Mrs. Sherratt’s Class Update

Hello Parents,

We had a great start to our new school year! Your kids are amazing and I enjoyed my first few days getting to know them. We’re still working our way through rules and procedures, and “housekeeping” items, but we’re well on our way to a wonderful year together.

You should have seen (and signed daily) a yellow planner/reading log packet last week. The students will receive a new planner/reading log today. The packet is blue this week and will come home each night. Your child needs to read for 20 Minutes, then take another 5-10 minutes to write 3-5 sentences about what he/she reads. Please read over your child’s response each day and make sure they’re completing the assignment neatly and to the best of their ability, then initial on the day. Five days of reading are required each week and the 6th day will be for bonus points. 

Your child should be able to explain to you how the planner works as well. We haven’t gotten into much curriculum yet, but we will this week. Your student should be writing down each assignment as we begin it. If the assignment is not due that day, I will write down the due date on the board and your child will also write down the due date on his/her planner. If the assignment is due that day and your child has completed it, they will put a check-mark next to the assignment. If they did not complete the assignment and it was due that day, it becomes homework and they will bring it home to be completed and returned the following day.

We discussed Reading Revolution requirements last week and your child should have brought home two blue papers that show the details. Those papers should be kept safe for future reference if needed. I did notice that several were left in cubbys over the weekend, so you may want to remind your child to bring the papers home if you haven’t seen them. 

As I said, we will work our way into more and more curriculum as the week progresses. The following is information on upcoming curriculum and events…

Curriculum

CKLA: Unit #1 Personal Narratives--Students will learn about personal narratives as part of the reading throughout this unit. They will also work on their own personal narratives, so you can help them brainstorm an exciting story they might want to share through writing. 

Spelling: We will begin spelling next week. We will practice in class, however, your child should be practicing at home as well.

Grammar/L. A.: We’ve got some fun activities planned for this week to help the students better understand and use adjectives. Ask your child about their big green monster!!

Math: Chapter 1: This unit covers the following concepts

• Investigating place value and patterns

• Place Value with Whole Numbers

• Algebra-Properties

• Algebra-Powers of 10 and exponents

• Algebra-Multiplication patterns

• Multiplying by 1-digit numbers

• Multiplying by multi-digit numbers

• Relating multiplication to division

• Algebra-Numerical expressions

• Algebra-Evaluate numerical expressions

• Algebra-Grouping symbols

Upcoming

August 30 Look for Patriot Pass-off book

September 6 Labor Day--no school

September 8 DaRE begins with Officer Uresk

September 15         Book Report Due

September 17         Mid-term--check grades

September 23         Field Trip to Mammoth Caves

Sept.27-Oct. 1 SEP Week--School is out at 2:30 Daily

5th Grade Back to School Night 2021

March 5, 2021

 Hello Parents,

      I haven't updated our blog for several weeks, but I can assure the classroom has been buzzing! Mrs. Evarts has been solo teaching for the past three weeks and it's been amazing to watch. She's introduced the students to many new games that correlated with each day's math lesson, she has made reading from CKLA  interesting and engaging for the students, and she incorporated a number of "technology helpers" along the way. She has done a phenomenal job with the students and has been a wonderful asset to our classroom. We'll begin to team teach more and more over the next few weeks as we transition into me taking over all subjects again. I've missed teaching the kids and it's been fun to work in a few lessons this week. Mrs. Evarts will be finished with her student teaching on March 26th, and we will definitely miss her.

Curriculum:

Reading: We're continuing to work through the Renaissance Unit. That unit should be completed by the end of the month and we'll move on to our Native Americans Unit. Students will learn about how Native Americans used the land for survival. They will discover how different groups of people across the land survived in different ways depending on the geographic region they lived in and write an essay to highlight the newly acquired information.

Writing: During the month of March, students will focus on a variety of writing strategies as well as writing for a variety of reasons/audiences. We'll move on to the Native American essay in April. 

Math: We're finishing the fractions chapters this week and will move on to algebra patterns and graphing next week.

Social Studies: We are currently focusing on the forming of the U.S. Government formation.

Science: Mrs. Evarts has been teaching the students about circuits and will begin teaching a unit on magnets next week.

