November
End of First Trimester & Conferences
One third of the school year is behind us and so much has been accomplished thus far. We are very proud of fifth graders for what they have achieved and the amount of maturity and growth they have shown over the past several weeks.
At conferences, we reviewed progress and set goals for the second trimester. Emphasis was placed on areas of growth so far with discussion of areas for focus and improvement, including but not limited to: academics, social skills, emotional states, and life skills. We hope you found the conversations productive.
Planned or Unplanned Absences
We are often informed by parents of planned absences for students in advance of things like sports tournaments, out of town family visits, and family trips. Additionally, we hear from you (or students themselves) when students will be absent due to illness. We greatly appreciate knowing about these absences in advance as it helps us with our planning ahead and it demonstrates the priority you place on education.
However, we would like to point out two things:
Depending on circumstances, we may or may not be able to supply missed work in advance. Planning ahead for a day or two is feasible. But planning ahead for several days to a week, or more, is challenging. While we pride ourselves on our ability to plan, our plans are constantly shifting and changing due to the variation of the pace of learning and unanticipated disruptions to our learning time, making it difficult to supply you with work for students to do while traveling.
Pulling together an assortment of assignments to be worked on while away from school does not replace what occurs in class. During class time, students participate in direct instruction from teachers on important concepts, teacher-guided practice with those concepts, collaboration with peers, discussions, and question and answer sessions. And that's only a short list! There is much more that occurs in the classroom that cannot be replicated. So, the answer to the question we receive often, "Will my student miss anything?" The answer is an emphatic "YES!"
We appreciate your requests and will honor them to the best of our ability, but please understand the difficulty it can pose to teachers and student learning.
Language Arts
This month, reading focus will be on identifying conflict, themes and symbolism in short stories and novels. Each classroom teacher has selected novels with similar themes. In guided reading workshops, students will learn to read and analyze text to determine conflict, themes, life lessons, author's purpose/message, and symbols. Groups will also study symbols utilized in stories to identify deeper meanings and explore how those symbols connect to themes. Students will use the Claim, Evidence, Reason (CER) method of explaining themes and symbolism in stories using evidence from the text, such as direct quotes, as support for their thinking.
Social Studies - Age of Discovery
We began our unit on the Age of Discovery with a special emphasis on the European explorers of the Americas. We established a motive for Europeans exploring the world, which included increasing trade routes to Asia.
The time period marks the widespread adoption in Europe of colonialism, mercantilism; as well as the treatment of native peoples. Many myths will be dispelled, specifically that lands previously unknown to Europeans were discovered during this period. Focus will be placed on the perspective that the Age of Discovery marked the arrival of Europeans in North America, who expanded empires by colonizing previously occupied territory.
Students learned about Marco Polo and his travels to Asia, a primary driver of European exploration of the globe. They also learned about Prince Henry the Navigator's advancements in technology that made it more feasible to travel by sea around Africa to Asia, but also his promotion of the enslavement of African people.
Next, we turn our attention to Christopher Columbus and his arrival in North America. We will learn that Columbus intended to navigate west from Europe to get to India but was lost and landed on islands of North America instead. Students will learn about his interactions with, and negative impacts on, indigenous people already calling the Caribbean and North America home.
After Columbus, students will study other explorers whose actions resulted in the eventual settlement and colonization of various parts of the Americas by Europeans, and the demise of native nations.
Math
Family letters containing overviews of current math content and objectives can be found here:
Science: Earth, Sun, and Stars
We begin a short unit in science with a focus on Earth's rotation around its axis and its revolution around the sun. Students will learn the effects these phenomena have on our lives on Earth, such as day/night, shadows and seasonal changes.
Next, we turn to the sun and study its status as a star and how it compares to other stars across the Milky Way galaxy and beyond. We will learn about the classification of stars and the life cycle of stars. Students will review the make up of our solar system, including classification of planets and the relative sizes and distances of planets.
Finally, we study the concept of gravity and the gravitational force between all objects. Students will discover the difference between weight and mass, where mass is constant but weight depends upon gravitational force. Students will learn that size of object and the distance away determines the gravitational force.
Science: Mixtures and Solutions
We will begin a new science unit with a focus on physical science. Specifically, students will explore mixtures and solutions. We will begin with definitions and properties of mixtures, and determine the difference between a mixture and solution. Students will be able to separate both mixtures and solutions into their component parts, using filtering and evaporation. Students will learn about dissolving a solid in liquid and we will define vocabulary terms such as solvent and solute. Students will test for solubility of a solution and how to saturate a solution.
Following that, we'll turn to the concept of concentration of solutions and discuss how concentration and solubility are related. Conservation of mass is a central concept that students will be introduced to and they will see several examples. We will conclude with different types of chemical reactions.
This particular unit involves the use of a lot of materials in a hands-on approach. These concepts are challenging in the abstract. Seeing and creating concrete examples of the concepts is paramount to learning these concepts with any depth. Therefore, attendance in class is crucial to gain the full experience. Absences should be minimal during this unit, as much as possible.
Social Emotional Learning
Willow Creek is committed to teaching the whole child and has created a focus this year on teaching Social Emotional Learning lessons in the classroom. The program Second Step was adopted by the district and will be in use to guide instruction and discussions throughout the year. Students will learn to have empathy, manage emotions and solve problems in order to promote positive relationships with their teachers and peers and increase their feelings of school connectedness. Studies have shown that as students feel more connected to their school and peers they have more positive academic self-concepts, more motivation for academic success and more overall engagement for learning. Each month we will highlight for you a brief focus for the month to allow for continued conversations at home. The Home Link pages will be linked to this section to support the discussion at home.
November
Important Events
Please see the Calendar Page within this website for upcoming important events.
Within the calendar you can find important events, event timeframes, and additional brief notes about many events.
If looking for WC Accountability dates, please see Calendar Page as well.