EPIC House May Newsletter
Extraordinary Passionate Innovative Community
Badger and MAP Testing Coming Soon: Be Sure iPads are Charged and Headphones are at School!
Hello Amazing EPIC Families!
WOW! Where has the year gone? It seems like only yesterday we were teaching your wonderful children how to use locks and switch classes and now they are just about ready to head off to sixth grade! We look back with such admiration as to how much the students have grown. Some of them have added at least 6 inches in height while others have mastered switching classes and made some wonderful new friends. From our amazing field trip in fall, making lungs in science, and pumkin carving in math, the year has been filled with exploration, discovery and personal growth. As we entered the year, we stressed the importance of being good and kind to others and saw relationships blossom as we united as a family that looked out for each other every day. We will treasure the rest of the time that we have with your children this year and want to thank you for allowing us the opportunity to be their teachers. We also want to thank you for your help and support that you provided us this year. It was only together that the true success for each child could be achieved! We did it and it was a great year!
Steven Harpster - On-Line Art Field Trip
Drawing Animals with Numbers
Spurring Creativity!
1st Hour Math
First hour math students will be finishing the 5th grade book this week and our goal will be to complete the first three units in the 6th grade book prior to the end of the school year. The unit we are finishing is on metric conversions and geometry and the sixth grade book will begin with ratio analysis. Students continue to work on their collaboration skills as they work together on solving problems similar to those they will be tackling on the state Badger 3 -8 exam and MAP tests that will be coming up in May. With the assistance of Moby Max students are able to work on even higher level skills than those covered in class which also helps to enhance and individualize each of their learning experiences. I am very eager to see how our students perform on the May testing as I have seen them grow so much and I am so proud of their accomplishments.
Math 2nd Hour
In second hour math, we are working on unit 7 which is on algebraic expressions and order of operations. This is a wonderful introductory foundation upon which students will begin to grow their understanding of algebraic principles. In addition, students continue to work on mastering their math facts with the start of our day being 2 minute timed tests. Students also are working on Moby Max which is individualized at their learning level and not only fills gaps in previous learning but also can enhance learning beyond what we are learning in class if the child is ready for it. We are also working on collaborating on the Badger 3 - 8 practice problems in order to help us prepare for the upcoming May testing. Students are working on the skill of perseverance as the assessments will include many multi-step problems. The students have worked very hard this year and have grown in their math skills and thinking. I am so proud of their ability to never give up when concepts became very difficult and I am also proud of their many accomplishments this year as well!
Social Studies
We have just finished a large unit on the American Revolution. I was very impressed with the high level of interest that the students had toward the achievement of our country's independence. Students were highly engaged when they heard the story of the Star Spangled Banner and what the words really meant. They realized how many men died so our flag would still be standing. Students worked on the skill of note taking during this unit. Our current unit is on Westward Expansion and how our westward movement impacted Native Americans. We will wrap up the year with the Civil War.
Achieve 3000
Students continue to work on non-fiction reading topics covered in both Science and Social Studies. We are eagerly awaiting the gift card from Achieve 3000 to celebrate our House's accomplishment of winning their contest! This was such a huge accomplishment and a very close race with two other classes at our school. The very best part of this contest was a achievements that I saw in increased Lexile or reading levels. We are so proud of them! In May, students will take a final Achieve 3000 assessment which will calculate their end of the year reading level.
Language Arts
As we round out our year this quarter will be filled with engaging and thought provoking curriculum. We have started fourth quarter with Figurative Language. Students have been exposed to how different forms of figurative language through different forms of literary text. For the past week, we have been working diligently on creating color poems that incorporate our own personality traits with similes, metaphors and personification. We also challenged students to create alliteration tongue twisters. Everyone enjoyed this activity!
We have also started a book study this quarter for the months of April and May. The EPIC House has teamed up with the High Five house to flexibly group our students to read books that are appropriate leveled. Students have enjoyed this transition in our schedule and have made some new friends!
Guest Speaker: Dr. Lynch (Doctor of Oncology)
Want to be a doctor?
Questions?
Writing
This quarter we will be working on many different writing projects. We have started with our persuasive writing project. Each students has been assigned a state to research and persuade an audience that they should travel to their state. We have engaged students in starting this activity through introductory persuasive writing assignments and watching state commercials to get an idea on how they can persuade and convince someone why their state is better to travel to than another. Everyone will also be contributing to an EPIC House memory book and EPIC House survival guide. These are engaging and exciting writing projects to end our year!
PBIS Incentive: Balloon Blast!
We are family!
Working and Collaborating!
Minute to Win It
Minute to Win It
Minute to Win It
Science
It’s always a great day to be an EPIC scientist, and that is exactly what we are! Next week, students will be testing on the Circulatory System. This will be the final assessment for this unit. The Human Body Unit has truly been full of wonderful learning experiences where students have taken part in many hands-on learning activities that allow them to connect to the content and create concrete discoveries! As we finish up the Human Body Unit with our study of the Circulatory System, we will head into learning and exploring Ecosystems. For this unit, students will be growing their own plants in a terrarium and observing aquarium environments. This is an exciting unit that will bring us outside and connect to the ecosystems around us! For our Ecosystem Unit, it would be great if any two liter bottles could be donated to create our terrarium and aquariums.
Upcoming Dates
May 12th-May 14th Badger State Testing (iPads Charged and Headphones Needed)
May 18th-May 19th MAP Testing (iPads Charged and Headphones Needed)
May 22nd All library books are due back to the library
May 25th No School - Memorial Day
June 5th Student iPads will be collected
June 9th Last day of school and we go bowling.
Wish List
Looseleaf paper please - we are completely out
Notecards - we are almost out
Thank you so much for your support this year! :o)