5th Grade Weekly Newsletter #21
#21 - Week of January 29th
Welcome to February!
The fifth grade has transitioned to a new Core 3 for the second half of the day. Students have switched between Science and Social Studies. Check in with your child about the new content they are learning in class!
With February upon us this week, we would like to invite students to participate in a voluntary Valentine's Day activity. If students choose to hand out Valentines, we ask that one be created for each student in their peer's class. Please note whether your child is in the Science group or the Social Studies group and plan accordingly. The handout below will also be coming home with students on Monday!
Valentine's Day Letter (with student names)
Ms. D (tardig1@gpsk12.org)
Ms. Marchefka (annmar1@gpsk12.org)
Report Cards
Quarter 2
Quarter 2 report cards will be mailed this week. Students will have a letter grade for their Unified Arts classes. Students will receive marks related to the following codes with 5th grade core classes such as ELA and Math.
ELA / Math
4 = Advanced or exceeds grade level expectations
3 = Meets year end grade level expectations
2 = Making progress toward year end grade level expectations
1 = Below grade level expectations; area of concern
Science / Social Studies / Social and Emotional Learning
IN = Independent
WG = With Guidance
EX = Needs extra guidance and instruction
ELA (Reading & Writing) and Math Grades
Our current grading system in ELA and Math reflects a child's progress toward a set of standards. Some of the standards group several skills together. You'll notice that on the report card ELA is broken up into two sections "Reading" and "Writing." The grade reflects your child's progress on the part of the standard they have been working on in class.
At this point in the year, the goal is to have students between a 2 and 3 - making progress toward year-end, grade-level expectations or meeting grade level expectations. The work that we are doing in class now will be revisited throughout the year to ensure that students have the appropriate amount of time to have formed lasting, meaningful experiences with each standard. This will help to ensure that when they leave fifth grade, they can recall and apply the concepts/skills they learned previously and apply what they know to new learnings in future grades.
You will also see many (N/A) scores on this report card. As the year continues, these will shift as students work on different standards.
Science & Social Studies Grades
In Science and Social Studies classes, students are assessed on their performance towards the grade-level standards. You'll noticed that each specific standard is not indicated on the report card form. This grade includes class participation, group work, daily assignments, unit assessments, and the application of what we are learning in class to their projects on models or informational posters.
You'll notice two different grade scales in this section - one that reflects progress towards the standards (1-4) and one that shows an overall effort grade (IN, WG, EX, NA).
Tutoring on Thursday
Please let me know if your child is interested in staying after school on Thursday for tutoring. There is a late bus that leaves GMS at 3:30 pm if your child needs a ride home. Otherwise, tutoring ends at 3:00 pm.
-Anna Marchefka (annmar1@gpsk12.org)
ELA & Social Studies
ELA - This week students will be comparing and contrasting works of Raphael and Michaelangelo. They will continue to work on writing prompts and develop their use of transition words. Students will also have a Spelling Test on List #9 mid week.
Soc. St. - This week, we will continue to focus on artifacts and talk about why physical pieces of history are important in understanding the roots of culture.
-Ms. D (tardig1@gpsk12.org)
Math & Science
In math, students prepared for and took their Unit 4 test. While some students have not finished the test yet, most students have and I will send home graded tests on Monday. We'll start our next unit on decimals this week!
In Science, students planted green onions in soil to test if plants need water in order to grow. They planted two green onions and watered them, while the other two remained in dry soil. Students will weight and measure the length of their plants on Monday to see the amount of water each plant received impacted their growth. This week we'll be testing if plants need soil in one experiment and if they need air in another!
-Ms. Marchefka (annmar1@gpsk12.org)
Neuroscience!
Nurturing Confidence: Tackling Self-Criticism (Part 2)
This past week students took their end-of-unit math test and as I mentioned last week, this often brings up big feelings of inadequacy and fears about failing. To help students develop their thinking skills during the test I gave them a bank of questions that they could ask me if they felt stressed or unable to move forward.
Here are a few of the questions I provided them:
- I’m having trouble getting started. I’m going to read the directions and then can you see if what I am doing is correct?
- I’m not understanding what to do, should I first________________?
- Does my drawing accurately represent what the question is asking?
- I read the question, drew a diagram, and put information on the diagram. Does my drawing and my numbers make sense based on the question?
Students would get stuck, raise their hand for help and I would ask them - what question do you have for me? Some students would look at the list, look at their paper and say "never mind, I just figured it out" or some would pick a specific question and I would provide support that would help them to be independent moving forward. It is incredibly difficult for me to not jump in and save them from the discomfort of not knowing! This is something that I am working on professionally and I still have a long way to go.
Overall, I saw less self-criticism and frustration and more willingness to try many different things to solve the problems than I have in the past. You'll notice on some of the student's papers, when they come home this week, many erase marks or numbers crossed out. This is a reflection of their grit and perseverance. Every single student worked incredibly hard and celebrating this effort, not just the results, is one way we can start to support students in nurturing their self-confidence.
-Anna Marchefka
Any views or opinions represented are personal and do not represent the views of the Greenfield Public Schools