5th Grade News

"Encourage one another and build each other up ..."

1 Thessalonians 5:11

This week may have been short, but it was busy! In addition to having our first Math test, we also had our first emergency drill on Thursday. The class did an excellent job during our fire drill.

As we get back into a normal school routine, we are recognizing that listening and following directions has a large impact on our ability to do our best in the classroom. While we take frequent movement and brain breaks, we also want to train our brains to listen to important information like shared experiences or directions.

In ELA this week, we read more narrative nonfiction stories that practiced our vocabulary we learned. We looked at how an author's perspective can influence the story. We also began our first class read aloud, Hoot, by Carl Hiaasen.

In Math, we finished up our first topic test. As we prepare for middle school, we take our math tests without notes and practice tests, but we will always have the opportunity to make some corrections to better enhance our understanding of the mistakes we make. In addition to our first test, we also worked through our first "test corrections". First math tests can be difficult, and we can use these as learning opportunities. We can ask ourselves what worked with our studying, and what will help us next time? Maybe we need to ask more questions in class, and maybe we need to spend a bit more time reviewing. Ask your student about test corrections, and let me know if you have any questions!

In Social Studies, we learned about early Native American groups, and how they governed themselves. We took our first chapter test, and will move on to Science next week. In Religion, we focused on digital citizenship, and how to identify a good resource online.

Next week, we will being our Chemistry unit in Science, and move on to working with decimals in Math. We also have our STAR testing next week. Please be cognizant of sleep and healthy food choices as we go through the week!

The school Book Fair is coming the week of September 22. We will have time to go down as a class and visit, and pick out some books. I will let you know our assigned time and date when it gets nearer.

If you would like to donate money to our classroom to help maintain and grow our classroom library, please use this link. Thank you!

This year, we will be partnering with SciTrek, an organization run out of UCSB. SciTrek volunteers will be coming into our classroom this year to run two science modules, which take the class through the entire scientific process. This is a great organization that allows us to take our science thoughts further. To fund their organization and research, they do collect data from the class to see how their thoughts on Science have changed over the year. They will be given a few assessments throughout the modules, which are used purely for their research, and not for any graded instance in class. They will have their first mini assessment on Monday, before our mini module on Tuesday. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Monday, September 8

• Happy Birthday, Annie!
• Art

Tuesday, September 9

• Happy Birthday, Savvy and Sabrina!
• PE
• SciTrek Mini Module
• Choir (at lunch in the hall)

Wednesday, September 10

• STAR Math

Thursday, September 11

• Happy Birthday, Poppy!
• Music & PE
• STAR Reading
• Choir (at lunch in the hall)

Friday, September 5

• 1:30pm dismissal
• Spirit Shirt Day
• $1 Popsicles

Coming Up:

• September 10-11: STAR Testing
• September 19: Picture Day
• Week of September 22: Book Fair

Email: kylar@mountcarmelschool.net
Website: https://secure.smore.com/n/bc394