5CC Newsletter

Weekly Newsletter Grade 5

Dates: December 12-14               

Curriculum Information for this Week:

Literacy: This week the students will be bringing home their graded informational writing. You will see their assessed writing that your child completed INDEPENDENTLY. Students were given some time to do research on the Internet or in books. Students were then given 2 hours to use their writing folders, anchor charts, class spelling resources, writing checklists and other tools to help them generate ideas, draft their writing, revise, and finally publish their piece. Please note that “Meeting” scores are the expectations for the END of fifth grade.

Math: As we move forward in our decimals unit, students continue to practice adding and subtracting decimals.  We have explored multiple strategies to help students develop conceptual understanding.  As the week continues, they will choose ways that are most efficient to them.

Unit of Study:

Students will be finishing their PSA’s and Podcasts this week for a 5th grade share on Wednesday. Ask your child about their project. They have worked hard on the products and they are going to be great. Check their blogs to see or hear the PSA's and Podcast all about sustainable energy.

***NO HOME LEARNING THIS WEEK*** Students are still expected to read for 30 minutes each day.

For more information and ways to support your child please visit the Parent Learning Connection page.

Important Reminders/Information: (also see GLC Updates)

Please visit your child's blog and leave a comment! They have been working hard on vlogging (video + blog) in the last couple of weeks about their learning.

Friday Dec. 15...last day of semester 1

Monday Jan. 8, 2018...first day of semester 2

Enjoy your three week break and don’t forget...as Dory always says, “Just keep reading, just keep reading…”

Highlights - Last Week:

Christmas Around the World and the wonderful band concert...well done students and Ms. Endel

5CC Newsletter

Weekly Newsletter Grade 5

Dates: December 4 - 8               

Curriculum Information for this Week:

Literacy: The students will be taking the NonFiction OnDemand Post Assessment this week.  This assessment will help see the students growth through the unit and what our goals will be next semester to continue developing as writers.  Following on with our science integration, students will also be working on turning their energy writing into PSAs or podcasts.

Math: As we move forward in our decimals unit, students are learning to add and subtract decimals.  We have multiple tools and strategies to help students develop conceptual understanding.  As the week continues, they will choose ways that are most efficient to them.

Unit of Study:

Students will be finishing up their innovative energy making prototypes.  They will be sharing their ideas with other classes on Thursday as an end of project celebration.  The students have some great design ideas!

For more information and ways to support your child please visit the Parent Learning Connection page.

Important Reminders/Information: (also see GLC Updates)

Monday, December 4 - Christmas Around the World

Thursday, December 7 - Band Concert at 7pm.  (We will be live streaming this event so please share the live stream link with families and/or friends so they can also join us in celebrating your child's musical learning. https://livestream.com/iskl)

Friday, December 8 - Swim Carnival

Monday, December 11 - NO SCHOOL

Highlights - Last Week:

Students have been working hard on their nonfiction writing pieces throughout the week.  Ask them to share their work with you!

We have spent the last couple of weeks working on our Vlogs in the classroom. These are posted our your child's blog. Our focus is to synthesize our learning. Take a look!

Holiday Concert!

For those with children performing in our elementary school holiday concert, the performance is next week on Thursday, December 7 at 7:00pm. We will be live streaming this event so please share the live stream link with families and/or friends so they can also join us in celebrating your child's musical learning.

Live stream URL: https://livestream.com/iskl

Thank you for your support!

Best regards,

Kim Endel, Annette Bashir, Suzanne Van Dort, and Christa Cee

5CC Newsletter

Weekly Newsletter Grade 5

Dates: November 27-30               

Curriculum Information for this Week:

Literacy: The students have combined efforts between Science and Literacy! As they have finished their research, students have begun writing an informational piece of writing on the sustainable energy of their choice answering a question they want to know more about.  As the week progresses, students will complete their informational writing piece and look forward to creating either a Public Service Announcement (PSA) or podcast.

Math: As we move forward in our decimals unit, students are beginning to round to the thousandths place, as well as continuing to practice the appropriate vocabulary for these difficult numbers.  Rather than saying, “Zero point 3”....practice saying, “Three-tenths!”. This week we will begin to move into the adding and subtracting of decimals.

Unit of Study:

Last week students brainstormed ways to use alternative forms of energy in order to build their own prototype! Students planned, researched and sketched their ideas. On Friday we were finally able to get into the science lab in order to get started building our prototypes. This week students will continue to work on their prototypes and go through the design thinking process of testing and redesigning their prototype. Ask your child about THEIR idea!

For more information and ways to support your child please visit the Parent Learning Connection page.

Important Reminders/Information: (also see GLC Updates)

No school December 1-Prophet’s birthday

Highlights - Last Week:

A successful Red Hat Free Dress Day...organized by grade 5 students!

A successful ornament making activity sponsored by the 5th grade parents!

