Voyagers’ Weekly Memo

            September 1-5, 2014

General Announcements:

• Thank you so much for all of you who came to our Parent Night on Tuesday night!  We enjoyed seeing you, and we are thankful to have your child in our classrooms!  We are all looking forward to a relaxing weekend.  Please remember that we are out of school on Monday for Labor Day!  Roll Tide!  War Eagle!  Enjoy a football game or two :)
• The students seem to be doing well with writing in their agendas.  Please remind them of the importance of this routine.
• You have received a letter with your child’s iNow information. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!!  You have the ability this year to check your child’s grades on iNow.  You will find this very helpful.  We will send graded papers every other week, but you will be able to check grades every week.  We will always try to have grades entered within a week of an assignment being given.  iNow will also show you what your child’s average is in each subject at any given time.  When this letter comes home, please read it very carefully and contact us if you have any questions.  
• Your child brought home yesterday or today a magazine order packet.  This is our biggest fundraiser at Brock’s Gap, and we encourage you to sell these in support of Brock’s Gap!  
• We will have Student Council speeches and election of officers on Thursday, September 4th.  Campaigning may begin on Tuesday and run through Thursday.  We are proud of all of our 5th graders who are running for office.
• Thursdays are Spirit Days in support of the Bumpus Middle Schools Bucs. They will play Mountain Brook at 5:00 (7th grade) and 6:45 (8th grade) at Hoover High next Thursday.  Hoover High School plays Mountain Brook High School next Friday.  Please remember that the Brock’s Gap Activity Card will get your child into the games!  GO BUCS!
• Please see the following link to see copies of Brock’s Gap eNews: Brock's Gap eNews

Coming up this week:
Math: Topics of Study – We will be working on important mathematics vocabulary as well factors and multiples through completion of Number Puzzles.  We will learn two games related to factors:  Factor Captor and Factor Top-It.  Students will use factor trees to determine prime factorization of a number.  We will have our computation test on Friday this week rather than earlier due to the short week.  This test will also review the Number Puzzle concepts that we will cover in class on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Important Dates – Computation and Number Puzzle Test on Friday.
 Science: Topics of Study – We have been learning about Earth’s spheres (Geosphere/Lithosphere, Hydrosphere, and Atmosphere). Now, we are ready to begin our study of ecosystems.   We will learn about biotic and abiotic factors, producers, consumers, and decomposers, communities, and populations.  We will building our own ecosystems and school and need supplies!   We could use any of the following items: potting soil, gravel, grass & mustard seeds (or seeds of any kind).  Thank you so much!!!!!
Important Dates- No Science Quiz this week! Grades will be taken on classroom activities. Next Science Quiz will be Tuesday, September  8^th.
Language: Topics of Study– Next week will be a “Reading Week.” Our reading strategy is Questioning and Summarizing. We will use these strategies in our weekly reading, “The Special Powers of Blossom Culp.” We will have a vocabulary test (Friday) on words that we will discuss within the story: exception, dainty, grasp, peculiar, sprawl, recollection, flounce, fascinate, mention, vast.
We will begin working on Verbs this week. Weekly practice will take place in class. We will have a test on Friday.
 Homework:
Reading log (complete nightly)
Vocabulary Sheet (define words and write sentences)
Vocabulary test (Friday)
Grammar test (Friday)
 Social Studies: Topics of Study – We will complete the movie Brother Bear on Tuesday.  We will begin our study of explorers on Wednesday.
Important Dates – No tests or quizzes.

