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Welcome to 5th grade science. This is my 16th year in teaching and my 13th year to teach 5th grade, which is my absolute favorite grade level ! We will explore life, earth, and physical science throughout the year. Most of this will be new for our students so please feel free to enrich at home through interesting science TV programs, outside explorations, plus trips to the zoo or science museums. This year we will start out learning about systems and then flow into physical science.

Although science in 5th grade seems more difficult than prior years since students take a Science TAKS test in 5th grade, I try to provide as many hands-on, minds-on experiences as possible to ensure students' engagement and success. If your student seems to be overwhelmed by the science curriculum, please contact me so we can discuss ways to help your child feel comfortable and be successful. To help give students hands-on experiences, we were able to turn the Atrium into Dunn's Inside/Out Lab teeming full of plants and critters using a National Semiconductor Grant. We have turtles, a tortoise, frogs, snails, and lizards. The whole school is enjoying keeping track of the critters. One of our turtles even laid an egg in June :)

You can check their planner everyday to see what homework they have. For science I have the students write and circle their homework in red. Our homework will mainly be the Science Snack Sacks I created last year. Each sack has a book and materials to do science experiments. The students will read the book the first night and write a short summary in their science notebooks. The next night they will do the science experiments listed and record what they did and what they learned in their science notebook. We will have homework most nights, Monday-Thursday. If your student is having difficulties completing the homework in a timely manner or understanding the concept or instructions please just send me a note and I will help the student. With a note, we will also excuse students for emergencies such as student illness or family emergencies.

Any graded paper below a 70 must be corrected and returned with a parent signature the next day. This will help correct wrong concepts. I will go over the concepts again with the students before sending the papers home.