5th Grade Weekly Newsletter
August 28th, 2026
Conversation Starters
In this section of our newsletter we always try to share conversation starter ideas to spark up at home or in the car. We know not all students offer up the details of the day, so use these starters to help squeeze out a little more from our week together.
- Ask about our fresh air breaks this week
- Find out who your students were assigned to sit with at lunch. Encourage them to talk more to those they may or may not know well.
- See if your student can share one or two things they learned about our new or returning students here at Vis. We did a lot of community building/sharing. Ask about the "getting to know you" activities or games this week.
- Ask about starting their fifth grade personal essay.
Curriculum Connections
We are slowly adding in curriculum with our community building. It will take a few weeks to fully ramp up with all subjects. This also applies to homework. We will slowly start adding in more homework in the coming weeks.
Religion: This week we introduced our first chapter on God's creation. We also wrote in our gratitude journal.
Math: We spend this week establishing our math community and practiced some fun group problem solving activities. Moving forward, we will send out a chapter preview letter before each chapter this year. This will give you an overview of the concepts. Next week we are starting chapter one Multi Digit Whole Numbers.
Reading/Writing: Students are learning expectations and routines for reader's and writer's workshops. This week we also introduced the personal essay and have begun the story writing process. Students have worked through brainstorming strategies and have learned about the structure of this essay with a Beginning, Rising action, Climax and Ending. Over the next 10 days we hope to complete the writing process to have a finished essay. The grounding verse we are using for this essay is Philippians 4:13.
Science: Science starts next week. Our first unit focuses on the movements and cycles related to the Sun, Earth, and Moon.
SEL: Mrs. Trammell introduced herself and we started with some fun ice breakers.
Of course languages and specialists are off and running. Ask your students about those classes and their teachers!
Allergy Aware Snack and Water Bottles
We allow students to enjoy a brief snack time every day around 8:50. Students are responsible for bringing their own snacks.
We require an allergy aware healthy protein or fruit/veggie option. We encourage students to bring snacks that will not trigger nut allergies, and definitely do not share snacks if they do not know about the contents.
We love to see apples, oranges, bananas, cheese sticks, yogurt, hummus, pita, applesauce, etc.
Water: (only clear water please)
Students have access to water fountains and fill up stations. They are welcome to bring a water bottle. Please no straws/spill able bottles.
Bring Family Photos
Please print and bring family and student photos for our photo walls.
Every year we create a photo wall in our classroom where student family photos are displayed. It communicates that we all share our room and our classroom community with each other and it emphasizes how important our families are. We are all apart of the team, and there is comfort and joy when we see our families in our classrooms.
We encourage students to bring them this week, but photos are gladly accepted all year.
Shoes and Socks:
- Uniform shoes should be a solid, white, low top athletic shoe.
- Students should also have shoes to change into for Phy Ed, Recess and Extended Day.
- Socks need to be white (not navy, not gray).
- Socks cannot have logos (Nike swoosh, Polo horse and logo, etc)
No School and Extended Day
- As a reminder, we do not have school Friday September 4 and Monday September 7 for Labor Day Break
- Extended Day is open on Friday.
- Families needing care on Friday 9/4 please connect with Kayla Christy, our Extended Day Coordinator
- Extended Day is closed on Monday September 7 for the holiday
Visitor Badges:
Related to our morning routine, K–5 students should be walking independently into school each morning. This helps build confidence and allows students to transition smoothly into their school day.
If an adult needs to escort a child into the building, they will need to enter through Door #5 and check in at the front desk using our Raptor security system. For the safety of our students, no visitors or guests will be permitted into the building without a name tag and badge.
We greatly appreciate all families honoring these safety and security procedures and helping us maintain a welcoming environment for our students."
Thursday September 3
- Spirit Dress Day
- Visitation Spirit Top
- Can be any Visitation shirt, including their provided class color shirts
- Uniform bottoms
- Uniform shoes
Lower School Parent Night: Thursday September 10
- Thursday September 10, 6-7:30pm
- Adult only event-Students do not attend
- Large group presentation in DeSales at 6pm
- First session at 6:40-7:00 in Ain Karim
- Second session at 7:10-7:30 at in Ain Karim
School Picture Day: September 11
- Friday September 11
- Uniform Optional Day
- Yellow Day Schedule
- 10:30 5th Grade (Both classes)
Rotation Days
Mansour:
Blue Day: Art at 1:00, Spanish at 2:00
Red Day: Music at 8:10, library checkouts at 8:50 (first Red Day of the week), French at 2:00
Yellow Day: P.E. at 8:10, Stem at 1:00, Chinese at 2:00
Drake:
Blue Day: Music at 8:10, Chinese at 2:00
Red Day: P.E. at 8:10, library checkouts at 8:50 (first Red Day of the week), Stem at 1:00,
Spanish at 2:00
Yellow Day: Art at 1:00, French at 2:00.
For Both Classes:
- Religion will be twice a week at 1:40.
- SEL is once a week for each class at 1:40
- Orchestra meets on Tuesdays at 11:30 and Ms. McGuire hosts an ensemble on Fridays at 2:45 regardless of rotation day. Questions: reach out to Jmcguire@vischool.org
Important Dates
Tuesday September 1, Star testing math
Thursday September 3, Spirit Dress Day
Friday September 4, No School, Labor Day Break
Monday September 7, No School, Labor Day Break
Tuesday September 8, Star testing reading
Thursday September 10, Back to School Parent Night, 6pm. (Adults Only)
Friday September 11, Picture Day (uniforms optional)
September 14-18, Homecoming Week
Monday September 14, Base Camp for 5th Grade
Thursday September 17, Homecoming Pep Rally, 10:10am
Thursday September 17, Homecoming Sport Night, 3pm
Friday September 18, Formal Uniform
Friday September 18, All School Mass and Flag Raising, 9:05am
Thursday October 1, Early Release Day.
Daily Schedule
Classrooms open each day at 7:45am
Prayer followed by Morning Meeting each day at 8:00am
All students that arrive after prayer will report to the Front Desk
Dismissal carline begins each afternoon at 2:45pm
We encourage our fifth grade students to arrive at 7:45 so they can help with our morning jobs. We support the school by preparing the dining room and we also help lead morning prayers. Additionally, we ask our students to complete other morning tasks and work before we leave for specialists at 8:10.
