Week 6

TWiG5: This Week in Grade 5

Week of September 17th-20th

Welcome to a 4 day week culminating with Unity Day on Wednesday. Our Unity Day will take place Wednesday and will focus on  growth mindset and leadership. We are looking forward to seeing parents as it is sure to be a fun day for all. Please let us know if you can come as we are preparing some snack in the morning.

• Mid-Module Math Assessment: Students completed their first Eureka math assessment on Thursday. The rubric scores give an indication of how they are moving along the "journey" of this first unit, within the various subsets of the overall topic of place value and patterns. It can serve as a goal setting tool - seeing your strengths and areas to work on still before the end of module assessment in two weeks (Sept. 28) We ask that parents sign the test and/or rubric and return them to the teacher.

• Student Leadership Team: Congratulations to all of the students who spent time preparing speeches and were courageous enough to try out for the CAC Student Leadership Team! We were very proud of all of the students! Two students from each class were selected and will represent their peers from now until the end of December. Two new students will have the opportunity to participate for the second half of the school year. The first meeting will take place on Monday, Sept. 18th in the multipurpose room (#42) on the ground floor from 12:10-12:50. Students please bring your lunch!

5O	Jae Yoon Kim	Freya Kelly
5K	Youngseo Wang	Mariam Gamali
5G	Dohyeon Kim	Tia Botros
5J	*tba

• Peace Day: The annual Peace Day assembly will take place next week on September 19th in the gym @7:55 sharp. Students are encouraged to either wear a peace day shirt or a white shirt. Parents are welcome to attend.
• Guidance News: Digital Safety Update

This week students will learn how to manage online privacy in order to protect their personal information. They will learn what kind of information is considered personal and why it is important to protect it.  Students will learn a simple way to remember personal information that should not be shared online without talking to your parent or other trusted adult. This is called Y.A.P.P.Y =  personal information unique to YOU that should not be “yapped” about online. 

It stands for:

Y – Your full name

A – Address

P- Passwords

P- Phone Number

Y – Your Plans

Students will bring home a copy of Y.A.P.P.Y to be posted on the refrigerator as a reminder of the personal information that should not be shared online without first talking to a parent or other trusted adult.  

Mark your calendars:

• Holiday Islamic New Year Sept. 21. No school for students.

• Sept. 25 Early release day. School ends at 11:30am. 

• Sept. 28 - Student health records due. If records have not been received students cannot attend school on Sept. 28.

• Sept. 28 Newcomers Welcome Felucca 

  A great opportunity to meet other new families! Newcomers look for your invitations via email!

• October 11 - Christy Curran reading writing workshop for parents

• October 30 (repeated session from 16/17) Kg - Grade 2 reading and handwriting workshop

Curriculum Corner

Reading Workshop: 

We are heading into the last couple of weeks our Reading unit, which sets out to establish the all-important message of "reading deeper with agency and independence". As they read their independent books this week, our Grade 5 students are working to lift their reading to the next level by concentrating on reading for "subtext" as well as for text. Readers will be working really hard to "read between the lines", imagining what the details suggest or imply about the characters, plot or setting. They will be alert to shifts in time and place, and will work to envision moments in their book as if they were scenes in a movie. This requires readers to pay attention to details in the story, and filling in images with more sights, sounds and atmosphere. They will also notice that as stories get more complicated, there are more references to other parts of their book (or other books in series), and that they need to work harder to understand the references, and see meaningful connections between parts of the story. Writing about reading is a continuing goal this week, as is sharing thoughts in partnerships or group discussions.

As students read at home, please remind them to record their reading in their logs and to JOT!

Writing Workshop:


It is now time for students to "plant" their preferred personal narrative story "seed" - the one seed that is so memorable and strong in their heads (thoughts) and their hearts (emotions & feelings) that they choose to take it through the full writing process of brainstorming, drafting, revising and editing. As they write their draft, students will remember that all stories have a "way they usually go". Their "Slice of Life" story should also include characters, settings, a problem that reaches a highest point and then is resolved. They will learn to elaborate particularly important parts of their story in order to make readers slow down and pay attention. Another useful strategy of writers is to make characters travel through time and place, by adding scenes from the past and future. They will be focusing on creating the structure of their story not merely as a "newspaper reporter", but rather as a "compelling storyteller"... one who slows down parts deliberately, telling it bit by bit, stretching out the tension, in order to make it a more compelling story!

Math Workshop:

We are now heading into the last week of this place value unit. We will review briefly the concept behind multiplying decimal fractions by visualising the process on place value charts and connecting that to traditional algorithms. Then we will do the same for the process of dividing decimal fractions. This conceptual understanding is imperative, rather then merely memorizing and performing! It is also important for students to be able to realize whether their answer is "reasonable" or not. Applying these concepts to word problems will enable students to practice using the Eureka method of Read, Draw, Write. Can they show and explain their understanding?!!

Please follow this link for Tips for Parents from Eureka: Tips for Parents

Science Inquiry:
As a reminder to all, the two essential questions of this variables unit are:

1. How do good scientists conduct experiments?
2. How does changing part of an experiment (a variable) affect the outcome?

Investigations continue using the ramps this upcoming week and will allow students the chance to put into practice both the steps of the scientific method and investigating the outcome of changing variables.

This week, two of the classes (5G & 5J) will experiment with Pendulum - 'Swingers'. 5K & 5O will investigate variables with ramps.


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