September 21-25: Book Fair, 2:00-3:00 pm in the Barracuda Tank

September 25: Ice Cream Social (5-7 pm)

September 29 - October 2: Science Camp

October 5-8: Goal Setting Conferences

October 9: Staff Development Day (No School)

October 12: No School 

Click here for the yearlong school calendar

Thank you so much for the birthday messages and treats. I appreciate the sweet words in the cards, the delicious coffee, the yummy lunch, and the afternoon boba. Thank you all for your thoughtfulness!

FIFTH GRADE Science is ALMOST HERE! If your child needs to take medication while at Science Camp, please let me know ASAP so I can get the proper forms to you. This Thursday, a printed copy of a letter with final reminders will be in your child's Thursday Envelope. Please sure you read this letter in its entirety!

We are on our last region of the United States! Last week, students focused on the Southeast states and capitals, and we will take our quiz on this region on Tuesday. Please continue to help your child practice at home! On Friday, students will take on the big challenge: identifying all 50 states and their capitals! Students who earn a perfect score will receive a patriotic prize. 🇺🇸 Students will have several opportunities to master all 50 states and capitals and earn their prize, so don’t worry if they don’t get them all on the first try! Our second attempt will take place after Science Camp.

This week, students will also continue working on their state reports, which include both a state flip book and a “Travel Pitch”—an opinion writing piece designed to convince others to visit their state. Last week, students chose three specific reasons someone should visit their state. Their reasons might focus on the weather, unique foods, culture, natural beauty, tourist attractions, annual events, or other features that make their state special. Students will use these ideas to write a five-paragraph opinion essay consisting of an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. To help them visualize how all the parts of an essay fit together, I introduced the idea that an essay is like a big, juicy triple burger! 🍔 Be sure to ask your child what this means!

Great Postcard Race Update: Thanks to new postcards received last week by Alex, Angelina, Aria, Blake, Christian, Derek, Immanuel, Riley, Yvonne, and Zach, we currently have 42 states. The new states we heard from this week were Delaware, Idaho, Maryland, and Nevada. We have the following 8 states left: Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Dakota, Vermont and West Virginia.  

Standings update: Ms. Wickemeyer's class has received postcards from 41 states, and Ms. Rodriguez's class has received cards from 48 states, so the race for second place is very close!

Last week, students learned about how data about the hydrosphere helps communities plan for climate change. They also took the "I-Check" assessment that accompanies Investigations 1 and 2. The results of this assessment will be in this week's Thursday envelope. Please note, as you review this assessment, that students will have made corrections in colored pencil (so their original responses were in pencil).

This week, students will track the sun's shadow during the course of a day and learn how to tell the time of day by looking at the length and direction of a shadow. If you would like to extend student learning at home, consider trying this home school connection activity.

This week we will continue with the theme analysis essays that we began last week in response to reading novel Restart by Gordon Korman. Students learned last week that a theme is the message, lesson, or moral the author wants the reader to learn. Be sure to ask your child what he or she identified as the theme of this novel, as well as what evidence they found to support this time. Being able to identify themes and find supporting text evidence is an important fifth grade skill that we will revisit often this school year! You can help your child practice identifying themes by talking about possible themes after watching a movie or after reading a book together at home.

We have PE weekly on Tuesday mornings from 8:20 - 9:05 am with Ms. Wickemeyer's class.  On Tuesdays, please make sure your child is wearing shoes in which they can run. I also recommend a hat and an extra water bottle for hot days. 

We will have Music every other week beginning August 17 on Monday mornings from 9:00-9:50 am.  On those same weeks, we will also visit our school library on Mondays from 9:55-10:15 am. We have Art on the alternate weeks (the weeks that we don't have Music) on Monday mornings from 9:30 - 10:20 a.m. beginning the week of August 24. 

This year, we will be managing some assignments and hand outs (such as study guides) on Google Classroom. Students will learn how to access Google Classroom this week. Please take some time to have your child login also from a home device and then please bookmark that page so that you will be to access it quickly when needed!

If you are looking for books for your family's library, please consider ordering from Scholastic Books. You can have books shipped directly to your home or to school. Every order earns points for our class, and points help us grow our classroom library. When using the Scholastic website, our class activation code is GKMNT. Place an order of $25 or more and you can pick a FREE $5 book (use code READS at checkout). Here is an online flyer.