Monday, December 4, 2023
Dear American Academy Parents,
Welcome to a new month, December! The leaves have fallen from the trees, leaving us with a snowy, winter wonderland. We have just returned from Outdoor Ed and had a fantastic time together. Last month was full of fun and exciting events and content in each class, and that fun will continue into this month as well. There are many cheerful and amazing things happening in the month of December, please continue reading to see the exciting things fifth grade will be doing.
Start of new Grading Period
We are off to a great start for our 2nd trimester. This is a great time to remind your kids to make sure things get turned in on time and do their missing work from being absent. Please encourage your son or daughter to come get make-up work when they come back, they can either talk to their teacher during class time or study hall. Thank you for all the support you are giving your kids to advocate for themselves. They are doing great!
Winter Parties
Winter parties will be held on December 21, 2023. We look forward to these parties and we appreciate all the help we receive from the parents. Each classroom will be having their own winter party, so please talk to your children and look for emails from room parents about the parties in each classroom.
Homeroom Secret Santa
In our homeroom classes we are doing Secret Santa gift exchanges. This is completely voluntary and the gifts should not be more than $10. If they choose to participate they need to bring a wrapped gift on the 21st. They will be coming home with how their homeroom teacher is running it.
Toy Drive
The fifth graders wanted to do something for those less fortunate and came up with the idea of doing a toy drive! If you want to donate please send in a new, unwrapped toy with your child on or before December 19th. All toys will be donated that weekend to area women/family shelters.
PTO Staff Holiday Fund and Gift Giving Tree
This is a reminder that the Staff holiday fund and Gift Giving Tree is still open for families to donate to if you wish. The donations will be accepted until December 8th. Please give only cash.
Winter Months
As we are getting into the colder months of the year please remind your students to bring their warm clothing for recess outside. We continue to go outside if it is not below 20 degrees.
Grading Policy
Late Work- Late assignments in fourth through fifth grade are marked 10% off if submitted within one school day of the due date and time and 50% off if submitted within two school days of the due date and time. If the assignment is not submitted within two school days of the due date and time, there will be no credit awarded.
Curriculum updates
Math- In math we will be starting our winter diagnostic testing through iReady and HMH before learning any new content. As a fifth grade team we would like to see our students doing I-ready lessons to improve their math skills. Please encourage your child to do these lessons, they can do them at home on their computers or tablets. They just need a log-in badge, students should see their math teacher for a log in badge. Please continue reading to see what is being learned in each math class:
Ms. Ericson: We are starting chapter four and learning about place value, we will then move into chapter five where we will be adding and subtracting decimals. Both chapters will be done before we leave for winter break.
Ms. Hein:
Mr. Anderson: This month we will be finishing up our unit on volume (Chapter 16) before moving on to decimals and place values (Chapter 4). Due to our winter testing this month there will not be much homework given.
Ms. Mitchell: This month we will be focusing on classifying geometric shapes mainly triangles and quadrilaterals, then moving into volume. The students will have intermittent homework because of the math testing. Please make sure your child is doing their I ready lessons each week.
Ms. Bambury:
Literacy- In our literacy class this month we will be focusing on the book “Little Women” we will be strategizing literary concepts that revolve around point of view, setting and how to change the end of a story. The students will be taking their I ready literacy test along with their writing benchmark over the next few weeks. We are so looking forward to seeing how much your student has grown over the last couple of months.
History- We will be wrapping up our unit about “The Reformation" by designing our own cities, coming up with rules for our cities, and convincing the rest of the class why our city is the best one to live in. So far we have learned about Martin Luther and his “crazy accusations,” Ulrich Zwingli and his “fight” with Luther, King Henry VIII, and John Calvin and his rules for Geneva. We will finish out our content for this unit with Reformation Scientists: Copernicus and Galileo. At the end of this unit we will have a group project in which we will create a newspaper about the Reformation. This will be a large grade and it will be important that we follow the directions and schedule that will be in Google Classroom in order to be successful with this assignment. Once we finish up this unit we will move into learning about “The Golden Age of England.”
Science- We are starting our Matter unit, this will continue through the whole trimester. Half the students will be with me for science and the other half will be with Ms. Jones for STEM, on January 22nd we will switch.
In my class we will be learning all about the states of matter, what matter is, and conduct some fun experiments! Talk with your child about what they learned. You can also quiz them by asking them how different things can change into a different state of matter, ex. water.
