Happy Friday! Progress reports and deficiency notices went home today.  Again, the 1^st trimester progress report does not accurately reflect your child’s quality of work produced in 5^th grade because it is based on only a few assignments.

Mr. Fujitsubo visited our class this afternoon and facilitated some cooperation and concentration games. Please ask your child about their experience.

Our APEX run is next Thursday morning. Thank you for the contributions.

Look out for Social Studies homework next week. Another fluency/prosody practice page will be assigned to practice.  The students will be taking the Chapter 1 test in Social Studies next Wednesday or Thursday.  The test will follow the review questions on page 45 of the Social Studies book.

In math, we will be reviewing dividing with 2-digit divisors modeling; therefore, the students will revisit previous homework pages and practice with the even problems.  The Math Chapter 2 test will occur on Friday, September 7^th.

Our first field trip has been scheduled for October 30^th to Stone Lakes National Wildlife Refuge – Blue Heron Trails Site. There the students will be analyzing soil and water samples and scouting for wildlife. Permission slips will be sent home on October 10^th, when we track back on.

The APEX Kick-off rally was this morning and your children were sent home with their pledge envelopes and asked to register their t-shirt sizes tonight.

An updated copy of the 5^th Grade Score Weights has been completed.  I will e-mail it for those interested parties.

School pictures went home last Friday, August 17th, everyone looked adorable.

Progress reports go home on Friday.  Please note that the first trimester Progress Report is always a difficult one for teachers.  We have only been in school for five weeks and two of those weeks were filled with teaching the class procedures, getting to know each other, and assessing students.  Giving you a real idea of where your student is at this point is a challenge.  I will be sending out another Progress Report before we track off that will be a little closer to reality considering the class will have had more opportunities to show me what they can do.

Just because I posted yesterday that Social Studies and Science homework was rare, tonight there is Social Studies homework. It is actually a class assignment from Friday that was completed by some, but not by others.  Therefore, it was assigned as homework tonight.  The back-side of the page is to practice reading with prosody (patterns of rhythm and intonation) using “chunking” with phrases.  Reading with prosody contributes to meaning.  We practiced in class, so please ask your child to “show off” their fluent, expressive reading.  🙂

We are off to a great start to a new school year! This class is so kind and respectful to one another.

A few grades have already been entered into Synergy ParentVUE. The grades are “weighted”.  Ten percent of the grades are attributed to homework, and test scores are weighted more heavily than classwork.  Accelerated Reader (AR) does attribute 10% towards the Reading Grade.  The AR Target for the first trimester is 20 points.

Fifth Grade is updating the current “Score Weights” for each subject to align with the new report cards, and I will send out an electronic copy once it is finalized.

Homework:  each night the students will have Reading, Math, and Spelling homework.  The students are expected to read 25 minutes each night.  Two pages of math, odd problems only, are assigned that match the day’s corresponding lesson.  Some evenings it will be review.  Spelling is usually assigned each night.   Science and Social Studies may be assigned when necessary.

In fifth grade, the students are expected to take more responsibility in writing down and knowing their homework. This habit will help them become more successful in middle and high school.  As parents and teachers, we can help them by checking their agendas and help them schedule a consistent time and place to complete their homework with minimal distractions.

Upcoming dates:

August:

Week of 08/13:  Our class leads the pledge each morning!

Friday, 08/17: Math chapter 1 Test, Place Value, Multiplication, and Expressions

Minimum Day: 12:35 pm Dismissal; moving “How to Train Your Dragon 2”

Character Awards @ 9:30 am for 5^th Grade for Responsibility

PFO Rick’s Creamery will be at school

Week of 08/20:

Tuesday, 08/21: APEX Fundraiser Kick-Off

Friday, 08/24: Deficiency Notices sent home

Week of 08/27:

Thursday, 08/30: APEX Fun Run

    Mary Poppins Musical Audition Workshop 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm

Week of 09/03:  Monday is Labor Day ~ no school

Wednesday, 09/05: Mary Poppins Applications due @ the audition; Audition 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Thursday, 09/06: PFO Shaved Ice in quad

Mary Poppins call backs 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm

Friday, 09/14: Minimum Day: 12:35 pm Dismissal; Track Off

Character Awards @ 9:30 am for 5^th Grade for Respect

Return back to school: Monday, October 8

October 12^th:  “Hands Across Anatolia” walking field trip to join hands – an event with McGarvey and Sunrise families and say out loud that no matter one’s background, we all belong, diversity is our beautiful strength and we all have the right to call this neighborhood and our schools “home.”

