Word Trek spelling test.  I will randomly pick five review words each week.  We will not have Word Trek this week due to Halloween and the book report.  In reading, the students will explore the different types of characters developed in fictional writing such as dynamic, static, round, and flat.  We will also begin to work with inferential and literal questions and continue working with character traits and elements of plot.  In language, homophones, Halloween puns, and journal writing is the focus.  Mystery book reports are due on Wednesday, October 31st.

SCIENCE

Last week the students started their first Inquiry Based Lesson (IBL).  In groups of three they were given the parameters of a cause and effect relationship  regarding our upcoming ocean unit and were tasked with coming up with a question and then researching in order to find an answer with evidence that supports it.  The students jumped in immediately with their small groups and are absolutely loving it!  Later in the week they will present their question and answer using whatever means they choose to exhibit their understanding.  We will also explore the ocean floor, waves, tides, and currents.  There will be a quiz on this information on Thursday, November 7th. The students will have notes in their notebooks to prepare for this quiz.

SOCIAL STUDIES

The students learned the mechanics of using lines of latitude and longitude last week.  This week will practice finding using them to pinpoint locations on Earth.  We will also start discussing the five themes of geography and the five regions of the United States.  There will be a quiz on the five themes and five regions on Wednesday, November 5th.  The students will have notes in their Social Studies notebook to help them prepare for this quiz.  There will be a quiz on the geography vocabulary on Tuesday, October 29th.  The students have terms and definitions in their social studies notebooks.

IMPORTANT DATES

10/28 –  Student half day

10/29 – Geography Terms Quiz

10/29 – Henricopolis Conservation Visits 5th Grade!

10/30 – Decimal Computation Test

10/31 – Mystery Book Report due

11/1 – Family Life class

11/4 – Family/Teacher Conference

11/5 – Student Holiday

I hope you all are enjoying this weekend!  Saturday was just beautiful!

Monday, October 21st is picture day!  Your student was given an order form last week and should bring it with them on Monday.

Parent Teacher Conferences will be held November 4th by appointment.  I will be sending a Signup Genius this week for you to pick a time to meet.

MATH

We will continue working with decimal computation (5.5 and 6.5) this week.  There will be a test on decimal computation on Wednesday, October 30th.  This skill will be primarily assessed using word problems.  We will be practicing with word problems this week during stations and with homework.  Weekly Math (Sunshine Math #1) is due on Wednesday, October 23rd.  Sunshine Math is a problem solving activity that requires students to use age-appropriate problem solving skills.  Students need to show all of their work as they will be given credit for their process more so than their answer.  In other words, they will receive credit for their methods even if they have the wrong answer.  This assignment is meant to help them grow their problem solving muscles in a way that builds on the skills they have now.  Using a formula will not develop these skills in the same way that drawing pictures will.  We discussed this at length in class to be sure that they understand the expectations.  I will be helping students individually and as a whole group with questions throughout the week.  Your student has lots of time to work on this assignment in class.  Please encourage them to do so.  Thanks so much for your support with this.

LANGUAGE ARTS

This week the students will be identifying main idea and themes, making predictions, and recognizing internal and external character conflicts.  The students will be writing a prediction of events following the end of Chapter 16 for Running Out of Time.  We will also be identifying specific conflicts happening in the novel.  We had our first meeting with our second grade book buddies and the students helped mentor the second graders with predicting in the books they are reading.  Book buddies is such a fantastic opportunity for the fifth graders to be leaders and teachers of a skill while practicing the skill as well.  Such a great thing to see!  The mystery book report is due on October 31st.  The next book report will be biography/autobiography if your student is ready to get started on it.

SCIENCE

Virginia’s Resources (4.9) is our review topic this week.  The students started working on a resources pamphlet last week and will complete it this week.  There will be a quiz on this material on Thursday, October 24th. This is a change! The students have notes in their notebooks to help prepare for this quiz.  Next, we will begin exploring the oceans!

SOCIAL STUDIES

We will finish up our study of Henrico County this week.  The students will begin creating an illustrated geography terms dictionary.  Then they will use lines of latitude and longitude to locate specific places.  There will be a quiz on geography terms on Tuesday, October 29th.  Next week we will make maps using map skills.

