August 15-19 Olympic Project

   We were busy this week with our new Olympic PBL project.  The students are very busy learning about al of their countries.  Students began digging deeper into research about their countries and some of the Olympians who grew up there.  We will be sending home information on when you are invited to come see their finished projects soon.
     Reminder to help your kids remember to read each night and record it on their reading calendars.  Also, MATH FACTS, Not all students know their math facts.  They need to practice these at home as well!
       This week in science we did a fair test investigation using UV Beads!  They were fun to observe!

UV Beads Investigation

The picking of the countries

Fire Drill

Some of our Country Flags!  

The rest we will have to share next week!

First Full Week in the Books!

       This week the students completed their first full week of 5th grade!  We worked on our first PBL project dealing with the Olympics and we completed our first list of Knows and Need to Knows, wrote our first problem statement and we worked on some fun Olympic themed team building activities.  Students will be placed in all kinds of groups this year and we want to really work hard to provide them with lots of different opportunities.  They might not always "like" their group but we want them all to learn to work with all kinds of different people.  They are probably going to come home at some time this year complaining about their group or a member of their group.  We just ask that you listen to them and encourage them to work through their issues and follow their groups contract and to make sure one of the teachers is aware if things do not improve.  No group will be together for too long.  We have seen great things come from groups who do not start out as friends.  We have great expectations for this group and are very excited to see how they progress this year.
   
     We had a great turn out on Thursday evening for our Meet the Teacher night.  We appreciate all that came and you will find an information packet in the students Monday folder this week.  We are planning on holding an Echo night in September to help parents with understanding this new student management system.  There is a lot to this new program and we are working to learn all we can about it and share with the students.  For now have your students pull up their Echo and share what they know how to do so far.

      We have hit the ground running with this group and our classes as well.  In science they have begun to write in their science notebooks and did some "mystery sample" observations this week.  In math we are working on figuring out what fact families are our stumbling blocks as far as our multiplication and division facts.  (Students not passing the screener will be bringing home flash cards soon to practice.)  In Humanities, we have spent a lot of time working Achieve 3000 and learning how to use this program.  We have also done some Olympic reading and working on highlighting important things as we read and going back to look at the text to answer questions.
 
     We really are enjoying this group of students and we are off to a great start!  We can't wait to share more exciting things with them this year.

       

Welcome to the Innovation Academy @ Riverside Fifth Grade

Welcome to the Innovation Academy @ Riverside 2016

     New school year, new building, new space, new teacher/facilitators and new learners/classmates are a lot of new things to get used to for the students and for the facilitators!  We are all super excited to start this school year off right.  We have worked a lot over the summer to make sure that we started the year off creating a culture of collaboration and learning.  We were so glad to see so many of you at our Ice Cream Social/ Open House.  Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.  We are only an email or phone call away.  

     This first few days we have been working with the learners on getting to know each other and leaning about how Riverside works and about each other.  We have done some fun activities to get to know each other and to learn about our school.  We worked together as a team to come up with our class "Norms".  We decided we could work hard at living the following class "Norms"

 *  Show respect to ourselves and others

*Treat others how you want to be treated/Be polite

*Be responsible

*Be truthful and trustworthy

*Be positive and have a growth mindset

              

    We kicked off our first PBL project of the year dealing with the Olympics.   We are planning on using this project to really get to know each other as well as learn about the different countries involved in the Olympics.   We are excited to see what this group of learners comes up with as their finished projects.  

    Achieve 3000 is a very big part of our reading program here at RIS.  Students will be taking a test next week to determine their Lexile range for this program.  They also will be practicing doing an article next week during Humanities.  Soon, students will begin doing two articles each week at a 75% average.  This program is set up at each individual students reading level and students should have no problem meeting this weekly goal.  We have found that students who rush through are the ones that struggle.  We encourage you to ask your child about Achieve and encourage them to take their time on their two articles so that they do not have to do extra work to get their 75% average.  

    Each month students are given a reading calendar and they are to record when they read.  Students are expected to read for 30 mins at least 20 days out of the month to get their points on this required activity.  This month's reading calendar is due no later than September 9th.  Late calendars are not accepted.  Thank you for encouraging your students to do their best.  

    August 11th we are having a RIS Meet the Teacher presentations beginning at 6:30.  Doors will open at 6:15 and  students can get a free book and parents can sign up for door prizes.  Presentations in classrooms will begin promptly at 6:30.   We will be meeting by team to learn about the following:  What are the expectations of RIS students each virtual day?  What is Achieve 3000 and how can parents/students monitor progress and expectations?  How can parents/students use Power School/Echo to monitor academic progress?  A paper is coming home in Monday folders about this as well.

    Scholastic book orders will be coming home monthly.  Look for these in the Monday Folders.  All checks will need to be written to Scholastic.  

    August 12 is RIS picture day and order forms will be in Monday folders!  

    Follow us on Twitter at @TeamHyperSpace!

    Have a great week and please contact us with any questions or concerns!