Hello families,

Thank you for all you have done this year in supporting us teachers and your child!  We made it to the halfway point!  While we know this is an unusual year, we do still want to maintain our tradition of ramping up expectations as students get closer to transitioning to middle school.  To that end, we will be firm with our late work policy.  Students will lose 10 points off their assignment grade if it is late.  We will also be starting a new station work grade, detailed in the next paragraph.  Thank you for helping us prepare your child for the larger responsibilities they will have as a 6th grader!

Beginning on Monday, we will be adding a new semester-long grade, similar to our homework grades.  In both math and reading, students will have a Station Work assignment, and all students will start with a 100 in that assignment.  If they do not complete the assigned math station or reading station independent work by Friday afternoon, they will lose 5 points from this grade.  We want to reward those who have been diligently completing assignments while also trying to motivate students who have been using small group independent time as an additional break to do these practice and enrichment activities.  We will be going over this during our Monday morning meeting so all students are clear on this new process.

Please reiterate with your student that cameras should be on throughout the day so we know they are safe and there for the lesson.  If their camera is not on, I call will on them.  If they do not respond, I will remove them from the meeting and send an email to you.  Thanks so much for your support with this!

Please don’t forget to save the date for the Hungary Creek Middle School Curriculum Fair on February 11th from 5:30-7:00!  You and your child can get more details about courses offered before you log into PowerSchool the following week to select your child’s classes for 6th grade!

For PE on Tuesday, students will need 1 beach towel, 1 pencil, and 1 piece of paper, 1 small object to sit on, broom or noodle, 5 other small objects to place on the floor.

Sketch books for art will be in the bus loop for pick-up on February 3rd through the 5th from 7:00 am until 7 pm.

mportant Dates:

2/2 – Science Cells & Classification Unit Test

2/3 – Northeast States & Capitals Quizzes

2/5 – Word Trek Lesson 16 Quizzes

2/8 & 2/9 – GAES Picture Days, sign ups required!

2/11 – Curriculum Fair for Hungary Creek Middle School 5:30-7:00, virtual meeting link to come

2/15 – Parent Powerschool window opens for 6th grade course selection

2/15 – Student half day, log off at 11:00 am; *Special Guest coming at 10!*

MATH

We continue working with data and graphing with line plots and stem and leaf graphs.  We will also begin our next unit on Mean, Median, Mode, and Range. This unit will use the stem & leaf graphs as well as the line plots to analyze data. In addition to materials in the math folder in Student Resources, don’t forget about the links on portaportal!

LANGUAGE ARTS
Our new unit focuses on media messages and distinguishing between fact and opinion.  We are almost finished with Every Soul a Star!  Students have been jotting down important events each time we read to get ready to do a project on character development for the novel.  We have loved this novel!  Ask your student what is going on in the book as we near the end.

As we kick off our celebration of Black History Month, we will read a great article about the Black Panther movie and tie this into the comprehension skills this coming week. We will also be looking at other important African Americans who have made contributions to our country during our morning meetings.

SCIENCE

Our cells and classification unit test is Tuesday. This covers plant and animal cells, vertebrates and invertebrates, vascular and nonvascular plants, and adaptations. Students should be reviewing their digital notebook and actual science notebook, study guide, and organism classification slideshow in the Science folder to prepare. After our unit test, we will take a few days to review the scientific method. Our next unit will begin the following week; we will be talking about matter!

SOCIAL STUDIES

We are continuing to dig into the Northeast Region. Our states and capitals quizzes will be on Wednesday, February 2nd. Students will also be working on a state slideshow project to share with the class.

It is hard to believe we are almost done with the 2nd quarter!  Our final week is January 25-29.  We are halfway through this wacky year and are looking ahead to middle school.  We will be chatting with students about ramping up our expectations as we begin to treat them more like 6th graders.

Please be sure to let me know if you have any input you want me to consider when making my course recommendations.  As I stated in my email regarding this, I will start putting in my recommendations on Monday.  Please keep an eye out for all of Mrs. Sitter’s emails.  She has sent information concerning the parent window for selecting electives and elective class information.

