November 18, 2015 Newsletter

Here is what we have been learning in fifth grade:

Daily 5/CAFE: This week students will begin the menu entitled: James Forten.

Students will analyze multiple accounts of the same event or topic noting similarities and differences in the point of view they represent.  They will also rewrite a scene from the James Forten story from a new perspective.

Writing: This week we will begin to recognize elements of argumentation in letters to the editor. They will identify the intended audience and the desired outcome.

Math:  Students have finished their multiplying decimals unit and are starting  dividing decimals to hundredths, using concrete models or drawings and strategies. They also will be relating the strategy to the standard algorithm method and explaining the reason it was used.

Social Studies: This week students will play a taxation game and read documents that set a precedent for the Declaration. They will also learn about important battles of the American Revolution. We will have a test on November 20.

November 4, 2015 Newsletter

This is what we have been learning in fifth grade:

Daily 5/CAFE: The students will complete their Daily 5 Menu entitled: “Katie’s Trunk”.  We will continue to review text structure and also analyze multiple accounts of the same event or topic, noting similarities and differences in the point of view they represent. 

Writing: This week, the students are finishing their opinion pieces. They are revising, editing and publishing them.

Math:  Students have started multiplying 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 are also relating the strategy to a written method and explaining the reason it was used. Next week, we will be moving into division of decimals to the hundredths place.

Social Studies:  Students will begin their study of the Revolutionary War.  They will learn: how independence is gained; how European settlements changed the land and people of North America; the causes of the Revolutionary War and the aftermath of the American Revolution. Students will begin a Newspaper Webquest in a few weeks.