Welcome February! Students worked so hard on the semester benchmarks over the past two weeks. If your child was absent or missed a section this week or last week, makeup testing will take place next Monday and Tuesday.
Parent/Teacher conferences are scheduled for Thursday, February 6th from 2:45 pm to 5:30 pm. If you would like to meet with me, please send me an email and I will send you the sign up link. If you have signed up and are unable to make it, please email me directly to set up an alternate time for us to chat about your child’s progress.
I am still in need of one male chaperone for our field trip on Friday (11:15 – 1:15). Please email me if you have completed the volunteer requirements and are available to assist on this day. I would hate for students not to be able to change out of their wet bathing suits in the locker room if we are not able to secure a chaperone. ☹
We are gearing up for the 5th Grade Chorus performance, “Gotta Be Jazz,” in February. Mr. Mills has supplied the music for students to practice at home: Gotta Be Jazz. Enjoy!
The students are so excited about our book report for the 3rd nine weeks – the return of the great Glen Allen Book Buffet! The Book Buffet book report will be assigned on Monday, February 3, and is due on Friday, March 13. Please be sure to go over the book report directions and guidelines with your child to ensure that they are managing their time wisely in reading and completing the book report project.
Please be sure to keep the book report directions and rubric in a safe place. All rubrics must be turned in with the book report on March 13.
Click on this link for the electronic version of the directions and rubric. Book Buffet Requirements
Check out this video of past Book Buffet Book reports! Book Buffet Book Report Video
2/3 & 2/4: Makeup Benchmark Testing (if your child was absent or late to school)
2/4: Northeast States and Capitals & Map Quiz
2/6: Northeast Vocabulary Quiz
2/6: Parent Teacher Conferences by appointment
2/7: Greek and Latin Roots #2 Vocabulary Quizzes
2/7 or 2/14 PE field trip to the YMCA check date for when your class goes
2/10: Quarter 2 Report Cards come home
2/25: Jump Rope for Heart (Permission Forms came home today!)
2/25 PTA 5th Grade Performance (arrive 6:15 in the music room)
2/26: Spring Pictures
Math: The students will work on variables next week. This is a fun unit where we replace words with numbers and symbols. It’s a bit like a puzzle! Here is a teaching video we’ll be using to help explain the process: Study Jams.
Science: Next week we will start our 5th grade unit on matter! It’s so exciting to learn how to look at non-living things with new eyes. This is a long unit, full of very interesting information. Remember our second grade poem in matter… “A solids a solid, it doesn’t change shape. It can’t move around; it stays in one place. Your desk is a solid, and so is your chair. Just look in your classroom – wow, they’re EVERYWHERE!” We will learn that the atoms in a solid, liquid, or gas are aligned differently, and therefore have different levels of energy. We’ll also learn about changing the states of matter by adding or removing energy (heat). Here is the Matter Study Guide we will be passing out.
Reading: Students will be analyzing media messages and distinguishing between fact and opinion. Later in the week, we will be launching our research project. We are coordinating with our wonderful librarian, Mrs. Harris, to teach students the importance of citing sources so we avoid plagiarism.
Social Studies: We are continuing to explore the Northeast Region! Students have a 
states and capitals and map quiz on Tuesday. They have a Northeast vocabulary quiz Thursday, notes for this were glued into their Social Studies notebook today. Be sure to use your notes, flashcards, and the Portaportal for a fun review!
Writing: We are going to practice using interjections before reviewing conjunctions and prepositions at the end of the week.
PE: We are excited about our YMCA Aquatics Field Trip on Friday! For the field trip, each child will need to bring their bathing suit, a towel, and a plastic bag to bring wet bathing suit and towel back to school. The pictures taken by Mrs. Lucas at the YMCA will be used for a slide show at the end of the school year. Only students at school will be seeing them. If you don’t want your child in any of the pictures, please send a note on the day of the field trip.
Please be aware that they YMCA trip is only a small part of the school day. If your child is not participating, they can still come to school and be in another 5th grade classroom while we are at the YMCA. Then, they can rejoin our class for the rest of the instructional day. Let me know in advance if your child will NOT be coming to school so I can make arrangements for them to make up missed work.