  Sheryl Ponder        and     Stephanie Watson

sponder@hoover.k12.al.us              stwatson@hoover.k12.al.us

 

 

Voyagers’ Weekly Memo - August 25-29, 2014

General Announcements:

• We have been very busy these last few weeks.  We all feel like the students are adjusting very well to our classrooms and the schedule at Brock’s Gap.  We all admit that the routines are not yet established for any of us!   Thank you for your support of our classrooms!  We were so impressed with how quickly you all signed up for our Social Studies rotations!  
• Please initial  your child’s agenda every day for the next week so that the students see the importance of this communication tool between home and school. We may not check every child’s agenda, but we will spot check several a day.
• We would like to ask that any time you need to email one of us about anything that you email both of us.  This helps us be sure we are on the same page about your child.  While we each have our own homerooms, we think of both classes as “ours.” :)  In addition, there are times when you email about transportation after a student has left our classroom for the day.  We just want to make sure we get the needed messages to the students. Our emails are

           stwatson@hoover.k12.al.us

           sponder@hoover.k12.al.us

• Completing homework is one of the most crucial aspects of success in 5th grade!  Students who have incomplete homework will be given the opportunity to complete this homework for partial credit during lunch detention.   In addition, your child will bring home an “H slip” detailing the assignment missed.  We ask that you send back the “H slip” the following day.  Lunch detention will be implemented for students who are missing homework assignments.

• We will send graded papers every other week, but you will be able to check grades every week through iNow.  INow login information will be distributed at Open House. This will come home with your child on Wednesday if you can not make Open House.
• We hope to see each of you at our BGIS 5th Grade Open House/PTO Meeting tomorrow night . This meeting will begin at 5:30 in Mrs. Ponder’s classroom (Room 122) so that you can also attend Bumpus Middle School’s Open House if you need to.  Please try to attend this as we will be discussing more about our procedures and curriculum for this school year.   If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us.   
• Deadline for “Girls on the Run” is Aug. 29. Registration is completed online at:
  http://girlsontherunbham.org/
• If your child is interested in being a part of Student Council, they should bring home paperwork that includes information and deadlines.  This paperwork is due on Friday, August 29.
• Please see the following link for the most recent Brock’s Gap eNews:

           Brock's Gap eNews

Coming up this week:

Math:

Topics of Study–We will continue our work on factors and multiples as well as work on even, odd, square, prime and composite number for the rest of the week.  There will be a math computation quiz on Thursday. Please check your child’s agenda. There will be math practice every night.

Important Dates –  Quiz on Thursday

Science:

Topics of Study –   We are finishing our study of the science processing skills.  We will have a quiz on these skills this Wednesday. Students can use their science journals to help them review for the quiz.  We will begin our study of the overview of the spheres, specifically the biosphere and ecosystems.

Important Dates- Quiz on Wednesday on the Science Processing Skills

Language Arts:

Topics of Study –Next week we will begin our unit on Argument Writing. During this unit, the students will learn how to make a claim, gather evidence, and list reasons why they support the claim. They will learn what a “debate” is and understand that it is important to see both sides of every argument.

Homework:

Reading log –students should work on this each night. It will be collected on Friday. Please sign to let us know that you reviewed it with your child.

Spelling-the students will have spelling homework each night. Our words include a study of root words. The students will turn their spelling contract in on Thursdays.
The spelling test will be on Thursday.
Words for the week: biped, centipede, impediment, millipede, pedal, peddler, pedestrian, pedicure, quadruped, tripod.

Grammar- we will continue focusing on nouns next week. The study will be on singular/plural nouns and proper/common nouns.
There will be a test on this material Friday.

Important  Dates –  Reading Log nightly, Spelling Test on Thursday, Grammar test on Friday

Social Studies:

Topics of Study – We will continue our study of the earliest Paleo-Indians that were in present day United States.  This will lead into our study of the later Native Americans that were here when our country was colonized.  We will be giving out a study guide in class on Monday.  This study guide will be used for the test that will be taken on Thursday.  The test will be VERY similar to the study guide.  On Monday, we will complete and review the study guide and review materials we have covered in class.  Tuesday and Wednesday, we will create replicas of homes and resources that the various Paleo-Indians would have built in the area in which they lived.  Thursday will be our test on Paleo-Indians.  

Important Dates – Test on Paleo-Indians Thursday.  

