5th Grade Leaders Are Found On Our Team!
Dear Families,
It is a real pleasure to be a Garrison Mill Greyhound! Our Team has begun identifying necessary procedures for the year and practicing effective strategies for learning. All our students are exhibiting academic strengths and positive, thoughtful collaboration. We have adopted organization strategies to prepare us for the tasks ahead. I am encouraged by the critical thinking that has taken place already.
Math groups switch classes after the morning message and return to homeroom an hour later. In "McGill Math", students have been reviewing and investigating whole numbers, place value, and the role of decimals in writing parts of whole numbers. This year students will be writing in their Math Journals and improving their problem solving strategies through CCSD's Review And Practice (RAP). We look forward to having parent volunteers work with students to gain further confidence in their "Math-Minded-Methodologies".
Reading is our next class period, and our homeroom students will be reading both informational texts as well as novels during this time. Comprehension and inferential reasoning will be focus areas, and students will learn multiple strategies for connecting with the literature they have assigned or choose themselves. Parent involvement in this area is also encouraged. If you would like to help model reading with students, working on research projects, or just sharing favorite books with students, we would love to have you join us. Nightly reading for about thirty minutes is expected from our students.
Following Reading, students will execute their inquiry skills in our Science lessons. We have already used expert groups to share in reviewing the Scientific Method, and have begun their study of matter with an aromatic investigation regarding bananas. Do you know the way to extend a banana's shelflife long after it is brought home from the grocery? If you need to hurry the ripening process of a banana, do you know how to make it happen? Students are finding out and recording the findings in their journals.
For Social Studies instruction, our homeroom swaps classes with Ms. Hazlett and Ms. James next door. They are currently studying the Civil War era and are learning how history can be a valuable teaching tool in critical thinking.
Another focus area for fifth grade is the improvement of grammar and conventions in writing. Writing prompts, Kid Questions, and story prompts will help us develop our 6+1 Traits of Writing. Interested in helping us with publishing? Let us know! We would love parent editors, proofreaders, and typists to lend us a hand whenever possible.
Students have really impressed me with their willingness to lead this year. Identifying important goals and effective methods has helped us begin on an excellent path. This is no surprise when I consider the parents who have already been involved in helping us. Thanks to all families for the materials you have contributed, and thanks to Mr. Wetherhead, Ms. Harper, and Ms. Manuel for their time and energy in readying our resources for the tasks ahead.
Here's to a great beginning!
Sincerely,
Alex McGill
