December 9-13

Reminders

Monday: Service Club meeting after school until 4:40
Friday: Field Trip to Sci Tech, leaving school right away and returning around 1:20

• If possible, kids need to arrive at 8:50 on Friday so we can leave school right away to get to Sci-Tech on time. We will be leaving as soon as buses arrive, so please don't come to school late on Friday- we may be gone!  
• Kids need to bring a cold lunch with them; we will eat at Sci-Tech. There will be a separate table for students with peanut allergies. 

This week:

5H Math: Students will take the unit 4 test tomorrow. Remember, there is an optional study session Monday morning at 8:25. I will also give students a pre-test to get a feeling for their knowledge of the unit 5 skills. Unit 5 standards have been emailed to you. We'll start unit 5 by talking about fractions: what fractions are and why they are relevant to our lives, how to represent them, how they relate to decimals, and we'll learn the vocabulary as we go along (fraction, whole, numerator, denominator, mixed number, improper fraction, least common multiple, least common denominator, simplify, equivalent). By the end of the week, we should be working on adding fractions. 

I've also updated the links in the under unit 5 in the math tab.

Language Arts

As we continue the read aloud, The Liberation of Gabriel King, we will be working on responding to questions using information from the text to support our answers. Students will be able to choose from questions varying in difficulty to respond to.  

This week we will also read portions of various articles on the use of the word "Redskins". Students will write an opinion piece about the use of this word as a mascot. 

Students have been working on a Writer's Workshop piece for some time now (we do not work on this every day). I told students last week that their writer's workshop piece should be turned in before winter break. I will continue to meet with students individually for conferences before they finalize their writing pieces. 

Word Study: We did not get into prefixes last week. So we will do so this week. Kids will be making flash cards of the most common prefixes. They will need to memorize their meanings. There will be a quiz Friday. Kids will have a list of prefixes they will have to define. 

Science

We're starting our unit on Magnets and Electricity this week. Kids will get to do a lot o f experiments in this unit including finding a magnetic field, making electromagnets and circuits. This week I will introduce the unit and then we will learn a bit about the periodic table of elements, and the makeup of atoms. 

Social Studies

Some students need to finish their social studies tests from last week, so they will be able to do so on Monday. We will continue social studies, by incorporating social studies with language arts. We are going to begin by learning more about slavery, its beginnings, causes, and effects. 

Citizenship
This week we will talk about bullying- what it is (and is not) and how to respond to bullying as either the bullied or as a bystander. 

December 2-6

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Last week, I sent a survey link asking whether you'd like me to communicate through Edline or continue through the blog. I haven't gotten many responses; if you can please take a second and vote, I'd really appreciate it (click "survey" below)!

Survey

For my students in Service Club, we have a meeting this Tuesday until 4:40.
This Wednesday, students will be taking the Gates Reading Assessment in the morning.
Thursday is Culver's Night! I plan to be there from 6-7; hope to see you all there!


This week:

5H Math: Today we learned about vocab related to 3D figures (face, vertex, edge, height) and constructed a cube as well as another 3D figure. Some kids had to finish their 3D figures at home. Each figure is supposed to be labeled with its name, # of faces, # of vertices and number of edges.

Tomorrow we will talk about how we measure the space 2D and 3D figures take up (area and volume). Students will do a little practice finding the perimeter, area, and volume of figures. In this unit, students are only required to understand the concept of volume and be able to count unit cubes to determine the volume. Kids do not need to know the formula for determining volume at this time. If kids figure it out, that's great, but it will not be taught at this time. At this point, we want kids to understand what they're measuring when they're determining volume.

On Friday, kids will have a quiz over their knowledge of polygon attributes. Students will need to know the attributes of polygons as well as how the polygons are related (what attributes do figures have in common?). Kids have "geometry notes" sheets as well as a "Quadrilateral Family Tree" they should use to study. We will have the unit 4 test next Monday. I will let you and the kids know about study sessions soon.


Language Arts:

We started reading an article today about Black Friday "deals" that is pretty interesting. We're learning some new vocabulary and this will give kids a chance to form an opinion about the tactics companies use to make money...do you think it's fair/right for companies to overprice their items so we feel like we're getting a deal when they go on sale? OR Should companies do away with sales and price items low to begin with?  We'll finish reading the article tomorrow, discussing questions and kids will do some writing as well.

We'll also discuss the use of Native American names as mascots. The kids had a short article about the topic in their Time for Kids last week, and we'll read another this week. It also gives a chance to talk about the power of words.

Word Study: This week, I am spending some time reviewing some of the syllable patterns with kids who need review. On Wednesday, we will begin learning about common prefixes; there will not be a new syllable type this week.


Social Studies:

We are finishing up the Colonization unit this week. Kids are working on their choice of projects to demonstrate some of their learning from the unit. Ask your child what two projects they're working on. We started this last week and had some time today to work on this. Kids will have one more work period on Wednesday and will need to turn in their completed projects Friday morning. They will need to present one of their projects to the class on Friday as well. Kids will also take a colonization test this Friday. We will spend some time during class reviewing. Students should be able to write about the essential questions below as well as topics read about and discussed in class.

Why did people settle in North America? (who, why and where)
What natural resources helped each colonial regions' economy?
How did the geography of each colonial region affect the types of jobs people had?
What is a triangular trade route and what goods were traded?

If we have time we will begin the science unit Magnetism and Electricity by learning about atoms and elements.

Citizenship:
We are focused on using good manners and showing courtesy to others this week (and hopefully every week).  One major area we're focusing on is responding appropriately to others (please, thank you, you're welcome, saying "good morning" to others, etc.).