TCE 5th Grade: Week of March 16th

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

March 9th-13th: Spring Break

April 3rd: All Sky Ranch Paperwork due

March 31st: Parent Book Study #1 (More Information Below)

April 7th: 5th Grade Math STAAR Test

April 8th: 5th Grade Reading STAAR Test

Announcement from Counselor (Repeat Info)

During the Spring semester, Ms. Matlock, the TCE counselor will be supporting our 5th graders with the facilitation of a tobacco prevention program, the Model Smoking Prevention Program (MSPP). This research based program helps to equip students to make healthy choices when it comes to smoking or using any tobacco product. This district mandated program will empower our learners in a way that guides and supports their decision-making. If you have any questions, please reach out to Ms. Matlock.

An Announcement from Our Librarian, Mrs. Mancuso (Repeat Info)

The North Texas Teen/ Tween Book Festival will be March 7th at the Irving Convention Center. Your son/daughter might enjoy this event! You can learn more about the festival here: http://www.northtexasteenbookfestival.com/.

Yearbook Pictures (Repeat Info)

Upcoming Parent Book Club (Repeat Info)

Our counselor and librarian will facilitate a parent book club this Spring in the Town Center library, and we would love for you to attend! It will be a great time to get to know and collaborate with other parents. The book study will start towards the end of March and go through April. It will be a total of five sessions, with each session lasting one hour. All participants will receive a free copy of the book, and it will be yours to keep. If you are interested in attending/learning more, please fill out this link. This will help us pick the day that works best for everyone and gauge interest in the book club. (This information is also in Ms. Martin's Principal Blog. If you complete the form on her blog, you don't have to complete it again here.)

Our Spring Book Club Book:

Teach Your Children Well - Why Values and Coping Skills Matter More Than Grades, Trophies, or "Fat Envelopes"

(NEW UPDATES)

Thus far, all of the 6th Grade Parent Meetings have occurred. The image below has a timeline that will be helpful for students attending any of the three middle schools.

This past week, the middle school counselors came to Town Center to talk to the students about course selections for next year. Your learner should have brought home a pink course selection form for you to fill out together.

CLASS OF 2027 T-SHIRTS (NEW UPDATE)
Our North SpiritWear Committee has designed a 6th grade shirt. You can see more information about the shirt here. The shirts are $12, which already includes tax. Sizing is YS to YXL and AS to AXL. The shirts are black Gildan 50/50 cotton/poly blend. We will keep sale of the shirts online through our North PTO web store (cmsnpto.membershiptoolkit.com) through Sunday, April 19th. Shirts will be delivered to the elementary schools during the week of May 4th.

PRIVATE TOUR OF CMSN with Dr. AXELSON (NEW UPDATE)
One of the fabulous auction items offered through our PTO at next week’s Open House is a ‘Behind the Scenes Tour of CMSN with Dr. Axelson’ for a student and a friend. The item is offered at a ‘BUY IT NOW’ price of $225. If you are interested in purchasing this item for your Rising 6th Grader, please email cmsnorthpto@gmail.com and include your name and contact information. The FIRST offer for this item, at the "Buy It Now," price will take it off the auction block!!!

Which Middle School? (Repeat Info)

This website explains a bit about which middle school your son/daughter will attend. In addition, if you are unsure as to which middle school your son/daughter will attend, please contact Laura Fairchild, our Principal's Secretary, or Kelly Matlock, our Counselor.

6th Grade Parent Meeting - CMS East (Repeat Info)

Colt Camp for all incoming 6th graders and their families will be on Wednesday, April 29 6-7:30 pm at East. More details to come!

5th Grade Talent Show (NEW UPDATE)

The learners have taken home a letter that explains a little bit about the Talent Show, along with criteria for the acts. If your son/daughter is interested in auditioning, they must fill out an application form by April 3rd that also has to be signed by you.

Here is a link that has all three applications (talent acts, backstage crew, and MC).

Photos for 5th Grade Graduation Slideshow (Repeat Info)

The 5th grade room parents have created Google photo folders where you can start uploading photos of your learners with their TCE friends to be used for the 5th Grade Slideshow at the end of the year. The ideal photos to upload are of groups of 3 or more and have Town Center 5th graders in them. Please use the links below to upload photos to your homeroom teacher's album.

5A Schaaf: https://photos.app.goo.gl/MKzHHRr5ZM539zW89

5B Foroodi: https://photos.app.goo.gl/EKppkUJuzWkkVW23A

5C Natherson: https://photos.app.goo.gl/xb4Lyjm3zVrnUhGGA

5D Taylor: https://photos.app.goo.gl/NJgD6S8Ef7JyYKh49

(Repeat Info) Please click here for a digital version of the Sky Ranch information packet. The forms that will need to be filled out are towards the back of the packet. Please ask your homeroom teacher if you have any questions!

For access to a digital Google Folder that includes all of the required forms to be filled out and returned, please click here.

Please remember that the required Sky Ranch forms are not due until April 3rd, 2020. However the sooner you get them in the better!

(NEW UPDATE) In addition to completing these paper forms, we will need you to complete this Digital Form. With this form, you'll have a chance to tell us about your son/daughter's dietary needs, swimming skill level, and any other information you'd like for us to know about the trip.

Sky Ranch Payments

(Repeat Info) As you know, we have a payment plan for our Sky Ranch trip. You can view the information letter here. The fourth & last payment of $50 was due Friday, March 6th. 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, we will continue after the break with our final unit over measurement. We will explore the many different factors to consider when measuring, including units, strategies, and tools. They will also complete activities finding the area, perimeter, and volume of cubes and rectangular prisms.

Science

In science, we will be starting a new unit: Life Science. The learners will begin to explore the relationship between living and non-living things within an ecosystem. We will learn about how a food web works with the transfer of energy from the sun to producers and then consumers and decomposers.

Language Arts & Reading
During the week before Spring Break, we finished Unit 4 in both reading and writing. When we return, we will be starting Unit 5, which is a review unit! The students will participate in literature discussions, vocabulary review games, and mini lessons that review a variety of skills. During the first week of this unit, we will review fiction and poetry.

Social Studies
When we return from Spring Break, we will wrap up our Westward Expansion unit. The students will learn about the Oregon Trail and the Gold Rush.

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

Math

With our state assessment quickly approaching on April 7th, we would like to begin providing some optional homework opportunities for the learners to practice the format and question set up they will see on the end of the year state assessment. Please click here to access a collection of mini-assessments on a variety of topics. For this upcoming week, we recommend learners work on pages 15-18. You will also find an answer key. Please let us know if you have any questions!

Reading & Language Arts

During the month of February, our students took the 2019 Reading STAAR test as a review. We will use this data to guide our small groups and instruction during our Review Unit in March. If you would like for your son/daughter to work on some practice STAAR tests, we recommend using the 2018 Released STAAR test. Be aware that we have used some other passages from other released tests, so the kids may have already practiced with some of them.

In addition, another way for the students to review for the STAAR test is to review academic vocabulary. There is a folder in each Reading course on Schoology that is called, "What can I review for the STAAR test?" Within this folder, there are some links to vocabulary cards and some review handouts.