It has been another busy week in fifth grade! We had a wonderful time on our trip to the Virginia Tech Geosciences Museum last Wednesday. Here is what we have done and what we will be doing in the coming week.
CONFERENCES –
Conferences will begin this week. Most of you have already turned in your conference forms. Thank you for returning them so quickly! You should have already received a confirmation for the date and time of your conference. If you have not turned in your conference form, please do so A.S.A.P. I am sending home another conference form with your child, just in case you may have misplaced yours. I value communication between home and school and look forward to meeting with each of you in the next couple of weeks.
Accelerated Reader:
Students are expected to ALWAYS have a book to read in class, beyond their reading group novel. As stated in the beginning of the year, each student must take and pass three Accelerated Reader tests with a proficiency level of at least a 70% each quarter. Since all fifth graders should be reading twenty minutes a night, this should not be hard to accomplish. The end of the quarter is only a few weeks away! Our second and final Accelerated Reader for this quarter is due by Monday, October 20th. Please take time to ask your child if they have completed the two required for this quarter and what they received on their tests. Also in order to prepare your student for the test, ask them questions about the characters, plot, setting, and to give you a summary.
Language Arts:
We are continuing to practice our grammar and editing marks every morning with Daily Oral Language. We have also begun studying sentence, such as what they must have in order to be considered a sentence instead of a fragment. We will continue studying sentence and sentence structure by identifying subjects, predicates, part of speeches, and topic sentences. Last Tuesday, we did our first practice of writing to a prompt, since this is what fifth graders will be expected to do for the writing portion of the SOL test in late winter/early spring. Students will practice responding to writing prompts periodically throughout the year, in addition to our regular writing program. The red group will continue reading Hatchet by Gary Paulsen while the orange group will read My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George. The blue group has finished reading Chocolate Fever by Robert Kimmel Smith and will begin Dolphin Adventure by Wayne Grover. Today the students took their Spelling pretest and receive their next spelling unit list and packet. The spelling test will be this FRIDAY, October 10th. Please encourage your child to study for his/her words throughout the week.
Math:
We completed our study of Unit 2 and had our test on Friday. Also on Friday, you should have received the Family Letter for Unit 3. In Unit 3, we will be discussing geometry concepts such as congruent figured, tessellations, and polygons. Students will also learn how to use protractors. If your child continues to struggle with math homework, please encourage him or her to take home the Student Reference book every night.
In order for your child to be successful in math, he/she must know addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts. SO, PLEASE, review these facts with your child every night for 10 minutes until he/she knows them. By know the facts, students will find new math concepts easier to learn.
Social Studies:
Last week, the students drew on the names of the five regions of Virginia and began working on creating a brochure for that region, discussing the products, industries, attractions, and recreation that is specific to that region. We will be presenting these brochures this week. We also will be finishing our unit on VA Products and Industries and have test on Wednesday, October 8th.
Science:
We will be wrapping up our unit on rocks and minerals. We will be discussing the rock cycle and then reviewing the three different types of rocks and practice identifying different rocks and minerals. We will be having our test on Rocks and Minerals on Thursday, October 9th. We will also begin our new unit on cells later this week. In this unit, we will be using microscopes to observe plant and animal cells. We will also compare and contrast plant and animal cells.
Important Dates:
Tuesday, October 7 – Picture Day
Wednesday, October 8 –VA Product & Industry TEST
Thursday, October 9 – Rocks & Minerals TEST
Friday, October 10 – Spelling TEST
Thursday, October 16 – Early Release
Thursday, October 23 – Early Release
Parents who have volunteered to buy items for the school store:
If you could begin buying inexpensive items for the school store, that would be great! Feel free to pick-up anything that you think your fifth grader or other fifth graders might enjoy. Some suggestions:
- notepads - pencils
- pens - bookmarks
- candy - plastic containers that can be used to hold items
- any other toys or trinkets you think 5th graders might enjoy
If you have any questions or concerns, please always feel free to contact me. I am always willing to discuss any questions that you may have, you may contact me at school from 8:00-8:15 a.m. or 3:30-4:00 p.m. (951-5700). If you prefer, you can also send me a note or e-mail me at akruckow@mail.mcps.org If you wish to speak with me in person, please contact me at school to set up an appointment.
Thanks for taking the time to read through this lengthy letter and for the support you give at home.
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