ASPIRE 5th Weekly News
April 15, 2016
As the year winds down...
Dates to Remember:
April 18 - 5th Grade Graduation and Planning meeting. 8:00 in the cafateria
April 19 - Poetry Slam - each Scholar will recite one of the poems they wrote
April 22 - SAGE Speaker Series presents Ian Byrd 6:00-7:30 pm at the PDEC
April 27 - field trip to the Civil War Museum - permission slips coming this week.
April 29 - Lunch with the principal
May 6 - Spirit Day and Pep Rally
May 9 - 6th Grade Accelerated Math STAAR
May 11 - Science STAAR
May 13 - Gator Games (field day)
May 16 - Career Day
May 20 - 5th grade vs faculty softball game
May 20 - ASPIRE Talent Showcase
May 27 - No school - Bad weather make up day
May 30 - Memorial Day, no school
May 31 - 5th grade celebration @ NRH2O - permission slips coming this week.
June 2 - 5th grade graduation and last day of school
A Peek at Last Week
Scientists at Work:
This week our scholarly scientists have finished building the terra aquariums and have had fun taking care of the creatures living within. After finishing our force an motion unit, the scholars studied interdependence of plants and animals with living and non-living things. These presentations were very impressive and went far beyond the requirements - well done!
In Humanities:
April is National Poetry Month - For the last 2 weeks. We started last week celebrating Opening Day for the Rangers by reading Casey at the Bat. The scholars also smashed lines from poems together to create a new original poem. We ended the first week by looking at ourselves and writing about the Best of Me - one poem was their best physical feature and the other was their best character trait. This past week we began by discovering that there are 5 doves (teeth) inside a sand dollar - we talked about what discoveries they have made of themselves this year and wrote a poem. We ended the week celebrating Jackie Robinson Day and wrote odes to Jackie. This week each scholar chose a poem they had written to RECITE in our Poetry Slam on Tuesday in the library. We will set up a "coffee house" in the library for the kids to perform their recitation. If you would like to send in some snacks to share for this - let us know.
Last week the scholars examined one of the early battles of the Civil War and created a flawed summary to share with the class. Their peers had fun finding the flaws embedded into the summaries! This past week we looked at debates of and the life of Black Union soldiers. WE ended the week by reading and analyzing the Emancipation Proclamation.
Next Week in Our Classes
Math:
6th Grade Accelerated Math- Financial literacy - checking accounts, building positive credit history, paying for college
5th Grade Math
- Financial Literacy - looking at budgets, examining property taxes
Humanities:
Reading/Writing
- Poetry Slam on Tuesday
- Junior Great Books with Socratic Seminar
Social Studies
- Examining life on the battle front and turning points in the Civil War
Science:
- Food webs and creating models of an environment based on the adaptations of animals.
Leadership:
- Collaborating with small groups
- Presentations to class
Fullhart's class still in need of at least 8 shoe boxes! Boykin's class needs 1 more.
SAGE Speaker Series Presents Ian Byrd
Ian's passions are GT teaching strategies and social and emotional support for gifted students. He creates teaching materials and videos. His topic for the night is Success Isn't Always a Straight Line: Preparing Gifted Students Socially and Emotionally for a Different Version of the Road to Success.
Ian says, "We like to simplify success into a linear, step-by-step series of events like: get good grades, go to a good school, get a good job. But what happens when our students run into a road bump? How do they respond to inevitable failures, tough teachers, or difficult decisions? We'll discuss how to get kids comfortable with a different version of the road to success."
Please plan to attend Friday, April 22nd from 6:00-7:30 at the PDEC.
Click here to reserve your seat! SAGE expects a big crowd that evening.
Order and Chaos in ASPIRE 5
5th Grade Graduation/Celebration Planning Meeting
3rd Annual ASPIRE Talent Showcase
The next year these 3 students asked to do the Showcase again. Since the ASPIRE Academy was larger they split the day up so that 1st-2nd grade had a showcase and 3rd-5th grade had a showcase, but all showcases were in a class room.
This year we have five 5th grade students that were hand-picked by the originators before they went on to middle school. These 5 girls have gotten a good start on the planning, but since the ASPIRE Academy is now 7 classes - Mr. Boykin and Mrs. Fullhart are jumping in as the producers of the 3rd Annual ASPIRE Talent Showcase to help relieve the stress of putting on such a large show. The ASPIRE 5 classes will finish organizing and learning how to produce these shows. It will be a great experience in committee work and large group collaboration.
Once again due to the numbers of ASPIRE students and space available, the showcase is for our students and will be in the afternoon after the 5th grade faculty softball game.
SAGE Student Showcase
Reading Rewards and the 40 Book Challenge
iPads - Being Prepared for the Day
Many scholars are still coming to school with iPads that are not charged. They are prepared for the day. It is very important that iPads are charged each night. Please remind your child to plug in his/her iPad each night and to brings the iPad charger to school.
Thank you so much for your help in this!