Wow! We’re heading into homestretch of our school year.  Some important dates to know are:

C Track- Open House May 31 and  CAASPP Window June 4-15  and …

Sunrise Book Fair is April 16^th through April 20^th. 

• Wednesday the book fair will be open after school from 2:45-4:00pm.
• Thursday & Friday the book fair will be open from 11:00-1:30 for recess and lunch.
• Thursday night the book fair will be open from 5:00 – 8:00pm.

Other important dates and upcoming events:

April 16^th:  Sunrise Book Fair begins!  Our “preview” time is Monday at 10:30 am.  The book fair will last through Friday, April 20^th

April 17^th:  American Revolution presentation (in the classroom)

April 18^th:  Book Fair Family Night 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm

April 25^th:  Minimum Day; Sports Day spirit wear; TRACK OFF!

April 26^th:  CommUNITY Carnival 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm

May 23^rd:  Track On!

May 31^st:  Open House 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm

June 4^th:  CAASPP Standard Testing Window opens

June 22^nd:  Minimum Day; LAST DAY OF SCHOOL

Reading:  We have been analyzing the genres biographies, folktales, and will analyze poetry next week using the comprehension skills sequencing and theme.

Spelling:  We jumped ahead to Unit 6 in Wonders for spelling in order to learn the Greek and Latin roots to help us meet our 5^th grade CC language standard.

Grammar: verbs, verbs, verbs:  progressive tenses, perfect tenses, linking verbs, and coming up irregular verbs focusing on subject/verb agreement.

Social Studies:  Began Jamestown DBQ which focuses on the colonization of Jamestown in the early 1600’s.

Math:  we completed Chapters 8 (Divide Fractions), Chapter 9 (Algebra: Patterns and Graphing), and have almost completed Chapter 10 (Convert units of Measure). We will begin our last chapter, Chapter 11, Geometry and Volume next week.   We are also continuing to factor numbers to their prime factors.

We have been working hard during the month of February! It has been nice to be back in the classroom with your children.  All of the children did an outstanding job on their Book Box Reports.  The boxes, puppets, and wanted posters are so creative.  They are decorating our classroom.

New to Sunrise: the library is hosting An Evening in the Library once a month on Tuesday evenings.  Please stop by to enjoy and visit our library!

A recap of February and looking ahead to March:

ELA:  Spelling – we finished with final /el/ and /en/; prefixes; and words with /cher/ and zure/. This week we are studying the suffixes –ance and –ence. We will be studying more suffixes (-ous, -tion, -ic, –ness, and ly); homophones, and more prefixes in the future.

Grammar – we spent the two short weeks in February reviewing prepositions and prepositional phrases and how to punctuate titles before we moved on to the nouns in prepositional phrases and further study of title punctuation.

Writing – we have written our Magellan essays and are fine-tuning the revisions and editing. Your child’s essay can be viewed on their Google classroom account.

Reading – we started and are almost finished reading the novel Blood on the River that is set during the colonization of Jamestown and provides primary document quotes at the beginning of each chapter. The book also describes the rough journey across the Atlantic Ocean and the living conditions that we read in the primary documents of the Magellan DBQ.

Math:  we completed Chapter 6, Add and Subtract Fractions with Unlike Denominators and took the chapter test. Several students were absent and still need to make-up the test, which is why it has not been sent home, yet.

We are also completing Chapter 7, Multiply Fractions and will take the Chapter 7 test on Friday. We will begin Chapter 8, Divide Fractions, next week.

Social Studies:  We are finishing the novel Blood on the River (see reading).

