Thanks to the generosity of the ABC/25 Foundation, all District 25 fifth grade students will have the opportunity to travel back in time to the year 1776. On October 11, 2013, the American Colonial Experience and Beyond will be setting up camp on the grounds of Olive-Mary Stitt School. Ten enactors will recreate the lives of tradespersons from that time period. Students will travel to Olive-Mary Stitt School by bus and participate in this hands-on, interactive learning experience related to our social science curriculum. There will be a $2.75 charge for bus transportation. Parts of the day may be videotaped and shown on our district cable channel.

Please have students dress appropriately for the weather, as this is an outside activity that will be held rain or shine! Students from Dryden, Ivy Hill, and Patton will be attending from 9:30-11:15 a.m. Students from Westgate will attend after lunch from 12:15-2:00 p.m.

Please sign the permission slip (hard copy provided by your teacher) with $2.75 to your child’s classroom teacher no later than Friday, October 4.

The Unit 3 Review Packet is tentatively due on: 10/17/13
The Unit 3 Test is tentatively scheduled for: 10/18/13

The Unit 2 Review Packet is tentatively due on: 9/25/13
The Unit 2 Test is tentatively scheduled for: 9/26/13

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Picture Day- September 10th
Patriots Day- September 11th (Wear red, white, and blue today!)

To start the year, our class is learning about the causes of the Revolutionary War and the war itself.  We are doing this by transporting ourselves back in time to experience Boston in 1768.

Our experiences will be chronicled on our ePortfolios, as we become apprentices and try to earn money while learning about the events taking place around us.

More details about the unit can be found here.

During the first trimester of school, our science curriculum will be focused on Energy.  We will start by reading and learning about energy, then discovering it, then experimenting with it, and finally applying it to a new situation: the Energy Debates.

Here are the Big Ideas that we are focused on:

• Energy takes many forms. (Lessons 1, 2, and 9)
• We can observe energy all around us. (Lessons 1, 2, and 9)
• Energy can move, or transfer, from place to place. Sometimes it changes form as it transfers. (Lessons 3 and 9)
• Machines help us use energy transfers to perform useful tasks.(Lessons 4 and 9)
• Warmer things lose heat, or transfer heat energy, to cooler things until they both become the same temperature. (Lessons 5, 6, and 7)
• Some materials conduct heat energy more easily than others.(Lessons 6 and 7)
• Not all transfers of energy are desirable. Often energy is “wasted” or transferred to non-useful forms. (Lesson 8)

We are starting out the school year by reading the book, "Wonder" together.  This book is great for a number of reasons: (1) It's an amazing story, (2) It's a great way to build community in our classroom, (3) The main character forces us all to learn tolerance and kindness, and (4) It's a perfect way to teach comprehension strategies and routines for Literature Circles!

From Amazon.com: August Pullman was born with a facial deformity that, up until now, has prevented him from going to a mainstream school. Starting 5th grade at Beecher Prep, he wants nothing more than to be treated as an ordinary kid—but his new classmates can’t get past Auggie’s extraordinary face. WONDER, now a #1 New York Times bestseller and included on the Texas Bluebonnet Award master list, begins from Auggie’s point of view, but soon switches to include his classmates, his sister, her boyfriend, and others. These perspectives converge in a portrait of one community’s struggle with empathy, compassion, and acceptance.

"Wonder is the best kids' book of the year," said Emily Bazelon, senior editor at Slate.com and author of Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Character and Empathy. In a world where bullying among young people is an epidemic, this is a refreshing new narrative full of heart and hope. R.J. Palacio has called her debut novel “a meditation on kindness” —indeed, every reader will come away with a greater appreciation for the simple courage of friendship. Auggie is a hero to root for, a diamond in the rough who proves that you can’t blend in when you were born to stand out.

Many teachers & parents have been asking the office if we have electronic copies of the monthly lunch menus.  The short answer is no, however, menus are posted on the district website.  Below is a link to remind you of where you can find the menus:

http://www.schoolnutritionandfitness.com/index.php?page=menus&sid=0706131933590172