Hello 5-2 Parents ~
Happy New Year! I hope you all enjoyed some relaxing time with your families over Winter Break. I was so happy to see all the smiling faces and exciting chatter as your children entered the classroom on Monday - it's always so much fun to hear their stories of all they did on break!
The new year brings some new expectations for your student as they are in the final stretches of their elementary years! We continue to increase independence and responsibility as your children begin to prepare for middle school. As you have noticed less communication from me, I have been encouraging your children to own their learning, and I have been SO impressed with the way they are maturing! Give your kids a pat on the back - they are working hard to independently manage their responsibilities. Encourage them to continue to use those organizations skills, such as checking their assignment notebook and accordion folder daily, and promote those self-advocacy skills by suggesting they seek support when help is needed. As always, if you see your child struggling with this transition, please let me know.
Important Dates
5 Essentials Survey ~ Wednesday, January 15th ~ 11:00am
As 5th graders, your children will participate in completing the 5Essentials Survey. For more information about this survey, please click on this link.
Robert Crown ~ Puberty Education: Friday, January 17th
On Thursday afternoon, if your child has permission to attend the Puberty Education, they will complete a pre-test and pre-learning activity that introduces the content for the program. On Friday, girls will attend the program in the morning, boys will attend in the afternoon.
Opposite the program, students will watch the Ruby Bridges movies. This movie is not rated - you will find information about the movie on the following Common Sense link:
If your child is not participating in the Puberty program, they will be engaged in an alternate activity. If you have specific questions or concerns, please email me directly.
No School ~ Monday, January 20th - MLK Day
Monday Schedule ~ Thursday, January 23rd ~ We will have PE/Music instead of LMC.
Math
We've been working hard to learn how to calculate area or rectangles and triangles since we returned from break, and we're already getting ready for the test! Students will participate in self-selected review stations on Monday, then take the Chapter 5 Assessment on Tuesday, January 14th.
Social Studies
Now that the Revolutionary War is won, we are a free nation...and with that comes the responsibility and struggle of organizing a government. As your children learned before break, there were some significant problems with the Articles of Confederation that resulted in Shays' Rebellion. We moved on to learn about the Constitutional Convention and students learned of the challenges our forefathers faced as they argued the best form of government for our new nation. We learned how our early government settled on our Constitution, and they created a project demonstrating their understanding of 3 branches of government. We returned from break to play a game imagining different scenarios as a way to review the key powers for each branch of government. Your children took the Chapter 14 Assessment this week - look for the graded score cards to come home early next week for a sign and return.
We continued our study of the Constitution by introducing the Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments. Our discussion of these amendments has been lively as your children have been learning about their rights as American citizens. Next week we will complete a project as a way to review the Bill of Rights. The Chapter 15 Assessment is scheduled for Thursday, January 16th.
Reading
We wrapped up our Fiction Unit before break with the Summative Assessment, and we began our Nonfiction Unit when we returned on Monday. Your kids have spent time this week choosing nonfiction books for their reading bin, discussing the different types of nonfiction, as well as identifying the many structures of nonfiction.
Every student should have chosen a biography to read this week. They should have this biography read by Tuesday, January 21st. We will use this book to create a BioBottle project and speech. The project descriptor will be shared with them on the 21st.
Writing
Our new writing unit is Fiction. Your children have really enjoyed the freedom that writing fictional story brings. They have laughed while listening to excellent examples of fictional text, and have explored writing about "messy" situations, interesting characters, and asking fun "What if?" questions. My personal favorite: What if monkeys escaped from the zoo and ended up in my backyard. We will be writing fiction for the next 5-6 weeks.
As always ~ should you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact me!
“While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.”
Cheers ~
Theresa Fowler
Happy New Year! I hope you all enjoyed some relaxing time with your families over Winter Break. I was so happy to see all the smiling faces and exciting chatter as your children entered the classroom on Monday - it's always so much fun to hear their stories of all they did on break!
The new year brings some new expectations for your student as they are in the final stretches of their elementary years! We continue to increase independence and responsibility as your children begin to prepare for middle school. As you have noticed less communication from me, I have been encouraging your children to own their learning, and I have been SO impressed with the way they are maturing! Give your kids a pat on the back - they are working hard to independently manage their responsibilities. Encourage them to continue to use those organizations skills, such as checking their assignment notebook and accordion folder daily, and promote those self-advocacy skills by suggesting they seek support when help is needed. As always, if you see your child struggling with this transition, please let me know.
5 Essentials Survey ~ Wednesday, January 15th ~ 11:00am
As 5th graders, your children will participate in completing the 5Essentials Survey. For more information about this survey, please click on this link.
Robert Crown ~ Puberty Education: Friday, January 17th
On Thursday afternoon, if your child has permission to attend the Puberty Education, they will complete a pre-test and pre-learning activity that introduces the content for the program. On Friday, girls will attend the program in the morning, boys will attend in the afternoon.
Opposite the program, students will watch the Ruby Bridges movies. This movie is not rated - you will find information about the movie on the following Common Sense link:
If your child is not participating in the Puberty program, they will be engaged in an alternate activity. If you have specific questions or concerns, please email me directly.
No School ~ Monday, January 20th - MLK Day
Math
We've been working hard to learn how to calculate area or rectangles and triangles since we returned from break, and we're already getting ready for the test! Students will participate in self-selected review stations on Monday, then take the Chapter 5 Assessment on Tuesday, January 14th.
Social Studies
Now that the Revolutionary War is won, we are a free nation...and with that comes the responsibility and struggle of organizing a government. As your children learned before break, there were some significant problems with the Articles of Confederation that resulted in Shays' Rebellion. We moved on to learn about the Constitutional Convention and students learned of the challenges our forefathers faced as they argued the best form of government for our new nation. We learned how our early government settled on our Constitution, and they created a project demonstrating their understanding of 3 branches of government. We returned from break to play a game imagining different scenarios as a way to review the key powers for each branch of government. Your children took the Chapter 14 Assessment this week - look for the graded score cards to come home early next week for a sign and return.We continued our study of the Constitution by introducing the Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments. Our discussion of these amendments has been lively as your children have been learning about their rights as American citizens. Next week we will complete a project as a way to review the Bill of Rights. The Chapter 15 Assessment is scheduled for Thursday, January 16th.
Reading
We wrapped up our Fiction Unit before break with the Summative Assessment, and we began our Nonfiction Unit when we returned on Monday. Your kids have spent time this week choosing nonfiction books for their reading bin, discussing the different types of nonfiction, as well as identifying the many structures of nonfiction.
Writing
Our new writing unit is Fiction. Your children have really enjoyed the freedom that writing fictional story brings. They have laughed while listening to excellent examples of fictional text, and have explored writing about "messy" situations, interesting characters, and asking fun "What if?" questions. My personal favorite: What if monkeys escaped from the zoo and ended up in my backyard. We will be writing fiction for the next 5-6 weeks.
As always ~ should you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact me!
“While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.”
Cheers ~
Theresa Fowler
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