The Classroom Connection
5th Grade Team Newsletter
Welcome to 5th Grade!
We have completed the first two weeks of school and the transition from 4th to 5th grade has been working successfully. We hope your child is enjoying the transformation from elementary school to middle school. In an attempt to keep you connected to the classroom, we will be sending out a newsletter every 2 weeks. This will be a condensed update of what your child is learning in class and notification of any upcoming due dates. This does not replace our teacher websites so please continue to visit those or contact us directly, if you have further questions.
SCIENCE / MS. TORRES
Students were introduced to class expectations and procedures and wrote a letter setting goals for themselves this quarter.
Please take time to review the class syllabus and ask to read your child’s letter.
First Series of Notebook Entries and Homework: Scientific Inquiry
Students should begin to develop the habit of consistently reviewing their
notes throughout the week.
Give your child a little reminder of how reviewing their notes just a little each night will make a big difference.
Formal Unit Test: Wednesday, September 9th
SCIENCE FAIR:
The binder should be set up in three sections. There is an important
document (a yellow paper )located in the front of the binder. This is the
timeline for the science fair process that needs to be signed first on the
bottom and after each component is completed (adjacent to the due date).
UPCOMING DUE DATE: THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 10
The first assignment of the science fair process is due by September 10th which is to
record three complete ideas on the provided sheet for my review.
Kindly remember to encourage your child to utilize the wikipage for review, to post any question they may have regarding homework or the topic of focus, and to reference class documents (especially during an absence or if a sheet is misplaced).
LANGUAGE ARTS / MRS. KUHN
Students will be reading stories from the Junior Great Book Series. Each story gets progressively longer and more complex building on previous skills learned.
Fifth Graders read Charles, by Shirley Jackson, which led to discussions about characters and the inferences we made about their actions and motivations. We will be reading another story from that book next week.
The Grammar segment of our class this year is the Caesar's English II program. We will also add in vocabulary from other books that we read. Quizzes will generally be given on Fridays.
UPCOMING DUE DATE: THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 10
Our first writing assignment this week was to write a summary of a nonfiction article. Students were taught how to take notes on an article identifying the key points, and how to organize a summary into a paragraph. Winnowing out the key points is sometimes challenging. This is one type of writing where, "Less is more!". The final copy of this summary is due next Thursday, 09/10/2015. Students will need to complete this as homework.
MATH / MRS. MILLER
Based on what class your child is in, this is what they have been working on in class.
MS Math 1: Number Sense, Addition and Subtraction
MS Math 2: Rational Numbers
HS Math 1: Expressions, Equations and Variables
SOCIAL STUDIES / MS. ELLINGTON
GEOGRAPHY / MAP SKILLS
Students sharpened their map skills by reviewing the physical geography of the world using latitude and longitude coordinates. Students are developing mental maps to understand the location of world regions and important physical features of places. This will lay the groundwork for the study of world history by exploring the relationship between physical geography and human geography.
Students will continue studying the 5 Themes of Geography this week by researching a city, state, or country. When the research is completed students will try to guess their classmates location based on their description using the 5 themes of geography.
Geography Review: To help students with their geography, I have posted a great list of
educational games and quizzes on my website.
TEACHER TALKS
The Middle School (5th -8th grade) Teacher Talks will consist of six, 15 minute sessions. Parents will arrive and go directly to their child's homeroom. They will be given a schedule to follow in order to see all core teachers, which includes their foreign language teacher. We look forward to seeing you soon.