Science: We have been studying matter and atoms. Our studies have been a combination of Chapter 7 in our Science book and background/more information via GLAD posters and chants.

A look ahead:

03/06 (tonight) An Evening in the Library

03/07 students bring in books for the Paperback Book Exchange

03/08 Paperback Book Exchange

03/09 Math Chapter 7 Test (Multiplying Fractions)

03/20??? American Revolution brought to the classroom?? (I’m waiting to receive more information)

03/03 Minimum Day ~ Moustache Spirit Day

04/03 An Evening in the Library

04/11 Family Science Night from 5 pm to 7 pm

04/25 Minimum Day/TRACK OFF ~ Sports Spirit Day

04/26 CommUNITY Carnival 4 pm – 8 pm

Your children gave generously to support an EGUSD family in need.  Many students donated $1 up to $10 to help a family adopted by the Sunrise Elementary NEHS.  We collected funds to purchase a gift card to Food Source.

A BIG THANK YOU to the parent volunteers who helped out with Colonial Day and chaperoned our field trip to SaveMart.  Shout out to Andres’s dad, Mr. Martinez who had a station of his own on Native American customs.  AWESOME!

A recap of December:

ELA:  Spelling – we finished with r-Controlled syllables.

Grammar – we finished with possessive plural nouns. Some students still need practice/review with plural nouns and possessive nouns; however, most of the students mastered them.

Writing – we have introduced “thesis” for essays and have begun prewriting our Magellan essay (see Social Studies).

BOX BOOK REPORT ~ information was sent on Monday, December 18, 2017. The Book Report is due on February 9, 2018.

Math:  we are still working on fractions in Chapter 6, Add and Subtract Fractions with Unlike Denominators. We had to take a few extra days to review equivalent fractions. We will continue in Chapter 6 when we track back on.

Social Studies:  We began a Document Based Question (DBQ) on the explorer Magellan. Our question is: “Was Magellan worth defending?” We have analyzed five primary and secondary documents and have begun our “prewriting” (informal outlines) for our essay. We will draft the essays on the Chrome Books in Google Classroom.

12/20, Wednesday: Track Off and Minimum Day

Return on February 5^th, Monday

01/03 Family Life Education Parent Preview night @ District Office 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm

02/05 Track On! Same room, same time 🙂

02/06 Drama musical “Jungle Book”

02/08 Family Life Education Parent Preview night @ District Office 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm

02/09 Box Book Report DUE

02/12 Lincoln’s Birthday observed – no school

02/16 2^nd Trimester Grading Period Ends

02/19 Washington’s Birthday observed – no school

Have a Happy New Year!

Ashley is representing us in the School Wide Spelling Bee!   Congratulations Ashley!

Synergy is our Friend: Parents can keep up-to-date on grades and assignments with Synergy! Synergy can also alert parents to which papers are being sent home in the Wednesday Folders.

Ways to help your child in class:

• With your child, check the Homework Planner/Agenda each night and initial it. Some homework assignments are not being completed because the student says, “I forgot” and they didn’t check their agenda.
• Check that they have completed their homework, and completed it correctly.
• Review and discuss with your child what books they are reading.
• Check Accelerated Reader that they are taking tests on the books that they are reading.
• Check that your child is reading a book on their AR level (is noted our school’s library books and our classroom’s library books). A copy of their most recent level should be found in the Homework Binder.
• Check your child’s up-to-date grades on Synergy
• Check for the graded papers and review and discuss with your child the corrected papers. Often times, I will also make notes in the “Comments” section on Synergy.
• Some assignments can only be reviewed on Google Classroom ~ check it out. 🙂

Google Classroom:  We have been using Google Classroom for assignments and tests.  Please check your child’s account to review the work that they have completed.

New trimester: The Accelerated Reader goal for the second trimester is 23 points.  As a reminder, students can take AR tests during their library time, as an Early Finisher activity in class, after school on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays in the computer lab, and on Wednesdays in the library.  Students know how to check how many points they have on line.  As a parent, you can also check their points and request to receive e-mails from the program each time your child takes a test.

