Week of Feb. 19th-22nd

Hi everyone! 
Please see the Google calendar embedded above with important dates and reminders. 

What's Happening Around TCE? 
Check out Ms. Martin's Parent Newsletter here for information about the Looping Feedback survey, the learner's Heart Challenge, and a canned food drive. 

TCE Cultural Night 
We are excited to have our 2nd annual Culture Night at TCE.  Last year was such a great success with all the dishes you shared with our TCE community.  If you would like to share an appetizer, main dish or dessert on March 28th please sign up below. We will get back with you with more specific details as the event grows near. TCE will provide sample cups to share the dish you bring.  This event was successful because of all of our families' contributions. Thank you for making our school so great! SIGN UP BY CLICKING HERE Be on the lookout for more information about this event including performances and interactive stations!



Friendship Friday in Fifth Grade

As a reminder, we will be having "Friendship Friday" every other Friday during lunch. This Friday, February 22nd, will be a "Friendship Friday" for our 5th graders! 


Sky Ranch Updates

Sky Ranch Payments 

As a reminder, the third Sky Ranch payment of $50 was due Friday, February 1st. You may pay by check (payable to Town Center Elementary), cash, or credit card. Visit this link to pay by credit card. As of February 1st, your balance should be $150. If you have not yet made any payments, or your balance is less than $150, please contact your son/daughter's teacher to provide an update on your plan for payments.  The final payment of $50 is due March 1st. As always, if you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to ask. 


Important Sky Ranch Dates

All Sky Ranch Paperwork is due April 10th. 
Want to Know More About Sky Ranch? 

We thought it might help if you could look at some pictures as a family. Click here to see the pictures! 


5th grade Valentine's Day Party

Enjoying football at our Valentine's Day party.

Enjoying football at our Valentine's Day party.

Fun outdoor activities at the party!

Fun outdoor activities at the party!

A Peek into Our Classrooms

The wonderful author, Aisha Saeed, sharing about her book "Amal Unbound".

Planting radishes, spinach, and beets in our garden!

Science lessons taking place in our TCE garden to find examples of the water cycle.

Learners using their digital tools to help create their thought portraits in social studies.

Science lessons taking place in our TCE garden to find examples of the water cycle.

You can always follow the hashtag #tce5th on Twitter to see more pictures from our classrooms. 



Curriculum Updates: 

Math
This week in math, we will continue to practice expressions and equations through the understanding of the order of operations (PEMDAS), as well as the use of a letter in place as an unknown number. Then, we will move on to our next unit, Coordinate Planes.
Math Homework: As a reminder, the homework will include a STAAR Prep section and a section to practice the concepts currently being taught in class. You can find the link to the homework here.  


Science
This week in science, we will be continuing our unit over patterns in the natural world.  Due to changes in the weather, we were not able to study our shadows last week. We changed course and started our investigation of the water cycle! The learners will be finishing their investigation of the water cycle this week. They will also begin their investigation of the movement of the earth around the sun and their shadows. You can continue to follow along with our learning on Flipgrid! (Password: Patterns!)



Social Studies
This week in Social Studies, learners will will finish exploring their unit on Westward Expansion and Manifest Destiny. They will spend the week reviewing what we covered, in the past month, during class. 

Reading & Language Arts 
This week in reading, we will continue our study of sound effects in poetry. We will also start to focus on comparing and contrasting poetry and other genres. 

In writing, our poets will continue writing poetry for their poetry books. We'll finalize our sound bits, made in Garage Band, to accompany our haikus. Then we'll use popular songs as inspiration for new poems. 

Week of February 4th

Hi everyone! 

Please see the Google calendar embedded above with important dates and reminders. 

Important Reminders: 

• The next Sky Ranch payment of $50 is due Friday, February 1st. 

What's Happening Around TCE? 

PTO Meeting
Our TCE staff and PTO Board would love to have you all join us for our next PTO meeting. It gives you a chance to give input on school events and hear about all the great things happening at TCE. The following items are on the agenda:

• Budget Update
• Upcoming process for parents, staff, and learners to give feedback on the looping process
• Color Run Spring Fundraiser Updates
• Survey for parents to give input on future PTO meeting topics that would be informative and timely (Ex. Social emotional issues, Keeping your kids safe while using technology, How to best support your child's learning at home, etc.)
• Upcoming Movie Night
• Update on programs
• Book Fair
• Teacher Grant Celebrations

Valentine's Parties

• Our 5th Grade Valentine’s Day party will be on Thursday, February 14th at 2:00 in the cafeteria. We would love to have you join us for the party if you are able! 
• We will exchange Valentine’s before our party. Your child may make or bring Valentines cards for each person in the class.  The names of the students in each class have been sent home (as a paper copy). In addition, students may decorate and bring their own bag or box from home to hold their valentines.  They may decorate it however they would like! Please be sure that their box/bag will fit inside their cubby. We can’t wait to see how creative they get!

