A Glance into our Fifth Grade Classroom and our Curriculum
CTA – Freedom Campus
2013 - 2014
CTA – Freedom Campus
6040 South Joslyn Lane
Gilbert, AZ 85298
July 31, 2013
Dear Parents/Guardians,
Thank you for attending Fifth Grade Curriculum Night. Fifth grade is an exciting year and one in which your child will develop skills and habits that will remain with them into adulthood. As with every grade level, this year will hold many challenges for your child as well as numerous triumphs. With continuous support from home along with support at school, your child will continue to show great growth as the year progresses.
Fifth grade will introduce many new concepts to your child, especially in math. Continue to encourage him/her and work with him/her as much as possible at home and he/she will persevere.
We look forward to a wonderful year with you and your child and welcome the opportunity to get to know all of you better. We believe every child can learn when given the best support possible and that comes when home and school work together. If you ever have any questions, comments, or concerns feel free to call or e-mail your child’s homeroom teacher. Our e-mail addresses are listed below; we check it periodically throughout the day. Let’s work together to make this a great year for your child!
Thank you,
Freedom Fifth Grade Teachers
Kris Burns
Jana Nassar
Ricque Pekara
Linda Powers
Lauren (Savinelli) Fitzwater
Daily Agenda/Planner
The planner should be filled in completely each morning. Parents are asked to sign the agenda, nightly, so teachers can verify parents saw the information.
· At the beginning of each day student should be prepared with all homework assignments due and required materials (textbooks, workbooks, packets, pencils, etc.)
· Fifth grade has established daily classroom markings to track student goals and progress. The purpose for the markings is to allow parents, teachers, and students to be aware of any issues. If students receive multiple markings throughout the day or week, parents will be contacted to work on resolving any issues. Below is a key to daily marks your child may receive throughout the school year:
H: Homework is incomplete or missing
D: Disruptive (talking in line, inappropriately in class, messing around,
bothering others, off task, etc.)
Fifth Grade Discipline Plan
CLASSROOM DISCIPLINE PLAN: In order to guarantee your child and all the students in our classrooms the excellent learning environment they deserve, we are utilizing the following discipline plan starting the first day of school.
Our philosophy – We believe all students can behave appropriately in our classrooms. We will not tolerate students who disrupt instruction and/or another student’s learning. Students will complete a reflection thinking map for repeat offenses, requiring a parent signature.
Each student will receive an agenda, which will serve as a daily behavior tool and assignment calendar. Please review it daily with your child. Signatures are required each night except on Fridays. (See agenda marks mentioned above)
Additional Information
· Birthdays: Treats must be store bought. Please avoid treats with peanuts because of allergies.
· Water: Water bottles are strongly recommended. Students should be cautious of the area in which they keep their water bottles so that books and assignments aren’t damaged. Water bottles help keep students on task.
· Snacks: Students may bring individual healthy snacks to have during the school day. Healthy snacks are fruit, vegetables, cheese, and beef jerky. Please stay away from sugary and/or messy snacks.
· Volunteering: At least one adult from each family that enrolls their child at CTA is expected to volunteer a minimum of five hours for the school during the school year. (See page 17 of the CTA - Policy and Procedure Manual)
· Communication: We welcome and appreciate communication throughout the year. Please feel free to e-mail, call, or make an appointment with us! Please do not use pick-up time to converse with a teacher; it is important for us to quickly get students into their vehicles to help the flow of traffic.
· Car Signs: Please use your PINK car sign at all times when picking up your student. Placed in a window for visibility to a teacher on duty. This sign should be kept throughout the duration of the school year.
· Tardies: It is important that your student arrives at school on time. It is the policy of the school that after three tardies your student will serve lunch detention in the office.
Friday Folders and Homework/Make-up Work
Friday Folders:
On most Fridays your child will bring home a folder we call a Friday Folder. This folder contains graded papers and any other pertinent information. There is a paper taped to the front for you to sign and have your student return the folder to school on Monday. If the signed folder is not returned, your child will receive a mark on his/her agenda.
HOMEWORK:
The CTA minimum homework requirement for Grade 5 is 40-60 minutes per day. Remember this is in addition to 30 minutes of AR reading a night.
It is required all assignments be completed correctly. Assignments one day late shall receive a 69% only if the work is of C quality or better. Thereafter, a 50% shall be given according to CTA district policy.
Long-term Assignments (assigned more than one week in advance)
Examples of long-term assignments include, but are not limited to, book reports,
poems/recitations, science projects, research papers, and current events. Contact the teacher in advance for consideration of special arrangements for absences.
Failure to turn in a long-term assignment by the due date shall result in a 50 percent (50%) for students at all grade levels. NO MAKE-UP WILL BE GIVEN.
When a student is absent, long term assignments are due at the beginning of class the first day the student returns.
Absent and Late Work
It is required that all assignments be completed. All students shall be provided one day for each absent day to make up missed assignments, not including long-term assignments.
Homework is a vital part of your child’s academic success at CTA – Freedom. It reinforces classwork, teaches responsibility, helps develop good study habits, and may alert you to the fact that your child is having difficulty with a particular concept.