STEM NEWS
Fifth grade starts STEM in the second trimester. There are a few changes to the structure of STEM this year. Your student will have STEM for ½ of trimester two. Their science class will be divided into two groups and ½ of the students will be in science while the other ½ is in STEM. Students will begin the split of Science/STEM on November 27th. The first group in STEM will be 11/27-1/19. The second group will be 1/22-2/23. Each group will have both individual and partner assignments to deepen their understanding of coding, robotics and the Engineering Design Process. The most exciting part of this change is that your student will have 14 students (on average) in their science and STEM classes for the whole trimester. What an exciting opportunity to have small class sizes for more small group teaching and in depth discovery!
The unit will start with EV3 robots for the first 4 weeks. These robots are a Lego Education product and the students will continue to develop their block coding skills on the EV3 platform, while using the sensors on the EV3 robots. There will be mini challenges within the EV3 Space Challenge. At the very end of our STEM time in 5th grade, we will introduce Electrical Circuits to students. This will be beneficial for all of their projects in Middle School STEM. I am so excited for STEM this year and it will be so fun to see the growth from last year.
Specials
Here are the links to the Specials teacher’s classes. Please open and view to see what your child is working on in Specials.
MB Elementary Music News | Mr. Richardson
MB Elementary PE News | Ms. Bauer
MB Elementary Tech News | Mrs. Brown
MB Elementary Art News | Ms. Easton
Sincerely Your 5th grade team
Mr. Anderson
Ms. Bambury
Ms. Ericson
Ms. Hein
Ms. Mitchell
For more event dates, please visit the Event Calendar on www.aak8.org. For questions or concerns about an event date, please contact Michele Quintana.
Dear American Academy Parents,
What an amazing fall we are having, except for the one snow storm which is getting us ready for winter. November will be a busy month for the 5th graders as they will be finishing the 1st trimester, going to Outdoor Education, participating in Veteran's Day and our food drive for Parker Task Force.
Scholastic Book Order
Book orders are due on November 26, 2023. Books make great holiday gifts! Order now for delivery before winter break! Our class code is TQPQK last name Ericson
Stone Canyon
Final chance to sign up! Sign ups are due by Nov. 10th! Again make sure to sign-up on the school store and through Stone Canyon.
We will be going November 29-December 1st.
2324 MB - Grd 5 Stone Canyon - FULL PMT OPTION
You must also register through Stone Canyon, student registrations are now live and can be found here.
Parker Task Force Food Drive
Starts up November 6th. Please drop off non-perishable food items during AM carpool. A huge thank you in advance for helping those in need! I believe there will be a competition between grades if not classes for who can bring in the most food. So, let’s go, fifth grade!
Grading Policy
Late Work- Late assignments in fourth through fifth grade are marked 10% off if submitted within one school day of the due date and time and 50% off if submitted within two school days of the due date and time. If the assignment is not submitted within two school days of the due date and time, there will be no credit awarded.
Trimester 1 will come to an end on November 24, 2023. All assignments for all classes will be due by Friday, November 17, 2023, before we go on Thanksgiving Break.
Curriculum updates
Literacy- In the last couple of weeks we have been working writing an informational paper on bats and ghosts. It has been fun to see what the students have learned about each topic and what they chose to put into their papers. Over the next two weeks we will be starting a novel study about The Adventures of Don Quixote. This will lead us up to Thanksgiving break or there about. When we return from Thanksgiving break we will be starting our next round of diagnostic testing for trimester 2.
Math- In math we are learning all about the wonderful world of geometry in chapter 15, and about how to find the volume of prisms in chapter 16. We are all starting to work at different places so depending on which class your student is in will depend on where they are. As a fifth grade team we would like to see our students doing I-ready lessons to improve their math skills. Please encourage your child to do these lessons, they can do them at home on their computers or tablets. They just need a log-in badge, students should see their math teacher for a log in badge.
History- We recently finished our unit about “The Renaissance" and have started our next unit about “The Reformation.” This is a period of time where countries all over Europe are changing due to the spread of ideas from the Renaissance. Some of these changes are good, while others will cause significant problems. While this unit is not as “action packed” as some of our other units, there is a great emphasis on cause and effect. In this unit we will learn about the impact of Martin Luther, mini wars, fist fighting in the streets over religious ideas, and much more. At the end of this unit we will have a group project in which we will create a newspaper about the Reformation. This will be a large grade and it will be important that we follow the directions and schedule that is laid out in Google Classroom in order to be successful with this assignment. Once we finish up this unit we will move into learning about “The Golden Age of England.”
