Week of January 3, 2017

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday break. I am so grateful for the cards, gifts, and the generous donation to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies for the Syrian Crisis on behalf of the class. Thank you.

On a personal note, my winter break was filled with heartbreak and sadness. My husband's twin brother suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm while skiing in Colorado on Christmas and will pass away any day now. I may need to take some time off from school to be with the Kimball family in this devastating time. I share this so that everyone is aware that I may not be as responsive to emails or as available for meetings in the next few weeks. Thank you for your empathy and understanding.

Highlights from Last Week:

Geography Bee --Max won our classroom National Geographic Bee, answering some pretty tough questions about the geography of the U.S. and the world. Congrats Max! The next round will take place on February 1st. Ellie and Alex did well in the final round of competition as runners up.

Beatnik Cafe --Students recited poems to the entire 5th grade. Everyone did a great job memorizing!

Poetry Inquiry Homework Projects --I loved reading students' letters to the poets and viewing their doodles along the margins of the poems. Very thoughtful and creative.

Water Cycle Research --Students are working in small groups to become experts on the water cycle. They will collaborate to share their knowledge by creating a presentation in story form about the life of a water droplet.

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What We Didn't Get To:​

• We didn't get very far in our read aloud of "Love That Dog."

This Week's Plan


Upcoming Special Events: ​​​

• None.

Special Activities:

• New Student --This week we welcome a new student to 5K, Yair.

Math:
Decimal Multiplication and Division.

• Review Multiplication with Decimals Less than 1 --We'll look at problems such as 0.3 x 0.45 and use models to show why there are three decimal places in the product.
• Decimal Division --We'll start with models, then we'll use the partial quotients method.
• Adding Zeros to the Dividend --Students will learn how to divide out a remainder by tacking on extra place values.

Reading:
Poetry.

• Poetry Share --Students will search for and read 3 poems per day. They will share one or more with the class and explain why they liked the poem(s).
• Structure in Poetry --We'll read poems that are structured through stanzas, rhyme patterns, spacing, and line breaks.
• Teacher Read Aloud --We're reading Love That Dog, by Sharon Creech. It's an amusing and powerful story told through the poetic diary of a boy who learns to like poetry.

Writing:
Poetry.

• Small Poems --We'll learn how to come up with topics for poems by focusing on ordinary things and looking at them in a fresh new way.
• Structure --We'll toy with line breaks, stanzas, rhyme patterns, and spacing to add structure to our poems.

Social Studies:
We've switched to Science.

Science:
Weather and Climate. 

• The Water Cycle --Students will research the water cycle and collaborate to create a presentation that explains the how the water cycle works and how it influences the weather in a storytelling way.

Homework:
Please check the Homework page for more details.

1. Human Rights Exploration --Students learn about human rights, social justice, and what it means to be human in this project.
2. There is no new at-home blog this week.
3. Read 25 minutes at home per day and log the title, author, and time in the planner.
4. There will be a math page for homework each night.

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