Week 3

TWiG5: This Week in Grade 5...
Aug. 28 - Sept. 1

Guest Speaker Jordan Hatter- August 28 at 12:50 in the ES Hall 
CAC is fortunate to have Mr. Jordan Hatter join us to speak to the students:

"Jordan Hattar is a 25 year-old humanitarian and director of www.Help4Refugees.org originally from Templeton, CA. Jordan graduated from Templeton High School in 2010 and has since dedicated his time and efforts towards living a life of service. In January of 2011, Jordan began college, majoring in International Studies at California State University Long Beach. He received his Master's in International Relations and Politics from the University of Cambridge in 2016."

Parent Day: Thank you for all those parents that were able to meet with their children's teachers and discus what we can to to make this year a successful one for the students. 

Student Leadership Team: The students in grade 5 have an opportunity to be student representatives on the Student Leadership Team.

• We will have 2 representatives (one male and one female) from each class for the first half of the year (Sept-Dec) and 2 different reps for the second part of the year (Jan-June.)
• Reminder-students who are House Captains can not apply.
• Students need to return the APPLICATION form to homeroom teachers by Thursday, September 7th.
• Students will also need to prepare a 1-2 minute speech to present to their class.
• A class vote will determine the reps.
• Application forms are available from your classroom teacher.

Wednesday 6th will be a Sunday Schedule

ELEMENTARY BANNERS

Students, faculty & staff are invited to draw, paint, sew, or image their self portrait on a banner provided by school. Our self portait banners will be displayed around our division to celebrate each of us and our school community.

We look forward to seeing your creative designs! Please be sure to put your name on your banner and enjoy working on these at home. We ask that the banners are submitted to your class teacher by Tuesday, September 5.

If you have any questions please ask your class teacher.

Best regards

Mrs. Jackson-Jin

Elementary Principal

ASA Tomorrow (Monday) will be the last day for signing up for ASAs. The schedules will be sent out next week.

ES Production The production lists will be posted tomorrow.

MAP Assessing MAP assessments are approaching. The dates for the respective assessments are Monday, Sept 11: Language Usage

Wednesday, Sept 13: Reading

Thursday, Sept 14: Maths

Health Screenings On September 12 grade 5 will have their health screenings.

Curriculum Corner

Reading Workshop:

Students continue to work on agency and independence as they delve into 'just right' books. Classes have discussed reading as thinking and students have begun jotting, looking for connections, making predictions, inferring and summarizing. Reading partnerships are being formed and group discussions have been enthusiastic and intriguing.

Writing Workshop:

Grade 5 students have finished their On-Demand writing prompts and the focus will now move to narrative craft. Classes will discuss how turning points can help generate ideas for personal narratives. Students are learning strategies, generate lists of first times, last times or times when they realized something to launch into their small moment writing.

Math Workshop:

Grade 5 Mathematicians are hard at work solving problems containing decimals multiplied and divided by exponential numbers. Students are making conversions, and writing equations with exponents in multiplication and division problems. Explaining and showing mathematical thinking will keep students challenged as they continue to learn about place value.

Science Inquiry:

Students have begun their scientific journey this year with discussion about the scientific method and habits of good scientists. This week students will make careful observations and come up with questions and hypothesis. The concept of variables, and how they effect outcomes, will help students test their hypothesis and come up with conclusions as we work with pendulums this week.

Computers:

This week the students will receive the computers that they will be borrowing for the year. If you haven't already parents will be expected to read and sign a form that outlines acceptable use of these computers. The students will not be able to use the computers if this document has not been signed. Please read it and if you have any questions ask the homeroom teachers or the tech integration team.

Helpful Sites:

Two helpful sites for the students are brainpop.com and Mathletics.
Brainpop will be used in conjunction with our current science unit. It can be very helpful in clearing up some student misconceptions about variables and how these affect scientific experiments.
Mathletics is great for supplementing, supporting and extending the students in mathematics.
All the login details can be found on the "Blue Cards" that have been sent home by the classroom teachers.

Reminders

• Parents please send back student information letters to homeroom teachers 
• Please remind students to bring their library bags weekly.
• Our first House activity will take place this Tuesday during the assembly time. Please wear team shirts or a team colored shirt if you do not have a house shirt yet. Information about new shirts will follow.
• There will be no school on the 1st and 4th of September due to Ed Al Adha celebrations. Enjoy your long weekend!