Author's Visit
We are excited for author Aisha Saeed to visit our Town Center Elementary 4th and 5th graders on February 12! Ms. Saeed is the author of Amal Unbound, which was the 2018 Global Read Aloud Upper Elementary/Middle Grade selection. If you would like to order a book for your 4th/5th grader, please look for the order form in your child's backpack or print it from this link. The order form AND complete payment must be turned in to our librarian, Mrs. Keene-Carlson, no later than Friday, February 1. Families are also welcome to purchase their own copy of Amal Unbound from Amazon or another bookseller. Those copies of Amal Unbound should be brought to Mrs. Keene-Carlson before the date of Ms. Saeed's visit so that we can get the books prepared for her to sign. If you have questions, please email Alena Keene-Carlson at acarlson@coppellisd.com. 

Reminder: YEARBOOKS ON SALE NOW! 

It's that time of year to purchase a yearbook for your child. Yearbook cost was not part of the Trailpass this year, so the only way to purchase is through balfour.com at a cost of $25. You can also purchase an ad to appear in the yearbook to make this year extra special. Optional ads come in multiple sizes ranging from $15-$120. We sold out last couple of years, so don't miss out! 

Friendship Friday in Fifth Grade

As a reminder, we will be having "Friendship Friday" every other Friday during lunch, starting this week. You can read more about this in our previous post. 

Sky Ranch Updates

Sky Ranch Payments 

As a reminder, the third Sky Ranch payment of $50 is due Friday, Feburary 1st. You may pay by check (payable to Town Center Elementary), cash, or credit card. Visit this link to pay by credit card. As of February 1st, your balance should be $150. If you have not yet made any payments, or your balance is less than $150, please contact your son/daughter's teacher to provide an update on your plan for payments. As always, if you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to ask. 

Important Sky Ranch Dates

• Chaperone Interest Forms are due Feb. 8th
• All Sky Ranch Paperwork is due April 10th. 

Want to Know More About Sky Ranch? 

We thought it might help if you could look at some pictures as a family. Click here to see the pictures! 

A Peek into Our Classrooms

Learners in Miss Peccarelli's room used their iPads to annotate a nonfiction text during their Unit 2 Assessment. 

Learners in Miss Perry's room lead the class in a Mad Libs activity for "Chat Chair" at the end of the day. 

Learners in Miss Seifert's room participated in Glow Day to review for their fractions test! They played lots of games in the dark using black lights and neons. 

Learners in Miss Seifert's room participated in Glow Day to review for their fractions test! They played lots of games in the dark using black lights and neons.

Learners in Miss Seifert's room participated in Glow Day to review for their fractions test! They played lots of games in the dark using black lights and neons. 

Learners in Miss Perry's room used Keynote (an Apple app) to create models of the solar system.

The 5th graders had the awesome opportunity to help the kindergarteners set up their Bulb accounts! It was so great seeing the big kids helping the little kids. We've shared some photos below. 

You can always follow the hashtag #tce5th on Twitter to see more pictures from our classrooms. 

Curriculum Updates: 

Math

This week in math, we will be starting our unit over expressions and equations. The learners will be exploring prime and composite numbers and learning the order of operations. 

Math Homework: As a reminder, the homework will include a STAAR Prep section and a section to practice the concepts currently being taught in class. You can find the link to the homework here.

Science

This week in science, we will be continuing our unit over patterns in the natural world. The learners will finish their model of the solar system on Keynote. We will then move on to exploring the characteristics of the sun, earth, and moon.

If you would like to see your learner's reflections from the Flipgrid from last week, please visit https://flipgrid.com/tceconnect and enter the password Patterns!

Social Studies

This week, learners will begin understanding the impact of the Gold Rush, Trail of Tears, and Oregon Trail. 

Reading & Language Arts

This week we will be starting a new weekly homework assignment called Article of the Week. The learners will receive a new article each Friday, and they will have four activities to complete during the week. For the homework, learners may need to access Schoology from home. They can access Schoology from this link: https://schoology.coppellisd.com/.

• Moon Mission article - Due Feb. 8

This week in spelling, we will be focusing on the latin root, rupt. The learners will spell words with rupt in them and will learn the meaning of the word

This week in writing, learners will be finishing up two expository essays. We hope you'll ask them to share them with you! Then, we'll be starting a new poetry unit in which the learners will write different types of poetry using poetic devices.

Week of January 21st

Hi everyone! We hope that you and your family will enjoy a long three day weekend. We'll look forward to seeing our awesome 5th graders on Tuesday morning!  

Please see the Google calendar embedded above with important dates and reminders. 