Your child’s daily homework responsibilities include:
· filling out the agenda information daily
· doing the best job possible
· being neat
· completing all work before the beginning of the next school day
· keeping AR log updated
· obtaining parent signature
As a parent, your responsibilities include:
· making homework a priority at home
· providing the necessary supplies (i.e. pencils, dictionary, ruler, stapler, thesaurus, etc.)
· creating a quiet study place and time
· offering support and help if needed
· signing the agenda nightly
· checking teacher, school, infinite campus, and CUSD related websites weekly
· checking and signing Friday folders
Make-up Work:
When your child is absent from school, there will most likely be some work he/she will need to make-up. The student will have one day to complete the make-up work for every day he/she is absent from school. If your child is ill and will miss more than one day of school, please send a note with a brother or sister, e-mail your child’s homeroom teacher, or call the office to get a message to the homeroom teacher so she can prepare a take home folder with the assignments. The make-up work will be sent to the office or a sibling may pick it up in the teacher’s room.
Social Studies:
In social studies, we read and discuss the settlement of the United States. We read about many explorers, important people, presidents, important events, documents, and battles. Geography and maps skills will also be taught. In addition we will be participating in BizTown, a program developed by Junior Achievement of Arizona. This program will aid us in covering the economic objectives expected of our fifth grade students.
Recitations:
Students will be responsible for several recitations during the year. They may include: The Gettysburg Address, Paul Revere’s Ride, I Have a Dream. The students will be given an average of two weeks to practice the recitation. Students will receive a copy of the recitation. Recitations will be posted on the teachers’ websites. Along with reciting the document accurately, they are also expected to have good posture, pacing, eye contact, volume, and clarity of voice.
Please help your child with his/her memorization of these important documents.
Grammar:
During the course of the year we cover sentence types, capitalization, punctuation, subjects, verbs, direct and indirect objects, contractions, conjunctions, interjections, nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions.
Students will have daily homework, weekly quizzes and classwork, and unit tests to assess their growth and understanding.
Writing:
During the year the students will be writing for all purposes. We will be utilizing the Write from the Beginning techniques. Some of the areas will include: personal narratives, imaginative narratives, expository, informative, informative narratives, writing to explain (how and why), and writing to persuade. In addition students will write friendly and business letters.
Our goal is to have more students increase their understanding of what good writing means. Throughout the year students will be working on improving their Six + 1 Traits of writing: Ideas, Organization, Sentence Fluency, Voice, Word Choice, Conventions, and Presentation.
Math Assignments:
In math, we are combining Common Core and the Saxon math book. We grade homework the following day in class as a whole. Questions on specific problems will be addressed, and then we will continue with thenewlesson. Please be aware math homework assignments will be done at home with practice problems done in class, this is to ensure that students are retaining the information learned and reviewing the material to further their foundational skills. Students will be taking notes, writing, and reflecting on learning goals, and completing their assignments in a math spiral. This spiral will help keep notes and assignments together so students have a reference to refer to while working on their math assignments.
Science:
Inscience,we are learning about science tools, the scientific method, force and motion, scientists of the past,disasters, three of the systems of the human body, and space. Students will also be working on individual or partner science fair projects inDecember and January. Students will belearning about science while working with Thinking Maps, PowerPoint,Excel, and Microsoft Word. Please refer to the weekly newsletter for upcoming tests. Students should be encouraged to study for these tests.
Reading:
In reading, our stories are focused on heritage, making a new nation, going west, and cooperation and competition. We spend a week reading a story, discussing story points and comprehension, working with vocabulary, and listening to the story one more time before taking the test on Friday. In addition to the weekly stories, we will complete a literature study each quarter that correlates with our Arizona Common Core Standards.
A.R.: Your child should bring an A.R. book to class to read daily. We want to promote the enjoyment of reading. Please assist your child in choosing books that are of interest to him or her and that are appropriate to his or her reading level. Students are required to read both fiction and non-fiction books. We have wonderful classroom and school libraries. The daily homework assignment does include 30 minutes of AR reading per night. When the book is taken home after school, it must be brought back to school the next morning.
Common Core:
The Arizona Department of Education’s (ADE) Critical Message about Arizona’s Common Core Standards
· The purpose of the new standards is to provide a consistent set of English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics expectations that prepare all students for college and career options.
· The standards are designed to ensure that our students remain competitive in the global market of the 21st century.
· Arizona’s Common Core Standards include the Common Core State Standards plus Arizona additions. Arizona’s adoption of the Common Core State Standards ensures a more seamless education for high mobility students since grade level standards and expectations are consistent across 46 participating states.
· The creation of the common core standards was a state-led effort coordinated by the National Governor’s Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO).
The entire district has adopted the new Common Core Standards. This will help in developing purposeful, high-quality, in-depth instruction that will allow your child to meet and exceed these new expectations. Teachers have been working closely to analyze instructional strategies that support the highest levels of growth for all our students. AIMS scores, school data, and classroom assessments will drive our instruction in all subjects. For example, we will be utilizing flexible groupings where students may go to another classroom to receive intensive instruction at a level/pace that will ensure maximum growth. In addition small group instruction and before/afterschool tutoring will be implemented as needed.
For more information about Common Core and the specific standards required of your child in 5th grade, please visit the following website:
http://www.azed.gov/standards-practices/
8