Science- We have wrapped up our Space Systems unit; they had a blast learning all about our Sun, moon and how they move through space. It was absolutely amazing that we had a solar eclipse during that unit! I loved hearing from all the kids who were able to witness the eclipse first hand! Last week we started our Earth Systems unit. We are learning about the 4 spheres of the Earth; biosphere, geosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere. That unit will take us up to winter break. In the second trimester we will be starting the matter unit and STEM. Half the students will go to STEM, and the other half will be with me, then half way through the trimester we will switch. More information will be coming about that in the next newsletter.
Specials
Here are the links to the Specials teacher’s classes. Please open and view to see what your child is working on in Specials.
MB Elementary Music News | Mr. Richardson
MB Elementary PE News | Ms. Bauer
MB Elementary Tech News | Mrs. Brown
MB Elementary Art News | Ms. Strobel
Sincerely Your 5th grade team
Mr. Anderson
Ms. Bambury
Ms. Ericson
Ms. Hein
Ms. Mitchell
For more event dates, please visit the Event Calendar on www.aak8.org. For questions or concerns about an event date, please contact Michele Quintana.
Friday, September 25, 2023
Dear American Academy Parents,
Time sure is passing by quickly in 5th grade. We are full into content learning in all of our classes. The excitement the kids have for each subject has been fantastic. We have a few things happening before we head into fall break, hard to believe that it is in less than a month. We have a field trip, conferences and once we come back from fall break it will be time for our fall parties.
Supplies
Please make sure that your child has headphones at school. They are essential to have at school every day. We have noticed that some students have already lost or broken theirs. Please also check with your child to make sure they have enough pencils at school in their pencil pouch. Some students have been asking daily for pencils.
The blue bags we have in class to carry out computers have been getting holes. If your student asks to bring a reusable bag to school to use it would be a huge help to use if they could do that. We are working with PTO to see if they can replace them but in the meantime we will need a reusable bag if theirs gets torn.
Fall Conferences
Fall conferences are here! They are October 11th and 12th. You can sign up for one conference for 5th grade. You will choose the teacher that you would like to meet with. Please do not sign up for multiple teachers. Below are the links:
Anderson: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0E44A5AA2DA7FBC70-44584626-fall
Bambury: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090F45ABAD2CA6F49-44615661-fall
Ericson: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/805054BA5AB2EA0FB6-44559825-ericson
Hein:https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0F49ADA72AA7FBC25-44596983-hein
Mitchell: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/409094FABAE22A1F85-44557443-parent
Field Trip to Lone Tree Performing Arts
We are excited to let you know about our first field trip of the year! Fifth graders will be going to see a play at the Lone Tree Performing arts on September 26, 2023. The name of the play is “ A Noble Journey, a Box Named Freedom.” As you are aware, we are not able to provide district buses or transportation, and you will be responsible for providing transportation for your child to and from our field trip destination. You will need to drop your child off at the Lone Tree Arts Center at 11:30am. It is imperative that you are on time, as we must have all students in the theater and in their seats by the start of the performance. Please plan on picking up your child by 1:30pm.
Although our field trip days are experiential learning days, we would like to provide you with the option of having your child attend school during the morning. Please know that if you are planning on having your child attend school for the morning, the hours will be from 8:05 am to 10:45am. We will not be providing lunch prior to the field trip, so you will need to plan accordingly. Understandably, the morning will be non-academic and will be structured with additional enrichment activities relating to the field trip.
If you choose to have your child attend school for the morning, you should plan to pick up your child from American Academy at 10:45am, allowing enough time for both teachers and students to arrive at the Lone Tree Arts Center. Please fill out a quick form, letting us know if you are planning on having your child attend school for the morning.
2324 MB - Mr. Anderson's Class
2324 MB - Ms. Mitchell's Class
Fall Parties
Our Fall parties will be held on October 27, 2023, starting around 2pm. Students will be able to be in costume all day if they would like, or they can change after lunch. It is suggested that costumes relate to our core knowledge themes. Room parents will be in touch with details of what we need.
Stone Canyon
You all should have received an email now regarding Stone Canyon. This is such a highly anticipated trip that the students talk about for the rest of the year! It is amazing to watch them learn and grow in this incredible out of class environment. The bonds they develop I have seen last through middle school!
