March 21st-25th

General Announcements:	5k for a Cause is this Friday, March 25th. There will have inflatables, tug-of-war, healthy snacks, and our annual 5k fun run (or walk). This is a fun day for our students to be active, have fun, and be a part of giving back to our community.  For more details- 5K for a Kause information. You are welcome to come join your child for some or part of the activities on this day! See the schedule below.  It is NOT too late for your child to participate in our 5K for a Kause.  The $5 entry fee will be accepted through Thursday.   3rd Nine week's report cards came home last Wednesday. Please return a signed copy if you have not done so already.  NEXT WEEK is Spring Break- MARCH 28th-April 3rd (Schools and offices will be closed all week!) We hope you all have a wonderful week of rest and fun!  Mr. Josh Lynch, Brock's Gap/Bumpus Middle School band director spoke to our students during their Music classes last week. He sent an information letter home about band.  Let us know if this information didn't make it home and we can make sure you get another copy.   ACT ASPIRE Testing is soon...... 5th Grade Testing April 11-14 Grade Date Test Amount of Time 5 Monday, April 11 Reading 65 minutes 5 Tuesday, April 12 Math 65 minutes 5 Wednesday, April 13 English and Writing 40 minutes and 30 minutes 5 Thursday, April 14 Science 60 minutes ****This testing is usually done right away each morning  between 8:00-10:00 A.M.  5th Grade Explorers (Tentative schedule for this FRIDAY) 8:10-8:25 -Cheer (Stadium) 8:30- 8:45- Edge Tennis-> Warm-up station 8:50-9:30-Start Line/Run 9:35-9:55-Hydration Station* 10:00-10:20-Concessions 10:20-10:45-Cheer  10:45-11:15 Lunch 11:20-11:52- Tug-Of-War 11:55-12:27-Nutrition station` 12:30-1:02-Inflatables~ 1:05-1:37- {YMCA fun } 1:40-Stop-ALL festivities-go to stadium 1:45-2:30 EVERYONE- Closing Ceremonies (In Stadium)- Surprise event!!!! AND PIES!!
	There will be no Tween Tribune or spotlight reader this week. We are discussing poetry this week. We are looking at the theme in the poem and uncovering hidden meaning. We will have a cold read on Thursday, as we have to make up the cold read from last week after some technology glitches.  We will NOT have Grammar IXL this week. We will be completing a Language arts ACT review packet in the mornings instead.
Social Studies:	We are going to finish talking about the Industrial Revolution this week. We will discuss important inventions, inventors, and events. We will have a quiz on Tuesday, March 22nd on the Industrial Revolution. There will not be a study guide, the students will need participate and look over information from class. They can also use this quizizz to review the information.
Math:	New IXL activities were assigned today and are due FRIDAY. Here is a Link to IXL activities for March 21st-25th.These are DUE FRIDAY!  Homework this week will involve application of the skills we are doing in class each day! Today we worked on LINE PLOTS.  We have a busy week in Math.  We are learning about how to understand and graph points on the Coordinate Plane, how to understand and create Line Plots, and are going to try to squeeze in a little Geometry review!
Science:	We started our new unit, "A Long Way Down: Designing Parachutes." This unit introduces the field of aerospace engineering by guiding students to explore how aerospace engineers design and test technologies to be used in extra-terrestrial (non-Earth) environments. This unit involves hands-on activities, discussions, and readings to introduce the Engineering Design Process, the work of aerospace engineers, and other engineering and technology concepts.  The culminating activity at the end of this unit is to test our own parachutes and analyze the results. Science Quiz scheduled for this Thursday. Here is the link to the notes (study guide) for the

