Tidbits

Hello families! 

Just a few notes on things coming up:

- we are in desperate need of pencils! Having a few extra for your student or the class would be appreciated

- I've received elective choices for Cimarron and have turned them in; thank you!  As I get more information about the transition, I will be sure to pass this along.  Transitions will be discussed at conferences

- Conferences are coming up; be sure to sign up.  Also, as always, I am available most mornings from 8:15 on and right after school if those days do not work for you (the online scheduler doesn't allow us to add more days)

- PARCC state testing is coming up the week of March 9th.  I'm sure more information will come out in Jenny Brown's Principal Blog

- I am getting all the information ready for our Young Ameritowne unit and field trip.  More information to come!  We, as a fifth grade, will start hitting this concepts after the upcoming three day weekend and our field trip will be March 17th.  There will be many volunteer opportunities with this unit and your help will be greatly appreciated!

- Double check what your kiddo is working on for the weekly Math Log.  At this point they should be practicing progressively harder skills like double/triple digit multiplication, double digit divisors, and almost anything to do with fractions (adding, subtracting, multiplication, division, mixed numbers and improper fractions, reducing/simplifying)

- Lastly, we are in need of a Valentine's Party Organizer.  Your help to have this one last party for our kiddos would be more than welcomed!  Our party will be on Feb. 12th from 2:50 - 3:50.  Please let me know if you are available!

Science

We've been exploring a few things within Earth Science lately and the students seem to be learning so much.  We've discovered through experimentation that evaporation occurs when the energy from the sun affects the water molecules changing them from a liquid state to water vapor, that temperature and surface area affect the rate of evaporation.  We then moved on to the discovery that the earth materials heat up at different rates: water is a heat sink which can hold a lot of energy before changing temperature (both increasing and decreasing temperatures) while soil changes rather rapidly.  This will be the basis of understanding weather patterns and atmospheric pressure.

In our reading we've analyzed diagrams of the water cycle, looked at the water table and ground water (which connected to our read aloud: A Long Walk to Water), and discussed water conservation efforts.

It's so exciting to see students interested in learning and science really peaks interests!