Plans Week of January 27

Here is the plan for this upcoming week:

Writing: Informational Writing. We'll be publishing our essays about a cause and effect. Our last informational writing project will be a research report. Students will generate ideas for a research topic, gather sources, and begin collecting notes this week.

Reading: We'll be finishing Wonder this week. Students will be discussing and writing about their responses to the story.

We will also continue reading about European explorers in A History of Us by Joy Hakim. We'll learn how to skim text to find specific information. We'll also learn how to explain the complex relationships between the explorers and the natives they encountered.

Math: We'll begin the week with a review of decimal concepts in preparation for an assessment on Tuesday. Students should know the following:

• The values of numbers in the tenths, hundredths, and thousandths place
  
• 10 times as much as a decimal and 1/10 of a decimal
  
• Comparing and ordering decimals
  
• Rounding decimals
  
• Using models with base-10 blocks to show decimal addition and subtraction
  
• Estimating decimal sums and differences
  
• Adding and subtracting decimals
  
• Finding the rule and missing numbers in a sequence of decimals

Other Items: We will be having our last DARE class this week. Students will write their DARE essays in preparation for the DARE graduation. Thank you Officer O'Keefe! The 5th grade orchestra concert is Tuesday, January 28. Also, Viva Variety Show rehearsals are this week, Monday for Act 1 performers, and Thursday for Act 2 performers. I am the Stage Manager for the show, so I'll be quite busy the next two weeks getting ready for the show on Friday, February 7. Hope to see you there!

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