 Hi Families, I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We had a busy week and worked hard! Students seemed exhausted by Friday, but we persevered and hopefully everyone can reward themselves with a little treat this weekend (I told students that mine will be an ice cream with chocolate sprinkles). Festive holiday cheer has entered the classroom! Students enjoyed the snowfall, the colorful lights around the room, and the teacher dress-ups this week. 5th grade classrooms will be doing a holiday book swap the week before winter break, so please help your child find a gently used book from your home library that is appropriate for a fifth grade reader. Wrap the book and bring it in without your child’s name on it. If you are unable to find a book, please let me know. We are doing our best to maintain high learning expectations during these festive weeks! Thank you for any reminders you can provide your child to be on their best behavior this time of year, especially if your kiddo easily gets over-excited and “off-the-wall.” My rambunctious boys sure do! Don’t forget to check out the Barrows Craft Fair (Saturday 10-2) and the Reading Educational Fund’s Festival of Trees at Parker Middle School this weekend. Here is what we’ve been focusing on this week: Math Unit 3: Multiplying and Dividing Fractions This week students learned how to divide with unit fractions. We modeled how to divide a whole number by a fraction and how to divide a fraction by a whole number. We discovered that when you divide a whole number by a fraction you get a larger whole number and when you divide a fraction by a whole number you get a smaller fraction.
English Language Arts Unit 2: Ecosystems: Matter, Energy, and Organisms. This week we learned about decomposers, which are organisms that break down dead or decaying plant and animal matter and return nutrients to the soil. Students outlined and wrote a paragraph about the importance of humus, which is the nutrient-rich clumps of decomposed matter in soil. Other learning activities students did:
Social Studies We launched social studies this week, focusing on the foundation of the American colonies. We learned about Native Americans and some of the reasons for tension with the colonists. We also learned about the founding of Jamestown in Virginia in 1607 and Plymouth in Massachusetts in 1620. Students were riveted by the PBS video clips about the hardships the colonists faced in their early years in the colonies. FYI: I carefully selected the short clips I showed from a longer PBS broadcast, avoiding the more graphic segments. Some students were able to make inferences about what possibly happened during the miserable winter in Jamestown of 1609-10. Please let me know if your child was disturbed by anything they saw. Community Building In our Second Step lesson, we learned about perspective-taking. We watched a dramatized conflict about being cut in line while waiting for the water fountain. Two clips showed events from different points of view, and we discussed how the situation could have been handled differently. My hope is students learned that being kind is always the best choice, and to try to assume positive intentions. Homework I added an additional element to the homework mix this week –grammar practice. I will assign a packet of grammar or word work on Mondays or Tuesdays, and it will be due on Fridays. As usual, please don’t forget to check your child’s reading log in their planner each week, have them total their minutes for the week, and sign your name next to the total by Monday morning. You can stay on top of your child’s homework with my Homework Assignment Log. Important Dates:
Thank you for reading! Have a great weekend!
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