5th Grade Weekly Updates

Please mark your calendar for December 8th from 5:30 - 6:30 pm. A presentation will be held at Pine Lane Elementary in which Ms. Curto, Principal of Sierra, and Mr. Stairs will field questions and present information on what you can expect for the following school year as we transition our 6th grade students to middle school.

Remember to get your student registered for PLUM!!! No payments are due at this time.

Sincerely, The 5th Grade Teachers

Ms. Taft, Ms. Stucky, Ms. Hormachea & Ms. Dunlap

Our Veterans Day Assembly will be next Wednesday, November 11, 2026 from 9:40 - 10:25 AM in the North Gym. Choir students and 5th grade students will perform a variety of songs and read passages to recognize the contributions of veterans from all branches of the US Military. Families are encouraged to join us in the north gym to watch the performance!

Veteran's Day Flyer

Veteran's Day RSVP Link for families to RSVP to attend

The mission of the Douglas County School District is to provide an educational foundation that allows each student to reach his or her individual potential. With this in mind, your child has the opportunity to participate in a Human Growth and Development unit. In this unit, children are encouraged to monitor their own growth and development as they learn ways to take more responsibility for their personal health and well-being. This unit will be taught in the fifth grade classroom on Friday, November, 20th. If for some reason you would prefer that your child not be involved and would like to opt your child OUT of these lessons, please indicate this either on this form or in an email by November, 6th.

November

• Nov 5: PLEA Fundraiser @ Lazy Dog
• Nov 6: PD Day (No school for students)
• Nov 11: Veterans Day Performances
• Nov 12: Picture Retake Day
• Nov 18: Fractions Feast (projects due & Samples Feast Day)
• Nov 19: PLE Lego Invitational Competition (5:00 - 7:00pm)
• Nov 20: Human Growth & Development with Nurse Heather
• Nov 23 - 27: Thanksgiving Break (No school)

December

• Dec 8: 6th Grade Transition Parent Info Meeting (5:30 - 6:30 PM)
• Dec 17: Winter Class Parties (times TBA)
• Dec 18: No School
• Dec 21 - Jan 4: Winter Break (No School)

Stucky and Hormachea Group 1:STEM

Taft and Hormachea Group 2: Music

Dunlap and Hormachea Group 3: Spanish

Good morning, Crew,

Jim Trelease, author and reading expert, relays, “The more you read, the more you know, the more you know the smarter you grow.” This conveys a core belief I have about learning. The background knowledge that we hold in our brains has a powerful impact on our ability to be successful in life, and the elementary-age brain is primed to soak up new knowledge. Books are an excellent conduit to increase our Crew’s background knowledge.

In light of this, we are launching a Winter Reading Challenge. Yesterday, we went around and met with each class about this challenge. Our goal is to create excitement about Reading and Learning, utilizing some external motivators to create internal habits and help our students identify themselves as readers who regularly spend self-directed time reading.

Each Monday, we will send home a reading log with your child. The goal is K-1 reads 10 minutes a day, 2-3 grade reads 15 minutes a day, and 4-6 grade reads 20 minutes a day. The students should read daily, log their minutes, and one day a week write a one-sentence GIST in the Paw for what they read that day. Linked here is this week's reading Log: Week 1 Reading Log. There will be prizes for participation and a school-wide competition. The classrooms with the highest percentage of participation in each building will earn a Hot Chocolate Party after the 6 weeks.

We will also culminate with a Winter Wonderland of Reading on December 17th, the day before Winter Break. We invite you and any special adult in your child’s life, (Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, etc…) to join us for the first part of the day to drop everything and read. We will read around the school for the first half hour of the day. And then have some light refreshments for the adults that joined us. If you would like to join us please RSVP here: PLE Winter Wonderland RSVP

Thank you for your partnership in these efforts and for helping us inspire and empower our young readers!!!

Chris Stairs

This week, we reviewed for and took our Unit 2 Assessment. Next week, we’ll begin Unit 3, focusing on chronological order text structures with our booklet about the U.S. Constitution, then and now. We’ll also start to break down our essays about the impacts of oil spills on penguins, check that they include all the necessary pieces, so that we can get ready to rewrite them to make them stronger.

