5th Grade Blog Post 12-21-17

Dear Families,

As we embark on our winter break and prepare for a few weeks off, we hope all of you have the opportunity to spend some wonderful family time together! Enjoy this time to “recharge” and cherish time with your students! We look forward to seeing students back in 2018 with a renewed energy to learn and grow!

We had a great winter party today thanks to all of our great parent volunteers! It was a wonderful way to kick off our time off!

Here is what we’ve been working on in each of our content areas:

Reading: This week we finished our first module of books under the theme of “finding courage”. Recently, we read two shorter stories during shared reading. The first, called Operation Clean Sweep, was a historical fiction short story that took place during women’s suffrage. The other, a nonfiction short story, detailed the life of Cesar Chavez and his life-long fight for the rights of workers. Both stories prompted some great discussions focused on the issues of injustice and inequality.

**Please remind your student that the bookmarks for the December reading log projects are due right after break,

Writing: Students recently produced a written opinion response based on the following prompt: Should NFL and other sport teams use the names/images of Native American tribes? After reading several articles which presented support for both sides, students had to support their own opinion with text evidence in a well-written, cohesive response.

Math: Our work in unit 4 and its focus on multi-digit multiplication has continued. Students should now feel confident in utilizing a variety of strategies to multiply. They are getting quite proficient in being able to decide which strategy is most efficient based on the content of the particular problem. Yesterday we even had a snowball fight—with crumpled up multiplication problems instead of the icy, cold stuff! The kids had a blast while practicing their strategies! They seemed to take the most pleasure in throwing “snowballs” at me! :)

Social Studies: We have continued to learn about the meaning of the Pledge of Allegiance, as well as how patriotism is shown in our country. After winter break, we will learn about the particular liberties we are fortunate to enjoy in the United States, and contrast these liberties with countries such as North Korea, whose citizens suffer without such rights. 

Current Events will resume the week of January 15. New calendars will be sent home when the kids resume from winter break.

Science: Our recent learning in science has focused on what people can do to protect the Earth’s systems. We have been studying the different ways individuals, engineers, communities, and governments can protect Earth's systems. In fact, last week we had a fun science investigation where we “mined” for chocolate chips in cookies! The chips represented coal and the cookies represented land in the geosphere that was being damaged by mining. Be sure to ask your student about this fun activity!

Today the kids really enjoyed a special STEM project! In groups, they were given a pack of index cards and a foot of tape. Their challenge was to design and build the tallest free-standing structure that would hold a small stuffed animal for at least 10 seconds! It was wonderful to see the cooperation and critical thinking skills that took place! 

Important upcoming dates to remember:

Thursday, Dec. 21: Last day of school before winter break, winter parties @ 2:00

Monday, Jan. 8: School resumes

Monday, Jan.15: No School, Martin Luther King Day

Happy Friday Families!

I hope you and your family enjoyed the Thanksgiving break and the time off together!  Nothing recharges those batteries like spending quality time with family and friends!  It's hard to believe that today is already the first day of December!

MAP Testing information: We will be taking the Winter MAP tests on Monday and Wednesday next week. Students are excited, as they have been working hard on making progress towards the goals they set for themselves! We will taking the reading test on Monday, and the math test on Wednesday. Please be sure that your student has a good night's sleep and eats a healthy breakfast! 

Here are the targets we will focus on as we work through the beginning of the second grading period:

Literacy

* Our students recently wrapped up reading our classroom read-aloud text, The Road to Freedom. The story was narrated from the point of view of a young girl who is traveling on the Underground Railroad with her mother in hopes of making it North to freedom. Our students were highly engaged throughout text and had many great discussions related to topics raised within the story. Today we also read a reader's theater about Harriet Tubman and the important role she played in the Underground Railroad. 

Students received their December reading log projects today. They will be making a bookmark that highlights pertinent information about the book they are currently reading. Students were given an informational sheet today with the requirements. This sheet will also be posted on schoology in the literacy course. Bookmarks are due on January 8.

Writing

* We are currently using The Road to Freedom as a springboard for various writing samples.  We have practiced writing short-constructed responses and we are currently planning and writing an opinion paper based on topics/issues related to slavery from the book. Most of the students have completed their planning sheets and are in the process of composing their opinion essay. We are learning how to begin our papers with an effective "hook" that will grab the attention of the reader. We are also focusing on providing ample detail about our "big ideas" through our own thoughts and text evidence.

Spelling

* Our students are currently working through their Words Their Way spelling program. Most weeks, your child will bring home a new set of words to sort and use for homework tasks. Students complete homework assignments on Spelling City that contain the words to their current sort.

Math

* We are currently working on multiplying two-digit numbers by three-digit numbers using various strategies.  We will have a check-in next week to assess what we've learned.  Our students will start division at the end of next week and emphasize the partial quotients and long division algorithms to solve these problems.

Social Studies

* Last week we wrapped up our learning about slavery and how it affected the growth of Colonial America.  We will be diving into Government/Civics in the coming weeks and our students will start to discuss the meaning of the Pledge of Allegiance and learn about other aspects of patriotism.

**Please note: We will not be having current event presentations next week. 

Science

* Our students recently learned information about the four main systems of Earth: the biosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and geosphere.  We’ve also been learning about the attributes and characteristics of each, as well as how they interact with one another. Yesterday we played "catch" with a blow-up version of the earth. We marked whether our thumbs were touching water or land each time we caught it! This helped students get a concrete understanding about how much of the earth is taken up by water versus land.

Upcoming dates to remember:

Monday, Dec. 4--MAP test--Reading
Tuesday, Dec. 5--Early Release @ 2:00
Wednesday, Dec. 6--MAP test--Math
Thursday, Dec. 7--Belmont Village after school trip (registered participants only)
Tuesday, Dec. 12--PTO Special Lunch-Urban BBQ