Mrs. Sitter will be starting a new lunch bunch soon.  I sent this information to you with sign-up information.  Space is limited to act soon!

This week is Kindness Week!  Click on this link to see the activities.

Important Dates:

1/29 – Word Trek Quizzes for List 15

1/29 – End of Q2, full school day (previously was a half day)

2/2 – Science Cells & Classification Unit Test

2/8 & 2/9 – GAES Picture Days, sign ups required!

2/11 – Curriculum Fair for Hungary Creek Middle School 5:30-7:00, virtual meeting link to come

2/15 – Parent Powerschool window opens for 6th grade course selection

MATH

We are finally leaving fractions behind! Monday we will begin our unit on probability. The terms can be a bit tricky, so have your child review the notes in the Math folder within Student Resources. There are also great games on our PortaPortal site to help them master this topic: https://guest.portaportal.com/gaes5thgrade

LANGUAGE ARTS

Word Trek is back on!  We will be doing Lesson 15 this week.  In writing, the students are working on writing seeds this month.  These are free writes that start with a picture or quote.  I love having the students share these because they are all so different and creative.  In Reading, we will work with making inferences, and review text structures, author’s purpose, and point of view.

SCIENCE

Our cells and classification unit continues! We will wrap up discussing vascular and nonvascular plants early in the week and then refresh ourselves on plant and animal adaptations. Students will have an open notes unit review classwork assignment Friday in preparation for the unit test on Tuesday, February 2nd.

SOCIAL STUDIES

Having wrapped up the Southeast unit, we are heading north! Students should begin memorizing the Northeast states and capitals. We have some fun videos to help introduce this region!

Don’t forget that Monday is a holiday. Enjoy celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr. Day together!

We will have a visit from Hungary Creek Middle School on Thursday, 1/21.  The counselors from HCMS will explain the course selection process for our rising 6th graders and what elective options there are.  Please keep up with information coming to you from Mrs. Sitter about the time frame for you to log into PowerSchool and confirm course selections for next year!

Important Dates:

1/18 – School Closed for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

1/20 – Southeast Unit Test

1/21 Cells Mini-Project Due (will be assigned earlier in the week)

1/22 Student half day, log off at 11:00 am

1/29 End of Q2, full school day (previously was a half day)

MATH

We will continue working with fraction computation this week.  We will begin multiplying fractions.  The test on fraction computation is scheduled for Wednesday, January 27th.  There are notes in the Student Resources folder and your student should have notes in their notebook.

LANGUAGE ARTS

Due to the shortened week, we will not have Word Trek this week.  Author’s purpose will be introduced this week.  We will also continue working with point of view, compare and contrast, and cause and effect.  The point of view poster project is due on Friday, January 22nd.

SCIENCE

We will discuss the classification of animals as vertebrates or invertebrates.  Students will have a small cell project to complete at home in which they draw and label a plant cell and an animal cell.  Your child needs to submit a picture of their drawings to me before class on Thursday, January 21st.

SOCIAL STUDIES

We will review on Tuesday for the Southeast Unit Test on Wednesday, January 20th.  Students should be finishing up their study guide for homework.  It is due on Tuesday, January 19th.  This will help them review all the material that will be on the test!  Next, we will travel to the Northeast Region.

Welcome to 2021!  We had a great week getting back into the swing of things.  The students wrote goals for school, home life, health.  They have some marvelous plans to reach these goals!

We also talked about responsibility with assignments this past week.  All assignments turned in late are graded with five points off.  In the third nine weeks late assignments will be ten points off.  Missing homework is also ten points off the homework grade for that subject.  Please remind your student about the importance of completing and turning in assignments on time, especially as the students prepare to go to middle school.  Please make sure your child is reviewing notes and other materials in the Student Resources folder regularly.  Thank you so much for all of your support with this!  🙂

Looking to expand your knowledge of the history of Henrico County? Take a look at this passport for some great ideas!  Henrico County Passport

Important Dates:

1/13 –  Plants Quiz  (This is a change for the original date of 1/12)

1/15 – Word Study Quizzes for List 14

1/18 – School Closed for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

1/20 – Southeast Region Test

1/21 – Cells Mini-Project Due (will be assigned earlier in the week)

1/22 – Student half day, log off at 11:00 am

1/25 – In-person students return to GAES building.  Our new master schedule goes into effect for all students.

