Welcome to 5th Grade Parents, this is going to be a new and exciting year for you and your child. Fifth grade is a growing year for our students. I am excited about having your child in my class. Mrs. Dickson and I strive  to make your child responsible for their own learning, more independent, and organized.  We have very high expectations for our students. Things will not always be easy, however, we will help them succeed to the best of our abilities. There is a great deal of new material that will be covered throughout the school year.  An informed and active parent is always beneficial to a child's success. Social Studies   We are currently studying the Native Americans and Their Land.  We will be looking at the different groups of Native Americans that settled in North America. We will study what natural resources they used to survive and what products they made from those resources. Fifth graders are responsible for learning and knowing the fifty states and their capitals.  Weekly homeowrk work will be given to help them, however, there is not a lot of in class time spent on doing this.  They will be tested each 9-week period over a portion of the states. They will need to know how to spell the state, its capital and where to locate it on the U.S. map. Reading Students are responsible for reading 20 minutes every night.  Reading homework may be given on a periodic basis.  We will be working in literacy circles this year.  It will be the students responsibility to have assigned chapters read by class time each day that their group meets.  Failure to read assigned chapters will result in a loss of recess or free time.  More information will be sent home to parents at a later time. Language Arts Weekly spelling homework will be assigned on Monday and be due by Friday. There will not be a significant amount of time given in class for spelling homework. Spelling tests will be given on Fridays. Spelling books are checked out to students the first week of school.  These will be the only books that students are held responsible for at the end of the year. We will have daily oral language warm-ups and daily writing activities. Most language /grammar work will be done in class. Students may have occasional  homework, but not on a daily basis. High Frequency Words A list of 100 high frequency words will be sent home with students in the first two weeks.  These words will be added to the weekly spelling list in small sections (5 words weekly). These are words that the district feels 5th graders should know from past exposure and are held accountable for on all written work turned in for grades. Important Dates: Sept. 4 - Labor Day Holiday (NO SCHOOL) Sept. 6 - History Alive Chapter 2 Test Sept. 8 - Genre Test in Reading and Sentence Test in Language Sept. 13 - Grandparent's Day for 5th Grade Sept. 27 - State Project Due                           If at any time you have questions or concerns please feel free to call me at 281-252-2133 or e-mail at lfox@magnoliaisd.org.