Welcome to Fifth Grade!

Our Class Rules We have 4 overall class/school rules: Nieman students will respect themselves and others. Nieman students will cooperate. They will follow the instructions of the adults in the building. Nieman students will promote a positive, safe learning environment. Nieman students are prepared learners.

Our Daily Schedule 8:10-8:20 Morning Work 8:20-9:20 Reading 9:30-10:30 Specials 10:30-11:30 Math 11:30-12:05 Social Studies 12:10-12:45 Lunch 12:45-1:15 Spelling/L.A. 1:15 – 1:30 Recess 1:30-2:00 Workshop 2:00-2:30 Tier III 2:30-3:00 Science

Reading Reading will be based on our Open Court books. Some of our units include: Cooperation and Competition, A New Nation, Heritage, and others. Book reports: We will be doing book reports throughout the school year….be watching for notes coming home about them and encourage students to be reading a chapter book each night.

Language Arts Language will be a combination of grammar skills and writing. Grammar skills include: parts of speech, capitalization, punctuation, sentence structure, and much more!

Math Math will focus on three main areas-decimals, fractions, and geometry. You will have homework in math almost every night. You will still be doing Super 6 for morning work, Quick Checks and Power Drills on Fridays, along with other daily assignments. We will be doing timings to improve our multiplication and division skills.

Science We will be helping the district try out a new science program this year focusing on Weather and Water. We will have LOTS of hands-on activities and experiments and really get comfortable with how to conduct a science experiment, making predictions, recording our results and observations. Group work and cooperation will be the key to success!

Social Studies An important subject-American History! Topics will include: Explorers, 13 colonies, American Revolution, Constitution, Westward Movement, Civil War This is the one subject where you will complete a study guide and have chapter tests. The more you pay attention during class and complete your study guide, the more successful you will be!

Homework Get ready to have homework each night and make it part of your nightly schedule. Homework is due first thing the next morning. You will have to spend your recess time finishing any homework that wasn’t completed the night before. Homework is NOT an option, it’s required! You will only have more next year, so this is a good year to get it under control. Shawnee Mission guidelines say there will be about 10 minutes per grade level of homework, so you can expect 45-50 minutes of homework each night.

Planners Planners are to be signed every day. This is a great way to look and see what your child has done that day, and what they need to do for homework. Check to see if there are any notes from your teacher in there, and please feel free to send notes to us in the planners, as we look at them each morning to see if they were signed.

Tardies/Absences School starts at 8:10, but students should be arriving around 8:00 so they have plenty of time to get to their classrooms, get backpacks unloaded, and begin working on their morning work. Morning work is very important math practice each day that they need time to work on. If absent, either leave us a message on our phones or you can call the office about picking up work that they missed so they don’t get too far behind.

School Supplies You ALWAYS Need Pencils Red, pink, or green grading pens Notebook paper Dry-erase markers and eraser Markers, crayons, colored pencils

Field Trips We have fun field trips planned for this year-but we don’t have any of them locked in for sure at this point! We always welcome parent volunteers to come along with us on the field trips-as soon as we know about the field trips, we will let you know about them. Possible field trips: Topeka state capitol building Mahaffie Farmstead in Olathe 5th Grade District Heroes Field Trip at SM South

Last thoughts! Sign-up sheets on the back table for conferences and class parties Take home packet of information Always feel free to let me know if you have any questions or concerns about things that come up during the year!

Let’s Have a Great Year!