IMPORTANT DATES

10/21 – Picture Day

10/24 – Resources Quiz –This is a change!

10/28 –  Student half day

10/29 – Geography Terms Quiz

10/29 – Henricopolis Conservation Visits 5th Grade!

10/30 – Henricopolis Conservation Visits 5th Grade!

10/30 – Decimal Computation Test

10/31 – Mystery Book Report due

11/4 – Family/Teacher Conference

11/5 – Student Holiday

Don’t forget that Monday, October 14th is a student holiday!  Enjoy the day off!

PE Success Week: This year Success week is October 14th-18th. This program is aimed at motivating students, families, and communities to participate in a physically active lifestyle. This event is to help individuals become aware of heart health related fitness components, to promote self-esteem by acknowledging each student’s achievement, and to establish a plan for participation in physical activities at home, school and the community. Remember being active is a lifestyle. This year while in Physical Education class, students will run as many laps as they can in 6 minutes. All students will strive to do their best. Each class will want to run as many laps as they can, because each class will be competing against other classes and grade levels to see who ran the most laps and yards. I encourage all parents to come and run with their child (parent scores are included in the total class score). Don’t forget to get a visitor’s pass from the office before joining your child’s PE class. The schedule for success week is below and will consist of the following events:

Mouthful Monday-14th:  Students enjoy your day off. Write down everything you eat on a piece of paper and bring it with you to PE class. Ask yourself, “Am I eating a variety of color at each meal?” If you aren’t, then you may want to change your eating habits. It’s important to eat healthy to develop strong bones, muscles and teeth. Wear a different color on each part of your body to remind yourself to eat a colorful meal.

Team Jersey Tuesday-15th: Wear your favorite team jersey. Participate in a family plank challenge and see who can hold the plank the longest, then take a relaxing walk in the evening with your family.

Workout Wednesday-16th: Wear your fitness clothing and sneakers. Do 25 jumping jacks, 8 push-ups, 10 burpees, 20 mountain climbers and jog a mile with your family.

Thirsty Thursday-17th: Drink lots of water. It does the body good! Did you know that about 70% of your body is made of water? Check the label on your liquids. Does it have any sugar? If it does, reduce the amount of sugar you are drinking. Wear light blue to remind yourself to drink lots of water. Go on a bike ride with a friend or family member.

Flexible Friday-18th: School Spirit Day. Wear school spirit colors and be part of a winning team. Practice a few stretching exercises with your family. Being flexible prevents injuries when participating in sports. Relax and enjoy the weekend.

MATH

We will continue to review properties and practice using and identifying the distributive property this week.  There will be a test on this skill on Thursday, October 17th.  Your student has notes and examples in their math notebook.  We will also be computing decimals this week.  Please encourage your student to use their notes while completing homework.  Weekly Math (orange logic puzzle and mystery numbers) is due Wednesday, October 16.  Your student should be completing this assignment in class.  They have plenty of time to complete it as well as ask me questions about it.

LANGUAGE ARTS

In language, we will begin working with adjectives.  The students will work with a design team to create a menu for a fictional restaurant using each type of adjective.  This project is always such a hit with the kids!  Our Word Trek list is a review list this week.  The students will be required to spell 30 random words from the 50 words we have worked with so far this year for the spelling portion.  They will need to define all of the 50 words on the vocabulary portion.  Please encourage your student to use Spelling City to review for spelling and vocabulary.  They can click on the red vocabulary button and use the Word Trek words in vocabulary games!  🙂   We will also continue working with conflicts this week in reading.  The mystery book report is due on October 31st.  Please encourage to bring their books to school so that they can work on response questions in class when they have time.  Please let me know if you have questions about this assignment.

SCIENCE

There will be a quiz on Weather (4.6) topics Tuesday, October 15th.  Please encourage your student to use the many resources on the Science page of this blog for both review of 4th grade concepts and 5th grade curriculum. The students will present their Book Creator weather reviews in small groups this week.  We will also begin reviewing Resources (4.9).  Again, this is fourth grade material that will be assessed on the 5th grade SOL test this spring.  There will be a quiz on this material on Tuesday, October 22nd. Please encourage your student to use the Science page of this blog to review as well as the notes in their notebooks.  There is tons of stuff on this page!!!! 🙂

SOCIAL STUDIES

The students have been working hard on their Henrico Economy Commercials!  They are having so much fun with this project!  We will view the commercials this week as well as complete a graded assignment on this information.  Next, we will explore the government of Henrico County.