March 14th-18th

General Announcements:	Entry deadline is TODAY for 5k for a Cause!  March 25th is our 5k for a cause! We will have inflatables, tug-of-war, healthy snacks, and our annual 5k fun run (or walk).  Please note, the cost is $20 for entry and a t-shirt. You must pay on my school fees. This is a fun day for our students to be active, have fun, and be a part of giving back to our community. For more details- 5K for a Kause information;  Link to myschoolfees.com  You are welcome to email- lbrayfield@hoover.k12.al.us with any questions. BGIS MARCH Madness update- All students at Brock's Gap were introduced to 6 wonderful book choices at a school-wide assembly Reading Rally. For the past month students have been busy reading and reading and reading these books!   Last week the students voted for their favorite  top 4 out of 6, then top 2 out of 4, and finally their top book out of 2.  The favorite BGIS book this year was "Alabma Moon" followed by a close 2nd- "Awkward." Ask your child what was their favorite book and help them find another to read during Spring break!  Be on the lookout for your child's 3rd Nine week's report card coming home this Wednesday!  Eat at Brixx on Tuesday, March 15th to support BGIS! Brixx will donate $3 per 10' pizza and $1 per child pizza to BGIS. If your child is missing any clothing items, please have them check the Lost and Found. After March 18th, all items unclaimed  will be donated to a local charity. Mark your calendars for Spring Break- MARCH 28th-April 3rd.  Our classroom is in need of white cardstock and pencils. Please help replenish our supply!
Language Arts:	Tween Tribune story "Mush! Iditarod race begins" article and quiz are due by Friday, March 18th. We will start over spotlight reader this Friday, March 18th as well. I have really enjoyed hearing about the books the kids choose to read and they have really inspired each other! We are discussing main idea and key details this week. This can be a tough skill for kids, because they have to pull out only 1 or 2 important ideas from a passage. They have to discard unimportant information from the text. We will look at fiction and nonfiction stories. We will have a cold read on Global Scholar on Friday, March 18th.  We will NOT have Grammar IXL this week. We will be completing a Language arts ACT review packet in the mornings instead.
Social Studies:	We are starting to talk about the Industrial Revolution this week. We will discuss important inventions, inventors, and events. We will have a quiz on Tuesday, March 22nd on the Industrial Revolution. There will not be a study guide, the students will need participate and look over information from class.
Math:	Multiplying and Dividing Fractions Study Guide/Homework came home today. It is due Wednesday.  Here is the Link to the Fractions Study Guide. IXL will be assigned on Wednesday and will be due later next week.  Multiplying and Dividing Fractions UNIT TEST is scheduled for Friday!
Science:	Today we started a new unit- "A Long Way Down: Designing Parachutes." This unit introduces the field of aerospace engineering by guiding students to explore how aerospace engineers design and test technologies to be used in extra-terrestrial (non-Earth) environments. This unit involves hands-on activities, discussions, and readings to introduce the Engineering Design Process, the work of aerospace engineers, and other engineering and technology concepts.  The culminating activity at the end of this unit is to test our own parachutes and analyze the results.

