We had our first full five day week of school since 2019!!!  It was awesome!!  I am super proud of all of us for making it through, smiling!  🙂

Thanks to everyone who was able to attend Back to School Night this past Thursday.  It was great seeing everyone!  Please let me know if you have questions or suggestions at any time.

IMPORTANT DATES

October 1 – Vocabulary and Spelling Quiz for Lesson 2

October 5 – Earth, Moon, and Sun Quiz

October 11 – Student Holiday

MATH

This week we continue with integers.  The students will begin placing integers on a number line, ordering and comparing, as well as explore absolute value.  Then we will start learning how to do order of operations.   Your student will have notes on all of these topics in their notebook.  There are also lots of resources in the Student Resources folder.   Another great place to practice skills is the portaportal.  All students could benefit from practicing their multiplication facts.  Knowing these quickly will definitely help them when learning new skills or practicing old ones.  Weekly Math (green logic puzzle) is due on Wednesday, September 29th.

LANGUAGE ARTS

Word Trek homework is due on Thursday, September 30th.  Lesson 2 quizzes will be given on Friday, October 1st.   In Language, the students will work with comma usage and homophones such as its and it’s, your and you’re, and there, their, and they’re.  The students will also write on a chosen prompt in their writing journals.

We will continue reading Running Out of Time.  The students will begin exploring different types of characters along wit character traits this week.   We will also look at finding the theme of fictional texts.  The students will work together to discover the big message or lesson of familiar works.

SCIENCE

The students will present their planet commercials this Monday.  Earth, Sun, and Moon is the review unit for this week.  The students will be reviewing the movements of these bodies as well as the phases of the moon.  There will be a quiz on this unit on Tuesday, October 5th.  Next, is our Matter Unit.

SOCIAL STUDIES
We will continue with Henrico history this week.  The students will create a postcard highlighting an event from Henrico history.   We will move into the Reconstruction and Post World War II Era.  Students will see how Henrico was affected and discuss population changes over time.  We will also look at the differences of urban and rural living.

What a great week!  We are having fun learning more and more about each other, and the students are settling into the routine.  🙂

I am so excited to connect with you virtually for back to school night.  You will receive an email from me with a Teams link later this week.  Please login, and make sure you are muted.  There are three times to choose from.  Each session will discuss the same information.

Here is a link with information, dates, and frequently asked questions regarding the gifted program.  Please let me know if you have questions.  Gifted Programs Parent FAQs

IMPORTANT DATES

9/21  Science Quiz on Planet Unit

9/22  Prime and Composite Numbers Quiz

9/23 Virtual Back to School Night for Adults (look for a link coming soon)

9/24  Vocabulary & Spelling Quizzes on Word Trek Lesson #1

MATH

We will continue working with prime and composite numbers.  Your student has notes in their notebook to help them with homework and preparation for the quiz.  We will start exploring integers on Friday.  The students will learn about positive and negative integers, how to compare them using a number line, and how to determine absolute value in this unit.

The class has been assigned their first Weekly Math (white colored logic puzzle) assignment.  We are working together, as well as independently, to complete this assignment.  Throughout the year the students will be given a Weekly Math assignment on Wednesdays that is due the following Wednesday.  In fifth grade this assignment is graded and expected to be completed at school.  The students are given a significant amount of time to work on it and ask questions in class throughout the week.  If the assignment is not complete on Tuesday evening they are expected to complete it at home. Parental assistance is permitted in the form of clarifying what the question is asking along with talking through strategies that your child suggests.  Please do not give them the answers or cue them to make corrections if they don’t see the mistake.  The students should be working independently with fifth grade problem-solving ideas and should be showing all of their work on the assignment or a separate sheet of paper.  The goal of Weekly Math is to develop the students’ individual approaches to solving problems using critical thinking skills that are age appropriate.  I will often be grading their processes rather than correct answers.  Please let me know if you have questions regarding this assignment. 🙂

LANGUAGE ARTS

We will continue reading Running Out of Time this week.  The focus skill this week is the elements of plot.  We will work with these elements to map the plot of our novel.  The students will also apply the story elements we talked about last week using other texts.

Our first Word Trek quizzes are this Friday.  Your student needs to complete the homework and be ready to check it on Thursday.  I have been giving them time in class to work on it and ask questions.  They will need to possibly do some research on other words that have the word parts for the week included.  The end goal is for the students to be able to discover meaning of unknown words based on word parts that they know.  Word Trek can seem overwhelming at first, but the students will get the hang of it.  They will be successful with it!

