ASPIRE 5th Weekly News
February 5, 2016
Dates to Remember:
February 9 - Math Olympiad Competition 4
February 12 - Valentine's Party
February 15 - Student Holiday
February 17-18 - Early Dismissal (11:45) with Student led conferences
February 19 - All 5th grade field trip to CTMS to discuss electives; Progress Reports go home.
February 22 - ASPIRE 3-4-5 Field Trip to George W. Bush Presidential Library
A Peek at Last Week
Scientists at Work:
This week our scholars began their study of the uses of energy - electrical, thermal, mechanical, sound, and light. They are working in teams to invent a new machine that would help with a specific need and uses and/or produces all five types of heat. They will be presenting their poster of their machine Shark Tank style to the whole ASPIRE 5 class and 6 experts. The two teams with the most investors will be declared the winners!
In Humanities:
After we finished our Historical Fiction Book Clubs, the scholars completed a survey about what they liked, disliked, and wished about the book club process and the genres they were most interested in reading next. They also told us they were interested in having more traditional book club jobs like Vocabulary Checker, Plot Detective, etc. In ASPIRE 5 we believe in Student Voice in the designing of lessons - so we listened to our scholars' ideas from the survey and this week introduced our next book club genre - FANTASY. Students formed groups based on their favorite element of fantasy and went to the library in search of books.
Next Week in Our Classes
Math:
6th Grade Accelerated Math- Combining like terms and solving one step equations
5th Grade Math
- Multiplying fractions in real world situations
Reading/Writing
- Fantasy Book Club meetings - chunking the story, reading the first chunk and student led discussion of the chunk
- Preparing for student led conferences
Social Studies
- Looking at the roles of women in the Revolutionary War
- The implication on various groups as the Revolutionary War comes to an end
Science:
- Potential and kinetic energy
- Electrical Circuits
Leadership:
- Collaborating with small groups
- Presentations to class
Order and Chaos in ASPIRE 5
Scholar Led Conferences
Valentine's Day Party in 5th Grade
We believe that in school, our Scholars should have a valentine for every classmate in their homeroom (giving them to the other ASPIRE 5 class is also fine). Please do not have your child bring "special" valentines for "Special" friends. We will attach a list of our students to the email that brought you this link.
Please remember that both classrooms are nut-free zones. If your child's valentines have treats attached to them, be sure they do not contain nuts. Also, due to severe allergies in our school, we have been told that there may not be any homemade items.
Thank you for helping to keep our scholars safe!
Important iPad Reminders
Please check that your child has plugged in his/her iPad each night and brings the iPad charger to school. While we do have a few open outlets in the classroom, we don't have enough for the number of people who have been regularly forgetting to charge their iPads.
Thank you so much for your help in this!