TCE 5th Grade: 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.

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.

https://give.livingtree.com/p/town-centerelementary

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:

FREE for Coppell ISD to students to enter.
Open to any student in grades 4-12
Students do not have to be part of the gifted program to participate in the competition
Deadline for submissions: December 6, 2019
Details and Rules at https://coppellgifted.org/2019-2020-creative-writing-competition/

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 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:

My Spell It
Word Central Games (Alpha-bot or Robo-Bee)
For Fun: Could you win the Spelling Bee?

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)