August 31, 2016 Newsletter

Here is what we have been learning in fifth grade:

 Daily 5/CAFE: 

This week students will begin a new menu entitled, “Elena” and “Journey to Nowhere”. Students will work on making character inferences and practice summarizing the text. (RL5.2) They will also create a Double Bubble thinking map to compare and contrast one character from each story. Students will meet in strategy groups to work on CAFÉ strategies to improve vocabulary and comprehension. "Tracks"

Writing: 

Students will complete their own memoir later this week and will begin to share them with the class.

Math:  Students are learning to add, and subtract decimals to hundredths place. They have been doing this using concrete models or drawings and strategies based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction. Then the students have been relating the strategy to a written method and explaining their reasoning used.

Social Studies:  Students will begin a summative project that will last until track out. They will need to apply all of the knowledge that has been acquired thus far to complete this assignment. They will take a short answer test this Friday.

August 17, 2016 Newsletter

Daily 5/CAFE:
This week students will begin their new Daily 5 Menu entitled: “The Golden Lion Tamarin”.  Students are working to identify text features used in this story and write a brief description of what they learned from each feature.  They will also determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative language, such as similes and metaphors. Students will also read an article where they will practice making inferences based on evidence from the text.

Writing:

Students will explore mentor texts that discuss features of a memoir and begin to think like a writer as they prepare to write their own memoir. Students should begin writing their memoirs by midweek.

Math:
We have been reading, writing, and comparing decimals to thousandths place. We will be moving into rounding decimals and powers of 10. The students will be recognizing that in a multi-digit number, a digit in one place represents 10 times as much as it represents in the place to its right and 1/10 of what it represents in the place to its left.

Social Studies:

The students have begun the unit on Economics in social studies. We will soon be answering the question, “How do economic decisions affect our lives?” They will begin by learning the importance of developing a budget for savings and spending. We will also spend time discussing the role of international trade between the US and other countries.  We will work on unit vocabulary and practice taking notes.

August 1, 2016 Newsletter

Here is what we have been learning so far in fifth grade:

Daily 5/CAFE: This week students will complete their Daily 5 Menu entitled: A Boy Called Slow.  They have been working to determine the theme of the story and how characters respond to challenges. They have also worked on story vocabulary and comprehension skills. Students will learn how to “Track” articles and reading passages in small group.

Writing:

This week students will continue working on narrative writing but the focus shifts to memoirs later in the week. Students will explore mentor texts that discuss features of a memoir and begin to think like a writer as they prepare to write their own memoir.

Math:  We just finished our multiplying and dividing multi-digit whole number unit. We took an assessment over this on Monday. Tues. we will start our decimals unit. We will be reading, writing, and comparing decimals to thousandths place. We will be moving into rounding decimals and powers of 10. The students will be recognizing that in a multi-digit number, a digit in one place represents 10 times as much as it represents in the place to its right and 1/10 of what it represents in the place to its left.

Science: The students have been working hard on researching terrestrial and aquatic biomes. They will be putting all this information into a flip book that they can use as a tool for review. The last project of the 4 1/2 weeks that they will be completing is to research and present a poster illustrating an ecosystem that is being negatively affected by humans. This will complete the Ecosystems Unit. The students were given a study guide Monday to be completed by Friday. They will have some time in class to complete this. We will go over it Friday and review more on Monday. Their test will be Tuesday, Aug. 9th.