Week of August 22nd, 2016

We have a 5th grade website!!! Please check it out at:

excelsiorlionsgohigh.weebly.com for newsletters, contact information, special
projects, and up-to-date 5th grade happenings!
We are beginning our unit on order of operations and have wrapped up whole numbers. Look for
nightly math work coming home!
One brief stop before Don Quixote. Ms. Brackett almost skipped The Ghost In the Tokaido Inn-a mystery set in
feudal Japan that involves Samurai, Shogun, Kabuki actors, honor, and The theft of a precious
stone! Students will have nightly vocabulary and questions from the
read-aloud chapter.
We have studied the notable lakes of Africa, South America and North America and have
begun
work on our group lake projects! Each group has been assigned a country or continent and
has
started working on their poster presentation! I will provide the poster board and daily
question answering and guidance-students will make decisions about division of labor and
daily homework responsibilities for each member of the group. The project is due in class Monday,
August 29th for
our final work day. Presentations will begin Tuesday, 8/30. Please visit the website for more
information on this special project!
We are currently reading the biography of scientist, Carolus Linneaus and studying
classification. Ask your student what they have learned about this ground-breaking scientist
and what we have learned about classification!

Your 5th grader has a weekly homework sheet where they are to write their daily assignments-make sure that
they are showing it to you nightly! If your student is working hard, but continuing to struggle with an
assignment, please stop them and send a note so that we can help with understanding. Homework should be a
time to reinforce what was learned at school and not a time to practice a skill incorrectly or to the point of
frustration. Homework is only excused with a parent note- without penalty. Late, unexcused work may be
turned in the next day for a lower overall grade.

Week of August 22nd, 2016

** STUDENT MATERIALS**
Ideally, we would like student to have one large binder 2 - 3 inches that can hold all of
their subjects together. Students will be switching between two classes daily and we have
found that those with their materials in one place are having better success getting from
place to place with all of their materials. Let Ms. Brackett know if you need help sourcing
a binder, she has a few extra that can be re-used from last year.
WATER BOTTLES!
Students are allowed and encouraged to keep a water bottle with them at school. They are given time
before class and during lunch to refill their water. This should give them plenty of opportunities for
hydration without a need to leave to go to the water fountain during class. If you would like to partially
freeze your water bottles, please give your student a designated sock to catch the precipitation.
NEW MICROWAVE!!!!
Thank you to Ms. Dickens for donating a microwave to 5 th grade!
Your students will now be able to heat up lunches (on their own) during our lunch block.
A few notes:
- We will send home a permission form for students to use the microwave. Teachers are usually
otherwise engaged during lunch, so if your student needs to warm something up, it will need to be
on their own. Students also need to be able to gauge proper containers, timing and temperatureits easy to make things too hot!
- Please be mindful that lunch is only 25 minutes, and that we cannot be using the microwave during
class time. Therefore, if we have too many students wishing to use the microwave each day, the
time will quickly run out. Please be considerate of the time requirements involved in sending
microwaveable lunches.
LUNCH TIME VOLUNTEERS!
We have had some parent interest in volunteering to hang out with our 5 th graders during lunch so that
we can some food ourselves-thank you! If you have any interest in volunteering on a dedicated day,
please let us know!
Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns, we hope that you are having a fabulous week!
Mrs. Althoff (kalthoff@excelsiorca.org)
Ms. Brackett (sbrackett@excelsiorca.org)
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _
My student has permission to use the microwave to heat up their own lunch.
Student name (please print)__________________Parent name (please print)____________________

Week of August 22nd, 2016

Parent signature___________________________________Date______________