5th Grade Weekly Update
Here's what's going on at O.C. Taylor!
Week of September 16th - 20th
ANNOUNCEMENTS!!!
*** CAFETERIA VISITATION EXPECTATIONS***
Moving forward, parents and visitors can only sit with their child during lunch. Students CANNOT invite a classmate to eat with them and their guests.
Per Mrs. Bailey, for safety reasons, only the guest and child can sit at the visitor table.
If your child has received a planner, please send your $5 as soon as possible to either their homeroom teacher or Ms. Gene in the office - thank you! We appreciate it!
TIGER TIME
We will use our personalized learning time to practice skills in small groups. Students will choose if they wish to research, code, or write creatively. Here is the format moving forward so we can be as consistent as possible:
First 15 mins - Spelling
Next 15 mins - Typing Club
Last 30 mins - work on their self-selected Passion Project. Students will create research questions and produce a presentation for the class on their chosen topic to share their learning.
As we cover more material, we will eventually add in some math/science options to the student choice board. Teachers will also be using this time for any necessary small group remediation and clearing up of misconceptions from the day's lessons.
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.
HUMANITIES (Reading, Writing, & Social Studies)
Reading: We will continue to read our book club book Walk Two Moons in class. Students are expected to read their book talk book at night to review the reading skills we are teaching in class. Book talk #1 is due Oct. 4. The book talk rubric can be found in google classroom.
Spelling: New spelling words will go out on Monday. These words will be glued into students writing notebook. This notebook can go home whenever a student wants to take it home. Students are expected to do 2 different activities from their activity folder. These activities and the test will both be due on Sept. 27.
Writing: Students will be working on expository writing this week. This writing will come from their social studies that we have been working on for the last few weeks.
Social Studies: Students will be working on their final copy of their 51st states. Students will be working on this in class but may take it home if they feel they need more time. Final maps will be due on Wednesday.
Students also need to be working on their maps for their states. Maps are due Friday. States test #2 is Friday as well.
Please remember that these states build on each other from the previous test.
MATH
Students will be taking their Unit 1-2 test on Tuesday of this week. Please review data representation and comparing/ordering decimals and place value. In 5th grade, place value covers from the billions place to the thousandths. Students are responsible for understanding the standard form, the word form, the expanded form, and the expanded notation of numbers.
Our next unit will involve long division and 3 digit by 2 digit multiplication so please push the multiplication facts practice at home.
Students are now completing a daily online multiplication quiz as a warmup to help them build their math fluency. We are also going to offer weekly bonus practice problems - stay tuned, details being finalized! This will be a great way for parents to see what's going on in class as well as be an awesome accountability partner for your kiddo!
*******Pleeeeeeeease encourage your child to practice their multiplication math facts nightly. This will tremendously benefit them in 5th grade math! Flash cards, apps, anything will help!*******
SCIENCE
We have completed the first week of Unit 3! The students are building on their knowledge of mixtures and solutions as well as observing and classifying objects by their physical properties. We visited the lab last week and conducted several lab stations where students created and observed various mixtures and solutions and recorded their analysis in their lab journals. This week we will continue this unit with multiple activities in stations and online to wrap up unit 3 and allow the students to show what they know.
Our unit test will be Wednesday, Sept.25th
IMPORTANT UPCOMING DATES
Sept 17 - UNITS 1-2 Math assessment covering data analysis and place value
Sept. 23: NO SCHOOL!!! Professional Development Day for GCISD staff
Sept 25 - Science Units 1-3 Unit Test covering physical properties of matter and mixtures/solutions.
Book Talk, due Oct. 4
*Principal Roundtable discussions regarding new dismissal procedures will be scheduled for October*
Test dates at a glance:
Map test #2: Sept. 20 (Northeast + Southeast States)
Map test #3: Oct. 4 (Northeast, Southeast +Midwest States)
Map test #4: Oct. 18 (Northeast, Southeast, Midwest + Southwest States)
Map test #5: Nov. 1 (FINAL all 50 states test!)
Teacher Contact Info
sharon.fiffik@gcisd.net - 5th grade Humanities (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