Please see the email from Ms. Ericson for the links to register! I have also attached the links below for your convenience. We will be going November 29-December 1st.
The payment plan link will expire at midnight on 9/15. The full payment option will expire at midnight on 11/21. Please note that payment 2 for the payment plan option will be pulled on 10/16, as 10/15 is a Sunday.
2324 MB - Grd 5 Stone Canyon - FULL PMT OPTION
2324 MB - Grd 5 Stone Canyon - PAYMENT PLAN OPTION
You MUST also register through Stone Canyon, student registrations are now live and can be found here.
The parent Zoom meeting will be on Tuesday October 3rd at 6pm.
If you have any questions please use the link below to submit them to Stone Canyon prior to the meeting.
Stone Canyon OE Program Question Form
Grading Policy
Late Work- Late assignments in fourth through fifth grade are marked 10% off if submitted within one school day of the due date and time and 50% off if submitted within two school days of the due date and time. If the assignment is not submitted within two school days of the due date and time, there will be no credit awarded.
Absent Work
If your student is absent from school it is their responsibility to talk to the teachers about the work they missed. They need to talk to them on the day they return to school. They get 2 days for every day they missed to complete the work.
Curriculum updates
Literacy- We have begun our first novel Mr. Tucket by Gary Paulsen. The students are really enjoying the story and learning about Francis and Mr. Grimes. Spelling began on September 11th. Students will be given the words and homework on Monday’s. The homework and the test will be on Friday. Every teacher this year will be having students put all homework in their red folder and writing what the homework is in their planner. They should be bringing those two items home every night. Ms. Hein and Ms. Mitchell will assign one or two iReady lessons per week that need to be passed. Students can complete them at home by following these steps and having their QR code:
Math- In math we completed Chapter 1 Place Value and some classes are almost through Chapter 2 Division. If your child is struggling with the homework or forgot their homework, they can access lessons and the work by going into ED through the AA Clever Portal on a home device. Most classes will be getting math homework Monday through Thursday. Again, the homework will be in the red folder and written in the planner.
History- We have completed our first two units, “World Lakes and Geography,” and “Mayan Civilization.” In our next unit we will be focusing on the Renaissance, first by learning about where and when it happened, and then seeing what life was like during the time period. All of this leads up to one of the greatest inventions of all time - the Gutenberg Press (printing press). During this unit we will also learn about many amazing inventors and their inventions, as well as artists and their artwork.
Science- We finished the unit “Engineering and Technology” last week and are now moving onto “Systems in Space” which is one of my personal favorites! During this unit the students will be completing a moon journal outside of school. I highly recommend putting it on the fridge so it does not get lost! This is a great way to observe how the moon changes over the course of a month. We will also be learning about gravity, the Sun. eclipses, and Earth’s place in the solar system.
Specials
Here are the links to the Specials teacher’s classes. Please open and view to see what your child is working on in Specials.
MB Elementary Music News | Mr. Richardson
MB Elementary PE News | Ms. Bauer
MB Elementary Tech News | Mrs. Brown
MB Elementary Art News | Ms. Strobel
Sincerely Your 5th grade team
Mr. Anderson
Ms. Bambury
Ms. Ericson
Ms. Hein
Ms. Mitchell
For more event dates, please visit the Event Calendar on www.aak8.org. For questions or concerns about an event date, please contact Michele Quintana.
Friday, September 1, 2023
Dear American Academy Parents,
Wow what a great two weeks we’ve had. We have really enjoyed getting to know your children and all the things they can do. We have finished up with beginning of the year testing and are well on our way to learning, new curriculum. We have many events coming your way in September so please continue reading to see the exciting things fifth grade will be doing.
Back to School Night
Please join us on September 7, 2023 for Back to School Night at 6pm. During our Back to School Night, you will have the opportunity to follow your child’s schedule, experience what their day looks like, and hear from each of their 5th grade teachers. This parent-only event is a great time to get to know the teachers and find out what your child will be learning this year. Please ask your child for their schedule.
