5th Grade Weekly Update
Here's what's going on at O.C. Taylor!
Week of November 4th - 8th
A Massive Request.......
Moving forward, we would love to encourage items such as doctor appointments, special events, etc to try to be scheduled after 11:15 as much as possible to help us have that important and highly-coveted core instruction time with your student. It would be so much better for them to miss things like Tiger Time, recess, lunch here at school, etc rather than their main instruction. Thank you so much for your understanding!
ANNOUNCEMENTS!!!
- NO SCHOOL MONDAY, NOVEMBER 4th for GCISD Staff Development! Enjoy time with your families :)
- See below for an update about Camp Thurman!
- All 5th graders (Epperson/Fields/Fiffik) have received an O.C.Taylor planner. All classes are being very intentional moving forward with how we utilize our planners as tools to improve our communication and time-management skills. These will be covered in all classes daily! During our Monday Morning Message, students will be provided with built-in time to discuss and ask questions about assignments, due dates, as well as time management strategies throughout the week. We will wait for our Morning Show participants to join us to ensure no one is left out.
- TIGER TIME
We want to clarify our expectations for our hour of Tiger Time. We use this time to check-in with students to see that they have completed and submitted all incomplete/missing work for both Humanities and Math/Science in an effort to limit or avoid them having to work on anything at home. This time will still be used by teachers for small-group instruction and remediation as needed. When students are pulled from core instruction for special services, we also utilize Tiger Time to catch them up from instruction they missed earlier in the day.
- Extension activities - We want Tiger Time to be inclusive of all our learners. In addition to having time for completing their regular classwork, the students also have menu choice boards for both Humanities and Math that are meant to supplement our instruction, extend lessons in fun ways, and are great ways to review content past what is covered in class.
- For GT students, we understand that they don't have Tiger Time Mon-Wed. They will have Tiger Time on Thursdays and Fridays to help them reclaim some time to make up or complete anything from class that they might be missing to help them with their workload.
- Telescopers - Mrs. Griffin pulls this group on Mondays/Wednesdays/Fridays from 10:40-11:10. On Tuesdays/Thursdays, they will have this same time window to work on any unfinished or missing assignments they have from Humanities, Math, or Science to help them with their workload.
- *Students should only be on Prodigy and other online sites after all work has been completed and their teachers have confirmed they are not missing anything. This should also be limited to about 10 minutes as they have the menu choice boards they can be working from as well*
- On days when we visit the science lab, we ask that students wear closed-toe shoes and those with longer hair bring something to pull it back out of their face while we conduct our labs. Although we have aprons, we recommend not wearing brand new or favorite clothing on lab days!
- Taylor Tiger Choir
All 4th and 5th graders are invited to attend!
We meet every Thursday from 2:55-4:00 p.m. in the OCT Music room.
5th Grade Gifted and Talented Testing
The presentation will also be shared on the Advanced Academics page of the district website following the meeting. GT testing will begin after we return from winter break in January. Parents interested in referring their child for testing need to complete this form: Parent Inventory & Permission to Test . THE PERMISSION FORM LINK IS NOW LIVE!
O.C. Taylor Tigers salute our Veterans!
Our 3rd and 4th-grade students are preparing music to perform at our annual Veterans Day program Monday, Nov. 11 at 8:30 a.m. in the OCT cafeteria. Parents, friends, and family are invited to attend. 3rd and 4th-grade students should wear red, white and blue for our performance. There is a reception in the library immediately following the program for veterans, honored guests, and their families.
If you have a picture of a veteran you wish to hang on the Wall of Honor, please label your picture with your name, the veteran’s name and the branch of the military they served in. Turn in your pictures to your teacher or Mrs. Vencill by Wednesday, Nov. 6. Your pictures will be returned to you after Veterans Day.
The OCT National Elementary Honor Society students are collecting supplies to send to current U.S. troops. As we prepare for Veterans Day, this is a great way to show honor and support to our current military people. Thank you for your donations, Tigers!
Supplies needed: bars of soap, toothpaste/toothbrush, shampoo, sunscreen, lip balm, lotion, foot powder, Q-tips, first aid kit, card games, frisbees, balls, books, stationary/pens, AAA batteries, nuts, sunflower seeds, candy (not chocolate).
Progress Reports and Report Card Dates
Camp Thurman has been rescheduled for MONDAY DECEMBER 9th!
We really appreciate how flexible and gracious our families have been in response to this! Our students kept smiles on their faces in light of the cancelation on Monday. We are so excited to share that our fifth-grade students will be able to return to Camp Thurman for the Challenge Adventure Program Field Trip. As we prepare for the rescheduled date in December, please be looking for a Camp Thurman safety waiver that will require a parent/guardian signature in order to participate. We will also update you with the extended times and info regarding the additional hot dog cookout that CT is providing for our students at no additional fee. We will pass this information along to you in the next few weeks. We will be communicating more information soon! Below is the release form -
We have made copies and will be providing every student one so please only print off if needed.