1/29 End of Q2, full school day (This is a change.  This day was previously a half day for students.)

MATH

Our fractions unit continues!  We will continue working with adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators.  We will incorporate mixed numbers and borrowing from whole numbers as well.  Please encourage your student to use the notes in their notebooks and the Student Resource folder while doing homework.

LANGUAGE ARTS

We will continue reading Every Soul a Star this week.  This is a wonderful novel that has lots of science throughout.  Ask your student to tell you what the story is about.  We will start discussing point of view and perspective this week.  During stations the students will continue practicing with compare and contrast using EdPuzzle.  This is a fun video platform where the students will answer questions after watching a quick video.  In Language, we will work with using I or me correctly in conversation and writing.

SCIENCE

The Plants Quiz has been changed from Tuesday, January 12th to Wednesday, January 13th.  Your student needs to know the parts of a plant and their functions, the parts of a flower and their functions, along with the process of pollination, fertilization, and photosynthesis.  Up next is the Cells Unit.  This is a cool unit!

SOCIAL STUDIES

We will explore the economic activities and some of the significant landmarks in the Southeast Region.  The students will create a slideshow highlighting these landmarks for a grade next week.

Welcome to the first blog post of 2021!  I hope everyone had a relaxing, fun winter break!

Please remember to allow for your child’s Chromebook to update over break so they are able to login in on January 4th.  The version of the Chrome operating system (Chrome OS)  on your HCPS Chromebook needs to be updated to version 86.  To be fully prepared for the first day back in January we are asking that you login in to the Chromebook at least once during Winter Break.  As long as you are signed in, the update will run in the background, even if the lid is closed (for the best experience we recommend having your Chromebook plugged in to power).   We ask that you leave your Chromebook on for the day to allow time for the updates to cycle through.  When it’s done you will see a notification that your OS has been updated on the bottom right corner of the screen.  Please restart to complete the process.  To see if your Chromebook has updated simply hold down ALT+V on the keyboard at the sign-in screen.  You will see the Chrome OS version at the top right corner.  If it does not show version 86, simply sign back in, close the lid and check back a little later.  If you would like to run the update yourself it’s easy!

1. Sign into the Chromebook.
2. Click on the bottom right and go to Settings ->  About Chrome OS.
3. Verify the OS is at Version 86; if not click Check for Updates and the update will manually install.

Read below to see what we will be doing for our first week of 2021!

Important Dates:

1/8 – Word Study Quizzes on List #13

1/12 –  Plants Quiz

1/18 –   Student Holiday

1/29 –  Student ½ Day;  end of Q2

MATH

We will begin with a review of finding equivalent fractions, the greatest common factor (GCF), and the lowest common multiple (LCM) along with simplifying fractions this week.  We will also convert mixed numbers and improper fractions.  This will lead us into adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators.  Don’t forget to use the PortaPortal resources for review, enrichment, and practice!

LANGUAGE ARTS

Get ready for Mount Everest!  We will be kicking off our comparing and contrasting unit using excerpts from multiple texts about this world wonder.  We will use graphic organizers to help sort information we have read so making comparisons and contrasts is easier.  We will also start examining cause and effect.  There will also be a review of correct apostrophe usage.  Word Trek is back for 2021!  The quizzes will be given on Friday as usual.  Please make sure that your student is not using their homework to “help” on the quiz on Friday.  Taking the printed copy away from the area will be greatly appreciated.  Thanks for your support on this!  🙂

SCIENCE

It’s all about plants!  Students will learn the parts of a plant and the parts of a flower.  We’ll also talk about photosynthesis and how this process works.  This is a pretty short 4th grade review unit, so we will have a quiz on January 12th.   Check out this great site for resources you can use to study for this unit: Plants

SOCIAL STUDIES

There is still much to learn about the Southeast region!  We will discuss the climate and economics of this region, and how that’s interconnected with the natural resources found in this area.  We’ll also learn about some of the Native Americans that lived in this region and their contributions.