Thursday, May 26, 2016
Wednesday, March 30, 2016
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
Tuesday, March 15, 2016
Friday, March 11, 2016
Thursday, March 10, 2016
Monday, March 7, 2016
Friday, March 4, 2016
Sunday, February 21, 2016
5-2 Updates ~ 02/21
Hello 5-2 Parents ~
Important Dates
Erin's Law Presentation ~ Wednesday, 2/24
Advanced Placement Testing (Math + ALA) ~ March 14-16th ~ As I mentioned in an email last week, if your child scored above the 80%ile on the Math MAPS test and you would like your child tested for advanced placement, please follow the link in my email to appeal for testing. If you have any questions at all about this process, please do not hesitate to ask - the process is different this year, and there may be misunderstandings. Please let me know if you choose to have your child take the Math Advanced Placement Test so I am aware. Thank you!
Progress Reports ~ Friday, 3/11
Parent Teacher Conferences ~ Thursday, 3/17 & Friday, 3/18
Spring Break ~ 3/21 - 3/28
Visit to Thomas/South - Wednesday, 4/20 - Students will visit the middle schools with teachers during the school day.
Incoming 6th grade Parent & Student Orientation - Thursday, 4/21 - evening event, time TBD
Math
We continue our work with exponential and scientific notation and order of operations in Unit 7. We will finish the unit by the end of the week, and will begin reviewing for the Unit 7 Assessment next week. The Unit 7 Assessment is scheduled for Wednesday, 3/2. If your child does not have automaticity with their math facts, please have them continue to practice at home. It is critical that these foundational skills are mastered this year, or future concepts will be quite challenging. Students would also benefit from practicing Unit 7 skills on Khan Academy at home!
Science
We wrapped up our Energy Unit with tons of energy sharing our Rube Goldberg inventions. What fun they had sharing their energy transfers!! Just look at all the fun in the pictures below :)
Science
We wrapped up our Energy Unit with tons of energy sharing our Rube Goldberg inventions. What fun they had sharing their energy transfers!! Just look at all the fun in the pictures below :)
Social Studies
We returned to social studies on Friday with a pre-test on Unit 14, The Constitution. How timely to be in an election year! We will be learning about the 3 branches of government this week and creating a Branches of Government project in class. The Unit 14 Assessment is scheduled for Monday, 2/29.
Reading
Your children should have brought home their Fiction Unit Assessment for a sign and return this weekend. Some students also chose to bring home re-take work this weekend to improve their scores. Due to the trimester ending this week, they will need to take the re-test by Friday.
We also began our Poetry Unit on Friday with a discussion about our likes and dislikes of poetry. I was so impressed with how thoughtful students were about poetry, and how many of them enjoy the creativity found in poetry. Many of the kids are looking forward to exploring this genre!
We also began our Poetry Unit on Friday with a discussion about our likes and dislikes of poetry. I was so impressed with how thoughtful students were about poetry, and how many of them enjoy the creativity found in poetry. Many of the kids are looking forward to exploring this genre!
Writing
This week, students will begin to write their final Response to Fiction essays. They will be working on these essays primarily in class. Look for the graded rubrics to come home next week!
“Children must be taught HOW to think, not WHAT to think.”
~ Margaret Mead
~ Margaret Mead
Cheers ~
Mrs. Theresa Fowler
Friday, February 19, 2016
Monday, February 15, 2016
5-2 Updates ~ 02/15
Hello 5-2 Parents ~
Thank you to all of you who made me feel so loved with all those "sweet" treats - I appreciate them so much!! And one more thank you...after the party, I found an adorable tin of chocolates with all of your children's beautiful faces carefully placed with chocolates in candy cup liners. What a sweet surprise when I took my first chocolate out!! Whoever took all that time, also made sure to get each child's signature in the tin for me - I don't know who you are, but you made me feel so loved!! Thank you :)
Important Dates
CogAT Makeups ~ If your child missed any of the CogAT tests last week, they will be scheduled for makeups this week. Unfortunately, since we are under strict time constraints, I don't have a schedule for those makeups. We will schedule them when proctors are available.
