Just a reminder that the Glen Allen Science Fair has been rescheduled for Thursday, January 23 due to the conflict with the Hungary Creek Curriculum Fair.  The Science Fair will take place from 6:30 – 7:30.  Students should bring their boards to school the night of the fair.  They will leave them in the wet area before leaving Thursday evening, and I will send them home as soon as they are graded.  Thanks so much!

YMCA Field Trip money is due this Friday, January 24th.

This week and next week we have benchmark testing for Reading and Math. Each test is split over two mornings. Please ensure your child is reviewing all notes and PortaPortal links so they can feel confident before test day! Also be sure that your child gets a good night’s rest, eats a nutritious breakfast, and arrives at school on time on testing days as we will begin right at 8:00.

The parent window will open on January 21st to enter your child’s electives for next year.  Please refer to the packet from Hungary Creek for details on how to access this site as well as the elective details.  Please let me know if you have concerns or questions regarding my recommendations.  Thanks!

MATH

The Math Benchmark will be given on Thursday, January 30th and Friday, January 31st.  Your student has lots of notes and study guides to help prepare for this assessment.  There are also many valuable resources on the portaportal.  https://portaportal.com/member/GAES5thGrade  This week we will review all things statistics to get ready for the test on probability, tree diagrams, fundamental counting principle, stem and leaf, mean, median, mode, and range as well as graphs.  This test will be given on Tuesday, January 28th.  We will also begin working with variables.  Weekly Math (blue logic puzzle) is due on Wednesday, January 22nd.

LANGUAGE ARTS

The Reading Benchmark will be given on Thursday, January 23rd and Friday, January 24th.  The students have notes in their reading notebook to help them prepare for this assessment.  We will continue working with author’s purpose and context clues this week.  The students will work with a partner to make up words and then write sentences using the 6 ways to find meaning of an unknown word, aka context clues, to help the reader define their new words.  The students are finishing their county writing, My Favorite Place to Have Lunch, this week as well.  We will also review correct comma usage.  Book report information came home last week.  Your student needs to have their fantasy book approved by me before this Friday.

SCIENCE

The students will work on designing their experiments for the Old Wives’ Tales projects this week.  We are hoping to perform experiments on Friday.  This is such a fun activity!  There is a quiz on Scientific Method on Thursday, January 23rd.  Your student has lots of notes and a study guide to help prepare for this quiz.

SOCIAL STUDIES
The students are working hard on their Pack Your Bags projects, and they are looking great!  The test for the Southeast Region will be given on Tuesday, January 22nd.  Your student was given a study guide to fill out that is due on the 22nd as well.  Next, we will head into the Northeast Region.

IMPORTANT DATES

1/20 – School Holiday – school closed for MLK Day

1/21 – Middle School Course Selection Window opens

1/22 – Southeast Region Test

1/23 – Scientific Method Quiz

1/23-24 –  Reading Benchmark

1/23 – Science Fair – THIS IS A CHANGE

1/24 – End of Marking Period 2

1/24 – YMCA permission slips and money due

1/28 – Statistics Math Test

1/30-31 – Math Benchmark

2/25 – Fantasy Book Report due