Happy Wednesday!

It was a BEAUTIFUL day so our fifth-graders enjoyed a little extra recess today. We were amazed at how this changed their mindset for the rest of the afternoon in a positive manner. There is a lot of research that suggests time spent outside helps all of us with everything from lowering our stress hormone, to increasing our ability to focus, to helping us communicate better and be more empathetic. Today was a good reminder that we all need to take a break to enjoy the world around us when possible!

Here are a few important items to note:

• Swimming starts the week of March 16 and continues through April 3. Please see the letter that came home with your child from Mrs. Wimble regarding exact dates and other details.
• There will be no classes for Lower School students on conference day Friday, March 13. Mr. Barzditis will be celebrating in his brother’s wedding out of town on that day, so we are working on creating a conference schedule in order to still be able to meet with each of you. Be on the lookout for a link to this schedule in the next few days. Please know that we continue to welcome you to contact us at any time throughout the year should you have any questions or concerns. We would be more than happy to meet with you to discuss your child’s progress, as well as our goals and objectives for this year.
• Our D.A.R.E graduation will be held at 2 p.m. on March 31 in the Reed Theater. Our fifth-grade students have been learning from Deputy Young all year and are working hard on their essays in order to graduate from the program. We hope you will be able to join us for this event. Please know, you are welcome to sign your child out following the program and pictures (which should conclude at about 3 p.m.
• Our field trip to Richmond and Williamsburg will be April 23-24. It is very important that all fifth-grade students join us for this overnight trip. Upon returning from our trip, each student will write a reflection paper about their experience. Students will need to be here at 7:45 a.m. the morning of Thursday, April 23, and will arrive back to school in time for carpool on Friday, April 24. We are still waiting on the pricing confirmation from one of our stops, but the cost of our trip will be no more than $65/student. As soon as we confirm our lunch pricing for Friday, we will send home exact details.
• Don’t forget to check out the Google Drive folder which we upload all of our pictures to in order to share them with you. There are several great pictures (like these) from our with spend celebrating the 100th day as well as from the exciting Angry Cats game that took place before winter break.

Congratulations are again in order for Elizabeth and Cabell as they put on an outstanding performance in CYT’s recent production of Frozen, Jr.

Here’s what has been happening in our classes this week:

Language Arts: As the students continue working through their Spinelli novels, we’ve also been extensively covering the different kinds of sentences (Simple, Compound, Complex). This approach connects back to our review of prepositions from a while ago, but became incredibly relevant as they’re putting the finishing touches on their rough drafts of their D.A.R.E. essays. In addition to their Reading Logs this week, their homework has been a series of exercises reviewing the differences between these kinds of sentences, working with independent and dependent clauses, and reinforcing punctuation rules when working with compound and complex sentences. We’ll conclude this week with a short quiz on Friday in which each of their homework assignments will prove to be effective study guides.

Math: Following break, we have picked right back up with our work on our base-ten number system. We had an interesting conversation about why the “units, rods, and cubes” they have been using are called “base-ten blocks”. We discussed why these manipulatives would not be helpful in dealing with our clock system, and briefly discussed the binary numeral system. By extending students’ thinking to these other number systems, it helps them see the patterns within our own numerical system. One of the topics we have been working on this week, is the importance of always knowing what we are referring to when we refer to a “whole”. For example, it is a common misunderstanding for students to write 0.45 cents (as opposed to 45 cents or $0.45). If the unit is considered to be a dollar, then 45 hundredths of a dollar would be a correct notation. When students write 0.45 cents instead, they are really referring to less than half of a penny! By changing units (and which base-ten block represents the whole) students begin to think much more flexibly about numbers. As a former middle school math teacher and math specialist for 15 years, I cannot express to you how crucial this flexibility is as students prepare for more complex work with fractions and percentages in the upcoming years. I have to admit, this part of the year and the fifth-grade math curriculum is my favorite. I absolutely love seeing all the pieces of the solid foundation students have built all year, and in previous years, come together. This is the time of year when I can almost actually see light bulbs turning on in students’ eyes as I walk around the room and as we hold class discussions.

As a side note, some parents have asked for a way to review concepts their student might be struggling with from earlier in the year. Each student has a Khan Academy account which we have used some this year. I have added all of the concepts we have worked on this year to their assignments. These are NOT actually assignments, but a way for you to see what should be review at this point in the year. As we move along, I will continue to add to the assignments so you know the topic has been covered. Please let me know if you have any questions at all. I am still learning how to best use this site, so please feel free to send any feedback you have my way!

Here are instructions for how to log on and use the site:

1. Go to https://www.khanacademy.org/
2. Click Login (in the top right corner)
3. Click “Continue with Google”. When the login for Google comes up, it is your child’s normal login that he/she uses to get on his/her Google account at school- probably first initial, then last name@fredericksburgacademy.org      (for example, kmcgehee@fred…) The password should be: falcon2027
4. Once logged in, in the top right corner go to the drop down from the login name and choose “Learner home”
5. On the far left column choose “Assignments”
6. There are several (again, I added everything just in case anyone wants to practice anything from so far this year). In the list of assignments:

History: We’re very glad to see that so many of the students were able to conduct their Relative Interviews over the break. If your student did not, then no worries, as they’ll have until March 18th to work on the project. The students will have time to work on this project in class, but plan on some outside planning, especially in regards to the interview, transcription, and possibly some posterboard progress if they choose to go that route.

We’ve also recently been bringing our Immigration unit to an end, reviewing the Ellis Island process and thinking critically about Emma Lazarus’ poem, “The New Colossus,” which has been inscribed on a plaque inside the Statue of Liberty’s base since 1903. Working individually and in groups, the students have carefully read through the poem, making theories and connections between its poetic qualities and the immigrant experience we’ve been learning about in class, and then articulating how the poem speaks to the lives and struggles of those who made the journey.

Science: Unfortunately we were not able to complete the online activity I had planned before break about the circulatory system, so we will finish this system up on Thursday. We will then dive in to the respiratory system.

Thank you for your continued support! We look forward to talking with you during conferences in a few weeks.

Kimberly & Tim