Sunday, March16th, 2025

Happy Sunday Families!

It's hard to believe that we've officially entered our final trimester and Spring Break is only a week away! Our students have had the opportunity to reflect upon their 5th grade year so far and are looking for finish our school year off strong!

Read below to find out what we're learning in class! 

Literacy

Our students are currently reading several non-fiction texts in order to find cause and effect relationships of events and / or people. Some cause and effect relationships included the effects of owning a wild pet, and what causes White Nose Syndrome in bats. This week, our students read about women of discovery, who accomplished great feats and helped pave the way for many young girls and women today! These magnificent women include Bessie Coleman, Katherine Johnson, Mae Jemison, and Wilma Rudolph! We are looking forward to reading about some real life superheroes next week!

Writing

Our students are in the middle of their analytical choice essays. Their for-or-against topic choices include: Celebrating Christopher Columbus, learning foreign languages in school, GMO information on food labels, and cell phones in the classroom, just to name a few. Students will utilize multiple resources to research their topic, plan their introductions, body paragraphs, and conclusions.

Math

Our students recently started Unit 6, which incorporates skills in the area of geometry. Last week, we learned about locating and labeling ordered pairs on a coordinate plane and investigated patterns within a number series. Within the coming weeks, our students will start to explore the hierarchy of polygons, which include triangles and quadrilaterals. We will work classifying shapes based on attributes using academic language related to angles and length of sides.

Science

This week we completed our study about the Conservation of Matter.  The students had a lot of fun doing various activities to learn about physical and chemical changes.  They used digital scales to weigh the mass of Skittles and legos, and created bar graphs comparing the mass of different colored candies and blocks.  We also started our last science unit about mixtures and solutions.  The kids loved testing different solutions of baking soda, borax, vinegar and milk to see if any had a chemical reaction.  We even made slime! Ask your child to explain the process to you.

Upcoming Events

• Thursday, March 20th -Early Release & Family Educator Conferences (5:00pm - 8:30pm)

• Friday, March 21st - NO SCHOOL - Family Educator Conferences (10:00am - 1:30pm)

• Monday, March 24th - SPRING BREAK BEGINS

• Monday, Mach 31st - SCHOOL RESUMES

• Tuesday, April 1st - NO SCHOOL - Teacher Institute Day

• Wednesday, April 2nd - Tuesday, April 8th - IAR TESTING 

  
  

Friendly Reminders

*Please remind your student to charge his/her iPad and Logitech Crayon every night.

*Orchestra & Band Parents: Please make sure your students have their instrument on assigned days.

*Please remember to send your student with a healthy snack - nothing feeds the brain like a healthy snack!  

*Please continue to have your student practice their multiplication facts up to 12.

Have a fantastic rest of your Sunday!

Enzie Pangilinan

Tuesday, March 4th, 2025

Happy Tuesday Families!

Believe it or not, Trimester 2 has come to an end and we are ready to kick off our third and final trimester! Throughout the last few weeks, our students completed several literacy/writing assessments to demonstrate their progress on T2 learning targets.  Students showed perseverance and stamina, and worked incredibly hard! 

Check below to see what we've covered over the last couple of weeks, as well as some of the learning we are looking forward to starting!

Literacy

We just wrapped up our exciting novel, George’s Secret Key to the Universe. The kids enjoyed the plot twists and the character development of George, Eric, and Dr. Reeper all throughout the book! They especially fell in love with George, who discovered the mysteries of the universe while he learned about various aspects such as stars, planets, and moons. This is the first in a series of several books. Students showed so much interest that they have asked for other books in the series. Now would be a great time to build on your child's interest with other books in the series!

Last week we began work on a literacy target which emphasizes finding relationships between concepts and ideas in nonfiction. We also looked at relationships among various topics, including wild pets, sharks, and the 1960’s!

Writing

Our students are in the early stages of planning their analytical choice essays. Their for-or-against topic choices include: Celebrating Christopher Columbus, Learning foreign languages in school, GMO information on food labels, and cell phones in the classroom, just to name a few. Students will utilize multiple resources to research their topic, plan their introductions, body paragraphs, and conclusions.

Math

It’s hard to believe, but we completed our Unit 5 assessment last week. Students worked hard to understand how to multiply and divide fractions using labeled models. Next week will begin Unit 6- Geometry! We will learn about locating and labeling ordered pairs on a coordinate plane and investigating patterns within a number series. Within the coming weeks, our students will start to explore the hierarchy of polygons, which include triangles and quadrilaterals. We will work on classifying shapes based on attributes using academic language related to angles and length of sides.

Science

We have begun our final science unit exploring the concept of conservation of matter. This week, students completed a lab where they tested liquids to see which ones would clean the tarnish off a penny. Then, when one penny changed from dark and dirty to bright and shiny, they had the chance to think about where the tarnish went. We are looking forward to many more hands-on investigations later in the unit.

Important Dates

Wed-Fri March 5th-7th- 5th Grade Illinois Science Assessment

Monday, March 10th- Band Concert

Thursday, March 13th- Ivy Hall Cat Packs

Thursday, March 20th- Early Release/Conferences 5-8:30

Friday, March 21st- No School- Conferences 10-1:30

Friendly Reminders

**Please remember to send your child with a healthy snack.  Nothing feeds the brain better than something healthy!

**Please continue to have your child practice his or her multiplication facts up to 12.

**Band and orchestra students should remember to be prepared with their instruments and music books on the days that lessons take place.

Have a wonderful week!

Enzie Pangilinan