As you may know, students in grade 3-8 are now going to be allowed to retake the SOL test if they do not pass it the first time. There are guidelines that must be met in order to be eligible for a retake, and I do not anticipate any of my students needing to retake one, however, this has impacted our expected dates for testing. I have updated my google calendar to reflect the new dates, so please check that out for the most up to date information.
Your children took their Reading MAPS test this morning and did well. Next Tuesday they will take the Math MAPS. There really is no way to study for this, but if you would like for your child to play some math games online that may help review some concepts, check out this link. The games and activities are organized according to strand and the range of score on a MAPS test. You can have your child access activities on their level according to their previous MAP score.
Field day is going to be May 2. More information will be coming home soon about this. If your child wants a field day t-shirt, today is the last day to order it. Visit this link if you are interested. The cost is $9. Orders were supposed to close April 13, but have been extended to April 14.
Information about a field trip to Morefield Mines is coming home this afternoon. We will be going April 29. The cost is $8 for students and $12 for chaperones. If you are interested in being a chaperone, please make sure that your child turns in their permission slip tomorrow! I told them that I would pull names from a hat to choose, but I need to do this soon, so the request to be considered as a chaperone needs to be returned as soon as possible.
We are working on a field trip to Pocahontas Middle School as well. Once the date is finalized, I will send home a permission form for that as well. There is no need for chaperones on this trip as eighth grade students will be escorting our fifth graders around in small groups and showing them all of the important rooms.
We are on track to finish up with math and science SOLs in the next few weeks. In math we are currently studying geometry. We have reviewed important circle vocabulary and are moving on to angles and triangles for the remainder of this week and next. Your child will need to measure angles using a protractor, so if you do not have one at home, now might be a good time for them to get one so they can practice. Unfortunately, I can not send protractors home with the students as I only have a limited supply. A test will be toward the end of next week. Please access the class calendar for more information.
In science we are wrapping up our study of sound. A test will be on Thursday. We will then move onto our last unit about light. After that we will review some fourth grade standards before the SOL test. After the test, I have some cool science projects planned!
In writing, your child is putting all of the usage and mechanics skills they learned last nine weeks to the test. They are writing their very on stories that must entertain and correctly use quotations, commas, and apostrophes. They seem to really be into it and I'm excited to read what they are writing.