Week of May 22, 2017

5th grade girls during Get Up and Move Day.

Highlights from Last Week:

• MCAS finished for the year! 5th graders finished the Science MCAS this week, which concludes the standardized testing for the year.
• 8th graders from DS visited the 5th grade in each classroom to give them an overview of classes, a sneak peak at the schedule structure, and some practice opening a combination lock.
• In Writing, we've been reading some essays from experts and planning our opinion pieces on whether or not kids should get homework. Students are formulating some very convincing arguments for both sides of the issue.
• The whole school enjoyed an invigorating morning of exercise for Get Up and Move Day on Friday. We lucked out with the nice weather.

What We Didn't Get To:

• We (STILL!) didn't get to completely finish book groups yet.
• We didn't get to line plots with fractions.

This Week's Plan

Upcoming Special Events: ​​​​​

• Introduction to Puberty --Tuesday, May 23rd. Students will learn about personal hygiene and mood changes from Ms. Fedor and Mr. Carnes. There will be another session on body changes the following Tuesday.
• Helicopter Presentation --Wednesday, May 24th. Pine Hill gets a special visit from an actual helicopter (or so I'm told) and the 5th grade gets a look at how helicopters work.
• Pine Hill Reading Day --Friday, May 26th. Students, get a great book or two. We'll be spending the day engaged in literacy activities, including lots of reading.
• Memorial Day --Monday, May 29th.

Upcoming Special Activities: ​​​​​

• Citizenship Grade-Wide Groups Meet --Students will share their progress thus for on their Global Citizenship projects.
• Rocky the Therapy Dog --5K gets a visit from Rocky the therapy dog on Tuesday.

Math:
Line Plots with Fractions. Review Volume, Measurement, and Line Graphs.

• We will also graph fractional data on a line plot and find the average amount by using our addition and division skills.
• We have one more unit assessment before our end-of-year assessment. This one covers a variety of topics that we've covered: Volume, Measurement Conversions, Line Graphs, and Line Plots.

Reading:
Finish Book Groups.

• We'll learn how to identify the theme of a story by analyzing the challenges a character faces, the climax of the story, and the resolution to see how a character changes and what lesson he/she learned.

Writing:
Opinion Writing.

• We will work on forming a strong argument, developing logical reasons to defend our argument, and supporting our reasons with evidence and logic.

Social Studies:
American Revolution. Vocabulary building.

• Through readings, videos, and storytelling, we'll learn about the important battles of the American Revolutionary War.
• As we study the American Revolution, students confront many challenging vocabulary words, such as oppositional, controversy, and discontent. We will record new words and use them through discussion and activities, such as creating "Word Scales."

Science:
We switch to focus on Social Studies.

Homework:
Please check the Homework page for more details.

1. Students are working on their final homework project of the year, the Global Citizenship Final Project. 
2. Students will be assigned a partner and must respond to their partner's blog #11 post by Friday.
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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FYI End of Year Events:

• Grade 5 Open House --Wednesday, June 7th at 6:00pm.
• Visit to Middle School --Thursday, June 8th.
• Hale Reservation Field Trip --Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, June 13th - 15th.
• Grade 5 Promotion Ceremony --Tuesday, June 20th.
• Last Day of School -Wednesday, June 21st.

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