We encourage all families to join our 5th Grade Facebook page! While the same information is always sent home through email, our Facebook page is a great place for quick reminders and to see photos of what’s happening in 5th grade. It’s an easy way to stay updated and feel connected to the exciting learning and events happening in our classrooms.

Each 5th grader now has a Student Data Binder, which will be sent home on selected Fridays, usually in the middle and at the end of each 9 weeks. Binders should be returned the following Monday. Please note: papers should remain in the binder at all times. Inside, you will find an acknowledgment form—parents/guardians should sign this form each time the binder comes home.

Parents also have access to their child’s daily work through Google Classroom. If you need help accessing it, please contact your child’s homeroom teacher. At the end of the school year, the binder will be yours to keep as a record of your child’s growth.

This first binder will focus on your child’s Beginning of Year (BOY) assessment information.

✅ Quick Review

📅 Sent home selected Fridays- October 17th!

📖 Return the following Monday

📝 Do not remove papers from the binder

✍️ Sign the acknowledgment form each time

💻 Daily work also available in Google Classroom

🎓 Binder is yours to keep at the end of the year

📚 Wrapping Up Our Book Clubs & Moving Into Nonfiction

We’ve officially wrapped up our Lucy Calkins Unit of Study: Interpretation Book Clubs! Students have done a wonderful job analyzing author’s craft and sharing meaningful discussions about character motivations and themes.

This week, students will have the opportunity to retest on the Author’s Purpose and Identifying Multiple Themes standards if they choose to do so. These retests give students a chance to show what they’ve learned and strengthen their understanding before we move on to our next exciting unit.

Up next, we’ll begin “Tackling Complexity: Moving Up Levels of Nonfiction.” This unit will challenge students to think critically about informational texts—learning how to identify main ideas, synthesize information, and explore how nonfiction authors present ideas across different structures. We’ll share a more in-depth look at what’s to come in next week’s newsletter!

✏️ Extended Constructed Response (ECR) Assessment

Last week, students practiced writing Extended Constructed Responses (ECRs) together as a class with teacher modeling and guided support. This week, they will complete their ECR Report Card Assessment independently to demonstrate their ability to analyze texts, support ideas with evidence, and clearly explain their thinking in writing.

This type of response mirrors the writing students will be expected to complete on the STAAR assessment later this school year, giving them valuable practice in developing strong, evidence-based written responses.

Unit 2: Decimal Operations 

The focus of this unit is on place value of and operations with decimals to the thousandths place. The student will be responsible for identifying the place value of decimals, comparing and ordering decimals, and rounding decimals to the tenths and hundredths place. The student will represent the multiplication and division of decimals using objects and pictorial models, as well as solve for the product and quotient of decimals to the hundredths place. The student will continue to work on simplifying expressions that now include decimal numbers. 

We have finished our first unit of Science!  We are now diving into our next unit: Energy.  This unit will consist of three lessons:

1. Energy Transformations - understanding the different types of energy using MELTS (Mechanical, Electrical, Light, Thermal, Sound) and that there can be a transformation from one type of energy to another (i.e. turning on a flashlight causes a transformation from chemical energy (the batteries) to light energy)

2. Electrical Energy in Circuits - learning the parts of a working circuit (battery, wires, lightbulb, switch, etc.) and how they all interact with one another

3. Light - demonstrating how light travels in a straight line and can be reflected, refracted, or absorbed

By the end of this unit, your child will be able to:

• demonstrate how energy is transformed as it moves through a flashlight system

• describe electrical currents moving through circuits

• demonstrate how light travels in a straight line and can be reflected, refracted, or absorbed when it encounters different media

In our next unit of study in Social Studies, our fifth graders will begin developing an understanding of the causes and effects of European colonization in the New World. When, where and why did people move?  How did they adapt to their new environments? How did the European colonists make a living? What kinds of governments did they organize in colonial America? Did some have more freedom than others? What other questions will spark our curiosity and prod us to seek answers? 

Instructional Approach

Your child will develop his or her understanding of European colonization by exploring the people and events of that time through an inquiry approach:

• Why is the word CROATOAN, carved on a tree, still such an intriguing mystery, even today? Students will use clues to draw their own conclusions.

• Who were the people of Jamestown?  Who were the people of Plymouth?  Were their colonies successful? Why were they so eager to leave all they knew to risk all in the New World?  Students will discover the answers to these questions through the use of primary and secondary sources. 

• Who were the people of the original 13 colonies? Why did they choose their colony to start or begin a new life?  What choices did they make in the new world in order to be successful. 

• Geography and location have a deep impact on the people who live and work there.  How did geography shape the New England, Middle and Southern Colonies? Students will learn how the early colonists made a living in their different regions.  

After his or her learning experiences the student will choose a colony from one of the original thirteen and create a product from a variety of choices (Ex. journal, video, billboard or blog) . Your child will do this in a group to make interesting and appropriate connections  that demonstrates an understanding of why people move and make connections about the unexpected situations that happen to affect their way of life.