I am so excited to provide you with updates on the decisions that have been made thus far for the 5/6 Building @ Georgetown. Since my last communication, I have been having many collaborative conversations with teachers, staff, parents, and administration to continue planning and preparing for next fall. I truly appreciate all of the work and support that everyone has put in to helping us get to where we are with our plans for a successful opening in 2023!

Start and End Times: School will run on a secondary schedule.

Before and After School Care: Eagles Nest will be available for fifth grade students only. The location of Eagles Nest for the fifth grade students will be determined based on numbers and available space.

Fifth Grade Specifics:

• Core Teachers: Students will have two teachers and switch classes between these two teachers for ELA, Math, Science, and Social Studies. Students will be scheduled with other students from Alward, Bauer, Georgetown, and Park (i.e. An Alward student will have classes with students from Alward, Bauer, Georgetown and Park).

• Specials: Students will go to Music, PE, STEAM or Art daily, similar to what they do in the elementary buildings.

• Academic Support/Enrichment: Students will participate in an intervention/enrichment block that meets their individual academic needs.

• Report Cards: Students will continue to receive standards based report cards.

• Recess: Students will get two recess opportunities: one during their lunch block and one scheduled at another time during the school day.

• Special Events: Fifth grade students will continue to participate in a holiday music program and attend fifth grade camp in the spring.

Sixth Grade Specifics:

• Core Teachers: Students will have four core teachers for ELA, Math, Science and Social Studies. Students will be scheduled with other students from Alward, Bauer, Georgetown, and Park. (i.e. An Alward student will have classes with students from Alward, Bauer, Georgetown and Park.)

• Electives: Students will have two elective periods. During one elective period, students will choose one year long performing arts class (Band, Choir, Orchestra, or Creative Arts). For the second elective period, students will choose four additional electives from a menu of options that will be a quarter long each.

• Academic Support/Enrichment: Students will participate in an intervention/enrichment block that meets their individual academic needs.

• Report Cards: Students will continue to get letter grades for all courses that they are taking.

• Outdoor Opportunities: During the lunch block, students will get an opportunity to go outside.

• Scheduling: Scheduling for sixth grade electives will begin in January 2023.

Upcoming Parent Communication: During the winter months, optional meetings will be scheduled at Alward, Bauer, Georgetown, and Park to discuss more details regarding programming and what a typical day will look like at the 5/6 building. In the spring, we will also have informational parent meetings at BMS with building tours to follow.

5/6 T-Shirt Design and Winner: This past month, our current fourth and fifth grade students from Alward, Bauer, Georgetown, and Park voted on their favorite t-shirt design for the 5/6 Building @ Georgetown. Congratulations to Juliet Dykema of Park Elementary as her design received the most votes and will be our first ever school-wide t-shirt. We are so excited to give one of these t-shirts to all incoming 5/6 students this spring. Juliet was featured on the Eagle Eye News at the high school and in our last edition of the Appleseed!

Questions about 5/6 Building Programming: If you have any questions in regards to programming at the 5/6 building, please email eagles@hpseagles.net. We will be creating a frequently asked question and answer document based on your inquiries.

We have exciting happenings in the gym! Starting last week, all 3rd, 4th and 5th graders have had the privilege of using wrist-worn heart rate monitors during their PE class! Students have learned how heart rate is measured and how different activities affect their heart rate. Their goal is to reach 20 minutes of time "In the zone" each time they come to PE. As a PE teacher, it's another way to show how ALL students can be successful in PE, even if they're not the fastest, strongest, best basketball player, etc. It's amazing to see the motivation the students have to keep their heart rate up! Coming up after the holiday break is volleyball!

Pre-K-2nd graders have been continuing to work on locomotor skills, throwing and catching and some balloon "Keep it Up" to prepare us to begin our volleyball unit after holiday break.

All grades have been working hard to solve some real-world problems with the concepts they are learning in class.

Pre-K finished their Living and Nonliving Things unit by building animal homes for various animals they’ve seen around their community such as birds, squirrels, and even bugs! They loved explaining to others how their creation would keep their animal safe from weather as well as predators.

Kindergarten students are digging into their unit on the human body. They’re learning about the function of various body parts such as bones, muscles, the brain, heart, lungs, and stomach. They loved creating their model of the lungs.

First graders finished using Scratch Jr. to retell their story of Peanut Butter and Jellyfish. They’ve become excellent programmers throughout this unit. After the winter break, we will move away from the iPads as we learn about light and sound.

Second graders are working on their Changing Earth unit. They are learning about the fast changes to Earth’s surface like natural disasters (tornadoes, hurricanes, wildfires, etc.) as well as slow changes from erosion.

Third grade students finished their compound machines to save their tiger. It was great to learn from other groups and see how they approached the same problem but in different ways. Very creative machines were built. We will begin a unit on programming when we return from break.

Fourth graders are digging into their unit on energy conversions as they learn how mechanical energy can be converted to electrical energy and even light and/or sound energy. When we return from break, we will dig into circuits.

Finally, our fifth graders have been reviewing their programming skills using Scratch. After the holiday break, students will work in teams to program their robotic vehicles to navigate a course autonomously.

I’m sure we will all enjoy this much needed winter break, but I am excited for all the learning that will take place when we return.

STEAM Supplies Request: If you have any of the following items in your recycling bins, I would love to take them in the STEAM room. We’ve gone through them much faster than I had anticipated. Thanks in advance! :)

• Toilet Paper Rolls

• Paper Towel Rolls

• Empty Clorox Wipes Containers

Please check out our website for important information on Health Services.

Please do not send medications to school with your child. Please come into the office to drop off medications. Thank you!