Incoming 6th Grade Parent/Principal Coffees
All Schools: Wednesday, February 17th at 7:00pm ~ Thomas Middle SchoolThomas: Thursday, February 18th at 9:15AM
South: Monday, 2/29 at 9:45 am & 6:30pm, Thursday, 3/10 at 1:30pm, Wednesday, 3/16 at 9:45am
Advanced Placement Testing (Math + ALA) ~ March 14-16th ~ As I mentioned in an email last week, if your child scored above the 80%ile on the Math MAPS test and you would like your child tested for advanced placement, please follow the link in my email to appeal for testing. If you have any questions at all about this process, please do not hesitate to ask - the process is different this year, and there may be misunderstandings. Please let me know if you choose to have your child take the Math Advanced Placement Test so I am aware. Thank you!
Progress Reports ~ Friday, 3/11
Parent Teacher Conferences ~ Thursday, 3/17 & Friday, 3/18
Spring Break ~ 3/21 - 3/28
Visit to Thomas/South - Wednesday, 4/20 - Students will visit the middle schools with teachers during the school day.
Incoming 6th grade Parent & Student Orientation - Thursday, 4/21 - evening event, time TBD
Math
We are working with exponential and scientific notation in Unit 7, as well as learning the order of operations. If your child does not have automaticity with their math facts, please have them continue to practice at home. It is critical that these foundational skills are mastered this year, or future concepts will be quite challenging. Students would also benefit from practicing Unit 7 skills on Khan Academy at home!
Science
Everyone is excited to return to designing and building their Rube Goldberg inventions this week in science! We will be designing, drawing and labeling our Rube Goldberg inventions on Tuesday and Wednesday, with the big class reveal scheduled for Thursday! This will draw our Energy Unit to a close, and we will return to Social Studies on Friday with an introduction to the Constitution of the Unites States - a timely topic given all that is happening in the news lately!
Reading
To be sure students are fully prepared for the final assessment, we will spend two more days working on prompts similar to the ones they will encounter on the final test. Our Fiction Unit Assessment is scheduled for Thursday, 2/18.
Writing
We continued to work on identifying evidence to support our claims about character traits in The Liberation of Gabriel King in our WEX lessons. We will begin working on our final Response to Fiction Essays in two weeks.
“Children do not care how much you know until they know how much you care.” ~ Teddy Roosevelt
Cheers ~
Mrs. Theresa Fowler
Thursday, February 11, 2016
Tuesday, February 9, 2016
Saturday, February 6, 2016
5-2 Updates ~ 02/06
Hello 5-2 Parents ~
Important Dates
CogAT Administration ~ February 8th - 12th ~ The Cognitive Abilities Test will be given to all 5th grade students this year, and will be used with the MAPS test to determine students' eligibility to take the Advanced Language Arts placement test.
The scheduled test dates are:
Monday, 2/8 11:10-12:10
Thursday, 2/11 11:10-12:10
Friday, 2/12 11:10-12:10
Valentine's Day Celebration ~ Friday, February 12th ~ Our Room Moms are hard at work planning a fun celebration for your kiddos!! THANK YOU for all your hard work! Please see the email I sent home yesterday for details about the celebration. Specifically, please note:
Due to severe and life threatening allergies, we are asking that you DO NOT INCLUDE ANY FOOD OR CANDY ITEMS with your child's individual Valentines. There are many clever and creative alternatives to food items, including pencils, tattoos, stickers, & bubbles... but the nicest way to say "Happy Valentine's Day" is to write a nice note!
Incoming 6th Grade Parent/Principal Coffees
All Schools: Wednesday, February 17th at 7:00pm ~ Thomas Middle SchoolThomas: Thursday, February 18th at 9:15AM
South: Monday, 2/29 at 9:45 am & 6:30pm, Thursday, 3/10 at 1:30pm, Wednesday, 3/16 at 9:45am
Advanced Placement Testing (Math + ALA) ~ March 14-16th
Progress Reports ~ Friday, 3/11
Parent Teacher Conferences ~ Thursday, 3/17 & Friday, 3/18
Spring Break ~ 3/21 - 3/28
Visit to Thomas/South - Wednesday, 4/20 - Students will visit the middle schools with teachers during the school day.
