December 15th, 2017
Good Evening parents/guardians!
We have had a great week of learning and growing as 5th grade scholars! Even with Winter Break days away, the scholars have continued to work diligently on new skills.
Please remember that you can always check your scholar’s grades, progress, and any missing assignments through PowerSchool. You can use your scholar’s login information or get a parent login from the school office.
Important Dates:
December 17th: Charlotte Checkers Chorus Night
December 18th: Pajama Day & Class Winter Wonderland Celebration
December 20th – January 2nd: Winter Break
Here is a recap of what we engaged in this past week of school, as well as what we will be starting to learn next week!
Math:
This week started with a cumulative assessment on adding and subtracting fractions and mixed numbers. Over all, the scholars performed well on this assessment. Please encourage them to continue to practice the skills regarding fractions that they learned in 4th grade. We will use these skills every day while working on adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing fractions. We also began our unit on multiplying fractions. We have learned how to do so by modeling with pictures, using repeated addition, referring to a number line, and multiplying straight across (the scholar’s favorite). As we work with fractions, thoroughly knowing multiplication facts is very important. Please encourage your scholars to continue to practice those facts.
Once we return from break, we will review multiplying fractions. We will also work on breaking apart EOG-like, multi-step word problems containing fractions to look for those key words that tell us we should multiply. We will then begin our unit on dividing fractions!
Science:
This week we focused on global weather patterns and how they affect us. The scholars were very engaged and had some awesome input about the information we were learning. They were very intrigued by the types of winds, different ocean currents and the phenomenon known as El Nino and La Nina. We also worked on an activity that focuses on global climate patterns and how our location on the globe affects our climate and daily weather. Your scholar’s are also working on their Weather vocabulary book. I have told them that they may keep it at school to work on for now seeing as it is not due until January 12th. This book contains 20 words and they should more than ample time during school to complete a word every day or two.
When we return from break, we will continue our study of Weather. We will wrap up global weather patterns before moving into a week of review to prepare for the cumulative assessment. The end of unit assessment for weather will be on Friday, January 12th.
*I have been having some technical difficulties getting the pictures from our Roller Coaster activity uploaded to my class website. I have attached a link to the folder in Google Drive so that you can check them out! (Fingers crossed it works!)https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1SjjDXKZD6nmdMwTDpv1jhTWktmI4okr3?usp=sharing
Reading:
This week, scholars looked at topics (driverless cars and school lunches) from differing points of view. Standard RI 5.6 requires scholars to analyze one topic using multiple accounts. They looked at the similarities and differences of those accounts. We discussed point of view and perspective as well as using the information to form our own opinions.
Mr. Felker and I worked with scholars to develop a rubric to use when grading the reports. We also held individual writing conferences, and used this time to make suggestions and worked with scholars on improving their writing.
If you are looking for activities to keep your child’s reading skills sharp over Winter Break, please check out these activities: Summarize (RL 5.2), Reading passage and questions (RI 5.4 and RI 5.8), Comparing two stories (RL 5.6)
We will begin our Historical Fiction unit when we return from break. I have been working to collect sets of Historical Fiction chapter books through Scholastic book orders. This will allows scholars to work in groups to read and discuss the same book title. Scholars will begin this week by researching and familiarizing themselves with the time period in with their book is set. Historical fiction reading can be a very enjoyable and meaningful genre if there is prior knowledge and understanding of the time period in which the novel takes place.
Reading homework: Please have your child read 30 minutes (or more) each night and log the title of the book read and number of pages read into his/her agenda daily. This provides us with a record of your scholar’s reading so we can ensure he/she is reading “just right” books at an appropriate speed. Looking for ways to help your child with his/her reading homework? Please click here to view questions you can be asking your child about his/her book to check for understanding.
Social Studies:
This week we continued learning about European Explorers who sailed to America. Scholars worked in groups to share the reasons explorers came to America and the effects they had on the Native Americans. Scholars took notes as groups presented the information they learned.
After break, scholars will be learning about eight different European Explorers, the different routes each explorer took, and the lands discovered. We will also discuss the impact the explorers had on the Native Americans. Students will work in groups to become “experts” on one of the explorers and teach the rest of the class the most important information about each explorer.
Writing:
Block 1 scholars published their nonfiction research books this week. These informative books are on display in the classroom and hallway. I am very impressed by the amount of time and effort scholars put into the books.
Block 2 scholars used this time to take social studies notes and to work on writing their Wax Museum reports. The reports will be self and peer graded next week using the rubric we created with Mr. Felker.
When we return from break, we will begin our Historical Fiction writing unit to go along with our Historical Fiction reading unit. Scholars will have the opportunity this week to begin researching time periods they may be interested in. As they become familiar with different time periods, they will be able to make a final decision on when the story should take place.
I will resume weekly updates the week we return from Winter Break (1-5-17). I hope you all enjoy your weekend and the time you have with your scholars over break!