Monday, April 27, 2015

Earth's Systems Project

Hello fifth grade families,
As of today, for students who have been present every day, testing is over!  Thank you all for sending in snacks and helping your child get to bed early.  It got confusing with the changing testing days, so thank you all for being flexible.  The students worked hard and hopefully were able to stay focused and do their best work.

Going forward, we will have reading logs every night until the last week of school.  In class today we were just discussing the importance of reading in developing our abilities as writers and as readers.  20 minutes is really a minimum amount for home reading, so feel free to encourage your student to read longer on nights where he or she has time to do so.

Our Earth's Systems project is kind of off to a slow start.  We got our vocab words before we started the testing, but we haven't done too much with it yet.  Your student may have brought home a supply list.  We plan to have research and writing days this week and building days starting as early as Thursday, April 30 and continuing into the week of May 4.  The time is going way too quickly!  I would like to present by May 12.  More information to follow on that.

Have a great week!  

Monday, April 13, 2015

Testing Snack Days

Welcome back from Spring break!  I hope it was a wonderful week for you all.

We are preparing for our first testing day this week.  Wednesday morning we will take our Science test.  Please have your child get to bed early on Tuesday night and eat a healthy breakfast before coming to school.  

To make sure no one is distracted from doing their best work on the tests, I like to have snacks to give to students right before we start.  Everyone is assigned a day to bring snacks according to their classroom number.  Please send in a low sugar snack that is easy to distribute and eat in the classroom.  Examples are applesauce cups (with spoons), pretzels, cut up apples or bananas with peanut butter, grapes, baby carrots with ranch, stuffed celery, string cheese, crackers, trail mix, dried fruit, mini sandwiches, whatever healthy snacks your child likes are probably good choices for the class.  Two students are bringing gum, but any student who wants to have his or her own flavor of gum to chew may bring it in.  This personal gum is to be chewed during testing times only.  

This is the schedule:
Wed. 4/15: 1-4
Mon. 4/20: 5-8, 17 and 20 bring in 3 packs of gum each please.
Wed. 4/22: 9-12
Mon. 4/27: 13-16
Wed. 4/29: 18-19

Usually we have extra snack that we can eat on that last test day, so we should be good with only two kids on that day.  If you have a question about your snack assignment, please email me.  Have a great week!

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Conferences, Stamina Days

This week is flying by!  We have had two really productive practice testing days.  We used the ear buds or headphones and they all worked perfectly.  Thank you for sending those in by the deadline.  Our walk to the park was really nice, we appreciate the parents who brought drinks and treats for Monday and paper goods, chips, cheese, and salsa for today.  It was just what we needed after working so hard all morning.

I have met with many parents for conferences, but not all yet.  Please be aware that we take our first test on April 15.  That's the Wednesday of the week we return from Spring Break.  We will have test days for the three weeks following Spring Break.  Your students are working hard and giving a really good effort.  Thank you for your support!

Also, there will be no parent journal this weekend and no reading log next week.  Enjoy your week off!