Fifth Grade

"It's the Gift of the Season" is sung by the fourth- and fifth-grade chorus at Hampstead Elementary.Winter concerts at elementary schools are just that: a gift. If you can listen unperturbed by the bumping and squirming and nervous glances of the children on stage, what you hear is beautiful: children who are cheerful, children who are learning patience and discipline, children who are discovering music is a treasure.Anyone can attend elementary school concerts, including people new in town, those who are reaching grandparenthood and those with children in other schools.

A fifth-grade math and science teacher whose principal calls her the "cream of the crop" and whose students say makes them forget they're learning equations and elements was named Baltimore City's 2014 Teacher of the Year. Elizabeth Barletta, in her fourth year at Barclay Elementary/Middle School, was surprised in her classroom Thursday by interim schools CEO Tisha Edwards. She was chosen by a committee for the honor after being nominated and going through a process that included essays, interviews and classroom observations.

AS SURELY AS the arrival of Thanksgiving, a handful of schools around the state each autumn are anointed as the stars of the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program (MSPAP). Reporters rush out to see what's in the water - and sometimes that's the last these schools see of us. This year was a little different. We returned to Pimlico Elementary School in Northwest Baltimore, a star of the MSPAP show for two years running. The school increased its composite score by nearly 50 percentage points, a remarkable achievement.

The Joppatowne Woman's Club hosted an art show for students from kindergarten to fifth grade. Proudly displaying her "Best in Show" is Kayla Caine-Ward.

It's time for the big test. Students in grades three and eight are taking the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program this week, and the fifth grade will be tested (excuse me, assessed) next week. The following is a sample fifth-grade question:A teacher is planning a picnic at an ice cream store with her class. It takes 1 1/2 hours to walk to the store and back to the school. If the students must be back by 3 p.m. for dismissal, what time should the class leave to start their trip?

Books by Judy Blume and Beverly Cleary shared shelf space with a new generation of writers at the Point Pleasant Elementary School Authors' Tea last week. Budding authors from the fifth grade discussed their poetry and prose with visitors, pausing only to sign autographs.The idea for the tea evolved as teacher Maurine Larkin searched for a way to pique the students' interest in writing. She began to think in terms of how professional writers create and promote their finished work."A tea was something that a real-life writer might do when they had finished writing a story or a book," said Larkin.

For the first time, Elmer Wolfe Elementary School in Union Bridge will have a fifth grade in September.The county Board of Education voted last night to overturn recommendations to the contrary by its top administrator.The 4-1 decision by the Carroll school board forces the administration to find a place for the preschool program at Elmer Wolfe, to make room for the fifth grade, and to notify parents of affected 4-year-olds.Board members said they are committed to elementary schools that go up to fifth grade and an "ancillary" program such as preschool should not displace students in kindergarten through grade five.

A Union Bridge mother wants to make one thing clear: Not everyone agrees with the six parents leading the push to start a fifth grade at Elmer Wolfe Elementary School so those children don't have to attend New Windsor Middle School.Elmer Wolfe is the only school in the county that doesn't yet have a fifth grade. It never has had one, but it will in September 1995 when expansion and renovation begin.The six parents appealing to the school board don't want to wait that long: Their children will be in fifth grade in the fall, and they maintain that they're too young to be plunged into a school with grades six through eight.

He knows each one of their faces, knows which ones excel at math and which need to review their addition and subtraction. He knows their mothers, their fathers, their dogs. He knows when to push and when to let the fifth-grade frenzy take over for a while. Robert A. Bell knows these children better than some of their parents do. He has been their teacher at Edmondson Heights Elementary School in Baltimore County for five years, since the first grade. He has held on to the same class longer than any known public schoolteacher in the country.

The Joppatowne Woman's Club hosted an art show for students from kindergarten to fifth grade. Proudly displaying her "Best in Show" is Kayla Caine-Ward.

Vacation Bible School A Vacation Bible School with the joint ministries of Friendship United Methodist Church, Mount Zion United Methodist Church and St. James Parrish will be held from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. June 23-27 at 5757 Solomons Island Road in Lothian. Bible school is for children age 3 through the fifth grade. The fee is $10. Information: 408-867-2838 or tinyurl.com/vbsinsouthcounty.

A Vacation Bible School with the joint ministries of Friendship United Methodist Church, Mount Zion United Methodist Church and St. James Parrish will be held from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. June 23-27 at 5757 Solomons Island Road in Lothian. Bible school is for children age 3 through the fifth grade. The fee is $10. Register by June 1 and receive a T-shirt. Information: 408-867-2838 or tinyurl.com/vbsinsouthcounty.

Severn School and Chesapeake Academy will merge July 1 to create the largest independent school in Anne Arundel County, school officials said last week. The merged school will be known as the Severn School. Severn School in Severna Park, which will celebrate its centennial next school year, serves 600 students in grades six through 12. Chesapeake Academy in Arnold, which was founded in 1980, has more than 200 students in preschool through fifth grade. School officials said students in preschool through fifth grade will attend classes at the Chesapeake site, which will be renamed Severn School Chesapeake Campus, and will adopt Severn School's colors and uniforms, officials said.

It was, if recollection is accurate, in the fifth grade that I got my first thoroughgoing instruction in English grammar and usage. My fifth- and sixth-grade English teacher, Mrs. Jessie Perkins, and my seventh- and eighth-grade English teacher, Mrs. Elizabeth Craig, redoubtable women both, took the same attitude toward English that Miss Prism took toward Fiction: The good end happily and the bad unhappily. There are Rules, they are known, they are to be applied universally, and violators pay a price.

Submitting sports notices The deadline for submitting sports copy is 9 a.m. Monday. We prefer email (howardcountysports@patuxent.com). Questions? Call 410-332-6578. Basketball The HCYP Sharks travel teams are holding tryouts as follows. Contact the listed coach or go to hcyp.org for more information. 9-U girls (fourth grade): Sept. 12-13, 5:30-7 p.m., at Veterans Elementary School. D_mcniff2009@comcast.net or 443-763-0390. 9-U boys (fourth grade)

The Maryland Council on Economic Education last week honored Cromwell Valley Elementary School fifth-graders Abhinav Khushalani and Andy Yakim as national first and third place winners, respectively, in the fourth- and fifth-grade division of the Stock Market Game's InvestWrite Contest. At a ceremony at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Timonium, both students received mini-notebook computers, and their teacher, Flo Falatko, won a $750 professional development scholarship and a $250 gift card.

Clinton for Governor!Executive Hayden found the frills in the Baltimore County budget. Who needs fifth grade?Poor George has turned to his right to face the supposed Buchanan threat and doesn't see the hordes charging from the center.The Supreme Court holds term limits to be constitutional, except, of course, for the Supreme Court.

Vacation Bible School A Vacation Bible School with the joint ministries of Friendship United Methodist Church, Mount Zion United Methodist Church and St. James Parrish will be held from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. June 23-27 at 5757 Solomons Island Road in Lothian. Bible school is for children age 3 through the fifth grade. The fee is $10. Information: 408-867-2838 or tinyurl.com/vbsinsouthcounty.

St. Andrew's Church will hold its monthly Community Feast tonight, May 26, from 6 to 8 p.m. This month's menu will be Italian. Proceeds from this dinner will go toward the Alabama tornado relief effort. The meal is donated by Smokin' Hot Catering, and takes place at the church, located at 2892 Route 97, in Glenwood, between the post office and Union Chapel Road. The whole community is welcome to come, so take the night off from cooking! Dine-in or carry-out is available.