Friday, November 15, 2019

Week of November 18th



Hi everyone! Thank you for visiting our blog and taking the time to read this communication. We appreciate you!



 Turkey Trot


The 5th graders would love for you to join them at the Turkey Trot on Tuesday, November 19th. The run was originally scheduled for the 22nd, but we are moving it up due to a chance of rain later this week.


Give for Grants
We love the Coppell Education Foundation and their mission to fund educational, motivational and transformational programs for learning. Check out these grant proposals in the link below. We wrote a grant for Apple Pencils for the fifth graders. We'd love for you to consider supporting one or more of these grants.




Donations for 5th Grade's Service Learning

The fifth graders will be preparing boxes to donate to the homeless shelter during our Better Together day in December. We would so appreciate if you are able to donate any of the items listed above. Please let your child's homeroom teacher know if you have any questions regarding these donations. 

Yearbook Sales




Colored Name Cards for Car Loop
We want to give a quick shout out to all of the parents that have been using the colored name plates in the car loop line. They are so helpful when we're trying to make dismissal run quickly and efficiently. Thank you!

5th Grade Spelling Bee

Every year, the fifth grade has a School Spelling Bee. Prior to the School Bee, we have Class Bees, which are open to any student that wants to participate and serves as the "qualifier" for the School Bee. You can learn more in this letter explaining the School Bee

We are not allowed to post any study lists online, but we have sent study lists home with the students. (We initially had some issues with the copies, but all of the students have the correct lists now.) We will include some addition study resources in the "Option Homework and Review Resources" section of the blog below. 

Accessing Your Son/Daughter's Schoology
As we shared at Curriculum Night, Schoology is a great resource to use to learn more about what we are doing in class. If you login to your son/daughter's account (or ask them to login and show you), you'll be able to see resources added by teachers, assignments, pretests and quizzes, and discussions. Each of us uses Schoology differently, but it would be beneficial for each class of parents to visit from time to time. If you'd like to access your own account (rather than logging in as your child), you can use this site to learn more about how to do it. 

2019-2020 Creative Writing Competition
It's time for the 2019-2020 Creative Writing Competition sponsored by the Coppell Gifted Association. This will be the 12th year CGA has run this competition, and we'd love to have our 4th and 5th graders participate. Please see below for the link to register and important details:





As you know, we have a payment plan for our Sky Ranch trip. You can view the information letter here. The second payment of $50 was due Friday, November 1st. The third payment of $50 will be due February 2nd. You may pay by cash, check, or online via this link. Please contact your homeroom teacher or Mrs. Ford, the Assistant Principal, if you would like to discuss payment plans. 





Math
In math next week, we will be continuing our operations with fractions unit by diving into multiplication with a fraction and a whole number.


Science
In science, we will be continuing our force and motion unit by testing our Slippery Sole shoe designs. Ask your learner about how they have been researching and designing the sole of a shoe to create the most friction possible! On Tuesday, we will review for the learners post-test that they will take on Wednesday. Our next until is over Earth's changing surface.


Reading
We will wrap up our Informational Unit this week! The learners will practice synthesizing information, analyzing author's viewpoints, and comparing/contrasting informational texts. The students will also complete their Unit 2 Post Assessment on Thursday.



Writing
In writing, the learners will take what they have learned about writing informational books and publish a digital book! You can see the project presentation in your son/daughter's Language & Literacy Course in Schoology (Unit 2). The learners will be creating their books in an app called Keynote, so you won't be able to see their work as they go. However, you'll be able to see the published copies at the end. We are so excited to see their final products.

The Class Spelling Bees will be this Thursday, November 21st. Please encourage your son/daughter to take the brave step in participating and help them study at home!

Social Studies

We will finish up our study of the American Revolution with a project called the ABCs of the American Revolution. The learners will identify a noun for every letter of the alphabet that connects to the American Revolution. Ask you son/daughter about their ABCs! You can see the project presentation in your son/daughter's Schoology account (through the Social Studies course).



As a reminder, all of the activities listed below are optional resources for you and your family.


Math

Click here to view a 30 page fraction review document with important pre-requisite skills to our current unit. We recommend having learners practice 1 sheet at a time, since there are many pages in this resource! (We realize that every other page on the pdf is upside down. The learners can just flip it over once it's printed.)

