Highlights from Last Week:

The week before the break, Ms. Faucon completed week 1 of 2 for her take-over. She did a fantastic job! She will complete her take-over this week and continue teaching select units and lessons the rest of the year.

On the Monday before the break, students learned about puberty. They handled this often awkward subject with immense maturity.  

On Thursday, students learned about Simple Machines through a cool presentation by Henry Massar, former Bigelow school science teacher. Students had some hands on action with hammers, see-saws, clippers, and other tools that make work easier.

Friday presented an interesting challenge. Since the lights were to be replaced over the break, we had to move everything our from under them (desks, chairs, etc!) and cover all of our stuff in plastic tarps. Students united through teamwork to make this unpleasant task easy and painless.

Here is the general plan for the week:

Special:
Bigelow principal Todd Harrison meets with students on Monday, April 27th to share about middle school and take questions from 5th graders.

Reading: 

• This week we begin guided reading book groups. Students will be reading a book that has survival and resilience as a theme.
• We will also learn some reading strategies to improve our inferring skills.

Writing:

• We continue our Memoir writing. Students will focus on a theme or big idea for their memoir and write with detail and depth. Students will also study published memoirs and look for ways to structure their own writing.

Math: 

• This week in math, we review area and how to use unit squares as well as the dimensions of a 2D rectangular shape to find the area. 
• We begin our study of Volume by investigating how many unit cubes can fit into different 3-D spaces.
  
• Students will learn how to use the formula for finding volume (length x width x height).
• We will also find the volume of combined rectangular prisms.

Social Studies:

• We continue learning about The American Revolution. Students will read, watch videos, create skits, and write journal entries to study this epic event. We learn about the Intolerable Acts as the final cause of the American Revolution. Then we learn about the first few battles. This week, we'll learn about Lexington and Concord and Bunker Hill.

Science:

• We are studying Simple Machines. Students will investigate uses for things like: a wedge, a lever, an inclined plane, a screw, a wheel & axel, and a pulley. We will also look at force, effort, and work.
  

Thanks for reading! As always, please contact me with any questions, comments, or feedback.

Highlights from Last Week:

Our Memoir writing unit is off to a great start! Ms. Faucon, our student teacher, is leading it. Last week, students came up with big themes that will shape their memoirs and the stories they choose to express it. Students are writing about friends and family members who made them who they are today, adventures that define their personalities, and unforgettable experiences that have shaped their lives.

Students learned a challenging concept: how to divide with fractions. Parents, like me, you were probably taught to reciprocate then multiply. Well, students solve fraction division in a much more visual way. They draw what they're doing. Ask them to show you!

We learned about the Boston Massacre this week in Social Studies and how bias can influence a witness's retelling of an event. We analyzed the infamous propaganda engraving by Paul Revere that depicted the British ruthlessly firing into an unarmed, innocent-looking crowd. Students were amazed at how inaccurate the picture actually was! We discussed Revere's purpose: to outrage colonial Americans.

Here is the general plan for the week:

Reading: 

• We continue our study of texts about Survival and Resilience. Students will learn to identify "survival" as a theme in a text. They will see how characters and real people have overcome obstacles in their lives and consider how these lessons apply to our own lives. We begin this unit with some whole-class read aloud stories.
• Students will have another round of practice writing an open response using the structure we taught last week.

Writing:

• Ms. Faucon is teaching our writing unit on Memoir. This week, students write their memoir based on a big theme that appears again and again in their writing.  They write about memories and find lasting meaning by writing about big ideas and including dialogue, internal thinking, and details.

Math: 

• Coordinate Grids: Students will learn how to plot a coordinate pair on a coordinate grid. They will also learn how to use a coordinate grid to represent real-world and mathematical problems by graphing points in the first quadrant of the coordinate plane, and interpret coordinate values of points in the context of the situation.
• We may also begin our study of Volume by investigating how many unit cubes can fit into different 3-D spaces.

Social Studies:

• We continue learning about The American Revolution. Students will read, watch videos, create skits, and write journal entries to study this epic event. Student will learn about five major causes of the revolution: The French & Indian War, The Stamp Act, The Boston Massacre, The Boston Tea Party, and The Intolerable Acts. This week, we focus on the Boston Tea Party, the First Continental Congress, and the Intolerable Acts.

Science:

• We didn't get to introduce Simple Machines last week, so we've moved it to this week. Students will investigate uses for things like: a wedge, a lever, an inclined plane, a screw, a wheel & axel, and a pulley.
  

Thanks for reading! As always, please contact me with any questions, comments, or feedback.

Highlights from Last Week:

This is a sad highlight: Our beloved Olivia Y had her last day in our class on Thursday. She has moved to Beverly and has transferred to her new school there. We made her a page of compliments that praised her for her hard work, determination, friendliness, kindness, and compassion. We will miss you very much, Olivia! Good luck in your new school. Come back to visit us soon!

PARCC testing Round 1 is finished. Round 2 will happen in May. Students learned and practiced the three key skills of standardized test taking: focus, rigor, and endurance.

On Thursday, students role-played characters from the American Revolution time-period and argued with each other over the British government and its tax laws. It was quite lively and students were able to present multiple viewpoints, including those of colonial commoners, tradespeople, upper class, and even Massachusetts governor, Thomas Hutchinson.

We had a blast on Monday during recess filming for the fifth grade graduation video. Our class shook to Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off" with style and energy! We can't wait to see how it all comes out.

We finished our math unit on Fraction Multiplication and took an assessment. Students will correct their own tests on Monday, I'll review and grade the tests, and they'll come home for parent signatures on Tuesday.

We launched two new literacy units this past week. In Reading, we are focusing on Survival and Resilience. Students learned that surviving requires resilience and that resilience can by physical, psychological, or social. We learned that "surviving" in the real world means so much more than what TV or the movies would have us think it is.

Ms. Faucon is teaching our new Writing Unit. Students will write their own memoirs, focusing on bringing meaning to their memories. This week, they began exploring topics and themes that they could grow into a memoir.

Here is the general plan for the week:

Reading: 

• We continue our study of texts about Survival and Resilience. Students will learn to identify "survival" as a theme in a text. They will see how characters and real people have overcome obstacles in their lives and consider how these lessons apply to our own lives. We begin this unit with some whole-class read aloud stories.

Writing:

• Ms. Faucon is teaching our writing unit on Memoir. This week, students  choose specific themes and memories to write about. Students will learn how to find lasting meaning from their memories and write to express big meaning from small experiences.

Math: 

• Dividing Fractions! This week we will explore the concept of fraction division and how to model it. We'll look at wholes divided by wholes (ex. 4 divided by 5). We'll look at wholes divided by fractions (ex. 4 divided by a fifth). We'll look at fractions divided by whole (ex. four fifths divided by 4). And we'll look at fractions divided by fractions (ex. four fifths divided by a fifth). Fun stuff!

Social Studies:

• We continue learning about The American Revolution. Students will read, watch videos, create skits, and write journal entries to study this epic event. Student will learn about five major causes of the revolution: The French & Indian War, The Stamp Act, The Boston Massacre, The Boston Tea Party, and The Intolerable Acts.

Science:
This week we will introduce Simple Machines. Students will investigate uses for things like: a wedge, a lever, an inclined plane, and a screw.


Thanks for reading! As always, please contact me with any questions, comments, or feedback.