Duke School and Triangle Day School are our original partner schools for several reasons, including the phenomenal programming and teachers. Below is a message recently sent to fifth grade parents at TDS. It highlights the quality and quantity of classroom and extracurricular activities, and makes us proud to have three of our scholars in attendance!
Good afternoon 5th grade parents,
It has been another productive week, with students starting to settle in to the homework routine and classroom expectations. We're finishing some of our first units, and starting to work on our first projects, which require time management and organizational skills that may be challenging at first. In particular, I hope they've all discussed ideas with you for their heritage projects, and they will be letting me know their plan tomorrow for which ones they will create. Ana's mom has offered her house as the location for the Heritage Pot Luck we'll have in October, and I'll send out more information about that soon. Here is what we're working on in the core subjects, as well as a few reminders/announcements for the week.
1) In Science, we finished Chapter 1 and students received a study guide for their first assessment on Tuesday of next week. We completed the chapter review pages and worked on the smart cards in class this afternoon, so they should have a lot of good ways to prepare!
2) In Social Studies, students have started creating their clay models of their Native American tribes, focusing on showing the environment, homes, traditions, and how they get food. Students all have a resources page in their google docs and we got a lesson from the new librarian, Mrs. Rich, on best strategies for researching information.
3) In Math, we've been working on whole number multiplication and how the distributive property is involved in the standard method of multiplication. Today, we did a quick cryptography lesson (in honor of our Spy School book) and then started looking at whole number division, which will be our focus for the next few days.
4) In Language Arts, we read a story called "The Dancing Bird of Paradise" about a Japanese-American girl who loved to dance, but was placed into an Internment Camp during World War II. It's a true story about Sahomi Tachibana, who persevered and continued to dance and became one of the most well known Kabuki dance teachers in the United States.
Announcements/Reminders:
1) Hurricane Relief - reminder that students can bring in gift cards (for Target, Walmart, Home Depot, Lowe's, Kroger, Amazon), art supplies, toys, coloring books, or children's books. We'll all be writing them cards on Friday in Crossroads.
2) Student Council - next week is Campaign Week, so students will announce if they are running for Representative in their class, and we'll share speeches on Friday. This year, for students who run for representative and don't get elected, they may choose to join a Service Committee that will assist at certain times.
3) Talent Show - now is the time to start planning if you want to participate for the Talent Show on Friday, October 6th!
4) GFGA check in - all students should have tried contacting their visitor's bureau and potentially received/gathered materials. They will have an assignment next week to find activities to do there, but the official project will not be assigned until we complete the Heritage Project.
5) Field Trip forms - I think I have everyone's, so thanks! To clarify, NO MONEY needs sent in for field trips this year, since there will just be a 1 time charge to TADS that will cover all field trips.
6) Schoolhouse of Wonder - speaking of Field Trips, our first one has been scheduled for Friday, October 13th. I could potentially use 1 or 2 chaperones for this trip, so you can email me if you are interested.
I hope everyone is having a good week, and please let me know if you have any questions or comments about anything.