TOPS 5th Grade Weekly Newsletter

Benchmark 1 for math, reading, and science is open in USATP and due October 12th!

25% of your grade will be based on your score, 75% is based on participation

Students who started on September 26 are exempt from Benchmark 1, but must complete the readiness assigned during orientation.

https://www.usatestprep.com/

I hope you had a fabulous week! Before we all take off for the weekend I wanted to send out an overview of what to expect next week, some resources to help you, and a fun riddle!

Preparing for next week:

Please make sure you take time today, while planning for next week, to look over your Class Connect schedule to ensure you attend all required live sessions.

Please make sure you look through the grade book and work on any lessons in which you have an M. This means missing. Once you complete the OLS assignment the grade will automatically update. If it is a TGA in USA Test Prep, please email me and I will update your grade.

Next week you will:

Work on Reading Benchmark 1 in USA Test Prep

Finish Composition Unit 2 (9.26 starters exempt)

Finish Spelling Unit 8

Finish Vocabulary unit 4

By 10/5/18 you should have completed the following assessments

Literature Unit 1Lesson 10 Part 1 and 2 (8/29, 9/12, & 9/26 Start Date Excused)

Literature Unit 2 Lesson 11 Part 1 and 2 (9/26 Start Date Excused)

Reading Q1 TGA 1- USA Test Prep

Reading Q1 TGA 2- USA Test Prep

Reading Q1 TGA 3- USA Test Prep

Composition Unit 1(8/29, 9/12, 9/26 Start Date Excused)

Composition Unit 1: Writing a Memoir Check in USA Test Prep

Composition Unit 2: Writing a Research Paper Check in USA Test Prep

GUM Unit 1-2 (8/29, & 9/12 Start Date Excused Unit 1 9/26 Start Date Excused 1-2)

Spelling Unit 1-7 (8/29 Excused from Unit 1-2, 9/12 excused from Units 1-5, 9/26 excused from 1-6)

Vocabulary Unit 1-3 (8/29 Excused from Unit 1 and 9/12 Excused from Units 1-2, 9/26 Excused 1-3 )

All grades will be updated in the grade book by 3 PM on Friday 10/5

Literature assignments on the Daily Plan

On your Daily Plan once you complete the open Literature unit, it will list your Literature assignment as the You Need To Make A Choice unit. please DO NOT do this unit. We will do our Novel Units later in the year. If you have any questions please let me know.

Literature Unit 2 Lessons 1-11: September 10th- October 5th

Literature Unit 3 Lessons 1-4: October 15th- October 19th

Teacher Graded Assignment: (Due dates in the grade book)

Reading Q1 TGA 1,2, and 3 are due and grades are updated in the grade book

Composition Unit 1& 2 Check-In- due and grades are updated in the grade book

5th Reading Readiness Assessment grades are updated in the grade book

Last Week's Riddle:

There are 8 fish in a tank. 3 fish got taken away from the tank and 2 drowned. How many fish are left?

Answer: There are 5 fish left, (The total 8 - 3 that got away = 5 left). You cannot take away the 2 drowned fish, because fish live in water!

Thank you Fatima Bagayoko for the awesome riddle!

Weekly Riddle:

Each Friday I will send out a Riddle. Please come to class the following week with your answer.

This week's riddle is courtesy of Amazing 5th Grader Hailey Malia!!!

Why didn’t the Skelton cross the road?

I will share the answer next week in class! If you have a riddle you would like to share in the newsletter, please email it to me.

Have an amazing weekend!

This upcoming week is benchmark week and the end of quarter 1. Be sure you have completed all of the assignments for the quarter. You will continue working on multiplying fractions. I am attaching some notes and resources below. If you have any questions or are struggling, please email me, attend help desk or stay after class connect to ask questions. I’m here to help.

5th Math Benchmark 1 in USA Test Prep

This is to be completed on your own without your learning coach. You won't know all of the answers yet, but you will by the end of 5th grade. If you have accommodations, please use them while taking the benchmark just like you would for the STAAR test. I am attaching a 5th STAAR reference sheet below. Please be sure to reference this while you are taking your benchmark.

• Date Due: 10/12

OLS Lessons

Unit 3 Lesson 4 Multiplying Fractions B

Unit 3 Lesson 5 Multiplying Fractions C

TGAs in USA Test Prep

5th Math TGA #1

• Date Due: 9/14

5th Math TGA #2

• Date Due: 9/28

Fraction PreTest (do your best by yourself, you will get a completion grade)

• Date Due: 10/5

5th Math TGA Decimals (for 9.12 starters only)

• Due Date: 10/5

5th Math Readiness Assessment (assigned to everyone their first week)

• Due NOW (even though date shows November 7)

*If you didn't start on 8/15, you might not have been assigned all of the TGAs listed above. If it is listed in USA Test Prep under "Assignments for All Classes" then you will need to complete the assignment, it was assigned to you. All completed TGA work is listed in the blue box on the top right side of the USA Test Prep homepage under "Graded Work".