                   We hope everyone has a great week!

sponder@hoover.k12.al.us

stwatson@hoover.k12.al.us

Voyagers’ Weekly Memo - August 18-22, 2014

General Announcements:

·         We have had an absolutely wonderful start to this school year!!    We are very fortunate to teach such a fantastic group of fifth graders!   We are getting into our school routines, and the students have done a wonderful job transitioning to 5th grade at Brock’s Gap!  We have spent much of our time last week working on procedures.  While this isn’t very exciting, we know that this will be so very beneficial as we continue this year.  You should expect a team newsletter from us each week.  This newsletter is an important tool for us to share information.  We will also have a link that you can go to for the newsletter under our signatures on each email.  This link will have all newsletters for the year in it. They will not be as long as this first newsletter, we promise!!  Please do not hesitate to contact any of us with questions at any time!    

·         Your child should be bringing their zipper binders home every day beginning today.  In this binder, they should have their agenda.  This agenda will serve as a communication tool between home and school.  Please check this each day for important information for each class.  The agenda will be written in daily regardless of homework or not. Some days, you may just see “No Homework” written. We are trying to get all students in the habit of writing in each subject each day.  Please initial this agenda every day for the next two weeks so that the students see the importance of this communication tool between home and school.

·         Completing homework is one of the most crucial aspects of success in 5th grade!  Students who have incomplete homework will be given the opportunity to complete this homework for partial credit during lunch study hall/detention.   In addition, your child will bring home an “H slip” detailing the missed assignment.  We ask that you send back the “H slip” the following day.  If needed, lunch detention will be implemented this week.

·         Please mark your calendars for our BGIS 5^th Grade Open House/PTO Meeting on August 26^th. This meeting will begin at 5:30 P.M. with a general PTO session.  Please try to attend as we will be discussing more about our procedures and curriculum for this school year.   If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us.   

·         Please see the following link for the Brock’s Gap eNews: Brock's Gap eNews

Coming up this week:

Math:

Topics of Study – This week, we will begin Investigations Unit 1 -Arrays; number puzzles; prime factorization; multiplication and division; properties of numbers; and Number Talks. In addition, we will continue work on problem solving.  A computation sheet will be given out on Monday.  Students are responsible for various sections of this nightly.  We will have a quiz on Thursday.  We may adjust the day of our computation quizzes each week to accommodate other tests in other areas. There will be homework assigned from their Math Activity books to reinforce material taught in class.  Check their agenda for this homework.

Important Dates – Math Computation Practice due Wednesday; Math Comp. Quiz  Thursday.  

Science:

Topics of Study –   Greetings from the Science lab!  This past week we learned about science safety and had our first science quiz.  We have set up our interactive science journals and are learning about observation and inference.  Weekly grades will be taken from class activities (including science journals) and homework.  Students will be notified several days in advance of quizzes and tests.  Students are encouraged to use their class notes and science journals to help them review for tests and quizzes.

Language Arts:

Topics of Study –

Reading: Next week we will read the short story, “Charles.” As we read, we will work on the comprehension strategies of questioning and summarizing. Within our lessons the students will answer questions while finding evidence within the text to support their answer.  A vocabulary assignment will come home on Monday that relates to the reading assignment for the week. The students will define the words and write sentences with each word. We will collect this on Friday. We will have a vocabulary test and comprehension test on Friday.

New reading logs will be handed out on Monday and will be collected as a grade on Friday. Please make sure your child is reading and recording each night.

Grammar: The students will work on Nouns this week. Daily activities will lead up to a grammar test on Friday.

Important Dates – Vocabulary Test; Reading Comprehension Test, and Grammar Test on Friday

Social Studies:

Topics of Study – We will continue our study of the earliest Paleo-Indians that were in present day United States.  This will lead into our study of the later Native Americans that were here when our country was colonized.  We will be sending a Sign-Up Genius asking for some materials for our Social Studies classes.  We will be creating the various living structures of the groups we have discussed to reinforce the idea of adaptation among the earliest Paleo-Indians. Please look for that Sign-Up Genius in a separate email.

Important Dates – No tests this week.  Grades will be taken on activities done in class.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Mrs. Ponder sponder@hoover.k12.al.us      Mrs. Watson  stwatson@hoover.k12.al.us