Upcoming:

March 8--Book report due

March 11--9:00-11:00- Kindergarten Registration

March 11 @ 1:00-South Spelling Bee

March 12--End Quarter 3

March 15 and 16--Teacher Contract Days-No school for students or teachers.

March 26--Mrs. Evarts' last day

March 31--Spring Pictures

April 19--1st Quarter 4 Book Report Due

 

Hello Parents,

We’ve now been back from our winter break for a couple of weeks, and we’ve spent our time together productively! The kids came back healthy and ready to learn. We were also very lucky to have welcomed our new student teacher, Mrs. Shannon Everts, to our classroom (more info. below). She’s doing a phenomenal job and the students are really enjoying her teaching style.

We just finished our units on adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing decimals and started our first fractions unit yesterday. During this unit, students will extend their knowledge of fractions by learning to add and subtract fractions with unlike denominators. 

We’re going to be wrapping up our Don Quixote unit in language arts soon. This unit lends itself well to writing an opinion essay, so we’re currently reviewing that process as a class. Once we’ve reviewed opinion writing as a class, students will write their own opinion essay.   

    The students are currently researching/reading information on the bald eagle and how it came to be our national bird (Did you know that some people wanted the turkey to be our national bird?  ).  They’re also researching/reading about turkeys to form an opinion about which bird they would have chosen.

We’ll soon begin our unit on the Renaissance. During this unit, students will learn about many of the great influencers of that time.  Though out this unit we will weave in concepts to help students produce an informational essay.

In science we recently began exploring static electricity. This unit should be very fun for the students as they explore and learn about static and electric currents.

Mrs. Evarts has prepared some very engaging activities to get the students excited to learn about the Revolutionary War. She has included some writing activities along with art and research projects. 

Upcoming…

1-18 No school--Martin Luther King Day

1-22 Cedar Middle school visit

1-25 SEP appointments sent home

1-27 SEP appointment confirmations due 

2-1 First quarter 3 book report due

2-1 thru 2-5 SEP week. School is out at 2:30 daily

1/14/2021

Dear Parents and guardians of Mrs. Sherratt’s class, 

My name is Shannon Evarts I’m so excited to be working with your student for the next 10 weeks as a student-teacher. I grew up in Alaska, this is where I met my husband and had four wonderful children. Our family moved to Cedar City 3½ years ago and I decided to return to school and finish up my teaching degree. This will be my last semester at SUU and I’m very lucky to be assigned to South Elementary. Under Mrs. Sherratt’s direction, I will be teaching the students and hope to give them a positive and educational experience. In the last two weeks, I’ve had the chance to observe in the classroom and began to get to know these amazing kids. I’m so grateful for this opportunity to work with your student and I hope to meet you soon!

Sincerely,

Shannon Evarts

 November 11, 2020

5th Grade November 2020 Newsletter 

Upcoming Dates:

Nov. 12th--24th- NO ORCHESTRA 

Nov. 13th- Mid-Term of Second Quarter

Nov. 16th- Time Circle Party--Movie and a snack--Mrs. Sherratt’s class only

Nov. 20th- All work due to qualify for Workers Holiday

Nov. 24th- Final Day for DARE Essays to be submitted 

Nov. 24th- Worker’s Holiday- READ-A-THON- Clean Pillows, Water and snacks allowed

Nov.24th- Maturation Packets sent home

Nov.24th- Guests from the FRONTIER MUSEUM to visit w/ activities

Nov. 25th-27th- Thanksgiving Holiday

Hello Parents-

Please watch for your students print out to come home and see where they are at with missing work and scores.

Students must have no missing assignments and 80% or higher to qualify for our class

READ-A-THON. 

Reading MOTIVATION- Please encourage your students to keep up their nightly reading goals and

participate in our Reading Revolution Book Report Challenge by reading different genres of books like

Historical Fiction, Battle of the Books, Poetry, Fiction, Award Winner, Folktales, Mystery, Science Fiction.  

It’s Getting COLD OUTSIDE- We need to continue mask breaks through the day. Please send your student

with a warm coat, gloves and a beanie so we can still take breaks outside safely.