Incoming 6th grade Parent & Student Orientation - Thursday, 4/21 - evening event, time TBD
Math
We finished Unit 6 this week and taking the assessment on Monday, 2/8. We have focused on finding data points using line plots, stem and leaf plots, and bar graph, and we learned to add and subtract fractions with unlike denominators. We took a Unit 6 quiz today to determine how prepared the students are for the test - I was impressed with how well your children did on the quiz! Ask your child how they scored on this quiz - if you would like to see an electronic copy of the quiz, let me know and I will send you one. Your child can prepare for the assessment by studying the review and these concepts on Khan Academy.
Science
Due to the CogAT testing next week, we will have an interrupted science schedule. Students were assigned the review for the Energy Assessment today - we will go through the review on Tuesday, and the Final Energy Assessment will be on Wednesday, 2/10. Your child can also log on to Spelling City to practice the vocabulary introduced in this unit over the weekend to help prepare for the test.
Students were also introduced to Rube Goldberg inventions this week - machines that use several energy transfers to accomplish a simple task. They were challenged to create a Rube Goldberg of their own with at least 6 steps and 2 different types of energy transfers. Your children were given the option to either work independently on this project or in teams - they brainstormed their projects today. Expect them to come home today requesting to bring in a few toys for their trial run next week. They will work in teams to create and label a Rube Goldberg diagram, and then they will have the chance to create the actual machine to demonstrate for their classmates. They are SUPER excite to create their machines!!
Here is a link to the video I shared in class to demonstrate a Rube Goldberg machine - your children enjoyed watching it, they may want to share it with you:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w
Reading
We continued our lesson on how conflict changes characters in the fiction stories this week, and learned to identify different literary elements on a plot diagram - characters & conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. This is challenging for many students so we've worked with several different texts to build their skills. Since we've spent a little additional time on this strategy, our Fiction Unit Final Assessment is put off for another week - we will most likely take it on Wednesday, 2/17 as we still need to cover theme and elements of drama next week.
Writing
We continued to work on identifying evidence to support our claims about character traits in The Liberation of Gabriel King in our WEX lessons. This week we focused on finding supporting evidence in sensory details and how to identify emotions in dialogue and narration. Next week, we will focus more on the grammar of showing with direct quotes and how to use literary verb tense.
“While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.” ~ Angela Schwindt
Sunday, January 31, 2016
5-2 Updates ~ 1/31
Hello 5-2 Parents ~
Important Dates
Everybody Counts ~ Tuesday, February 2nd ~ Everybody Counts is an organization dedicated to the empowerment and independence of people with disabilities. Volunteers take the time to come into classrooms to help the students understand life with a disability in a powerful and engaging way. THANK YOU to all the parents who volunteer in bringing this valuable program to our school Our presentation is scheduled for Tuesday, 2/2 at 11:10.
Everybody Counts ~ Tuesday, February 2nd ~ Everybody Counts is an organization dedicated to the empowerment and independence of people with disabilities. Volunteers take the time to come into classrooms to help the students understand life with a disability in a powerful and engaging way. THANK YOU to all the parents who volunteer in bringing this valuable program to our school Our presentation is scheduled for Tuesday, 2/2 at 11:10.
World Language Parent Information Night ~ Wednesday, February 3rd ~ This event is scheduled as part of the transition process to middle school, and will be helpful in choosing your child's language class for middle school.
Winter MAP Scores mailed home ~ Friday, 2/5
CogAT Administration ~ February 8th - 12th ~ The Cognitive Abilities Test will be given to all 5th grade students this year, and will be used with the MAPS test to determine students' eligibility to take the Advanced Language Arts placement test.
Valentine's Day Celebration ~ Friday, February 12th ~ Our Room Moms are hard at work planning a fun celebration for our kiddos!! Thank you for all your hard work! Just in case you haven't seen the new district policy regarding Valentine's Day candy:
Due to severe and life threatening allergies, we are asking that you DO NOT INCLUDE ANY FOOD OR CANDY ITEMS with your child's individual Valentines. There are many clever and creative alternatives to food items, including pencils, tattoos, stickers, & bubbles... but the nicest way to say "Happy Valentine's Day" is to write a nice note!
