September 1: Labor Day (No School)

September 15-19: Book Fair

September 19: Ice Cream Social (after school hours)

October 6-14: Goal Setting Conferences

October 25: Halloween Fun Night

Click here for the yearlong school calendar

Homework begins THIS WEEK! Your child will receive a blue folder that contains the weekly planner and each night's math homework. The double-sided math page should be returned to school each day. As you will see, there are resource pages in the center of the folder, including parent tip sheets from the Eureka Math program. For those who are interested, I will also be providing a laminated place value chart that students can write on with an Expo marker (also to be provided).

Thank you to those of you who made it to Back to School Night last Thursday. If you did not make it, I have included a copy of my slides and handouts in your child's Thursday Envelope. Please review these and let me know if you have any questions.

Last week students learned about the states in the West region (11 states). They will play a Jeopardy game on Tuesday to review what we learned. On Tuesday, students will also take a short quiz to see if they can identify the states, capitals, and state abbreviations in this region. This week we will learn about the states in the Midwest region. 

Students have also been assigned a state about which they will do both a state report and opinion writing piece. Be sure to ask your child what state he or she chose!

The Great Postcard Race is well underway! Thanks to postcards received by Jackson, Hugh and Mira, we currently have 8 states: Washington, Montana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Texas. Ms. Wickemeyer's class has received 22 postcards, and Ms. Rodrigues's class has received 8 cards, so we are in second place! Let's see if we can take first place!

Last week students designed and conducted an experiment to investigate the effects of sunlight on soil vs. water. They learned that soil heats and cools faster than water. Next week, students will continue their learning through reading about the effect of solar energy on earth and about energy transfer by radiation and by conduction. If you would like to extend student learning at home, consider trying this home school connection activity.

We are continuing in the novel Because of Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea. This week we read the November and December sections and took a quiz on these sections. Be sure to ask your child what he or she thinks of the book and what message the author has for us as readers.

In case you missed a summary of the book from a previous newsletter -- Because of Mr. Terupt is the story of a new fifth-grade teacher and seven of his students. Each section focuses on a different month of the school year, and each chapter is told through the voice of one of the seven students. It's a wonderful story about friendship, mentorship, overcoming adversity, and more. 

Thank you to those of you who have already completed this form. If you haven't already, please complete this survey as a way to introduce me to you and your family. If you can please complete this by Friday, August 22, I would greatly appreciate it!

We have PE weekly on Tuesday mornings from 8:20 - 9:05 am with Miss Kelly (our new PE teacher).  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 have Music on Friday afternoons from 1:10-1:55 pm. We have Art every other week on Tuesday mornings from 9:30 - 10:20 am beginning the week of August 18. 

Our weekly visit to the school library will be Thursdays from 12:05 to 12:30 pm. 

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.