Week 8

October 18-22

Early Release Wednesday at 1:18.

Reading

As readers this week we will be learning to infer as we read.  The teaching of inference skills is extremely important to students. It is a higher-order skill that is essential for students to develop to afford them access to the deepest levels of comprehension. Having a finely tuned ability to infer also has important applications in other subject areas too, particularly Math and Science. 

Math

Division is the math concept we will focus on this week.  We begin learning partial quotient division and move onto long division, when students are ready. The expectation for 5th grade is for students to be accurate at partial quotient division.

Social Studies

Last week we investigated the Southwest and Pacific Northwest regions of the US.  This week we will continue with the Eastern Woodlands and the Great Plains.  We will also have a writing activity connected to these regions.

PLTW

The students added pieces to their robot chassis so they can move hazardous waste into collection zones.  There were some challenge opportunities presented to the class last week.  Everyone did a fantastic job, and were successful in moving the toxic waste in under 2 minutes! 

Here are some pictures from last week.  Enjoy!

 Week 7

October 11-15

Friday is the Run-A-Thon!

Wacky days this week..

Monday-P.J. Day

Tuesday-Wacky Hair Day

Wednesday- Favorite Team Day

Thursday-Wacky Head To Toe Day

Fifth grade warms up at 9:00, we run from 9:10-9:25.  We are at the tally table at 9:30.  If you able, we would love to see you there!

Reading

This week we will focus on using evidence from the text to support our thinking about character traits in the books we read.  We will be writing paragraphs to support our claims.

Math 

This week we will make sure every student is secure in 2 digit by 1 digit multiplication.  We will also be moving onto 2 digit by 2 digit multiplication.  Practicing this at home would benefit many students, the process can be confusing.  We will also start working on long division.

Social Studies

This week starts our work on the different Indigenous Peoples' regions of the United States.  Starting with a look at Indigenous Peoples' Day, October 11th.

Word Study

F.Y.I. there will be a word study test each Friday.  Students have class time during the week to investigate different word patterns and definitions.

PLTW 

Friday students started building their robots.  They will use these robots to solve the question' how to remove toxic waste  safely?'

Here are some pictures from last week!

 Week 6

October 4-8

Picture day is October 6th

Run-A-Thon is October 15

Reading

We are starting our study of character traits this week.  The sooner kids realize that the text in front of them is riddled with valuable evidence to support their thoughts and feelings about a character, the sooner their reading comprehension will expand.  We will look at the differences between emotions and traits.  We will also distinguish between external vs. internal traits. 

How can we claim a character is perseverant, stubborn or kind?  We gather evidence from the text. We will learn how to read a text, and then describe the character’s traits with evidence.

Writing

Teaching writing is about so much more than using paragraphs correctly. We are looking for a story with strong details. We want to see a supported opinion. We want to see that students know how to reference texts and summarize information. All of those things are much more important than perfect paragraphs.

What we are looking for is growth, not perfection. Do they indent? Are they switching paragraphs when ideas change? Are they using more than one paragraph in their writing? These are all the pieces of writing we will be working on throughout the year.

Social Studies

Students have started mini reports on indigenous tribes in our area.  We will be presenting them next week as well as writing our own Land Acknowledgements.

PTLW

We will be learning about safely removing toxic waste with robots that we will build.

Here are some photos from last week.

 Week 5

September 27- October 1

Students will be getting their instruments this week. The instrumental music teachers asked me to forward you an email, they would like you to fill out a form so your child can handle an instrument. Please direct any questions you have about this to the instrumental teachers.

Reading Workshop

The students will be in small groups this week as they work on reading comprehension.  They will be reading multiple texts and recording their observations.  Then, they will share their understanding of the passages with their group.  

Writing

We will continue our work on writing this week.  We will be working on paragraph writing as well as using a "Writing Board" for student selection on writing topics.

Math

The unit 1 math test will be on Tuesday this week. Students will bring home a math review we completed in class tomorrow.  Please ask your child if they feel prepared for the test.  We will start unit 2-place value on Wednesday.

Social Studies

We will continue our work on Land Acknowledgement this week.  Students will be in groups learning about the Native People that lived in this part of Michigan.

PLTW

We are building test beds and learning about the many sensors we will use to build our robots.

Here are some photos from last week.

 Week 4 

September 20-24

Wednesday is an Early Release day, the day ends at 1:18.

These are our NWEA dates this week.

Tuesday reading in the morning.  

Thursday math in the morning.

Reading Workshop

We will be writing about our reading this week.  We will use strategies to problem solve confusing parts in our reading.  We will also make reading goals this week.

Math

We will continue our work with volume this week.  The students will be introduced to 2 formulas to use when finding volume.  We will also learn the game Prism Pile-Up.

Social Studies  

We will be looking at our names and the importance of them and reflect on other peoples names.

PLTW

Due to the Early Release this week we will not have PLTW on Wednesday.  

Here are some pictures from last week.

Week 3 

September 13-17

Upcoming Events:

Curriculum Night- Tuesday September 14th.  The fifth grade teachers will be hosting Curriculum Night together.  We will be presenting at 6:00 and 6:30, I hope to see you at one of these times.  I will be sending out the Zoom link tomorrow afternoon.

We are in need of wipes to clean the tables at the end of the day.  If you can help with these please send them with your child.  Thanks!

Reading Workshop

We will continue our work on Building Good Reading Habits this week. We will monitor our reading by maintaining and analyzing the books we finish.  We will be making reading goals to monitor our progress on these goals.  We will also read between the lines to imagine what the text details imply.

Math

We will continue our work on volume this week.  We will explore nonstandard volume units, and measure volume by counting cubes.  Finally, we will explore two formulas for finding volume.

Social Studies

This week we will start to look at "The Land We Stand On". Who was here first and how does this impact our understanding of respect and ownership.

PLTW

We had a great first day of PLTW last Friday.  We will continue this until Thanksgiving meeting everyday except Thursday.  

Here are some pictures from last week.

 Week 2 

September 7-10

Welcome to our class blog, I update it on Sundays.   This is the place to go to see what your child will be doing this week, find any upcoming events and any "class needs".

Curriculum Night is September 14th, it will be virtual.   I'll let you know the specifics as soon as I do.

Our class is scheduled to get our 1-1 Chrome books this week.  I'll let you know more about this later in the week.

Reading Workshop

We started the year reviewing reading habits and how we select books.  This week we will be working on our reading stamina.  Your child is welcome to bring books to read from home. 

Math

We will continue our work reviewing Area this week as well as learning how to find the Volume of a rectangular prism.

Social Studies

We will continue working on our classroom culture through activities and our class meetings.  

PLTW

This will start Friday this week!!!

This is our Special Schedule

Monday- Music

Tuesday-P.E., World Language, and Instrumental Music

Wednesday- Art

Thursday-P.E., World Language, and Instrumental Music

Friday-Library

If you can donate any wipes to clean the tables that would be fantastic. Kleenex and paper towel would also be appreciated.

Here are some pictures from last week!