September 8, 2011
Dear Fifth Grade Students and Parents,
Welcome to our first week of school! I look forward to meeting many of the parents Sept 23rd. I appreciate how supportive you all are to me and to your children.
Starting next week you can read the weekly newsletter, published every Thursday on 5B website: http://gator.holyrosaryws.org/5b/. I’ll email the link every Thursday as a reminder.
We’ve been working hard on establishing procedures and routines in the classroom and are ready to plunge into the curriculum! Next week, we will be working on:
Math: Please see below regarding classroom splits. Students will be assigned to a math class on Monday.
We reviewed the first 10 lessons in class. Here are next week’s lessons:
Monday: Investigation #1, Story Problems
Tuesday: Lesson 11, Story Problems About Combining
Wednesday: School Mass-no math
Thursday: Lesson 12, Lines; Number Lines; Tally Marks
Reading: Next week, 5th graders will meet with Mrs. McFaul for Reading for the first time. We will spend some time going over expectations, begin our Reading Logs and enjoy some Reader’s Theater. ** Please note that the school band meets regularly during our Monday Reading class time for 5A. It will be very important for 5A band members to work closely with their study buddies to be sure to find out about missed work and assignments.
Language Arts: This upcoming week, 5th graders will meet for Language Arts with Mrs. Kesterson. As a class, we will spend time reviewing class expectations and start our first list of spelling words. As the year progresses we will explore different aspects of writing including: vocabulary, grammar and usage, Poetry Frames, and will be studying each of the 6Traits of Writing. **Please note our school Band members will miss part of Language Arts on Monday for classroom 5B and it is imperative for those band members to work closely with their homework buddy.
Religion: We will start Chapter 1, “Longing for God”. Students will discover the idea of longing and how it is a gift from God. Students will also be able to describe how God satisfies every longing and explore ways of communicating with God through prayer. Students will take a short assessment approximately every one to two weeks.
Science: Students will learn how to conduct controlled experiments by experimenting with variables that do and do not affect the behavior of pendulums. They will graph their results in a variety of ways and use their graphs to predict the behavior of different lengths of pendulums they construct.
Social Studies: Next week the fifth graders will begin to work on work on Lesson 1, Geography of the United States. In pairs they are working on their Interactive Notebook maps 1A-1D. Each map has a set of questions to answer. We will review the correct answers in class orally as well as visually on the Smart Board. The answers in their Interactive Notebook should be correct. The test for this lesson will be on 9/27. Students may access the on-line study tool via my web-age. Just click on History Alive and go to lesson 1. No study guide will be passed out as the on-line tool acts as the study guide!
If you have any questions or comments, I can be reached by e-mail: dschreck@holyrosaryws.org.
Have a great weekend!
Guidelines for Fifth Grade Math Placement ’11 – ‘12
The fifth grade math program at Holy Rosary School provides success and challenge for each student at his or her appropriate instructional level.
Students are divided into three math classes, which usually average twenty students per class. The smaller class size makes it possible for each teacher to provide more individualized instruction for students.
All fifth grade math classes use the Saxon math program. At the fifth grade level the text is Saxon Math 6/5.
Holy Rosary offers a fifth grade math class taught at a faster instructional pace. Students in this class meet the following criteria:
- Teacher recommendation
- An A- or above in fourth grade math
- A National Percentile score on the Mathematics Computation subtest on the ITBS (administered in fourth grade) of 70% or higher
- A National Percentile score on the Mathematics Total subtest on the ITBS (administered in fourth grade) of 85% or higher
- A quantitative subtest score on the CogAt (administered in fourth grade) at or above 85%
- A math placement test score at or above the sixth grade level. Students take this test the first week of school.
Fifth grade students not enrolled in the faster-paced math class will receive math instruction from their homeroom teacher.
All students in grades five through eight receive re-evaluation each year to ensure they are in an appropriate math class.
Please direct any questions to Ms. Johnson via email at mjohnson@holyrosaryws.org.
Thank you very much for your support!
The Holy Rosary Fifth Grade Math Teachers