Week of April 4, 2016

The amazing Talent Show emcees!

Highlights from Last Week:

The Pine Hill Talent Show was sensational! We had impressive talent, hilarious emcees, skillful crew members, and a supportive audience.
 
Fifth grades endured the ELA MCAS on Tuesday and Wednesday. Most students said they felt prepared, especially with my mantra of having “focus, rigor, and endurance.” Students even got a taste of the PARCC test, of which elements were embedded in session 2 of MCAS.
 
Meteorologist Matt Noyes from NECN informed and entertained the fifth grade audience with his presentation on weather.
 
Students are excited to write letters to their chosen charity organizations as part of our Global Citizenship project. We got started last week by discussing the purpose of the letter and how the style of a business letter differs from other types of writing.
 
Students finished their “Causes of the Revolution” mini-projects, which used their newly-learned informational writing skills to explain how events built on one another to lead the British to send warships to blockade Boston Harbor in 1774.
 
What we didn't get to:

•  MCAS took longer than I anticipated, so we’re a little behind where I wanted to be in Math and Writing.

This Week's Plan
 
Special:

• Monday, April 4: Middle School Transition Presentation from DS middle school teachers in the afternoon.
• Wednesday, April 6: Flipped Early Release. Students get to sleep in! Board buses 3 hours later than the usual time. Supposedly eat lunch beforehand and bring a hearty “snack” to school. (I won’t mind if your snack is actually a sandwich! Who eats lunch before 11am?)
• Wednesday, April 6 at 6:30pm: Middle School presentation for parents of 5th graders in the Mudge Auditorium.
  
• Thursday, April 7: Scoliosis screening with Nurse Fedor. Girls should wear an appropriate undergarment.

 

Math: 
Finish Multiplication of Fractions. Begin Division of Fractions.

• Scaling and Resizing Project –We use fraction multiplication in a real-world situation.
• Fraction Division –We will use number lines and pictures to represent dividing with fractions.
  
  

Writing:  
Business Letter Writing.

• Business Letter–As part of our Global Citizenship project, we will learn to write business letters that take a formal tone in order to inform and persuade members of an organization to acknowledge our efforts.
  
  

Reading:
Book Groups. Point of View.

• Point of View in Fiction –We will describe how a narrator’s point of view influences how events are described.
• Point of View in Informational Texts –We will analyze multiple accounts of the same event or topic.
• Book Groups –Some groups may wrap up this week.

 
Social Studies:
The Start of the Revolutionary War.

• Paul Revere’s Ride –We will analyze the famous poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
• Lexington & Concord –We will reenact this infamous moment in American History and write journal entries from multiple points of view.

 
Homework:
Please visit the Homework Page for more details.

• Homework Project: Invention Convention project, due Wednesday, April 6th.
• Math: There will be a page or two of math practice each night.
• Reading: 25 minutes of daily independent reading is expected. Students should log it in their Planners. 
• Reading Response Blog: There is a new Blog #15 for students to respond to by Friday.

Thanks for Reading!
So that's the plan for the week. Please feel free to email me with any questions, comments, or feedback.