March 7th-11th

General Announcements:	Reading Rally Books: Students at Brock's Gap have been challenged to read 6 chapter books! These books were introduced to the students at our school-wide Reading Rally assembly a few weeks ago. We are encouraging our students to "Read, Read, Read!" As students finish one book, they should swap or trade their book for the next one they would like to read! This challenge has been a lot of fun and your children are very excited about what they are reading! We will have our final Reading Rally This Friday, March 11th, so encourage your child to read all 6 by then! On March 18, 2016 we will be donating all items in our lost and found to a nonprofit organization.  Please ask your child to check lost and found for any lost items. Extended Day's Spring Break Camp is open to interested BGIS students.  Please see the attached flyer.  The deadline to register has been extended until March 9, 2016.
Language Arts:	We are talking about summarizing nonfiction this week. We are looking at different texts and picking out the most important information. We will have a cold read on Friday to test summarizing nonfiction. We have been using Global Scholar to take our cold reads because it is very similar to what the ACT Aspire will look like. The article "After a year in space, astronaut says he could do another" was assigned on Tween Tribune last Friday and is due on Friday, March 11th. Students will need to read the article and answer the 3 questions that go along with it. We practiced opening a separate window with the the quiz so that they can easily go back and check their answers, is it is only a 3 question quiz. The assignment is a 10 point homework grade. Because the website will not allow them to retake a quiz, they may read and take other articles and quizzes to average with their score. Spotlight reader will take place on Friday, March 11th as well. The students will need to bring the book of choice they are reading to school be prepared to present the following: book title, author, main characters, basic plot, and a teacher question of choice. I will be choosing students at random, so everyone needs to be prepared! Grammar IXL skills II.1, II.2, KK.1, KK.2 (Level G) are due Friday, March 11th.
Social Studies:	This week we are finishing up our study of Westward Expansion. The Westward Expansion Test will be this Thursday, March 10th. The study guide came home last week and is posted in google classroom. I have posted a quizlet in google classroom for the kids to use to help them study.
Math:	We have been working hard on our understanding and application of multiplying fractions and now dividing fractions. Cumulative Review #20 came home today! Cumulative Review is due Wednesday.  NO New IXL activities were assigned. Last week's activities were due today, several students had not finished when I checked earlier today. There will be a Cumulative Review Test this Friday with an emphasis on multiplying and dividing fractions.
Science:	We are doing hands-on lab investigative activities.  We observed and compared soft-drink solutions. This was a fun lab because they got to taste what we made.  We made salt solutions and compared their concentrations.....we did not taste this activity.   Tomorrow we will determine the relative concentrations of three mystery salt solutions (the most concentrated and the most dilute) by comparing equal volumes on a balance. We will also observe that a mass piece sinks in one liquid and floats in another, because liquids are different densities.   Students are learning to:  plan and carry out investigations, analyze and interpret data, use mathematics and computational thinking, engage in argument from evidence, and ....obtain,  evalutate, and communicate information.   Grades will be taken from Science notebook and  lab activities.   We will also have an open notes Lab Assessment Quiz on Thursday....there will not be a study guide because this is application of what we have been doing in our labs.

February 29th-March 4th

General Announcements:	Reading Rally Books: All students at Brock's Gap have been challenged to read 6 chapter books! Each of these books were introduced to the students at our school-wide Reading Rally assembly a few weeks ago. We are encouraging our students to "Read, Read, Read!" As students finish one book, they should swap or trade their book for the next one they would like to read! This challenge has been a lot of fun and your children are very excited about what they are reading!
Language Arts:	We are talking about summarizing fiction and nonfiction this week. We are practicing with with nursery rhymes, Disney short films, and non-fiction passages. We will have a cold read on Friday to test summarizing. The article "President Obama designates three new national monuments was assigned on Tween Tribune last Friday and is due on Friday, March 4th. Students will need to read the article and answer the 3 questions that go along with it. We practiced opening a separate window with the the quiz so that they can easily go back and check their answers, is it is only a 3 question quiz. The assignment is a 10 point homework grade. Because the website will not allow them to retake a quiz, they may read and take other articles and quizzes to average with their score. Spotlight reader will take place on Friday, March 4th as well. The students will need to bring the book of choice they are reading to school be prepared to present the following: book title, author, main characters, basic plot, and a teacher question of choice. I will be choosing students at random, so everyone needs to be prepared! Grammar IXL skills CC.2, Z.1, Z.2, and HH.1 (Level G) are due Friday, March 4th.
Social Studies:	This week's Unit of study is Westward Expansion. We just finished up a google tour project about Lewis and Clark's expedition. Ask your child to show you their tour on their app! We are discussing the trails to the west and the gold rush.  The test on Westward Expansion will be March 10th. The study guide will come home later this week. I will also post a quizlet in google classroom for the kids to use to help them study.
Math:	We have been working on Multiplying fractions using improper fractions, distributuive property, and area models. We are now moving on to Division of fractions. There won't be a Math Test this week. Cumulative Review #19 came home yesterday! Here is the Cumulative Review #19 link. Something new I started is for students to check their answers on the Math section of the blog. Students have until Thursday to check their answers and make corrections. New IXL activities were assigned and are due next Monday. This week's activities are Level G: M5, M14, M15, M16, N7. No Math test or quiz this week!
Science:	We are doing hands-on lab activities involving Grades will be taken from Science notebook and  lab activities.