Important Reminders: 

• The learners will not have school on Monday, January 21st. 
• Sky Ranch Parent Meeting - This Wednesday, January 23rd. (See info below.) 

What's Happening Around TCE? 

Reminder: YEARBOOKS ON SALE NOW! 
It's that time of year to purchase a yearbook for your child. Yearbook cost was not part of the Trailpass this year, so the only way to purchase is through balfour.com at a cost of $25. You can also purchase an ad to appear in the yearbook to make this year extra special. Optional ads come in multiple sizes ranging from $15-$120. We sold out last couple of years, so don't miss out! Yearbook sales end January 18, 2019.

Yearbook Submissions
PTO would love your help as they continue the process of collecting pictures throughout the year to spotlight in the yearbook. For more information on submitting pictures, please see our previous blog post. 

Friendship Friday in Fifth Grade
As a reminder, we will be having "Friendship Friday" every other Friday during lunch, starting this week. You can read more about this in our previous post. 

Sky Ranch Updates

Sky Ranch Payments 

As a reminder, the third Sky Ranch payment of $50 is due Friday, Feburary 1st. You may pay by check (payable to Town Center Elementary), cash, or credit card. Visit this link to pay by credit card. As always, if you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to ask. 

Sky Ranch Parent Meeting 
We would like for all 5th grade parents to attend an informational meeting on this Wednesday, January 23rd at 5:30. The meeting will be in the Town Center cafeteria, and it will last about an hour. We will go over basic information for the trip (sample schedules, packing list, meal options, classes, sleeping arrangements, etc.) and we will provide time for questions. Please note that this meeting is for parents. 

Want to Know More About Sky Ranch? 
In addition to holding our parent meeting, we have also gathered some pictures from our 2017 Sky Ranch trip (which is the last time this team of teachers went). We have heard from some of the kids that they are unsure about going on the trip, and we thought it might help if you could look at some pictures as a family. Click here to see the pictures! 

Spring Creek BBQ Night
We will have our annual Lewisville Spring Creek Barbecue Spirit Night Monday, January 28th from 5-9PM. Come join us for fabulous food and socializing with all your favorite TCE friends and teachers. Spring Creek will donate 20% of all the evening's proceeds to our school. Also, the class with the best attendance will win a special prizes. 

Pictures from the Winter Party 
During our Winter Party, our wonderful room moms set up a photo booth. Click here to see the pictures from our photo booth. 

A Peek into Our Classrooms

The learners in Miss Natherson's classroom worked on their One Little Word Projects on their iPads! 

The learners in Miss Natherson's classroom worked on their One Little Word Projects on their iPads!

The learners in Miss Natherson's classroom worked on their One Little Word Projects on their iPads!

Sharing our One Little Words for 2019!

You can always follow the hashtag #tce5th on Twitter to see more pictures from our classrooms. 

Curriculum Updates: 

Math
This week in math, we will continue practicing multiplying whole numbers by fractions and fractions by whole numbers. In addition, we will transition to the next portion of our operations with fractions unit by learning how to divide whole numbers by unit fractions and divide unit fractions by whole numbers. (A "unit fraction" is a fraction with 1 as the numerator. Ex: 1/2, 1/5, 1/8, 1/10, etc.)

Math Homework: Starting this week, the homework will include a STAAR Prep section and a section to practice the concepts currently being taught in class. You can find the link to the homework here.

Science
This week in science, we will be wrapping up our unit over Earth's Changing Surface. The learners will be finishing their landforms stations. They complete their review for the test in class this week. We will be going over the answers to the review in class and then the learners will bring the review home to study.

Social Studies
This week in social studies, learners will begin a new unit covering Manifest Destiny and Westward Expansion. Specifically, students will begin the unit exploring the Louisiana Purchase and Lewis and Clark.

Reading & Language Arts
This week in readers workshop, we will continue our study of nonfiction, focusing on different levels of questioning and author's viewpoint.

This week in spelling, we will be focusing on words with vowel changes from long vowel sounds to schwa.

This week in writing, learners will continue working on expository writing. Learners will focus on organizing their ideas, adding supporting details, and editing their writing.

Updates: February 20

Thank you for taking the time to stop by our blog and read about what's going on in 5th Grade. Please be sure to check the Google Calendar that is linked at the top of the blog for important updates. 

Announcements

• Town Center Cookbook - We wanted to have the opportunity to create a TCE Family Traditions cookbook this year since our theme is all about family and celebrating the diversity within our community.  We would love to have you share one of your favorite family recipes to go into our cookbook this year.  If you are interested in participating, please send in your recipe to Casey Wagner, cwagner@coppellisd.com, or you may send in a paper copy of your recipe to the front office. 

