Welcome to 5th Grade!!! Aug. 13-17

We'd like to welcome both new and returning families to what we are sure will be an amazing year at CAC!!  

We all hope you are feeling refreshed and eager to climb on board the Fifth Grade train!

Grade 5 is a special year in your children's lives. It marks the last year in elementary school and the transition to middle school. We are excited to be a part of this special time and aim to make this a memorable and fun learning experience for your children.

This blog will be our main venue of communication. You will find our weekly newsletters posted here, so please be sure to check in regularly.  It will keep you informed about important upcoming events as well as curriculum information. It will be updated each Sunday.  When you subscribe to the blog, you will receive an email notification-an excellent way to keep you connected. 

Meet your Teachers: 

We are happy to say that Mrs. Greene, Mrs. Kasal and Mr. O'Sullivan are returning as classroom teachers. Joining our dynamic team is Mrs. Caitlin Johnson. Ms. Yasmin will be the Grade 5 aid this year. Mrs. Juana will join Grade 5 as the ELL co-teacher and Mrs. Rayes will return as the LSS co-teacher.

Reminders

• Please be sure to check out the Specialists' blogs to get all the important information you need throughout the year!!
• Class lists will be posted on August 15th 
• New Student Orientation is on August 15th
• House Captain Speeches: Delivered on Sunday, August 20th

• Please note that 5K will have swimming on Wednesday and 5O has swimming on Thursday (1st day of school)- please make sure your child has a swimsuit, goggles, and a towel for the first day of school.

• Message from the library: All library materials that were checked out over the summer are due back this week.  Please remind students to bring their library bags :)
• Detailed information regarding the first days back can be found in the Welcome Letter sent out from the office and attached at the bottom.

Our first few days together... 

Building a strong community based on respect and trust is essential for a successful school year. This week, students will engage in a variety of activities that work toward this goal. We hope that conversations about being respectful will also happen at home to support what is being taught in class. 

We will look at our mission statement, "CAC inspires all students to learn, explore, and have fun. We build character and motivate our students to positively contribute to their communities." Dissecting key words, we will discuss what that looks like in class and in our community. Please see the video below for some inspirational words! 

Inspirational words for students & teachers

 CAC's Core Values is also a focus and will continue to be throughout the year.  

We anticipate an academically challenging, yet rewarding year. We are looking forward to working alongside you in a partnership to ensure a successful year for all!

Next week we will continue with activities that help foster a positive and respectful classroom environment.  We will also begin some of our units. For detailed information about units, please see the curriculum calendar at the following link: Curriculum Calendar

Math: The first unit in math focuses on Place Value and reviews some of the work from grade 4. Students will be given a booklet that they will work from during this unit. Please help them remember to bring it to school each day as it contains both class and home activities.
One important goal is to inspire children to love math, to practice math, to be creative in math and to let everyone know that EVERYONE can be good in math! 

Math Mindset Video

Science: Our first unit in Science is Variables.  Students will be experimenting with a number of independent and dependent variables as they learn about the scientific process.  We will launch with unscrambling the essential questions, looking at habits of a good scientist and learning about the scientific process. 

Reading: Students will be given their reading logs next week.  It is expected that students record both their home and school reading. This is an excellent tool to examine our reading habits and to really get to know ourselves as readers. We expect and encourage students to read for 25+ minutes a night.

Writing: Next week students will be writing three On Demand writing assessments (narrative, persuasive, and informational). Students are encouraged to prepare for this by doing a little research and preparing a 1-sided sheet of paper with notes (key words, 2 quotations, and an image or diagram). Students are not allowed to write any full sentences on their prep sheets.

Planners: Students have planners and are expected to write in them each day and have them signed each night. Planners can also be used for teacher-parent communication. Students and parents will be asked to sign the technology use agreement form that can be found in the back of the planner. 

*Link to Welcome Back letter: Welcome Back Letter

*Message from the library: 

Welcome back from the ES library. We hope you did a lot of reading this summer and we can't wait to hear about it! In fact, stop by the library outside of your class time and tell us what you read and we'll give you a little surprise to celebrate. And don't forget: ALL summer checkouts are due back on August 16. 

All elementary students need to have a cloth bag to transport their library materials to and from school. The school's new and improved Spirit Store has bags for sale, but you can use any CLOTH bag as long as it is large enough for books and is labeled clearly with your name. Bring it with you to school on the days your class is scheduled for check out. The library has some bags that we can lend on a temporary basis, but everyone should have their very own. We suggest you keep it far away from your swim bag!

Hope you have a year full of reading fun!

We are all very eager to meet you and look forward to a great year together. Please feel free to email us should you have any questions or concerns. 

Your partners in education,

Bonnie Greene  barmstronggreene@cacegypt.org
Caitlin Johnson  cjohnson@cacegypt.org
LeeAnn Kasal   lkasal@cacegypt.org
Jono O'Sullivan  josullivan@cacegypt.org