5-2 Updates ~ 02/15

Hello 5-2 Parents ~

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for a wonderful Valentine's Day party put on by our dedicated room moms.  We had such a great time decorating bags, delivering valentine's, eating treats, and playing games.  It was a delightful afternoon of laughing and socializing as we celebrated the day of "love." :)

Important Dates

Monday, February 17th ~ No School - President's Day!  Enjoy!

Wednesday, February 19th ~  Monday schedule - we will have PE/Music, please be sure your child brings or wears their gym shoes!

ISAT Testing ~ It's that time of year again!  Our ISATS are scheduled as follows:

- Monday, March 3rd, 1:30-2:45pm - Reading #1
- Tuesday, March 4th, 1:30-2:45 - Reading #2
- Wednesday, March 5th, 1:30-2:45 - Reading #3

- Monday, March 10th, 1:30-2:45 - Math #1
- Tuesday, March 11th, 1:30-2:45 - Math #2
- Wednesday, March 12th, 1:30-2:45 - Math #3

Please encourage your child to get a full night's sleep prior to the test dates, and please do your best to minimize absences during these times.  It can be very challenging to schedule make-up tests since our window to do so is so small.  Students often feel overwhelmed at missing instruction in order to makeup tests later in the week, resulting in additional homework.  Thank you for your support!

Math

We will be mid-way through Unit 7 this week, which means we will be taking our mid-unit quiz.  The quizzes are good indicators of student performance on the final unit assessment.  I encourage students to take ownership of their learning by looking at these scores and determining if they need additional support in learning the concepts.  I often talk to the students about being proactive and requesting additional time with me to reinforce the concepts during class or lunch recess.  This is an important skill moving forward in their education.  The Unit 7 Assessment is currently scheduled for Tuesday, Febrary 25th, and the additional review session will be on Monday, February 26th at lunch recess.

Science

We wrapped up our Watery Earth science unit this week as we discussed water pollution.  Students had an opportunity to try to filter pollutants from the water, and found this experiment to be quite challenging.  Our discussions and experiment developed a greater appreciation of our need to keep our water clean.

We will begin our review for the final unit assessment on Tuesday when we return.  Your child can get started on that review this weekend by logging on to Spelling City and taking the vocabulary games with the Watery Earth vocabulary list.  I've assigned the list to them early for them to start practicing if they want to get a head start.  This unit is a vocabulary intensive unit - there are 44 words to study for the Watery Earth test.  We will spend several days reviewing next week before taking the Watery Earth Assessment on Friday, February 21st.

Reading

We working in Unit 4 Week 1 this week and studied how the setting can greatly impact a story as we read several texts set during the Civil Rights Movement.  Your students struggled to understand why people would treat African Americans in such a discriminating way.  Their innocence is heart-warming.  As a teacher, it is a privilege to look into the eyes of the next generation each day, and see hope for a better future :)  

We will still have a full Treasures week next week despite the short week.  They will be given packets and spelling assignments on Tuesday that will be due on Friday, but they will be given additional time in class complete their work.  They will take their weekly assessments on Friday as well.  We will be determining the theme of a story, including how characters respond to challenges.

Writing

We finished reading The Liberation of Gabriel King this week, but will continue to use the text to support our Response to Fiction unit in WEX.  This week we discussed how the author uses sensory details to show character traits in writing, and we learned how to properly cite that evidence in our writing.

“Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” 
 ~ Aristotle ~

Stay Warm!