October 21, 2015 Newsletter

This is what we have been learning in fifth grade:

Reading:This week students will complete the menu entitled: Toliver’s Secret.  Students have been working to identify text structure of non-fiction literature and compare and contrast two stories considering the author’s point of view using evidence from the text.

Writing: This week we will begin to write an opinion piece on a topic supporting a point of view with reasons and information. Students will strive to provide logically ordered reasons that are supported by facts and details.

Math:  Students have started the coordinate grid unit and will be finishing it up shortly. We will then be moving into multiplying and dividing decimals. They will be multiplying and dividing decimals to hundredths, using concrete models or drawings and strategies based on place value properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction. They also will be relating the strategy to a written method and explaining the reason it was used. 

Science: We are finishing up our Force and Motion unit. The students are going to be given a study guide this Wednesday and it will need to be completed by next Tues. the 27th. Some of the concepts they should know are understanding the relationship between force and motion, explaining how factors such as gravity, friction, and change in mass affect the motion of objects. Lastly, inferring the motion of objects in terms of how far they travel in a certain amount of time and the direction in which they travel.