Purple House 5 2023-2024

Dear Purple Families,

This week, our learners experienced how subjects come alive when they connect across time and disciplines! In math, we looked back in history to see how mathematicians long ago shaped the ideas we still use today showing students that math is a living subject built over hundreds and even thousands of years.

In science, teamwork was key as learners worked collaboratively to design and build working electrical circuits, testing ideas, problem-solving together, and celebrating when the lights came on!

Our social studies learning also fueled rich thinking as students used historical perspectives to spark flash debates in reading and writing. These quick, energetic discussions helped learners support their ideas with evidence, listen respectfully, and strengthen their arguments, just like real scholars.

It has been a powerful week of curiosity, collaboration, and connections across our learning!

Warmly,
Ms. May Voltz
Purple Fifth Grade Teacher

Our strawberry garden is bursting with excitement! This week, learners noticed beautiful blooms and even spotted a few tiny green strawberries beginning to form—a thrilling sign of growth and patience paying off. Students rolled up their sleeves to check soil conditions, pull weeds, and care for our plants, learning firsthand what it means to be responsible stewards of a living system.

Watching our garden grow reminds us that learning, just like plants, takes time, care, and teamwork. We can’t wait to see what happens next!

This week, learners became engineers as they worked in teams to create working electrical circuits. Using batteries, wires, and bulbs, students tested ideas, solved problems, and learned that a complete circuit is needed for energy to flow. There were plenty of “aha!” moments as groups adjusted their designs and celebrated when their circuits lit up!

Through hands-on exploration and collaboration, students strengthened their understanding of energy transfer, teamwork, and perseverance—proof that the best learning happens when we build, test, and try again.

Thank you, Mrs. Stout, for always finding the best read-alouds to share with our learners. Your thoughtful book choices spark curiosity, meaningful conversations, and a true love of reading. We are so grateful for the joy and inspiration you bring to our classroom each time you read aloud!

Imagine turning the coordinate plane into a fun way to organize ideas! In this activity, students use a coordinate grid to sort animals using two traits:

• x-axis (left → right): Size (small → large)

• y-axis (bottom → top): Friendliness (not very friendly → very friendly)

This playful approach builds deep understanding of axes, ordered pairs, and graphing while encouraging creativity and discussion.

Friday is the day. Please HYPE THIS EVENT UP and see Ayesha if you have any questions or need supplies. Thank you for filling out her spreadsheet so she knows were to deliver her bag of supplies. Please remember to make your Thinkapalooza hats before the event. This is a grade level day. Parents we will NOT have family lunch on this day due to a grade level schedule.

We will host a Little Library at Lee for future Spurs/Cowboys on January 30. Please share the invitation below. Thank you, Holly, for organizing this fun event.

This week, our fifth-grade mathematicians took a fun trip back in time to see how math ideas we use today began hundreds—even thousands—of years ago! We learned about Eratosthenes, who lived over 2,000 years ago in Ancient Greece and created the Sieve of Eratosthenes, a clever way to find prime numbers by systematically crossing out multiples. Suddenly, primes weren’t just numbers—they were part of history!

We also explored the work of René Descartes, who lived in the 1600s and helped invent the Cartesian coordinate system—what we know today as the coordinate grid. Thanks to Descartes, points, graphs, and ordered pairs now help us map ideas, solve problems, and make sense of patterns.

Finally, we met Christian Goldbach, an 18th-century mathematician whose famous conjecture challenges mathematicians even today. We explored his idea that every even number greater than 2 can be written as the sum of two prime numbers, using our own number investigations to test and prove examples.

Our learners loved discovering that the math we study in fifth grade is part of a much bigger story—one filled with curious thinkers, big questions, and ideas that have lasted for generations!

Bring math to life at home by turning a favorite room into a coordinate grid map—just like the system introduced by René Descartes!

Try this together:

1. Draw a simple coordinate grid on paper.

2. Choose a room in your home (bedroom, playroom, or family room).

3. Let one corner be the origin (0,0).

4. Plot important items using ordered pairs (x,y)(x,y)—for example:

   • Bed at (2,4)

   • Desk at (5,2)

   • Door at (0,3)

5. Label each object and share your map with a family member.

   
   

Talk it out:

• Why do we need two numbers to show a location?

• How would your map change if the origin moved?

• Where do you see coordinate grids used in real life (maps, games, GPS)?

  
  

This fun activity helps learners see that math is a tool we use every day to describe space, plan, and communicate clearly. Happy mapping! 📍💜

We urgently need Block Walker volunteers from Richard J. Lee Elementary to support Cowboys United: Every Block, Every Voice, a districtwide effort to connect with families across Coppell ISD.

Sign up now: go.coppellisd.com/BlockWalker

• If you know your Quadrant, please select it on the form (see maps attached or available via this link: Maps of Quadrants.)
• If not, enter Richard J. Lee Elementary and/or your home address, and we’ll assign you to a quadrant, which will be divided into teams of walkers.

Why this matters?
Block Walkers help ensure every neighborhood has access to important CISD information by:

• Sharing flyers and door-knockers (provided)
• Encouraging attendance at the School Choice Fair on January 21
  
• Helping CISD better know our community via data collection on a short form.
  

THANK YOU, Mrs. Garvin, for leading the charge with our Great Kindness Challenge planning for 2026! Be thinking about how you can incorporate KINDNESS into your lesson design in the next couple of weeks. You will want to create a banner for your classes for our Kindness Kickoff Parade. This will take place first thing Monday morning, January 26. Here is the link from Angela with details.

The 100th Day of school is coming up on January 29. Let your famiLEEs know so that they can start planning.

Reminder - a CISD Background check is required for all volunteers.

.MOY MAP AND MCLASS WINDOW THROUGH FEBRUARY 13

SCHOOL BOARD APPRECIATION MONTH

January 12 - Color Run shirt orders DUE

January 1 3 - LEE Ball Girl Night (5:45 PM CHS)

Virtual PTO Mtg. (6:00 PM)

January 14 - Dallas Upstander Visit @ Lee for 3rd and 5th grades

January 15- CISD Spelling Bee

January 16- Day 0

Thinkapalooza

January 19 - NO SCHOOL

Fifth-grade designer of learning experiences at RJ Lee Elementary a Net Zero school in Coppell, Texas.

Our Guiding Purpose: We empower learners to positively impact the world by designing learning experiences that promote relationships, risk-taking, and collaboration in a flexible learning environment.

Apple Teacher

HEB Excellence in Education State Finalist 2018

Twitter X: @MayV1