Math Facts Pro Multiplication Fact Practice: Students are expected to login and practice facts at least 3 times a week. Be sure to complete the practice to the very end until you see the results page. There are 50 facts. Knowing multiplication facts with quick recall is vital. Here is the login information.

• https://mathfactspro.com/
• Teacher Username: TOPSMath
• First Name and Last Name with space in-between (as it appears in your OLS)
• Password: Student ID

Looking Back –

This past week, we looked at the differences in innate and learned behaviors and found that some are not so clearly identified. We also began a look at the critical cycles in the environment that include carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen.

OLS Lessons for Oct. 1-5

Unit 3, Lesson 3: Learned Characteristics, and Lesson 4: Cycles in Nature: Nitrogen, Carbon, Water, Part 1

Key vocabulary: heredity, genetics, carbon dioxide/oxygen cycle, combustion, condensation, evaporation, precipitation, respiration, nitrogen cycle

Looking Ahead -

We will continue our look at the critical cycles of three of our most important environmental ingredients: nitrogen, carbon, and water and how human activities have affected their balance. There will be a less rigorous schedule this week to allow students a chance to focus on benchmark testing.

Assignments for the week of Oct. 8-12:

Unit 3, Lesson 5: Cycles in Nature: Nitrogen, Carbon, Water, Part 2

Key vocabulary: carbon dioxide/oxygen cycle, combustion, condensation, evaporation, precipitation, respiration, nitrogen cycle

TGA’s in USA Test Prep

5th Science TGA #1- Bacteria and Viruses

· Date Assigned: 9/10/18

· Date Due: 9/24/18

5th Science TGA #2 – Ecosystems and Food Webs

· Date Assigned: 10/1/18

· Date Due: 10/5/18

Creature of the week – Let’s switch to another animal family this week with some investigation of the tobacco hornworm. (It has a very unusual system of defense.) Do some research before our next class and share what you have learned with your classmates!

Hello 5th graders, this week we are beginning unit 4 - Thirteen Colonies, Part 2. We will spend time in class on Wednesday, October 10th, learning about the colony of Rhode Island. We will locate it on a map and learn more about its founder, Roger Williams. Please complete the following lessons this week:

• Lesson 1 – Breaks with Tradition: Roger Williams
• Lesson 2 – Breaks with Tradition: Anne Hutchinson and Mary Dyer

Be sure to check the grade book to see if you have any missing assignments (M’s). Our most recent Teacher Graded Assignment (TGA) can be found here:

• goformative.com/join
• Code: FPFWQK

I’ll see you in class on Wednesday!

Every week you will check the grade level newsletter to see which Music Studio lessons to complete. Just open Unit 1, Lesson 1 in the OLS and click the link to take you to Music Studio! (This is why everything in the OLS for Music EXCEPT for Unit 1, Lesson 1 has been marked skipped.) :)

Lessons for the week of 10/08:

• Music Studio Section 4, Unit 2, Lesson 1 - Hispanic Heritage Month
• There is no graded assessment this week. Yay! :)

Video showing how to get into Music Studio and find the lessons and Assessments page:

https://k12inc-my.sharepoint.com/:v:/g/personal/jbass_k12_com/EY4-uSYFegNLtaz1rcTZSREBUeo-TGm17c0ljqPp9zujaQ?e=niWThx

Video showing how to find just the Assessments page in Music Studio:

https://k12inc-my.sharepoint.com/:v:/g/personal/jbass_k12_com/EYmNdB6FSztOuCqZsifUT08B9AfPyx9ShL5japwEilZXQw?e=aul3Bx

Reminder - Mrs. Bass updates the gradebook every Friday afternoon. :)

Happy Friday!!! I know yall have been busy working hard in your lessons this week. In art next week we will continue learning about "Native Peoples of the North". In Health we will move into Unit 7. This is about “Drugs: Helpful or Harmful”. In October we are talking about anti-bullying. In PE you will practice using the pedometer again.

Lessons for this week:

Art: Unit 2 Lesson 8: Reading, Review, and Wrap-Up

Unit 3 Lesson 1: Southwest Petroglyphs

Health: Unit 7 Lesson 1: Drugs that Help

Unit 7 Lesson 2: Drugs that Harm

PE: Unit 1 Lesson 8: Fitness Testing and Power Walking

TGAs:

None this week.

TGAs are updated now in the Gradebook. If you are missing any please go back to the newsletter for that week for the TGA link. I will also have them in the announcements in your OLS.

The Hive:

We will continue to have Kahoot in the main room. Thank you LCs that have helped monitor chat and the rooms this week. I know it is wild in there but, it's recess. I hope everyone has had a blast!!!

Email: bwatt@texasonlineprep.org
Phone: 682.593.1514
Twitter: @TOPSMrsWatt