Kodiak, Polar & Giant Panda Bear Groups:

We will continue to work on our fraction unit. This week we worked with subtraction of fractions with like and unlike denominators. Next week we will begin understanding multiplication with fractions.

Grizzly Bears: Ratios and equivalent ratios were the focus this week. Students are learning how ratios are related to fractions and, ultimately, rates. Next week we will dig into ratios in more real life scenarios.

Your child is bringing home a packet for our Fraction Feast project. Students will scale a recipe, show the math, write a short explanation, and make a poster to display their work. The project is due on our Feast Day - November 18. The detailed Parent Information letter is being sent home in Thursday folders, but here's a quick recap.

What to know:

• Everything your child needs, including a worked example and the scoring rubric (last page), is in the packet.

• Please act as a helper, not a do-er: check two ingredients together and listen to your child’s one-sentence summary. The math and writing should be your child’s own.

• The rubric is mostly about math thinking and the written explanation. But quality and neatness count, too!

• No peanuts or tree nuts in the recipe. Samples for the feast are optional (about 30 bite-size portions, with a card showing the recipe title).

• Students have target finish dates in the plan box on page 1 to help pace themselves through the project

All 5th grade classes started the unit on Life Science. We began by looking at the transfer of energy in a food chain and understanding the connections between organisms in an ecosystem.

During the next rotation in STEM, students will be learning about properties of matter and chemical reactions. I will also be introducing the STEM fair to fifth grade over the next 4 weeks when they are in STEM. The STEM Fair Project is a required activity for fifth grade. Projects are due in the North Innovation Lab on FRIDAY January 22, 2027. We will also have a STEM Fair Night on Thursday January 28, 2027 from 5:00 - 7:00 pm in the North gym. Students have the opportunity to present their projects. Questions? Email Ms. Kinner at kristin.kinner@dcsdk12.org

For families interested in planning/looking ahead, please see the following STEM Fair resources.

• Here is a link to the Stem fair packet.
• Families can sign up here
• My website has resources for the STEM fair if needed: STEM Fair 2027

All proceeds from fundraising will be verified and credited to students' MySchoolBucks accounts in late November or December. Please be cautious about paying the MSB invoices until after fundraising has been credited to your account. NO REFUNDS WILL BE ISSUED FOR OVERPAYMENT.

• Stone Canyon EDventures registration for Pine Lane 5th Grade is OPEN, see the link below.
• PLUM fees have been added to MySchoolBucks. We still have one upcoming fundraiser as an opportunity for families to reduce their costs for PLUM. We recommend waiting to make payments until after all fundraising activities are completed. If you do not plan to fundraise, then you may make payments at any time in MSB. However, overpayment refunds cannot be issued.

Attention 5th Grade Parents! Please mark your calendar for December 8th from 5:30 - 6:30 pm. A presentation will be held at Pine Lane Elementary in which Ms. Curto, Principal of Sierra, and Mr. Stairs will field questions and present information on what you can expect for the following school year as we transition our 6th grade students to middle school next year.

If you have a 5th grader who is Open Enrolled at PLE and does not live in the boundary for the Sierra Middle School/Chaparral High School feeder area, you will need to Open Enroll for your student to attend SMS/CHS.

If you wish your student to attend Sierra/Chap you MUST apply to Open Enroll to SMS. Otherwise, your student will automatically be enrolled at their boundary middle school for the 27-28 school year. If you live outside of the DCSD boundary, your student will not be enrolled for 6th or 7th grade at a DCSD middle school.

Round 1 of Open Enrollment will begin on November 2nd at 8AM and close on December 1st 2026 at 4PM.

You can find information about Open Enrollment, and apply on 11/2/26, at the site below:

DCSD Open Enrollment

Ms. Dunlap's Website | Contact Ms. Dunlap

Ms. Hormachea's Website | Contact Ms. Hormachea

Ms. Stucky's Website | Contact Ms. Stucky

Ms. Taft's Website | Contact Ms. Taft