Incoming 6th Grade Parent/Principal Coffees
All Schools: Wednesday, February 17th at 7:00pm ~ Thomas Middle SchoolThomas: Thursday, February 18th at 9:15AM
South: Monday, 2/29 at 9:45 am & 6:30pm, Thursday, 3/10 at 1:30pm, Wednesday, 3/16 at 9:45am
Advanced Placement Testing (Math + ALA) ~ March 14-16th
Progress Reports ~ Friday, 3/11
Parent Teacher Conferences ~ Thursday, 3/17 & Friday, 3/18
Spring Break ~ 3/21 - 3/28
Visit to Thomas/South - Wednesday, 4/20 - Students will visit the middle schools with teachers during the school day.
Incoming 6th grade Parent & Student Orientation - Thursday, 4/21 - evening event, time TBD
Math
We will be wrapping up Unit 6 in math this week and taking the assessment on Monday, 2/8. We have focused on finding data points using line plots, stem and leaf plots, and bar graph. This week we will focus on adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators. Students can prepare for the assessment by reviewing study links and these concepts on Khan Academy.
Science
Students have been quite engaged in our science lessons during the Energy unit - we have raced boats using different forms of energy, watched butter melt to evaluate conductors, and tested insulators on water bottles. They were given a challenge at the end of last week to find an insulator at home that could beat the foam insulator we tested in class. Insulators are due in class tomorrow - I'm excited to see what they will come up with! After we test their insulators tomorrow, we will move on to a discussion of energy efficiency in light bulbs later this week. Next weeks we will be reviewing for the assessment and preparing our Rube Goldberg inventions.
Reading
We have been focusing on literary elements in fiction for the past few weeks, specifically discussing characters and conflict in literature. Students have learned to identify the different types of conflict (person vs person, person vs self, person vs society, and person vs nature) and how the conflict changes the character. I've been impressed with the students ability to make inferences in the stories we've been reading! We will use this new understanding to help us determine the theme in the stories we read. Our fiction unit will wrap up next week with a Fiction Unit Assessment scheduled for Wednesday, 2/10.
Writing
We will be finishing The Liberation of Gabriel King this week - the kids are really enjoying it! They are engaged in the text that explores the themes of racial discrimination, and have been asking excellent questions during the discussions. They wanted to know who was president at this time and allowed such horrible things to happen. It's a beautiful thing to listen to the innocence in their comments and questions when this type of discrimination took place not so long ago.
We are reading this book to produce a Response to Fiction Essay. In these lessons, students write numerous journal entries in which they explore their responses to the reading, learn to describe their textual observations, and practice new writing skills. We started this unit by brainstorming observations we make in life of people when we first meeting them, and the impressions those observations leave us with...and we drew a correlation to meeting characters in a book. Just like we observe people in real life and write about them, we can observe characters in a novel and write about them. The difference is, we can only observe what the author has written down for us. Students use these observations of characters to determine character traits, and will eventually use these observations to write a Response to Fiction Essay.
We are reading this book to produce a Response to Fiction Essay. In these lessons, students write numerous journal entries in which they explore their responses to the reading, learn to describe their textual observations, and practice new writing skills. We started this unit by brainstorming observations we make in life of people when we first meeting them, and the impressions those observations leave us with...and we drew a correlation to meeting characters in a book. Just like we observe people in real life and write about them, we can observe characters in a novel and write about them. The difference is, we can only observe what the author has written down for us. Students use these observations of characters to determine character traits, and will eventually use these observations to write a Response to Fiction Essay.
“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales.
If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”
― Albert Einstein
If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”
― Albert Einstein
Stay Warm!
Monday, January 25, 2016
Sunday, January 10, 2016
5-2 Updates ~ 01/10
Hello 5-2 Parents ~
The Liberation of Gabriel King is a well written and highly engaging historical fiction novel about a friendship between two fifth grade students, Gabriel King, a Caucasian boy, and his friend Frita, an African-American girl. The setting of the story is rural Georgia in 1976, the year of the bicentennial, and Jimmy Carter is President. The author writes about racial prejudice and the presence of the Ku Klux Klan. Frita’s goal is to liberate Gabe from his fears. Together they list their fears and pledge to conquer them one by one during the summer between fourth and fifth grade.