A visit from Hector Ingram who taught us about wind turbines and biomass as an alternative energy!

Christmas Around the World Collection

Dear Parents,

As we have done in the past we are going to do a large collection for "Christmas Around the World." 

This year we are going to be collecting books, back-packs, water bottles, and school supplies. 

We will be giving these items to IDEAS Academy, TCF (The Children's Foundation), and the local Chin Refugees. 

We are asking certain grades to donate certain things:

Preps, grade 1, grade 2

New or gently used books and school supplies (notebooks, pencils, pens, etc...)

Grades 3, 4, 5:

New or gently used books, new or gently used CLEAN water bottles, and back packs

The books collected will be going to IDEAS academy and local refugee schools via Ms. Suji. The school supplies, back-packs and water bottles will be going to the local Chin Refugees and The Children's Foundation in Pakistan (TCF). 

Once again ISKL thanks you for your donations. Your generosity will make the lives of others a bit brighter. 

Thank you in advance,

Mr. Mangelsdorf

Weekly Newsletter Grade 5

Dates: November 13-17, 2017

Curriculum Information for this Week:

Literacy: Students will continue their nonfiction reading and writing units. Reading and writing are integrated with our science unit: Sustainable Energy, so students will be using texts about sustainable energy to improve their nonfiction reading and writing. Last week students got to hear a visiting author presentation by Bryn Barnard, who spoke about the challenges of being an author along with climate change and the ocean the topic of one of his books, The New Ocean: The Fate of Life in a Changing Sea.

Math: This week we will be begin our new math unit entitled, Unit 4: Decimal Place Value & Decimal Operations. This week we will explore representing decimals in various ways using manipulatives and decimal place values as well as powers of 10.

Unit of Study: The students will continue their inquiry into Sustainable Energy. This week, students will visit the science lab and explore sustainable energy. Last week, we had the pleasure of having Andy Baker, Mrs. Schneider’s husband, come to speak about petroleum. It was a great day and the students even got to dig for oil using a cake and gummy dinosaurs! This week on Monday Nov. 13th we will have special guests Dave Perrau and Brad Knowles who will present about Sustainable Practices at the new ISKL campus.  This will take place in the common area from 2:00-2:45.

For more information and ways to support your child please visit the Parent Learning Connection page.

Important Reminders/Information: (also see GLC Updates)

-This week on Monday Nov. 13th we will have special guests Dave Perrau and Brad Knowles who will present about Sustainable Practices at the new ISKL campus.  This will take place in the common area from 2:00-2:45.

Highlight - Last Week:

The International Day Parade was a hit as usual.  We also enjoyed the cultural presentations and were excited to represent our countries.  

Weekly Newsletter Grade 5

Dates: November 6-10, 2017

Curriculum Information for this Week:

Literacy: Students will be continue their nonfiction reading and writing units. This is integrated with our science unit: Sustainable Energy, so students will be using texts about sustainable energy to improve their nonfiction reading and writing. This week students will begin to focus on their interest in sustainable energy and begin researching to find out more. In addition, the students will attend a visiting author presentation by Bryn Barnard, who will feature his nonfiction books. Bryn will present to our students on Thurs. 9 Nov. from 10:30-11:15am in the G5 common area.

Math: Students will review and complete Unit 3: The Coordinate Plane. This Friday students will show what they know about plotting coordinates, finding patterns and analyzing data in graphs on their assessment. Our next math unit is titled, Unit 4: Decimal Place Value & Decimal Operations. It’s quite a lengthy unit - 40 school days - so the unit will take us into early second semester.

Unit of Study: The students will continue to work on the Sustainable Energy unit. This week, they will continue to work in the science labs exploring sustainable energy: solar, wind and hydro power. Amy Schneider’s husband, Andy Baker, who is an engineer with Schlumberger, will conduct a presentation on ‘Fossil Fuels’ this Fri. 10 Nov. in the G5 common area from 10:30-11:30am.   

For more information and ways to support your child please visit the Parent Learning Connection page.

Important Reminders/Information: (also see GLC Updates)

This Friday 10 Nov. is our annual International Fest. Flag Parade at Melawati from 8:15-9:15am. Students should come dressed in their national costume, clothing comprising colors of their country’s flag etc. Parents are invited to join us for the Flag Parade and the Parade of Nations Assembly in the Studio. This Monday, parents are reminded to look out for your child’s two opinion writing samples with rubrics and an accompanying parent letter, which your child will bring home to share with you.

Don’t forget to attend the PTA’s International Fest at the Ampang Campus this Sat. 11 Nov. from 11:00am-3:00pm.

Highlight - Last Week:

Our Deepavali Cultural Day last Friday 3 Nov. was definitely the highlight of last week! Nalini Krishnan and her organizing team organized another wonderful day of activities for our students, especially the assembly from 11:00-11:45am and the various hallway demonstrations and workshops.