Reading & Language Arts
We would love for your son/daughter to spend time reading at home! They can read any text that catches their interest. We are currently in our Nonfiction Unit, so any informational texts they are interested in would be great.

Here are a couple of websites that offer current event articles targeted towards preteens and teens. With your guidance, they could choose articles of interest to read.




If you would like some extra resources to help your son/daughter study for the Class and School Spelling Bees, you can use these sites:
Another great way to help your son/daughter prepare for the spelling bees is to help them practice spelling words aloud. We suggest practicing in front of the mirror.  

Your son/daughter can also work on an entry for the CGA writing competition. (See information above) 






November 19: Turkey Trot 
November 25-29: No School


Designing the sole of a shoe to add friction and grip.

Designing the sole of a shoe to add friction and grip.

Designing the sole of a shoe to add friction and grip.

Designing the sole of a shoe to add friction and grip.


Pansy Planting!

Pansy Planting!

Pansy Planting!
Pansy Planting!

Friday, November 8, 2019

Week of November 11th

Hi everyone! Thank you for visiting our blog and taking the time to read this communication. We appreciate you!





Veteran's Day Ceremony
We will have our Annual Veteran's Day Ceremony in the TCE Gym on November 11th at 8:00 am. Ms. Martin included more information about this in her Parent Blog.



Give for Grants
We love the Coppell Education Foundation and their mission to fund educational, motivational and transformational programs for learning. Check out these grant proposals in the link below. We wrote a grant for Apple Pencils for the fifth graders. We'd love for you to consider supporting one or more of these grants.


Yearbook Sales

Our yearbook sales have officially begun! Our yearbooks are distributed in the spring and include class pictures, individual photos of year learner, and fun candid shots from the year. If you are interested in purchasing a yearbook, please click on the link below. You can also purchase yearbook ads with the same link. https://www.balfour.com/student-info?smi=98688

 Pansy Planting

We'd love to have volunteers help us with our annual pansy planting. We've purchased enough for all learners to plant one in the front of our school next Thursday, November 14th on the way to recess. If you'd like to volunteer to help out, please click on the link below and sign up.

**All volunteers need to have a completed background check on file to participate. https://apps2.winocular.com/coppell/workspace/


Colored Name Cards for Car Loop
Several weeks ago, you received a colored name card to keep in your window as you drive through the car loop. We want to give a quick shout out to all of the parents that have been using the colored name plates in the car loop line. They are so helpful when we're trying to make dismissal run quickly and efficiently. Thank you!

5th Grade Spelling Bee

Every year, the fifth grade has a School Spelling Bee. Prior to the School Bee, we have Class Bees, which are open to any student that wants to participate and serves as the "qualifier" for the School Bee. You can learn more in this letter explaining the School Bee

We are not allowed to post any study lists online, but we have sent study lists home with the students. (We initially had some issues with the copies, but all of the students have the correct lists now.) We will include some addition study resources in the "Option Homework and Review Resources" section of the blog below. 

Accessing Your Son/Daughter's Schoology
As we shared at Curriculum Night, Schoology is a great resource to use to learn more about what we are doing in class. If you login to your son/daughter's account (or ask them to login and show you), you'll be able to see resources added by teachers, assignments, pretests and quizzes, and discussions. Each of us uses Schoology differently, but it would be beneficial for each class of parents to visit from time to time. If you'd like to access your own account (rather than logging in as your child), you can use this site to learn more about how to do it. 

2019-2020 Creative Writing Competition
It's time for the 2019-2020 Creative Writing Competition sponsored by the Coppell Gifted Association. This will be the 12th year CGA has run this competition, and we'd love to have our 4th and 5th graders participate. Please see below for the link to register and important details:



As you know, we have a payment plan for our Sky Ranch trip. You can view the information letter hereThe second payment of $50 was due Friday, November 1st. The third payment of $50 will be due February 2nd. You may pay by cash, check, or online via this link. Please contact your homeroom teacher or Mrs. Ford, the Assistant Principal, if you would like to discuss payment plans. 







