Week of March 20, 2017

Caroline's Creature Feature Illustration

Highlights from Last Week:

Students had a blast at our field trip to the Ecotarium on Friday. They learned about the causes of weather and the relationship between the sun, angles, and seasons. They also got to explore the museum, enjoying most of all the hurricane simulator capsule.

In Social Studies, we launched our Colonial America project. Students created colonial personas and began writing journal entries from the point of view of their characters. Students will also be creating presentations to teach the class about an aspect of life in Colonial America, such as "How to Stay Safe and Healthy" and "Where to Find Sports and Recreation."


What We Didn't Get To:

• One group of students still needs to learn how to multiply mixed numbers times mixed numbers in math.

This Week's Plan


Upcoming Special Events: ​​​​

• Enrichment at All School Meeting -this Friday.

Special Activities:

• Creature Feature Project -Students will share their work with the class.
• Citizenship Project -Choose a cause and research organizations. 

Math:
Finish Fraction Multiplication. Begin Division.

• Mixed numbers times mixed numbers –The ultimate challenge in fraction operations!
• Modeling mixed number multiplication with an area model -This is also challenging. Students use grid paper and unit fractions.
• Fractions divided by whole numbers -Fifth graders learn fraction division by modeling. We'll cut fractions into smaller parts and relate it to multiplication.
• Whole numbers divided by fractions -We'll fill wholes with fractions to see how many fit in.

Reading:
Book Groups and Informational Reading.

• Book Groups & Literary Analysis --We continue our discussions and students work on writing summaries, asking questions, and identifying important information.
• Point of View --We'll learn how the point of view of a narrator or writer can influence the way a story is told or the way events are recounted.
• Rewriting a story from another character's point of view -Students will learn craft techniques that help their writing have a distinctive point of view.

Writing:
Informational Writing.​

• Writing a clever introduction --How to introduce a topic clearly and hook readers.
• Comparisons --How to use comparisons to things that readers are familiar with to teach about an informational topic.
• Anecdotes --How to use short, amusing stories to elaborate about a topic.

Social Studies:
Colonial America.

• Colonial Life Project --Students create a colonial persona and write journal entries featuring realistic historical details. They also will collaboration with a partner to create a short presentation about an aspect of colonial life.

Science:
We switched to Social Studies.

Homework:
Please check the Homework page for more details.

1. Students turn in their Creature Feature project on Monday.
2. Charitable Organization Research: Students will need to complete their research on two organizations by Friday (see attached form). We will learn how to search for information in class.
3. Students will write back to their partner on Blog #8 by Friday.
4. Read 25 minutes at home per day and log the title, author, and time in the planner.
5. 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.​