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 28

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? 

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 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. 

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. 

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. 

Sky Ranch Parent Meeting & Information Packet
As you know, we had a Sky Ranch informational parent meeting last week. We sent information packets home with the students whose parents did not attend the meeting, so by now each family should have a packet. A few reminders: 

• 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! 

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. 

A Peek into Our Classrooms

Congratulations to this stud for winning the Town Center Elementary Winter 2019 Chess Club World Championship!

From Mr. Miller: What an incredible day of music making. Love our Town Center students so much. 

5A loved visiting the library to talk to Mrs. Keene-Carlson about the upcoming Author's Visit. 

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 our unit over operations with fractions. We will be dividing whole numbers by unit fractions and dividing 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: 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 starting our unit over patterns in the natural world. The learners will begin the unit by investigating the reasons why our models of the solar system are flawed. They will then create their own model of the solar system. During this unit the learners will be posting to Flipgrid to showcase their learning. If you would like to see your learner's reflections, please visit https://flipgrid.com/tceconnect and enter the password Patterns!


Social Studies
Learners will continue their study on Westward Expansion and Manifest Destiny. This week, learners will understand the significance of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Louisiana Purchase, Texas Annexation, Acquisition of Oregon Country, and the Mexican Cession.


Reading & Language Arts
This week in readers workshop, we will wrap up our study of nonfiction with a Unit 2 assessment. We will start to look forward to our Poetry Unit.

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 take their Middle of the Year writing assessment.

Week of January 7th

Hi everyone! Happy New Year! We hope that you and your family had an enjoyable holiday break and a Happy New Year! We are so excited to start 2019 with these wonderful 5th graders! 

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

Important Reminders: 

• The learners will not have school on Monday, January 21st. 

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 begin the process of collecting pictures throughout the year to spotlight in the yearbook. We'd love to send any pictures you have from school events, field trips, and spirit rallies, etc. through the platform "Imageshare". Please see Ms. Martin's Parent Blog for information on how to submit pictures. 

December Spirit Rally 
The Spirit Rally just before the break was a lot of fun. Our very own 5th Grade Student Council Officers planned and lead the entire spirit rally. We were really proud of their hard work and bravery. Ms. Martin shared a video of the spirit rally in her parent blog. Take a look if you have a minute! 

A Peek into Our Classrooms

Just before the break, the 5th graders had the opportunity to participate in a few service learning projects. We were overwhelmed by the number of donations that you, our 5th Grade Families, sent in for both the Bridge Homeless Shelter and the Gateway House. Thank you! 

An abundance of donations came in for the Holiday Boxes for the homeless shelter!

The learners enjoyed being able to "shop" through the donations to add to the Holiday boxes. 

The learners loved getting to wrap the boxes and add a little holiday cheer to the donations! 

We ended up with 24 shoeboxes full of donations, and we had lots of leftovers to take to the shelter! 

The Gatehouse was very appreciative of our donations as well!


The Gatehouse asked us to pass along the following message: 

I’m so thankful for all the TCE families that participated, and grateful for teachers who teach our kids about service. Happy Holidays to all!

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 our unit over operations with fractions. We will review adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators, and then we will move on to multiplying whole numbers by fractions.

Science
This week in science, the learners will be investigating how fossil fuels and different landforms are made. They will be creating a foldable to showcase the different stages of the creation of fossil fuels. The learners will also be participating in different stations to understand how landforms are created using weathering, erosion, and/or deposition. 

Social Studies
This week in social studies, the learners will continue to learn about the three Branches of Government and the balance of powers.

Reading & Language Arts
This week in readers workshop, we will continue to work on nonfiction skills. Specifically, we will focus on the organizational structures of nonfiction texts and how recognizing these structures can help us understand what we read.

This week in spelling, we will be focusing on the Greek root, graph. Learners will learn to spell words containing graph as well as understand the meaning of the root.

This week in writing, learners will continue working on their expository pieces responding to the prompt: "Write about what you wish was different in the world." We hope you'll take some time to talk to your son/daughter about their chosen topic.