Math
In math next week, we will be continuing our fractions unit by practicing adding and subtracting fractions with unequal denominators. Please check the homework section of the blog to see links to help your leaners practice this vital skill!

Science
In science, we will be continuing our unit on forces and motion. Learners will explore concepts such as friction, gravity, pushes/pulls, and unbalanced/balanced forces.

Reading
In our nonfiction reading unit, we will take what we've learned about finding the main ideas and begin to practice summarizing the text using those big ideas. We'd love for you to talk to your son/daughter about a book he/she is reading in reading workshop.

Writing
We will also continue to write our informational texts. We'll focus on adding specific details such as dates, quotes, sizes, and shapes, as well as writing engaging introductions and conclusions. Ask your son/daughter about the information book he/she is writing. What part of the book makes him/her the most proud

Social Studies

Now that we have finished our Veterans Day project, we will be revisiting our study of the American Revolution. We'd love it if you'd ask your son/daughter to share his/her Veterans Day essay with you. You can access the essays through Schoology.



As a reminder, all of the activities listed below are optional resources for you and your family.


Math

Click here to view a 30 page fraction review document with important pre-requisite skills to our current unit. We recommend having learners practice 1 sheet at a time, since there are many pages in this resource! (We realize that every other page on the pdf is upside down. The learners can just flip it over once it's printed.)

Reading & Language Arts
We would love for your son/daughter to spend time reading at home! They can read any text that catches their interest. We are currently in our Nonfiction Unit, so any informational texts they are interested in would be great.

Here are a couple of websites that offer current event articles targeted towards preteens and teens. With your guidance, they could choose articles of interest to read.




If you would like some extra resources to help your son/daughter study for the Class and School Spelling Bees, you can use these sites:
Another great way to help your son/daughter prepare for the spelling bees is to help them practice spelling words aloud. We suggest practicing in front of the mirror.  

Your son/daughter can also work on an entry for the CGA writing competition. (See information above) 






November 11: Veteran's Day Ceremony 8:00 AM



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Playing a round of "Equivalent Fractions War" to practice finding the common denominators of two fractions.

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Exploring friction!

Learners trying out different text structures for their informational books 

Learners trying out different text structures for their informational books

Sunday, November 3, 2019

Week of November 4th




Hi everyone! Thank you for visiting our blog and taking the time to read this communication. We appreciate you!





Parent Compact
If you have not signed the 2019-2020 School-Parent Compact yet, please do so as soon as possible. (It's printed on yellow paper.) As a Title 1 school, we collaborate with parents and staff each year to update our school compact. It is a great reminder of the partnership required between the school and home in order to fully support each of our kids. I have also included a link to the document below. Please take a moment to review it, sign, and return to your child's homeroom teacher as soon as possible. This was due last Friday, November 1st.


Parent Survey
CISD is currently surveying our families in order to gain insight into your perception of our schools and district effectiveness. This survey shouldn’t take more than a few minutes to complete and will be a valuable source of information for us, as we work to make our schools and our district the best that they can be. You may complete the survey using a computer, tablet or smartphone.The survey closes Monday, November 4th. To take the survey, please visit https://surveys.panoramaed.com, then select your child(ren)’s school. If you have multiple children in CISD, we ask that you take the survey for each school your child attends.

Big picture

 TCE STEM Night
We are excited to partner with the Perot Museum again this year for our TCE S.T.E.M. Night. The museum staff is traveling to Town Center for a fun-filled, family night of learning. Space will be our theme this year, and we also have the Tech Truck returning with new stations to explore! Join us from 5:30-7:00 PM on Thursday, November 7th, to explore 20 different stations throughout the cafeteria and gym. All of our TCE staff will be here to join in the fun with you!


Give for Grants
We love the Coppell Education Foundation and their mission to fund educational, motivational and transformational programs for learning. Check out these grant proposals in the link below. We wrote a grant for Apple Pencils for the fifth graders. We'd love for you to consider supporting one or more of these grants.



Veteran's Day Ceremony
We will have our Annual Veteran's Day Ceremony in the TCE Gym on November 11th at 8:00 am. Ms. Martin included more information about this in her Parent Blog.