Scholastic Book Order
Book orders are Due on September 8, 2023, please order your books soon! Our class code is TQPQK last name Ericson
Field Trip to Lone Tree Performing Arts
We are excited to let you know about our first field trip of the year! Fifth graders will be going to see a play at the Lone Tree Performing arts on September 26, 2023. The name of the play is “ A Noble Journey, a Box Named Freedom.” As you are aware, we are not able to provide district buses or transportation, and you will be responsible for providing transportation for your child to and from our field trip destination. You will need to drop your child off at the Lone Tree Arts Center at 11:30am. It is imperative that you are on time, as we must have all students in the theater and in their seats by the start of the performance. Please plan on picking up your child by 1:30pm.
Although our field trip days are experiential learning days, we would like to provide you with the option of having your child attend school during the morning. Please know that if you are planning on having your child attend school for the morning, the hours will be from 8:05 am to 10:45am. We will not be providing lunch prior to the field trip, so you will need to plan accordingly. Understandably, the morning will be non-academic and will be structured with additional enrichment activities relating to the field trip.
If you choose to have your child attend school for the morning, you should plan to pick up your child from American Academy at 10:45am, allowing enough time for both teachers and students to arrive at the Lone Tree Arts Center. Please fill out a quick form, letting us know if you are planning on having your child attend school for the morning.
We will need 5 chaperones for this field trip. The first five parents to email Ms. Mitchell will be our chaperones.
2324 MB - Mr. Anderson's Class
2324 MB - Ms. Mitchell's Class
Stone Canyon
You all should have received an email now regarding Stone Canyon. This is such a highly anticipated trip that the students talk about for the rest of the year! It is amazing to watch them learn and grow in this incredible out of class environment. The bonds they develop I have seen last through middle school!
Please see the email from Ms. Ericson for the links to register! I have also attached the links below for your convenience. We will be going November 29-December 1st.
The payment plan link will expire at midnight on 9/15. The full payment option will expire at midnight on 11/21. Please note that payment 2 for the payment plan option will be pulled on 10/16, as 10/15 is a Sunday.
2324 MB - Grd 5 Stone Canyon - FULL PMT OPTION
2324 MB - Grd 5 Stone Canyon - PAYMENT PLAN OPTION
You must also register through Stone Canyon, student registrations are now live and can be found here.
Grading Policy
Late Work- Late assignments in fourth through fifth grade are marked 10% off if submitted within one school day of the due date and time and 50% off if submitted within two school days of the due date and time. If the assignment is not submitted within two school days of the due date and time, there will be no credit awarded.
Curriculum updates
Literacy- In the last couple of weeks we have been working our beginning of year testing. We have also worked with the books the students have read over the summer. Next week we will begin our first novel Mr. Tucket by Gary Paulsen. Spelling will begin on September 11th. Students will be given the words and homework on Monday’s. The homework and the test will be on Friday. Every teacher this year will be having students put all homework in their red folder and writing what the homework is in their planner. They should be bringing those two items home every night.
Math- In math we completed our beginning of the year testing and have moved onto Chapter 13, Numerical Expressions, in Go Math. Most classes will be getting math homework Monday through Thursday. Again, the homework will be in the red folder and written in the planner.
History- For the last few weeks we have been working on finding out why we study history, learning about geography, and about lakes. We will be taking our first vocabulary quiz on Friday, September 8, this will also be our first grade. Please keep in mind that this is still the beginning of the school year and more grades will be put in soon. In the coming weeks we will start a "Passport" project where we will "travel" to all of the major lakes in the world. Once we are done with our Lakes and Geography unit we will spend a week learning about the Mayan civilization before we start learning about the period known as the "Renaissance."
Science- We are starting out the year with the unit “Engineering and Technology.” During this unit they will learn about how to brainstorm ideas, develop prototypes, and how finished products come into being. We will be learning how engineering and math go hand in hand as well as how technology affects our society. We will also be learning about lab safety and what it means to be a scientist.
We are using a new curriculum this year, it is the same platform that GoMath is on. I am so excited to share this new curriculum with your students!
Specials
Here are the links to the Specials teacher’s classes. Please open and view to see what your child is working on in Specials.
MB Elementary Music News | Mr. Richardson
MB Elementary PE News | Ms. Bauer
MB Elementary Tech News | Mrs. Brown
MB Elementary Art News | Ms. Strobel
Sincerely Your 5th grade team
Mr. Anderson
Ms. Bambury
Ms. Ericson
Ms. Hein
Ms. Mitchell
For more event dates, please visit the Event Calendar on www.aak8.org. For questions or concerns about an event date, please contact Michele Quintana.