Week of November 20, 2017

The traditional teacher performance at All School Meeting in celebration of Thanksgiving.

Highlights from Last Week

• Early this week, we wrapped up our unit on the US Government with group presentations about the 3 branches of government, elections, and the bill of rights. Students then assessed how their group worked together and how they individually contributed to the project. Finally, they created quiz questions about their topic, which I compiled into a final quiz. I hope students enjoyed learning about how their government works! 
• We launched Science this week by learning how to use a science notebook. We also learned about the parts of a pencil as we walked through the 10 steps of conducting a science investigation. I'm looking forward to the many engaging science investigations ahead of us!

What We Didn't Get To
Here is what didn't get covered:

• We didn't get to start our Water unit in Science yet.
• In Math, we didn't get to Fractions on a Number Line.

Upcoming Special Events

Wednesday, November 22nd: 

• Early Release

Thursday, November 23rd:

• Thanksgiving

Friday, November 24th:

• No School

Monday, November 27th:

• Teacher Professional Development Day, No School for Students

Friday, December 1st:

• 5K Geography Bee -Start studying here!

Wednesday, December 6th:

• Early Release

Friday, December 8th:

• Pine Hill Geography Bee

Thursday, December 14th:

• Winter Chorus Concert

Please see the Pine Hill Calendar for more.


This (Short) Week's Plan

Special Activities

• Homework Project Shares --share stories, advertisements, and songs from the Government in Outer Space project.
• P.E. with our First Grade Buddies --Tuesday from 1:20-1:55pm. Mr. Carnes will plan a fun activity that fifth graders can do with their first grade buddies from Ms. Sullivan's class.

Reading
Unit:  Stories
Focus Areas:​​

• Paraphrase and Quote a Text Accurately --we'll learn some more advanced techniques using this important skill.
• Analyze Character Development --with teacher read aloud of There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom by Louis Sachar. 
• Infer about a Character's Traits --use evidence from the text to describe a character's traits and how that character deals with conflict.

Writing
Unit:  Narrative
Focus Areas:​​

• Peer Conferencing --use a partner to help check for clarity, readability, and effective storytelling.
• Publishing --complete a final draft of your personal narrative to share.

Math
Unit 3: Fraction Concepts; Addition and Subtraction
Focus Areas:​​​

• Fractions on a Number Line --use number lines to represent, compare, and rename fractions.
• Game Strategies --explain how to place digits in a division problem to get the largest possible quotient.

Social Studies
We take a break from Social Studies to focus on Science.


Science
Unit: Water on Earth

• Analyze our investigation of a pencil and complete the work in our Science Notebooks.
• Create a Model of Water on Earth --experiment with the elements that control how water cycles on Earth.

Homework
Please see the Homework Page for more details. Students will need to do the following at home this week:

1. Homework Project: Our project, Government in Outer Space,  is due on Monday.
2. Reading Response Blog: Students will get a partner to reply to their blog post #3, but it's not due until Friday, December 1st.
3. Independent Reading: I encourage students to read 20 minutes each day, or at least 120 minutes throughout the next week, but they do not have to log it.
4. Math: There will be a math page each night. 

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