Dear Fifth Grade Parents,
We will have our Parent Informational Meeting about Camp Seymour on March 7th from 6:00pm – 7:00pm in the HRS Library. Please make sure to save this date! (This meeting is for the parents only.) Camp Seymour is May 1 – 3, 2024.
Lenten Service Opportunities!
During Lent, one of the pillars we focus is on almsgiving. This means that we strive to intentionally focus on serving others in need during this Lenten time. As a school we will do two things to focus on serving those in need during Lent. First, we will take up a special collection on five Fridays during Lent to support Father Dunstan and his school in Kenya. You may remember Father Dunstan who was with us for a school Mass in January and who celebrated Christmas Masses with us. Father Dunstan has a school in Kenya and they are trying to build a kitchen in order to keep their food safe from animals to feed their students. Our students will get to learn more about this in class. On these Fridays in Lent (2/23, 3/1, 3/8, 3/15, and 3/22) students may come to school in free dress if they bring in a donation (minimum $1) to support this important need in Kenya. We strongly encourage students to earn the $1 each week doing some act of service around their home. This way they will connect their own service to their almsgiving. Students may come in uniform on these days if they choose not to participate, and please no free dress passes these Fridays.
Second, we will continue our tradition of supporting a local men’s shelter in Seattle, St. Martin de Porres. We will take up collections as follows (optional as well, but encourage participation if possible). We will deliver the donations from our school to St. Martins each of these Fridays.
Fri. February 23rd –
Last Names A-L: Brown Bag Lunches (perishable OK)
Last Names M-Z: Large and small bath towels (gently used, if clean and unstained are OK)
Fri. March 1st:
Last Names A-L: Disposable razors and shaving cream (travel size)
Last Names M-Z: Brown Bag Lunches (perishable OK)
Friday, March 8th (noon dismissal, should be able to still take a collection):
Last Names A-L: Brown Bag Lunches (perishable OK)
Last Names M-Z: Travel toothbrushes/toothpaste
Fri. March 15th:
Last Names A-L: Men’s socks
Last Names M-Z: Brown Bag Lunches (perishable OK)
Fri. March 22nd:
Last Names A-L: Men’s deodorant (regular or travel sized) or Brown Bag Lunches (perishable OK)
Last Names M-Z: Men’s deodorant (regular or travel sized) or Brown Bag Lunches (perishable OK)
Finally, though not a school collection, you may participate in Operation Rice Bowl. Each family should have received one rice bowl and those can be returned to school during Holy Week.
Thank you for being a partner in serving others during this Lenten time.
Family Communication Letter 2/22/24
UpcomingDates
- Feb 24th – Crab Feed
- Mar 8th – Noon Dismissal, Teacher-In-Service
- Mar 20th – Parents Club Meeting
- Mar 29th – Noon Dismissal
- Apr 1st-5th – Spring Break
The following is a curriculum update for the week of February 26 – March 1st, 2024:
Religion
Next week we will continue our study of Chapter 16 Gathered as One. In this Chapter we will be learning about the Mass. In the liturgy, the Holy Spirit forms the community as an assembly. Students will develop an understanding that the Eucharist unites Christ’s followers to him and to one another.
Math – Ms. Semandiris
Monday (2/26) Review Ch. 6 L. 6 Multiply Decimals by Powers of 10
Tuesday (2/27) Ch. 6 L. 7 Problem Solving Strategy – Looking for a Pattern
Wednesday (2/28) Ch. 6 L. 8. Multiplication Properties
Thursday (2/29) Ch. 6 L. 9 Estimate Quotients
Friday (3/1) Check My Progress Review Lessons 6- 9
Math – Mr. Schreck
Chapter 7, Expressions & Patterns
Monday: Lesson 8, Ordered Pairs
Tuesday: Lesson 9, Graph Patterns
Wednesday: Chapter 7 Review
Thursday: Chapter 7 Test
Chapter 8, Fractions & Decimals
Friday: Lesson 1, Fractions & Division
Math – Mrs. Heuer
Monday: *Revew (Day 2)
Tuesday: *Ch. 5 Test: Integers and the Coordinate Plane
Wednesday: *6.1 Introduce Powers and Roots
Thursday: *6.1 (Day 2)
Friday: *6.2 Order of Operations
Science
Students will discover what food chains, food webs and energy pyramids show about energy flow in an ecosystem.
To help students understand these concepts, they will create a food web and energy pyramid for an Antarctic ecosystem.
Students will take a quiz on flow of matter and energy in an ecosystem next Friday (3/1). Students have taken notes in class to prepare for the quiz.
Social Studies
Next week we will continue Lesson 8, Slavery in the Americas. We will dive deeper into the history of slavery in the Americas by analyzing primary sources, images, and literature from different parts of the journey enslaved Africans experienced. The “Essential Question” for this lesson is: What was the impact of slavery on African people? Students have been working on their note taking skills this week as they read the chapter. Students will receive the study guide for this chapter on Google Classroom on 2/26, the test for this lesson will be on March 4th.
Social Studies
- Describe life in West Africa in the 1500s and how the trade of enslaved people began.
- Identify the components of triangular trade.
- Analyze how Africans survived the Middle Passage and responded to a life of slavery in the colonies.
ELA
Hello and happy weekend! I wanted to first mention some exciting progress I’ve seen in language arts. Last week, we did a socratic seminar. In these, students have a collaborative discussion about a specific part of the text with an essential question. We do this in groups of about 13. The students sit in a circle and have a dialogue with each other, responding to each other’s thoughts, questions, and insights. My role is as an observer and guide as needed; it’s a student driven discussion. I was so impressed to see such depth of knowledge demonstrated in these. Clearly, students can think beyond the text and make connections to their own experiences and the world at large. I’ve taught kids many ways to respond to each other, so even our shy kiddos have an opportunity to share by using a sentence starter. For example, they could say that another student’s comment “made them think about …” These discussions will be entered as a participation grade in Alma. We will conduct more Socratic seminars throughout the year. Next week, we will have a new set of spelling/vocab words, and we will continue our study of the novel Wonder. Have a great weekend.