MAY

With all that testing finally behind us, we are moving on to do some fun things here in fifth grade!

• We have just begun our third and final novel study: The Secret Garden. We have enlisted the help of some of the faculty and staff in order to gather a nice collection of "secret" seeds. We began planting yesterday. The idea is to create our own "secret garden." Meaning, we won't really know what we have planted until they start to bloom!

• We have also started a mini unit on Walt Disney. We will be exploring some classical work by Disney, writing summaries, inventing toys, researching movie making roles, and much more!

• In Math, we have started our final unit in geometry. The kids are learning to use a protractor, identify and classify triangles and quadrilaterals, and working with 3-D shapes.
• Our field trip to the Royalton Ravine is June 2nd, with a rain date of June 3rd.

• Towards the end of May, we will begin reviewing for our final exams.

• There will not be a final exam in Religion. The kids will be doing a service project instead. Details coming soon!

MARCH

March is a VERY busy month for us!

Please mark the following dates on your calendar:

• March 11th - Generation Mass (Gr. 2-3)
• March 16th - Niagara Chocolates are in!
• March 13th - Faculty In-Service: Half Day for students
• March 20th - NO School
• March 27th - Report Cards
• March 30th-April 6th - Easter Break

April marks the month that we begin our NYS testing. While I see some value in standardized testing, I feel it important to look at the growth of your child academically throughout the whole school year. Success should not be measured by one test.

• April 14th-16th -  ELA test
• April 22-24th - MATH test

Please make sure your child gets a good night sleep. I do my best to put as little pressure on them as possible the days of testing.

The first day of the ELA and the first day of the MATH, I will provide breakfast for the kids. 

Happy New Year!

2015

January is a busy time for us in fifth grade!

Here are a few things we will continue to work on throughout the month:

• Persuasive Writing (finding our voice, ideas and working on sentence fluency)
• Figurative Language (similes, metaphors, onomatopoeia, personification)
• Close Reading

A few new things this month include:

• Fractions
• A new novel - The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery
• Exploration of Non-fiction texts 
• Writing Non-fiction reports
• The Water Cycle, Nitrogen Cycle and Carbon Dioxide-Oxygen Cycle

January 9th - Field trip to The Harbor Center

January 19th - No school (Martin Luther King)

Please remember that our Annual Open House is this month as well. (January 25th)

Continue to encourage your child to read at least 20 minutes every night!