Week of March 17-21

Hi Families,
    Happy Spring!

Read-A-Thon 
   Please keep logging your child’s reading minutes at home. I will log the minutes we read at school. Try to make reading a daily expectation at home for all.

   Here is what we’ve been up to this past week.

Math 
Unit 5: Place Value Patterns and Decimal Operations
    This week we learned how to divide decimals. We explored two ways of thinking about division. First, as finding how many of an amount fit into a larger amount. For example, with 6 ÷ 0.2, we would ask, “How many 0.2’s fit into 6 wholes?” Well, using a hundredths grid, we determined that 5 groups of 0.2 fit into 1 whole, so 5 x 6 would fit into 6 wholes. The answer to 6 ÷ 0.2 is 30. We also looked at this same problem another way. If we know 6 ÷ 2 = 3, and we know that 0.2 is a place value smaller than 2, then we could take our product of 3 and make it bigger by a place value, thus, 30.
    Our second way of thinking about division was to think about splitting a small amount into a whole number of groups. For example, if we had 0.45 ÷ 5, we would think of it as 45 hundredths split into 5 equal groups. Well, we know 45 ÷ 5 = 9, so since we’re working with 45 hundredths, our answer should be in hundredths, too, making it 9 hundredths. So 0.45 ÷ 5 is 0.09. I know, not easy stuff! 

• Please please please practice basic multiplication facts with your child if they are not yet automatic with them. Make it a dinnertime drill. MCAS does not allow multiplication grids for the test, so the expectation at this point in the school year is for your child to be automatic with basic multiplication fact recall.

English Language Arts
Unit 3: Adventure and Survival: Narrative and Literary Analysis
    We finished reading Esperanza Rising this week! It is such a beautifully and artfully written historical fiction loaded with emotion, figurative language, life lessons, and often overlooked history. As a class, we build background knowledge about migrant farming, the Dust Bowl, the Great Depression, and the mass deportations of many Mexican Americans from the US in the 1930s, which all served as a backdrop to the story. We learned some great vocabulary words from the book this week, such as skeptical, impulsive, listless, nimbly, and reassured, and revisited many words that made reappearances. We also discussed the “big metaphors” woven throughout the novel, such as “The River” between two characters, representing their class divide, and “the zigzags” in a crocheted blanket representing the ups and downs of life. 

• Ask your child to tell you about the story. See if they can describe how the main character, Esperanza, changed from a rich, spoiled, courtly, and selfish rancher’s daughter to a poor, dirty, hardworking, determined farm laborer. 

Science
Unit 5: Ecosystem Interactions
     We welcomed Science from Scientists this week with an exploration of beach erosion and how to slow or prevent it. Students worked in groups to measure the water line along a model coast before and after creating a barrier. We also began our next unit in science on ecosystem interactions, learning about acid rain. We set up an experiment to test how acid rain affects aquatic plant life. We will observe this and our plant growth experiment over the next week and record results. 

Community Building
    In our Second Step lesson this week, we learned about “Listening with Attention,” a lesson from earlier in the year that needed revisiting. We discussed how to show someone you are listening to them: look at and face them, nod your head, stay quiet, ask questions, and repeat back what they said to you. We also had an All-School Assembly this week welcoming former Harlem GlobeTrotter Corey the Dribbler who showed off his amazing basketball tricks and motivating students to show respect, work hard, and dream big. 

Homework
   This week we had a daily math sheet, a grammar packet on conjunctions, and independent reading for homework. Students also should be finishing their documents for the 5th grade yearbook (due Tuesday). Please review your child’s responses for appropriateness.
   You can stay on top of your child’s homework with my Homework Assignment Log. 

Upcoming Events

• Friday, March 28: End of Read-a-thon, dress like a book character day.
• April 7 & 8:  5th grade ELA MCAS
• May 13 & 14:  5th grade Math MCAS
• May 19 & 20:  5th grade Science MCAS 

Pictures
   Below are some pictures from our Science from Scientist erosion activity, library makerspace projects, and our All School Assembly.

I hope you had a wonderful weekend!

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