In order to prepare them for this novel, we will spend some time reading and discussing Freedom Walkers and Rosa Parks to give our students context as to the setting and the civil rights struggles that were present at that time in our history.
I hope you all enjoyed some relaxing time with your families over Winter Break, and found a way to stay warm in this crazy cold weather!! Brrrr!!
The new year brings some new expectations for your student as they are in the final stretches of their 5th grade year! I will no longer be stamping their assignment notebook every afternoon - students are now expected to check the assignment board every afternoon, and copy down the assignments due independently. Of course, I will be reminding them of their assignments and responsibilities at the end of every day, but I will no longer check in with each individual student. They are also expected to turn in assigned homework in the morning of it's due date - this includes re-do assignments. While they will still be receiving reminders to turn the assignments in, I will not check in with them individually to turn their work in. If the work is not turned in at the expected time, it will be marked late. We are working to transition them to more independence and ownership of their learning as they begin to prepare for middle school. Encourage them to maintain organization and listen for those reminders! As always, if you see your child struggling with this transition, please let me know.
Important Dates
MAP Testing:
Monday, January 11th - 2:15pm - Reading
MLK Day ~ Monday, January 18th - No School
SIP Day ~ Tuesday, January 19th - No School
SIP Day ~ Tuesday, January 19th - No School
Math
My math class will be wrapping up Unit 5 this week with the Unit 5 Assessment on Thursday, 1/14. This unit focuses on fractions, decimals, and percents. We will be reviewing for the test on Tuesday and Wednesday, with a Unit 5 Review coming home on Tuesday, and Unit 5 Quiz on Wednesday. Ask your child how they do on the quiz on Wednesday - this score is generally indicative of how they will perform on the final unit assessment. To prepare for the test, they can spend additional time with the review, reviewing the journal pages and study links from this unit, and spending time on this unit's Khan Academy activities.
Science
We began our Energy unit when we returned to school this week. During this unit, your child will learn about different energy forms and will investigate energy transfers with engaging activities that include energy toys. They will even have a chance to build and race boats that use different energy forms. We will end the unit with a focus on energy efficiency. One of the goals of the Energy Unit is to encourage students to use what they learn about energy to make choices and take actions in their own life that have a positive impact on our limited energy resources.
Your child will need one clean 2-liter bottle, cut in half separating the top from the bottom. Please send them in by Wednesday, 1/20. Thank you!
Reading
We have begun our Fiction Unit in reading where students will explore a variety of fiction, including realistic and historical fiction, as well as fairy tales and folk tales. In each of these types of fiction, we will investigate story elements, such as characters, setting, plot, conflict and solution. We will also spend time investigating the theme in different fictional text.
Several students are reaching the end of their Reading Notebook. Please check in with your child - if they need a replacement, they will need a 3 subject notebook. Thank you!
Several students are reaching the end of their Reading Notebook. Please check in with your child - if they need a replacement, they will need a 3 subject notebook. Thank you!
Writing
We also began our new writing unit Writing in Response to Fiction. During this unit, students will gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between reading and writing and will learn essential reading and writing strategies that they will need in order to respond to fiction throughout their educational careers. The students will be reading the book, The Liberation of Gabriel King, by K.L Going.
The Liberation of Gabriel King is a well written and highly engaging historical fiction novel about a friendship between two fifth grade students, Gabriel King, a Caucasian boy, and his friend Frita, an African-American girl. The setting of the story is rural Georgia in 1976, the year of the bicentennial, and Jimmy Carter is President. The author writes about racial prejudice and the presence of the Ku Klux Klan. Frita’s goal is to liberate Gabe from his fears. Together they list their fears and pledge to conquer them one by one during the summer between fourth and fifth grade.
In order to prepare them for this novel, we will spend some time reading and discussing Freedom Walkers and Rosa Parks to give our students context as to the setting and the civil rights struggles that were present at that time in our history.
“While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.”
Stay Warm!
Theresa Fowler
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