Mrs. Holzhauer's 5th grade Blog 2/16/18

Happy Friday Families!

I hope everyone had a fantastic week!  It is hard to believe that our Valentine's Day party was our last 5th Grade classroom party.  Thank you so much again to our parent volunteers for making the party one to remember! We had the best time! 

Thank you also to all of our families who generously donated book fair books to our classroom library! The PTO also generously donated several popular titles! I just love the excitement of the kids when I am able to get new books into their hands! It is the absolute BEST feeling! I believe it is so important to surround our students with wonderful choices of books to read!

Our students are working hard to finish up all of the assessments as we start to wrap up Trimester 2! Here are the targets we will be beginning in the next few weeks:

Literacy:

We are completing our final unit the grading period, which focused on the theme of Finding Courage.  Our students are currently working hard on completing their end-of-unit assessments.  Today, with a break in our testing, we played a fun game of "Four Corners" to practice point-of-view and perspective! Be sure to ask your student about it! As we start our next unit, our focus will shift to the theme of Exploring New Worlds!  Our first text in the unit, Explorers: Triumphs and Troubles, focuses on various explorers and their positive (and some negative) impact on the world.

Writing

Students will turn their focus to opinion writing.  Students' strong opinions typically lead to many interesting discussions and debates within our classroom!

Math

We are wrapping up Unit 5, which focused on multiplication and division of fractions. Please make sure your child studies for next week's Unit 5 Post Test over the long weekend.

In the coming weeks, our focus will shift to Unit 6, which covers the following targets:

** 5.G.4: Classifying two dimensional figures.

** 5.G.1: Locating points on a coordinate grid.   

** 5.MD.5b: Apply the formulas V = l x w x h and V = B x h when solving for the volume of rectangular prisms.

** 5.OA.3: Use the relationship between x and y coordinates to generate a multiple operation expression that represents the rule for the coordinate pairs (this can be a tricky one!)

Social Studies

We are ending our patriotism unit and we will begin the third trimester studying Supply & Demand and Trade. We will be looking at the difference between goods and services and the importance in our lives. Our much anticipated 5th grade trade fair will take place during this unit!

Science

Today we finished up our study of constellations. We had a Quizlet competition between groups in order to review the learning we've done throughout the last few weeks! Boy, it can definitely get exciting during such games!

During our upcoming trimester we will start to study matter and work on investigations to help us determine what causes substances to change. There will be some fun, hands-on investigations during this unit!

​Important Dates and Friendly Reminders:

***TONIGHT--Movie night @ 6:30 

** Monday, February 19th: NO SCHOOL (President's Day)
**Tuesday, February 20th--PTO Special Lunch (Urban BBQ)

** Friday, February 23rd - End of the Grading Period/Half Day of school--Dismissal @11:45

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.  Thank you and have a fantastic extended weekend!

Dear Families,

Happy February! As this “month of love” begins we will start to focus on our school-wide monthly theme of compassion. Throughout the month we will examine how we can show compassion to those around us!

Please Note: Students brought home Valentine lists earlier in the week. I know some students like to plan ahead and may want to start working on their Valentines soon! On the day of our party, February 14th, please be sure that your child brings a Valentine for every student on the list in order to avoid hurt feelings. Also, we will be decorating Valentine bags at school late next week to use on Valentine’s Day to hold our cards. Some students have asked if they can bring in a box (such as a shoe box) to decorate—and that is fine with me! I will be supplying bags and decorative items to those who wish to use them, but students are also welcome to bring decorating items in from home. 

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

Literacy

*This week we’ve been reading a nonfiction story called Angel Island which discusses the journey and challenges faced by Chinese immigrants as they entered the United States in the early 1900’s. In comparison, students also began reading a journal excerpt written by Li Keng Wong, a Chinese immigrant who gives her first-hand account of the discriminatory practices which occurred at Angel Island. By exposing students to first and second hand account resources, we are continuing to explore the differing perspectives and points-of-view reflected in such accounts. As students have been reading about Angel Island, they have also been able to make connections and comparisons to the immigration experience of Eastern Europeans as they entered Ellis Island.

**January reading logs and projects are due MONDAY! The word collages that have been coming intros far look amazing! New reading logs for February were sent home last week.

Writing

*Recently, students read the nonfiction text Real-Life Superheroes, which highlighted the amazing lives of Rosa Parks, Richard Martin, Raoul Wallenberg, and Thomas Barnardo. Among these four "superheroes", students chose one such person to research further. Students are using this research to create a Google slides presentation highlighting his/her life events and accomplishments. Be sure to ask your student about his/her chosen superhero! 

Math

*Within Unit 5, we are continuing to work on multiplying fractions. This week, we practiced multiplying fractions by fractions. The students have been working on creating diagrams using the area model and geoboards to represent dimensions and the area of rectangles. As we head into the next week, students will be practicing their skills with fraction multiplication story problems. Yesterday we started a new theme in number corner for the month of February. We are “collecting” different amounts of water each day, converting the amount into milliliters, and then pouring the water into a 2 liter bottle. By the end of the month, we will see if our bottle can hold all of the water! In addition, our calendar cards have us multiplying fractional dimensions to find the area of a different item each day! Lots of great learning!

Social Studies

*Today we wrapped up our learning about examining the liberties we enjoy in the United States in comparison to countries such as North Korea. Next week we will begin to learn about patriotism. Our previous learning about the Pledge of Allegiance and liberty will lead nicely into this new learning. Students will explore the meaning and importance of patriotism. They will also discuss how people in the United States can show patriotism to their nation. 

**Please continue to remind your student to check the current events calendar for their assigned date. We have been having a number of students unprepared on their assigned date.  Current Events Calendars for February were sent home last week. The calendar is also posted in schoology in the Social Studies course.

Science

*We have started our unit about the Earth, the Moon, and the Stars. This week, we learned about the sun and other stars. Students read about how the brightness of star depends on their proximity to the Earth. We even learned that one star (Rigel) is 773 light years away from the Earth. This means that the light left that star 773 years ago! 

Change Donation Boxes

*Within each classroom, there will be a donation box for students to bring in any loose change. All proceeds are collected to provide underprivileged students with reading books. All and any donations are appreciated. This is a school-wide event, and all the classrooms will be participating. Let's see which class can collect the most change to make a change in the world!

Upcoming Events

Feb. 6th-8th (Tuesday-Thursday) - Book Fair

Feb. 8th (Thursday) - Ivy Hall Celebrates Diversity @ 7PM

Feb. 13th (Tuesday) - Early Dismissal @ 2PM

Feb. 13th (Tuesday) - Band Concert

Feb. 14th (Wednesday) - Valentine's Day Parties @ 2PM

Feb. 19th (Monday) - No School: President's Day

Feb. 23rd (Friday) - Half Day Dismissal @ 11:45AM