Colored Name Cards for Car Loop
A couple weeks ago, you received a colored name card to keep in your window as you drive through the car loop. We want to give a quick shout out to all of the parents that have already been using the colored name plates in the car loop line. They are so helpful when we're trying to make dismissal run quickly and efficiently. Thank you!

5th Grade Spelling Bee

Every year, the fifth grade has a School Spelling Bee. Prior to the School Bee, we have Class Bees, which are open to any student that wants to participate and serves as the "qualifier" for the School Bee. You can learn more in this letter explaining the School Bee

We are not allowed to post any study lists online, but we have sent study lists home with the students. (We initially had some issues with the copies, but all of the students have the correct lists now.) We will include some addition study resources in the "Option Homework and Review Resources" section of the blog below. 

Accessing Your Son/Daughter's Schoology
As we shared at Curriculum Night, Schoology is a great resource to use to learn more about what we are doing in class. If you login to your son/daughter's account (or ask them to login and show you), you'll be able to see resources added by teachers, assignments, pretests and quizzes, and discussions. Each of us uses Schoology differently, but it would be beneficial for each class of parents to visit from time to time. If you'd like to access your own account (rather than logging in as your child), you can use this site to learn more about how to do it. 

2019-2020 Creative Writing Competition
It's time for the 2019-2020 Creative Writing Competition sponsored by the Coppell Gifted Association. This will be the 12th year CGA has run this competition, and we'd love to have our 4th and 5th graders participate. Please see below for the link to register and important details:



As you know, we have a payment plan for our Sky Ranch trip. You can view the information letter hereThe second payment of $50 was due Friday, November 1st. The third payment of $50 will be due February 2nd. You may pay by cash, check, or online via this link. Please contact your homeroom teacher or Mrs. Ford, the Assistant Principal, if you would like to discuss payment plans. 







Math
In math this week, we will begin our 6 week long unit over fractions. It is imperative learners can recall their 4th grade fraction skills before starting this unit. Below, we have linked in optional homework that shows the types of prerequisite skills they should be prepared with. (This is the same optional homework that was provided a couple weeks ago.) If your learner does not usually complete the optional math homework, we would strongly encourage them to complete this review.

Science
In science, we will start explore Force and Motion. The learners will take a pre-test to before beginning learning experiences.


Reading
In reading, we will continue focusing on strategies to find the main ideas and supporting details of a nonfiction text.

We'd love for you to talk to your son/daughter about the nonfiction text we're reading in class, When Lunch Fights Back. You could also ask what strategies he/she uses to find the most important ideas in their books. 


Writing

In writing, we are continuing to write our informational books. We focused on asking questions about a partner's topic as a way of helping them elaborate.

We'd love for you to talk to your son/daughter about the topic he/she chose to write about for the first book of this unit!


Social Studies

The 5th graders have been researching the importance, history, and traditions of Veterans Day. This week, the students will write an essay based on what they've learned in their research.



As a reminder, all of the activities listed below are optional resources for you and your family.


Math

Click here for the optional homework for this week. (We strongly encourage your learner to complete this fraction review!)

Reading & Language Arts

We would love for your son/daughter to spend time reading at home! They can read any text that catches their interest. We are currently in our Nonfiction Unit, so any informational texts they are interested in would be great.

Here are a couple of websites that offer current event articles targeted towards preteens and teens. With your guidance, they could choose articles of interest to read.




If you would like some extra resources to help your son/daughter study for the Class and School Spelling Bees, you can use these sites:
Another great way to help your son/daughter prepare for the spelling bees is to help them practice spelling words aloud. We suggest practicing in front of the mirror.  

Your son/daughter can also work on an entry for the CGA writing competition. (See information above) 






November 7: STEM Night 
November 8: North Feeder Night at the Coppell HS Football Game
November 11: Veteran's Day Ceremony 8:00 AM




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Learners used Notability to take Mentor Sentence notes!

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Learners used Notability to take Mentor Sentence notes!

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Writing partnerships to add detail to their informational writing books.

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Making financial decisions with real world situations to create a budget in math.

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Making financial decisions with real world situations to create a budget in math.

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A fun way for learners to create a Venn Diagram in science for different types of energy!