5th Grade Weekly Update
Here's what's going on at O.C. Taylor!
Week of March 1st - 5th!!!
DISMISSAL INFORMATION
**IN THE INTEREST OF STUDENT SAFETY**
Please make sure to have your OCT-issued yellow dashboard sign to pick up your student in the car line. If you do not have yours, you will be asked to pull over into the waiting area to verify ID to help us ensure student safety. We appreciate your understanding and support with this.
Parents, if you are making any changes to how your child is getting home (even last-minute), please email the teachers AND call/inform the office at (817)-305-4870. We understand that sometimes pickup plans change last-minute or in response to the weather. We MUST ensure the safety of our students and cannot rely on hearsay or a direct text to the child, etc. PLEASE, moving forward, contact the office AND your child's teacher(s) with ANY ride change information. We very much appreciate your understanding with this.
When/if your in-person student needs to learn from home....
ANNOUNCEMENTS
SLIDES WITH WEBEX LINKS AND INSTRUCTIONAL SCHEDULES - ALSO IN SEESAW
Click HERE to view our WEEK-AT-A-GLANCE assignment listing for this week!
Please see Chromebook info below for accessibility issues.
Mrs. Whisman's Middle School WebEx info session has been rescheduled to a later date. We will provide updated information as soon as we receive it from our Counselor.
Please explore Mrs. Whisman's middle school link below for the most up-to-date information concerning the transition to middle school!
As a team, we are stressing continued diligence with proper fit and wearing of masks, social distancing, and proper handwashing. If anyone in your household is experiencing typical COVID symptoms (fever, headache, fatigue, sore throat, etc), please err on the side of caution and keep your child home. They can easily hop on our Remote Learning schedule and stay on top of work in a way that limits risks to others. We need all involved to help take care of all involved. One positive exposure can potentially impact multiple students and staff.
Please make sure student devices are being charged NIGHTLY! We are seeing an uptick in students needing to charge here at school. Students are also welcome to bring their own chargers just in case.
HEADS UP!
OCT Spring Creek Spirit Night is March 2nd. See the flyer below for more info!
The Colleyville Middle School Band Directors will visit with our 5th graders on Wednesday and Thursday, March 3-4, in the gym during their P.E. block to answer any questions they might have about middle school!
Please make every effort to have your student present for these assessments as they provide us with valuable data as we head into the final segment of the year. Students will attend SPECIALS from 1:00 - 1:50 pm on March 9-10th to allow for testing windows with fewer interruptions.
READING INTERIM ASSESSMENT is Tuesday, March 9th.
MATH INTERIM ASSESSMENT is Wednesday, March 10th.
SCIENCE INTERIM ASSESSMENT is Tuesday, March 30th.
We will have some sort of Virtual Open-House showcase during the week of March 8th so families can see some of the amazing things their students work on during their time with us!
ATTENTION PARENTS! INFORMATION CONCERNING 6TH GRADE!!!
This message has a lot of information from the different middle schools that will help you to understand how course selection is done in order to get all of our students scheduled for next year. Please take some time to go to the links that are specific to the school your child is zoned for. If you are unsure which school that is, here is a link that takes you to the district website to get that information. If you are considering asking for a transfer to a school your child is NOT zoned for, the district will be adding this year’s dates to this page soon. You will still need to choose courses at your child’s zoned campus as transfers are not usually decided upon until the summer.
STAAR INTERIM ASSESSMENTS & DEVICE FUNCTIONALITY
Please be mindful of class times
Humanities
Reading & Patterns of Power
Patterns of Power: We are reviewing prepositions and phrases specifically focusing on "telling which one".
Reading: We are doing a poetry study this week and next. We will be discussing different aspects of poetry, characteristics of poetry, different figurative language components that are in poetry, and reading lots of poetry. Students will be writing their own poetry in class as well. We will culminate this poetry study with a "Coffee House Poetry Reading" next Friday. Students will be able to choose 2-3 of their favorite poems to share out with the class. This will be for a grade.
Writing & Social Studies
In Social Studies this week, we are headed west! Hop onboard your wagon or prairie schooner. It's "Oregon or Bust!" Along the way, we'll be joining the California Gold Rush.
In writing, we will continue to "catch up" from missing one week of school and will write our final copies of the citizenship assignment.
Math
This week in math, we will be taking our Unit 6 Math Test over Positive Rational Numbers and Order of Operations.
The students have been learning and practicing order of operations using the acronym GEMDAS (like PEMDAS but we use G because we use two sets of Grouping symbols; brackets and parentheses). The students have also learned about adding and subtracting decimals, mixed numbers, and switching mixed numbers to decimals. All of these concepts will be on their unit 6 math test on Wednesday, March 3rd.