IMPORTANT DATES

10/14 – Student Holiday

10/14 – 17 – PE Success Week

10/15 – Weather Quiz (4.6)

10/16 – Henrico Explorers Passport due

10/17 – Distributive Property Test

10/21 – Picture Day

10/22 – Resources Quiz

10/28 –  Student half day

10/29 – Henricopolis Conservation Visits 5th Grade!

10/30 – Henricopolis Conservation Visits 5th Grade!

10/31 – Mystery Book Report due

11/5 – Student Holiday

Monday, October 14th is a student holiday!  Enjoy the day off!

Interims will be going home on Tuesday, October 8th for students who are struggling (Ds or Fs).  It is a great time to check out the progress of your student on PowerSchool.  I encourage the students to check regularly themselves so that there are no surprises.   Please let me know if you have questions.  🙂

Don’t forget that Reflections Contest entries are due 10/18! Use the arts to share your personal Reflections on this year’s theme: Look Within. More details here: http://www.gaespta.com/images/2019_Documents/Reflections_Flyer_-_Sept_2019.pdf

MATH

We will have an order of operations test this Thursday, October 10th.  We will continue practicing in class as we approach the day of the test.  We will also continue working with double digit divisor division, properties of numbers, and the distributive property.  Your student has notes in their notebook to help with all of these skills.  Please encourage them to use their notes while completing homework.  Weekly Math (logic puzzle) is due Wednesday, October 9th.

READING

In Reading, we will continue working with Running Out of Time.  The suspense of this novel is fantastic!  We will start exploring internal and external conflicts and then learn to identify man vs. self, man vs. man, man vs. world, and man vs. nature.  The students will write a summary in their Reading Response journals to practice the skill of summarizing.  We will also continue working through elements of plot, inferences, and character traits.  The mystery book report is due Thursday, October 31st.  We discussed last week that students who have caught up on classwork can work on their book reports in class.  This could be reading their book or typing response questions on their Google drive account.  All students should be bringing their book report book and another book to read if this one is finished every day to school.  Please let me know if you have any questions regarding this.

LANGUAGE

The students will start their admired person writing this week using the Bing, Bang, and Bongo method of writing five paragraphs.  We will complete one fully elaborated 4-square for our final two submissions for the Henrico County Writing Portfolio.  We will also continue working with verbs and review comma usage.  The students will receive a writing grade on their writing journals this week.  They were asked to pick three from the list of 15 this month.  The journal entries will be graded on completion, creativity and effort, and length.  The students are given 20 minutes in a language station for each writing.  If they do not complete them in the 20 minute station they are responsible for completing the journals during their free time or independent work time.

SCIENCE

We had a blast making fossils last week!  The fifth grade Science SOL will cover all material learned in fourth and fifth grade.  In order to be prepared, we will be reviewing fourth grade material throughout the year.  We will begin reviewing weather (4.6) this week.  The students will create pages that cover all things weather using Book Creator.  There will be review homework to help bring this material back to the front of their brains.   There will also be notes in their science notebooks to help with homework.  We will have a quiz on weather concepts on Tuesday, October 15th.

SOCIAL STUDIES

We are working on the economy of Henrico County this week.  The students will use information from their booklet to choose a product or service found in Henrico to make a commercial with a partner group.  They will use Flipgrid to film and present their commercials.    This is always a super cool assignment!  🙂

IMPORTANT DATES

10/10 – Order of Operations Test

10/14 – Student Holiday

10/14 – 17 – PE Success Week – more info to come!

10/15 – Weather Quiz (4.6)

10/28 –  Student half day

10/29 – Henricopolis Conservation Visits 5th Grade!

10/30 – Henricopolis Conservation Visits 5th Grade!

10/31 – Mystery Book Report due

11/5 – Student Holiday