A Note From Your Fifth Grade Teachers
Fifth Grade Connections
March 2nd, 2017
5th Graders + Kindness = Lots of Love
We enjoyed making Valentines for our senior neighbors with our learning buddies.
Strolling Main Street to distribute handmade felt hearts was highlight.
We captured our week of kindness on hearts.
Exchanging incredibly creative Valentines
What We Have Been Learning

Social Studies

  • Tomorrow we "set sail" for the "New World". We are playing a simulation game where colonists (students) pull Fate Card and travel and establish a colony. Whichever colony has the most units at the end, wins! 

  • We will celebrate the end of our Colony unit with Colonial Day on Friday, March 17th! An email went out calling for help along with a sign up genius. Please consider helping to make this fun day happen!
Writer's Workshop
  • We are working on our second Essay, "Do Something."
  • Students are brainstorming social and global issues that they want to help solve.
  • These issues can be emotionally charged.
Reader's Workshop
  • Students are looking at pivotal moments in their books. Pivotal moments are when the stories take an unexpected turn.
  • I will be assessing students' reading this week, giving them specific feedback on how to improve their reading.

Math

FRACTIONS:

1/4 + 2/8 + 1/2 =

Solve the above problem without finding a common denominator and your fraction knowledge will be as good as a 5th graders. 

We want our children to think like heart surgeons who open the sternum and look at the heart to decide how to solve the problem based on what they know about the parts and the problem they encounter in front of them.

We want our children to see fractions and know what they represent and how to add, subtract, multiply and divide them because they understand the value and how the numbers are affected by the operations. We want fractions to be fascinating, not frustrating.

Science

We finished up our element personification writing and explored the bizarre property of matter:  solubility. How much salt can dissolve in 50ml of water? What if we do the same experiment with citric acid? Same amount?
Ask Your Child About

Talking with your child is the best way to support classroom learning. The following questions can help you get started.

  • What's a way to handle powerful, but hurtful words, like "just kidding" and "Don't be so sensitive"?
  • Was there any actions from your Week of Kindness that you'd like to adopt?  What would you like to do as a family to show and share kindness?
  • What kind of issues in the world/school/local/friends have your heard of? Why do these bother you?
  • What questions do you have about any of the issues that were broght up in class?

Your child should be reading for 30 minutes each day!
 Musical Reminders
Costume Requirements: The fifth grade students are cast as the whimsical  Whos from Whoville. Your child is asked to wear a  brightly colored stripe shirt and solid color pants or  brightly striped dress and solid color leggings with  a contrasting brightly colored pair of sneakers (Converse, Vans, etc.) on the evening of the performance.

Children may choose which color to wear but  please avoid neutral colors, such as black, brown, gray, white or tan. Other costume items will be provided by the school. 
Musical Performances:  Thursday, March 9th - Friday, March 10th,   7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m., Kohrs Family Center.  Fifth grade  performers should arrive at the Theatre by 6:15 p.m. 

Volunteers Needed:  We are currently looking for volunteers to help break down the stage after  Friday  night's performance. If you are available, please contact  Michelle Giacotto. We would greatly appreciate it! 


Sign Up for Conferences
We look forward to seeing you at the upcoming end of second-trimester conferences on  March 23rd and 24th . Please follow the link below to sign up.
Athletics Updates
Girls Basketball and Boys Soccer seasons are quickly coming to an end! Next week will be the last regular season games for Winter II teams. 
  • Our Boys Soccer team currently has a record of one win and four losses with two games to play and will probably not make playoffs this season. 

  • All the members of our 6th Grade Girls Basketball team this season showed great improvement. We have a bright future in girls basketball due to their efforts this season. There are no playoffs at the 6th grade level.

  • Our 7th Grade Girls Basketball team currently has a 4 win, 3 loss record and will play as a third seed in playoffs beginning on Tuesday, March 14th as a three seed.

  • Our 8th Grade Girls Basketball team ended their regular season with a six wins and no losses. They will be a one seed in playoffs beginning on Tuesday, March 14th and host this game at Sea Crest. Way to go girls!!
Athletics Recognition Assembly - Friday, March 17th, 8:30 a.m.
Please plan on attending our next Athletics Recognition Assembly as we honor our student athletes who participated on a Winter II athletic team.
Tennis  season begins the week of  March 20th . There will be two practice teams. A player development team (practices Tue. and Thurs. mornings) and a Match Prep. Team (practices Wed. and Fri. mornings).  All interested players will need to attend the first two practices scheduled for Tuesday, March 21st, 7:00-8:00 a.m. and Wednesday, March 22nd, 7:00-8:00 a.m. This is how your child will be place on either the Player Development Group, or the Match Prep. Group.

If your child would like to play on the Sea Crest Tennis Team, please click here to register them on TeamSnap. Registration will close on  March 13th , so get your registration in early. For more information, click here.
Upcoming Events
Musical Performances, Thursday, March 9th - Friday, March 10th, 7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m., Kohrs Family Center.

Athletics Recognition Assembly, Friday March 17th, 8:30 a.m., Kohrs Family Center.

Colonial Day, Friday March 17th. 

Año Nuevo Field Trip, Wednesday March 22nd.

Report Cards Emailed Home,  Wednesday March 22nd.

Conference Days, Thursday March 23rd (minimum day) and Friday March 24th (no school).
Additional Photos & Videos

Do you have photos or videos you'd be willing to share with the school? 

Please click here to upload them to SmugMug, or email us at [email protected].
How to Reach Us

If questions ever arise, please do not hesitate to reach out! We are available by email at: [email protected] and/or [email protected]. Email is our preferred method of communication. We will check our email after school daily. If there is an emergency, please call Cathy at the front desk, at 650.712.9892.
SEA CREST SCHOOL  |  seacrestschool.org  |  650.712.9892