Think Central/Go Math!  I assigned the Chapter 3 review (that we normally complete in the text book) on the Personal Math Trainer (PMT).  I received feedback from a parent that it was really helpful.  Thus, I will assign more PMT for the lessons, too.  Feel free to have your child review them if you notice that they need additional practice.

The students also have access to Animated Math Model skills on Think Central/Go Math!. I have assigned some of the skills to the class, but students can access and practice other skills independently by searching in their “Library”.

PARENT VOLUNTEERS needed: for Colonial Day on Friday, November 17^th and for out field trip to SaveMart on Wednesday, December 6^th.

Colonial Day, November 17^th: 5^th grade hosts a Colonial Day each year where the students dress as colonists and spend the day living like colonists playing games, cooking, and doing activities.  This year, our classroom will be honoring the Native Americans who were the inhabitants of the land at the time the colonists arrived.

We will need parent volunteers to run the stations in our classroom. Please let me know if you’re interested.  We will also need some supply donations.  More information to come . . .

The months of November and December:

ELA:  Spelling: open syllables, vowel team syllables, consonant + le syllables, and r-Controlled syllables.

Grammar –continue with nouns: common, proper, abstract, concrete, plural, and collective nouns.

Genre: Persuasive Article and Expository Text; Comprehension strategy and skill: Reread and Author’s Point of View, and Reread and Problem/Solution respectively. Vocabulary Strategy: Greek and Latin Prefixes and Context Clues

Math:  we will finish Chapter 4, Multiply Decimals by November 1^st: The Chapter 4 test will be on approximately November 7^th.

We will begin Chapter 5, Divide Decimals the week of November 6^th. The chapter 5 test will be approximately November 17^th to November 28^th.

We are scheduled to complete Chapter 6, Add and Subtract Fractions with Unlike Denominators before we track off on December 20^th.

Science:  We will finish investigating planets and the solar system and study Gravity and Orbit. We will begin studying Matter.

Social Studies:  We will study The Age of Exploration.

11/03, Friday: Sunrise Spelling Bee 8:40 am – 10:40 am

11/08, Wednesday: Harvest of the Month (HOTM) ~ apples

11/09 Survey ~ Social Emotional Learning and Culture/Climate student survey (students will bring home “Opt Out” forms

11/10, Friday: Veterans’ Day ~ no school

11/15, Wednesday: Jump rope for Heart

11/17, Friday: Colonial Day 8:30 am to 11:40 am and Minimum Day:  Dismissal at 12:45 pm

Week of November 20 Thanksgiving Break ~ No school

12/04, Monday: Candy Grams go on sale

12/06, Wednesday: Field Trip to SaveMart

12/20, Wednesday: Track-Off and Minimum Day

Track-on: February 5^th, Monday

Welcome Back! The end of the 1^st Trimester is quickly approaching: 10/10 is when the 1^st Trimester Grading Period Ends.  As a reminder, Accelerated Reading (AR) counts for 10% of the students’ reading grades.  The goal for the first trimester is 20 points.  So far, only a few students have met that goal.  :0

Students can take AR tests during their library time, as an Early Finisher activity in class, after school on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays in the computer lab, and on Wednesdays in the library. Students know how to check how many points they have on line.  As a parent, you can also check their points and request to receive e-mails from the program each time your child takes a test.

This month:

ELA:  Spelling Unit 2, Weeks 3-5: inflectional endings; contractions; and closed syllables. Grammar – More Sentences/run-on sentences and fragments; Nouns: common, proper, abstract, concrete, plural, and collective nouns.

Genre: Biography; Comprehension strategy and skill: Ask and Answer Questions/Text Structure; reread and Author’s Point of View, respectively. Vocabulary Strategy: Greek roots; and Greek and Latin Prefixes

Math:  we finish Chapter 3: The Chapter 3 test will be on approximately October17th, Tuesday. Add and Subtract Decimals; and begin Chapter 4: Multiply Decimals

Science:  We continue our investigation into space. We have investigated the Earth’s Rotation and its relation to Day and Night and time; the Earth’s revolution and constellation changes with the season. We will investigate seasonal changes and the sun’s path; moon’s phases and the lunar cycle; and the planets and the solar system.