• As a reminder, we did add headphones to the learners' supply kits this year. We invite the learners to watch videos, use online learning tools, and play educational games in class often, and it is really important that they have headphones for these tasks. If your learner does not have a pair of headphones at school, please help them locate a pair so that they can be prepared for class. 
• Thank you so much to everyone that was able to come to the Engineering Extravaganza! We loved seeing our #tce5th families!
• Coppell offers a great summer program called Camp Invention. Check this link to learn more about this opportunity. 
• We are pleased to announce that we will have another Field Trip opportunity for the learners in the spring! We will be visiting the Coppell Biodiversity Center. This trip is tentatively scheduled for May 12th. 
• Our lovely Room Moms set up a photo booth at our Valentine's Party, and they created a video montage from all of the pictures. Click here to see the video! Thank you to all of our parent volunteers that helped make the party a success!

Sky Ranch Updates

• Please see our Sky Ranch flyer for updates and details about our trip. Within this flyer, we have included a link to our payment letter and a place for you to ask questions about the trip (should you feel the need). 
• We had an informational meeting for all 5th grade parents on Thursday, January 26, 2017 at 5:30 PM. If you were not able to make it to the meeting, you should have received a copy of the paperwork in your learner's take home folder. 
• Our third payment of $50 was due on Friday, January 27th. After this payment, your paid balance should be at least $150. If you are unable to make these payments, please reach out to your son/daughter's homeroom teacher.  Of course, we understand that sometimes budgets can be tight and it may be hard to make the payment by that date, and we are happy to help if we can, but we do need for you to communicate with us rather than just not pay. Thank you for understanding! 
• All payments (a total of $200) and all paperwork is due March 10th. 
• We had many parents volunteer to come along on our trip as chaperones! Thank you to everyone that offered to come along. 

Coppell Middle School North Visits

• Coppell Middle School North counselors will be coming to visit our 5th graders on the morning of April 5th to talk about the transition to middle school and course selection. 
• In addition, we will be taking the fifth graders to North for an elective showcase on April 3rd. We will have more information about this trip in the weeks to follow. 
• Finally, please see the following flyer about a guest speaker at Coppell Middle School North. You can learn more about the speaker, Michelle Icard, here and here. 

Curriculum Tidbits
*We hope that you will periodically check our Twitter accounts as we tweet glimpses of what we're learning in class. You can find our tweets by searching the hashtag #tce5th or by going to our individual pages.

Math

In math the learners have begun learning about the key attributes of coordinate planes. The learners are expected to graph  an ordered pair on a coordinate plane. In addition, learners will be expected to generate a numerical pattern when given a rule in the form of y=ax or y= x + a and graph.

Science

In science, we are continuing to explore Earth’s changing surface. We will be focusing on what fossils can tell us about the Earth’s past and the advantages and disadvantages of alternative energy resources (renewable energy) as compared with fossil fuel resources (nonrenewable energy).

Reading, Writing, & Spelling

In reading, we will continue to analyze text and find text evidence to defend our thinking. We will also continue to review key vocabulary words to support our learning! 

In writing, we will continue to explore persuasive writing by researching both sides of an issue and developing arguments. 

Social Studies

We are learning about the various events that angered the colonists and eventually lead to the American Revolution. Ask the learners about the Stamp Act, the Quartering Act, and the Sons of Liberty! 

Homework Tidbits

• Reading Homework: 
• We are counting down the weeks until STAAR! Starting this week we will have your learners studying STAAR Reading vocabulary words for homework. They will also be exposed to these words during the school days and will be assessed on Fridays. 
• In addition, we will be starting our weekly Article of the Week (AOW) homework this week. If you were here last year, this homework will look similar to last year's homework. The learners will be provided with a current events article, and they will have specific tasks to accomplish each night. 
• ***We will not have an AOW for the shortened week of February 20th. 
• Weekly Spelling List - Quiz on Friday: As a note, the learners do have a weekly spelling list that they are expected to study throughout the week. We include "Study for Spelling Quiz" in the homework section of our daily agendas, so if every your learner says they don't have homework, they do. While we do cover spelling in class, it is important for them to take the time to study at home as well. 
• Math/Science Homework: The weekly homework packet will be including Math practice and Science practice. The learners will have up to 5 Math questions and 5 Science questions a week. The learners also need to be completing their Reflex Math time. If their Reflex Math is not completed for the week, they will be required to spend that time in Homework Club during Texan Town. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact your learner’s Math/Science teacher.

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Finally, thank you again for taking the time to read our blog. We know how important it is for our TCE families to know what is happening at school! If you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to ask. Our contact information is linked below for your convenience.

5A Morgan Peccarelli - mpeccarelli@coppellisd.com

5B Kate Seifert - kseifert@coppellisd.com

5C Marly Natherson - mnatherson@coppellisd.com

5D Jenna Taylor - jltaylor@coppellisd.com