Your partners in education,

Mrs. Kasal   lkasal@cacegypt.org
Mr. O'Sullivan josullivan@cacegypt.org
Mrs. Greene barmstronggreene@cacegypt.org
Mrs. Johnson cjohnson@cacegypt.org

Week 2

TWIG5: This Week in Grade 5

Aug. 20 - Aug. 25

We have had an excellent first two days getting to know each other. It was great to see smiling faces on Thursday afternoon was the students went home for the weekend! We are expecting great things from the 2017-18 grade five students.

Building a strong community based on respect and trust is essential for a successful school year. Students have been engaging in a variety of activities that work toward this goal. We hope that conversations about being respectful are also happening at home to support what is being taught in class. 

Reminders:

Back to School Night will take place on Tuesday, August 22.  Please be sure that you take some time in advance to review the slideshow we have created (linked below), which includes curriculum information and examples as well as important information about the school.  We're looking forward to seeing you all and informing you of the grade 5 year ahead.

• Back to School Night - (BTSN) Tuesday, August 22 from 5-7pm. Please read the BTSN letter. 
• Please read the slide presentation prior to BTSN as we will only focus on a few of the slides during our presentation. 

• Parent Day - Sunday, August 27 (no school for ES students)

• Parents are encouraged to subscribe to the blog for weekly updates.

• Students should all have their library bags this week. Please ensure their name is on the bag.

• Students are encouraged to bring reusable water bottles to school each day.

• Students need to bring in their swimming bag & gear on PE days (please see the PE blog for details)

• ES Production auditions will be held on August 21st & 23rd, with Call-Backs on August 24th. The auditions run from 3:15-5:15 in the ES Hall. 

Guest Speaker

Organization: Help for Refugees

Speaker: Jordan Hattar will come and speak to the kids on the difference one person can make. He will include the importance of finding/following one's passion/fearlessly creating one's own path in life and of persistence and never giving up.

Jordan Hattar is a 25 year-old humanitarian and director of Help4Refugees.org. He has been speaking to students all over the world on the Syrian Crisis in a speaking tour around the world. Jordan Hattar Originally from Templeton, CA. Since he graduated from high school his efforts were dedicated towards living a life of service. Jordan's one message for the world: in order to make a positive difference in this world you don’t need a specific skill, just a heart. "Because, wherever your heart is, that is where you'll find your treasure."

Date: August 28th - 29th

12:50 - 1:50 ES Hall

House Captains 

Red House - Rita 5O, Alaric 5J

Blue House - Youssef 5K, Lara 5O, 

Green House -  Maya 5J, Lane 5O

Yellow House - Mariam 5G, Mahmoud 5K

After School Activities

After School Activities (ASA)

SIGN UP Starts THIS Monday, August 21 - August 27

The Signup link will be located on the NEW ASA Website, available on your dashboard. Click on the labeled blue icon (see arrow). Sign up will be open for one week (including the weekend). Schedules will be sent to parents Tuesday, September 5 at the end of the day.

ASA begin from Sunday, September 10 - Thursday, November 9

Guidance News 

Dear CAC Families,

 Welcome to the new school year! I hope you had an enjoyable and restful summer with your families.

I am excited to be teaching the Grades 3-5 Guidance classes again this year. Guidance is a weekly, social and emotional class period that takes place within the regular classroom. The goal of the guidance program is to build your child’s self-esteem and social skills by giving him/her strategies for solving personal and social problems. Lessons during Guidance focus on community building, learning skills, empathy, friendship, emotion management and problem-solving.

We will begin with community building and learning skills. During these units students will be encouraged to:

• recognize and appreciate personal characteristics and contributions to the class and school community;

• discover the unique characteristics in others and how those differences enrich the class and school community;

• focus attention and learn specific ways to be good listener;

•  communicate assertively in order to get personal, academic and social needs met.

Please contact me if you have any suggestions or questions about the guidance curriculum. Be on the look out for Guidance updates in the classroom blogs.

Warm Regards,

Carey Harris

Guidance Counselor Gr. 3-5

charris@g-cacegypt.org  

Curriculum Corner

Reading: Students will be given their reading logs this 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. As we begin our Reader's Workshop mini-lessons students will be expected to write jot notes as they read. 

Writing: This 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.

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 this week 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.

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. This week, we will launch with unscrambling the essential questions, looking at habits of a good scientist and learning about the scientific process. 

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 

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