Social Studies:  We are studying North American Native Americans and how the geography and climate affected the way they lived. The students will be creating a group project for a specific region. You should have already seen and initialed the rubric for the project.

October has been and will continue to be a very busy month! We are meeting with our kindergarten buddies in the next week to create October art for our office bulletin board.  Please come and view it.

Additional dates and activities that have been added:

10/10, Tuesday: 1^st Trimester Grading Period Ends

10/17, Tuesday: Chapter 3 Math Test (?)

10/24, Tuesday: Character Ed Assembly for Responsibility; Report Cards home and Minimum Day:  Dismissal at 12:45 pm

10/25, Wednesday: Class Spelling Bee ~ (School-wide Spelling Bee on Thursday, 11/30)

We’re off-track! I hope that everyone is enjoying their time off. An updated progress report was sent home on Friday, September 8^th. Grades can be accessed via ParentVue on Synergy.

What we have been working on:

ELA:  Spelling Unit 2, Week 2 plural spellings; Grammar – complex sentences

Genre: Narrative nonfiction; Comprehension strategy and skill: Ask/Answer Questions and Cause/Effect, respectively.

Writing: Developing strong expository paragraphs and specifically answering writing prompts. We’ve been practicing: writing to the prompt; using “key words” from the prompt in topic sentences; finding text evidence to support our details, citing and explaining text evidence, and writing concluding sentences that sum up the arguments.

Math:  We finished Chapter 2, Divide Whole Numbers, and began Chapter 3, Add and Subtract Decimals. We’ve been reviewing place value in decimals and have learned decimals to the thousandths. We’ve also rounded decimals to the nearest whole number, tenth, and hundredth. We will begin adding and subtracting decimals when we track back on.

Quite a few students have had difficulties subtracting with regrouping (borrowing) and rounding. In 5^th grade, it is critical that these skills were/are mastered, as we focus on more advanced concepts. Students can review and practice on ThinkCentral website via the EGUSD’s portal. Your child knows how to access and log on.

Social Studies: We have been learning and memorizing the United States and their capitals. Students are also graded on their spellings. We began on the West Coast and have worked our way to the Middle West Plain states.

Science: We have been studying the Sun’s composition. The students were introduced to a chemical equation and Einstein’s E=mc² (a little bit of mass, like hydrogen in the Sun, can create a lot of energy).

We observed the Solar Eclipse with our 2^nd grade buddies using pin-hole cameras and index cards.

I’m in the process of learning how to add photographs to the blog to share photos of the class observing the Solar Eclipse. Stay tuned.

A huge thank you to Ruben’s mom, Irina Mellnik, who has been coming in each week to help copy spelling, reading tests, and more.

If you would like to volunteer, please let me know.

Interested in being an Art Docent or just learning about it? Mrs. Arriaga is hosting a training of the Art Docent program, Wednesday, September 27.  There will be morning training at 8:30 and an afternoon one at 3:00 (room K1).

Upcoming dates:

September 27^th, Wednesday:  Art Docent Training in K1

October 2^nd, Monday:  TRACK ON

October 3^rd, Tuesday:  Picture Day Make-up; CA Healthy Kids Survey

October 11^th, Wednesday:  Harvest of the Month ~ squash

October 16^th, Monday:  Kids’ Can donations begin

October 18^th, Wednesday:  CA Caverns field trip for A and C Tracks

October 19^th, Thursday:  Sunrise 10 Year Tree Planting

October 20^th, Friday:  Sunrise 10 Year Celebration

October 26^th, Thursday:  EXPLORE:  Map Your Future

EGUSD’s Department of College and Career Options hosts “EXPLORE: Map Your Future” to give students the opportunity to explore over 70 high school academies and pathways.  It provides students in grades 4 through 9 and their family members the opportunity to explore and learn about a variety of career-focused programs available at EGUSD high schools.

Transportation is being offered to the event via a District bus. To reserve a spot, please sign-up for the free shuttle at:  www.EGUSDexplore.com