Questions or Concerns- Please contact your students teacher. 

darcy.little@ironmail,org, valerie,orton@ironmail.org or beverly,sherratt@ironmail.org

November 11, 2020 Class Update:

Reading: 

We are currently reading about the Maya,, Aztec, and Inca civilizations. The students have learned

some really interesting things about these civilizations and will soon begin a new informative writing

project based on their new knowledge.

Writing/Grammar:

The students have been learning about subject/predicate, linking verbs, run-on sentences,

and words/phrases that compare and contrast. They’ve also been learning about the prefixes

il-, ir-,

and inter-

The students will soon begin writing a 5 paragraph essay that compares/contrasts the Maya,

Aztec,

and Inca civilizations. 

Spelling:

Please help your child practice throughout the week. Interactive practice time  between parent and

child can even replace 4 or 5 minutes of reading time each night.

Math:

The students have been working hard and learning how to add and subtract decimals as well as

completing several problem solving tasks. We will begin Chapter 4; Multiplying Decimals next

week.

Social Studies:

We’ve wrapped up the introduction to the Thirteen Original Colonies and have recently been

learning

about some of the events that led to the American Revolution.

Science:

We finished a short unit on bats where the students (and teacher) learned some really neat

facts

about bats. We will soon begin our next science unit--TBA

 

 5TH GRADE NEWSLETTER

FOR 

SEPTEMBER 18, 2020

Parents,

     

     Hello there!  What a pleasure it has been to have your children back in school for us to teach.  We appreciate your help with them wearing their masks daily.  The students have been so great to keep their masks on throughout the day and we hope they can continue doing this good until we are told that we don’t have to wear them anymore.  Please make sure the masks are being washed every 2 or 3 days, if not every day, if your child is wearing a cloth mask.  If  your child is wearing a disposable mask, please change it out after 2 days of wearing it.  The students do get mask breaks throughout the day and we hope this is a help to them; I know it is a help to us.  We want to encourage students to bring a water bottle to school.  They can fill their water bottle up at the drinking fountain but should not drink from the water fountain, directly.  Students get hot, especially wearing their masks all day and need to stay hydrated.  Please remember to keep your child at home if he/she is feeling sick, or has symptoms of COVID.  This will help us keep the school up and running.

    Google  We have noticed a few students getting onto the Google Classroom to complete assignments and we ask that they not do this until we have to.  Google Classroom is only to be used if the school shuts down and we go to virtual learning.  The students currently have access to those online resources just to help them become familiar before a shut-down. If a student is sick and has to stay at home for a few days, we encourage parents to email their child’s teacher to make arrangements for them to come into the school to get their child’s work.

     SEP’s are rapidly approaching and your scheduled time will be sent home Monday. Please notice the time we have scheduled for you and your child and let us know if that time works for you.  If the time doesn’t work, indicate a time and day that will work for you, and we will try to make that happen.  Please remember to wear your mask to the conference.

     We are so pleased with the amount of students that signed up for Orchestra this year.  Please make sure your child takes their instrument home with them on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so they can practice.  The instruments will be kept in their teacher’s office to keep them safe when they are brought to school. Other students that don’t take orchestra will be doing extra typing skills, times table drills and working on their Patriot booklets.  Orchestra students will be given a Patriot booklet, as well and can work on it at home; this booklet is optional to complete, but kind of fun to try to get the award for it at the end of the year.

     Our DARE program started and will go for 10 weeks.  If your child’s teacher didn’t get the permission slip back from your child, the they can’t let him/her sit in on the lessons.  If you don’t want your child to attend the class, will you please send in the permission slip indicating that?  Students that don’t attend the class will go into another class during the time DARE is being taught and will complete other work.

     With the weather getting colder, we ask that you help your child each morning in wearing clothes that will help them stay comfortable during the day.  If students wear shorts and short sleeves shirts on a windy, cold day and they don’t bring a jacket or a sweatshirt, they aren’t going to enjoy being outside during lunch break or afternoon break, and unless it is an indoor day, they will be required to stay outside.  We would appreciate your help with this.

Thank you so much for all of the help and support you give us teachers.  We do appreciate your patience with us as we know this year is a whole new learning experience.

                                                                          Sincerely,

      

                                                                          Mrs. Little, Mrs. Orton and Mrs. Sherratt