They will work on a Math Review which was given to them to work on over the weekend (if they choose to, it is not homework) and they will have time in class to work on it on Monday. On Tuesday, we will go over the answers and process to solve the problems to prepare them for their test. We will do test corrections and reteach on Thursday after the test and then begin Unit 7 over Algebraic Reasoning on Friday with an introduction to writing equations using a multi-step problem. Only 3 more units of 5th-grade math! :)
Science
SPECIALS: 10:15 -11:05am
IN-PERSON
Students will attend the same Art and Music class for two weeks and have PE every week. See attached calendar
Specials teachers will be sanitizing supplies and classrooms in between classes
Students will ALWAYS need Chromebooks in Music/Art.
Students will ALWAYS need to bring a pencil, art supplies, and their plexiglass divider to Art.
REMOTE
Remote learners may connect with Specials teachers one day a week through LIVE Webex meetings for the first 15-20 minutes of their Specials time. These Webex meetings are not mandatory.
Tuesdays - Mrs. Morgan (Art) https://gcisd.webex.com/meet/cristie.morgan. Ms. Yatko will lead weekly WebEx meetings as usual so nothing will change with the art schedule while Mrs. Morgan is out.
Wednesdays-Coach Mester(PE) https://gcisd.webex.com/meet/jason.mester
Thursdays-Mrs. Vencill(Music) https://gcisd.webex.com/meet/bethany.vencill
CONTACT INFO
- Mrs. Yatko - Art - deborah.yatko@gcisd.net
- Mrs. Vencill - Music - bethany.vencill@gcisd.net
- Coach Mester - PE - jason.mester@gcisd.net
NORMS
*Families - please understand that due to the number of students returning, we are only able to space our desks roughly 2-3ft apart to accommodate our students. This is why so many other students are quarantined when someone is exposed.*
Due to the increased number of students returning in-person, we have split our Specials rotations into 4 groups to support our Specials teachers' guidelines.
Suggestion: The line to receive school lunch is VERY long. Students would have significantly more social/downtime during their lunch if they brought items from home. We just wanted to pass along our observations.
Please contact Mrs. Whisman (stacy.whisman@gcisd.net) with any questions/concerns about your student's instructional format/delivery.
MATH TELESCOPING INFORMATION
Please send any questions to Kathy Griffin at kathy.griffin@gcisd.net. Remember that Telescoping is open to anyone!
MATH TELESCOPING DATES &. MATH TELESCOPING WEBSITE
JUNE Testing: Online June 7-17 & Paper June 7-10.
Registration Opens: March 22
Registration Closes; April 1st
JULY Testing: Online July 19-29 & Paper July 19-22
Registration Opens: June 14
Registration Closes: June 22
Come support OCT at our campus Spring Creek Spirit Night!
Spring Class Schedule
IN-PERSON LEARNING
PTA Food Drive
The grade that collects the most donations each month will win an extra recess! Donation basket is in the lobby.
March - PBJ (Peanut/nut butter, jars of jelly)
April - Stock the Pantry (Canned tuna, meat, fruit, etc.)
May - Mac & Cheese(Packages of everyone's favorite!)
5th Grade Grading Policy & Late Work Acceptance
*LATE-WORK* - Students will have ONE WEEK from when an assignment is assigned to complete/submit their work. After that point, a ZERO will be entered into the grade book and will NOT be changed.
Here are some tips for students that will help to develop these habits:
- Check grades and missing assignments daily in Skyward.
- Check email for reminders from your teacher(s)
- Be sure to send your teachers an email if you have any questions about your grades or assignments.
- Check on your Seesaw progress, StemScopes, Readworks, IXL accounts, weekly learning checklist, and update your student planner.
If classwork requires extra time, it will come home as unfinished classwork. Assignments scored under 70 can be corrected and returned to be a 70. Tests under 70 will be revisited in small-group with an opportunity at a later date for an improved score. Assignments turned in late will be 10 points off every day until the assignment is turned in.
Please click HERE to see how each teacher will submit grading feedback by their content area.
Fifth Grade Feedback
Our Focus
Our 5th-grade teachers are so excited to work with you this year and we look forward to teaming with our wonderful 5th-grade families in order to provide the best educational experience possible for our amazing students. There will be times of joy, excitement, and growth as well as moments of frustration. It is during these rougher times that we ask for all to proceed with patience and understanding as we all learn to navigate an entirely new approach to instructional delivery. We are all learning and doing our absolute best and we are confident that all involved will grow through this experience and be ready for the challenges of middle school and beyond. We value our community and welcome all feedback to help us shape this experience into an intentional and successful model of instruction for our students and encourage open communication throughout our time together.
Teacher Contact Info
sharon.fiffik@gcisd.net - 5th grade Humanities (Reading) and Team Leader
@OCTFiffik
morgan.epperson@gcisd.net - 5th grade Math
@OCTEpperson
amber.fields@gcisd.net - 5th grade Science
@OCTFields
angela.vaughan@gcisd.net - 5th grade Humanities (Writing & Social Studies)
@OCTVaughan
Website: https://oct.gcisd.net/
Location: 5300 Pool Rd. Colleyville, TX, USA
Phone: 817-305-4870
Connect With Us!
Follow our campus on Twitter @OCTaylorTigers and follow #OCT4U!