HUMANITIES (Reading, Writing, & Social Studies)
**The next book talk is due November 22--this book talk must be given from the main character's point of view. If you know that you will not be here on that Friday, your child must be ready to give their book talk before they leave for the Thanksgiving break**
Writing: We will be finishing our rewrite of a narrative paper that we have been working on in class. Our goal is to have this paper finished by the end of the week.
Spelling: Students received new words last week in class. Students should all have taken a picture of their words so that they have their words with them at all times. Two activities using 10 different spelling words per activity are due this Friday. The spelling test is this Friday as well.
Grammar: Our Patterns of Power focus this week will be conjunctions using FANBOYS (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so)
Social Studies: We are beginning Unit 4 this week. This unit is titled Road to the Revolution. We will begin discussing events that led up to the Revolutionary War. There is a list of things that will be posted in google classroom on Wednesday. Most of these sources will be things that the students will be using for this unit. Others are just extra resources that might be interesting for the students to look at.
MATH
This week in math, we will be reviewing for our Unit 4 test on Wednesday, November 6th. Students had an opportunity to work on a review sheet sent home last Wednesday, October 30th.
Students will take their unit test on Wednesday, Nov 6th.
Based on the data from the test, we will reteach concepts on Thursday or begin pre-testing for Unit 5 over fraction operations. We will start with equivalent fractions and finding the least common denominator.
Students have examples of strategies in their notebooks. They all have multiple methods to complete their multiplication and division problems.
All students also have an account on PRODIGY. They can access this through Classlink and log in using their Google credentials. This is an excellent way for them to practice their math skills in a fun way!
*******Pleeeeeeeease encourage your child to practice their multiplication math facts nightly. This will tremendously benefit them in 5th-grade math! Flashcards, apps, anything will help!*******
SCIENCE
We will continue studying the concept of Interdependency of Environments. As we continue this unit, it reviews several familiar concepts studied in 4th grade and leads us into food chains and food webs. Students continue analysis of living and non-living components in an ecosystem and the pros and cons of their impact. Unit 6 and 7 are very similar and we are blending them into our lessons this and next week.
This continues a study of a total of 6 units before our next district assessment in November. All of these units build on each other and the students really enjoy the content. We will also be adding in certain ongoing investigations such as observing a habitat of a rotting log over several weeks.
5th grade Grading Policy - Please Read!
We know that many of you are new to your student receiving numeric grades. We want to make you all aware of our grading policy in 5th grade this year. This policy is also posted in our 5th grade Curriculum Night Slideshow presentation.
We are a no-homework campus. If classwork requires extra time, it will come home as unfinished classwork to be completed at home and returned the next day. Assignments scoring below a 70 can be corrected accurately and returned as soon as possible for up to a 70. Tests under 70 will be revisited in small group with a test 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.
We encourage both parents and students to check Skyward often to monitor student progress. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask!
IMPORTANT UPCOMING DATES
No school on Monday, November 4th!
Tuesday, November 5th is Spirit Night at Chipotle (in Colleyville) from 4-8pm!
Wednesday, Nov 6th - Unit 4 District Math Assessment - a review will be provided
Wednesday, Nov 6th - yearbook club and NEHS meets
Thursday, Nov 7th - Choir
Thursday, Nov7th - GT Parent Informational Meeting at PDEC - see above!
Friday, Nov 8th - National STEM day, Running Club meets
UPCOMING ITEMS
Week of November 11th - Science District Assessment over multiple units - a review will be provided
Nov 11th - Veteran's Day Assembly
Nov 12th - Choir Concert at White's Chapel at 7pm
Nov 12th - Math Interim Assessments (mock STAAR Math test)
Nov 14th - Game On!, choir meets
Nov 15th - Running Club, Big Kahuna deliveries
Nov 19th - makeup picture day
Teacher Contact Info
sharon.fiffik@gcisd.net - 5th grade Humanities/Team Leader (Reading/Writing/Social Studies)
@OCTFIFFIK
morgan.epperson@gcisd.net - 5th grade Math/Science
@MsEppersonOCT
amber.fields@gcisd.net - 5th grade Math/Science
@OCTFields
michelle.watkins@gcisd.net - 5th grade Resource - all content
@OCTWatkins
tiffany.daggercummin@gcisd.net - 5th grade Humanities (Reading/Writing/Social Studies)
@OCTDagger
Location: 5300 Pool Road, Colleyville, TX, USA
Phone: 817-305-4870