Purple House 5 2023-2024

Wishing you all a most wonderful Valentine’s celebration! The learners’ Valentine boxes were absolutely adorable and so creative. We truly enjoyed a sweet afternoon filled with kindness, laughter, and thoughtful exchanges.

Your child will also be coming home with a list of books they discovered during our Book Fair Preview. It’s always exciting to see the titles that spark their interest and love of reading!

Thank you for helping make our classroom celebrations so special.

With gratitude,
Ms. Voltz 💜

💕Look who just happened to walk by!

This week in science, our learners became shadow scientists! ☀️ Learners investigated how shadows change as the Sun appears to move across the sky. Using careful observation skills, students measured and recorded shadow length and direction at different times of day.

Learners created their own data collection tables to organize their findings. Through this investigation, they discovered that shadows are longer in the morning and late afternoon, shorter around midday, and always move in a predictable pattern based on the Sun’s position.

It was a wonderful blend of science, math, and critical thinking as students analyzed their data and began forming evidence-based conclusions about the relationship between the Sun’s position and shadow changes. Ask your child what they learned!

Purple FamiLEE,

This week we read a book highlighting the phases of the moon. Just like growing patterns in math, the Moon follows a predictable cycle! The entire lunar cycle takes about 29 days, and the Moon appears to change shape because of its position relative to Earth and the Sun.

Here’s a simple way to explore this at home:

🔭 Moon Watch Challenge (5–10 minutes each night)

1. Step outside at the same time each evening.

2. Observe the Moon.

3. Sketch what you see in a notebook.

4. Label the date and describe its shape (crescent, quarter, gibbous, full).

5. Notice: Is the lighted part growing (waxing) or shrinking (waning)?

   
   

Try this for at least one week and look for patterns!

🌑 Moon Phase Talk Starters

• Why does the Moon look different each night?

• Does the Moon make its own light?

• What pattern do you notice over several days?

• About how long do you think it takes to go from a new moon to a full moon?

• Why can we sometimes see the Moon during the daytime?

  
  

✨ Hands-On Model

Use a flashlight (Sun) and a small ball (Moon). Stand in a dark room and rotate slowly in a circle (Earth). Notice how the light hits the ball differently as you turn. This helps explain why we see phases!

Patterns are everywhere—from number strings to the sky above us.

Keep looking up, Purple 5! 🌌

Learners are discovering that shapes can belong to more than one category and are discussing how quadrilaterals can be organized into hierarchies based on their properties.

For example:

• Is a square also a rectangle?

• Is a rectangle also a parallelogram?

• Can a rhombus be a square?

Through rich math conversations, learners are beginning to see that mathematics is about relationships and structure, not just labels.

Our Spring Book Fair will be held February 17-20. Parents are welcome any time, but we are super excited to host a SPECIAL FAMILEE EVENT - Book Fair with Buddies! On Thursday, February 19, come any time from 7am - 6pm to shop in person with your learner. We hope that staying open late gives our parents more time to enjoy shopping with their children.

Read below for everything you need to know and take a moment to set up your learner’s ewallet here!

Our strawberries are absolutely thriving! 🌿🍓 Thanks to Mrs. Keiko’s guidance and our learners’ careful tending, we are seeing healthy growth and even enjoying a few taste tests.

We are so grateful for Mrs. Keiko’s partnership in helping us grow not just strawberries—but curious scientists, thoughtful observers, and responsible stewards. 💜

BLACK HISTORY MONTH

NATIONAL DENTAL HEALTH MONTH
CTE APPRECIATION MONTH

MAP & MCLASS WINDOW

SPRING BOOK FAIR WEEK

February 14 - Valentine's Day

February 16 - Bad Weather Day

February 17 - National Random Acts of Kindness Day

Lunar New Year

February 19- Book Fair open until 6:00 PM

February 20- 1st Grade Fairy Tale Ball (2:00 Gym/Cafe)

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

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