SCIENCE

We will wind up our review of the Solar System and Planets Unit this week.  The students will create a commercial persuading people to come to their chosen planet this week.  These projects will be amazing!   There is a quiz on this unit on Tuesday, September 21st.  Your student has notes in their notebook to help prepare for this quiz.  Our next unit is Earth, Sun, and Moon.

SOCIAL STUDIES

This week’s focus is the history of Henrico.  The students will create a postcard that discussing an event in Henrico’s history.  They will also  compare and contrast living in a rural or urban area.  We are learning so much about the county we live in!

Wow, we completed our first week of school!  I am really proud of how quickly the kids have learned the routines.  We had a lot of fun learning about one another through various games and even completed a fun Spaghetti Tower Challenge.  It’s been amazing!  Please congratulate your student on a successful first week of school!

I am so excited to be working with you and your child this year.  Thank you so much for all of your support as we navigate this school year together.  This newsletter/blog  is a fantastic resource full of dates, details, and links that I will update each week.  It’s important that you and your child review it each week so that you “stay in the know” of all the happenings in fifth grade.

IMPORTANT DATES

9/15  Social Studies Quiz on the surrounding counties

9/16  Student Holiday/Staff Development- Yom Kippur

9/21  Science Quiz on Planets 

9/22  Prime and Composite Numbers Quiz

9/23 Virtual Back to School Night for Adults (look for a link coming soon)

9/24  Vocabulary & Spelling Quizzes on Word Trek Lesson #1

Notes from Resources:

Art: Please have your child bring in an art shirt (large T shirt) labeled with his/her name for art this week.

Academics

https://guest.portaportal.com/gaes5thgrade

We are so thrilled to offer this great collection of sites for extra practice! Please bookmark the portaportal and use this in conjunction with your child’s notebook and Schoology files to help your child feel prepared. Thanks for your support! 

We will be ramping up to our more traditional homework load this week. Your child will have nightly word study and math homework Monday-Thursday. We also ask that students read for 20 minutes a night OR complete a lesson in Lexia.  Your child can access e-reading material in Epic through Clever if they do not have hard copy books available at home.

Math: This coming week we will work on prime and composite numbers as well as review divisibility rules. Your student will have notes on these topics in their Math notebook.  They should be using their notes when completing homework.  There will be a quiz on prime and composite numbers on Wednesday, September 22nd.  

Language Arts: Students will begin Word Trek this week.  Word Trek is a program that teaches Greek and Latin word parts in order to understand and apply new words.  Each Friday students will have a quiz on the meaning and the application of the ten vocabulary words, as well as a second quiz on the spelling of the word.  Students will receive homework for this on Monday that is to be turned in on Thursday.  Lesson 1 words and definitions will be passed out on Monday, September 13th.  However, the quizzes will not be given until Friday, September 24th.  This will give the students some extra time to adjust to the homework and expectations for the quizzes.  

We will begin our first novel study, Running Out of Time.  This is a great novel with lots of intrigue.  The students will be looking for character traits early on as well as themes for the first three chapters.  The students will also be working with homophones, synonyms and antonyms, and journal writing in small groups this week.

Science:  We are starting the year with a review unit on planets.  Students will learn about the nine planets that make up the two groups of planets (inner planets and outer planets).  We will also be discussing revolution, rotation, as well as the order of the planets and their relative size.  There will be a quiz on this information Tuesday, September 21st.  Your student will have notes and a study guide to help prepare them for this quiz.

Social Studies:  We will continue with our study of Henrico County in Social Studies. This coming week we will focus on the geography of Henrico. We will have a quiz on Henrico and the surrounding counties along with the regions that are located in Henrico on Wednesday, September 15th.  Your student has notes and maps in their Social Studies notebook.   

Welcome to 5th grade!  It is going to be an amazing year!  Here is a very quick video from the 5^th grade team.  This week we will be getting to know each other and the new routines.  Your student will bring their computer and charger home every afternoon and then back to school each morning.  The computers need to be fully charged each morning so I recommend plugging them in overnight.   Please take a moment and fill out the parent survey found here.

Our daily schedule looks like this:

8:00-9:00 – Math

9:00-11:00 – Literacy

11:00-11:40 – Resources

11:40-12:10 – Recess

12:10-12:55 – Science

12:55-1:20 – Lunch

1:20-1:50 – Social Studies

Please send in a snack and a water bottle each day for your student.   Feel free to reach out with questions or suggestions at any time!  I am super excited about this year!