April 28 - May 2

I sent out a message about Jump Rope for Heart, but I am guessing it will be cancelled if the weather forecast is correct. I'll let everyone know as soon as possible, if this is the case and when it will be rescheduled. 

The students in service club, we do have a meeting Monday after school until 4:40. 
On Wednesday, kids will take their last Interim Assessment. 
Thursday- talent show dress rehearsal after school for the kids participating
Friday- Talent Show 

The Book Exchange is going on right now, ask your child for the details if you don't know about the program. 

This week:

5H Math:

Since I emailed everyone saying the test would be moved to Tuesday, I will stick to that, even though Jump Rope for Heart may be cancelled and we will then have math on Monday. After kids complete the second part of the unit 8 test on Tuesday, we will begin unit 9. We will spend the rest of the week learning about volume of rectangular prisms. We will review how to count unit cubes to determine volume and then learn about the formula that can be used to calculate volume. 

Language Arts/Social Studies 

During language arts this week, I will have several read alouds for the class that relate to our social studies content. We will be learning what it was like for Native Americans during the expansion of America, and later in the week, as we move toward the Civil War, we will be thinking about the different perspectives of groups of people during the time period. Kids will identify these perspectives and compare and contrast their view points. 

As a lead up to the Civil War, we have thought back about important events that occurred in American history and have made a class timeline. This week, kids will think about all of these events in order to do a short writing piece, explaining the event and how it helped to move our country forward. We will spend 2-3 days on this; kids may need to type or finish typing their short writing piece at home. One of the requirements will be to use information from their social studies book to demonstrate their point. 

The kids will be doing some reading this week about the industrial revolution and growth of our country. Kids may have some social studies reading to finish for homework.

Word Study:

We are continuing homographs this week. We'll have a quiz Friday. Kids will be writing sentences using a given homograph, to show how the same word can have multiple meanings. 

April 21-25

This week:

Last round of Interim Assessments. Tests will be taken Wednesday-Friday as well as one more next Wednesday. 

Tuesday: ECO Club play during the day

Friday: Waubonsie Valley HS Planetarium field trip 

Because of various events interrupting our math time, there will be no math on Monday or Friday. 

5H Math: Kids did a great job last week trying to determine if a word problem involved fraction multiplication or fraction division. This week we will practice using a model to show division of fractions and whole numbers. In fifth grade, students only need to be able to divide with unit fractions, which are any fractions with 1 as the numerator (1/4, 1/3, etc). We will have the unit 8 test part 2 on Monday 4/28. The second part of the unit 8 test will include both multiplication and division computation and word problems involving fractions. 

Optional math study sessions Friday during lunch and/or recess and Friday after school until 4:15. 

We finished our read aloud that we've been reading for quite some time! Sometime this week kids will do an activity that involves thinking critically about the 3 read alouds we've had so far this year as well as finding connections between the 3. 

Word Study: We took our r-controlled vowel quiz today and the rest of the week we're studying homographs. Quiz for homographs will be next week- I'll update you on this! 

Science: We finish up the Astronomy unit on Tuesday by learning about constellations. Students will take the unit test on Thursday. 

Kids have lots of notes to use to help them study. We went over what to study today in class (listed below). Kids will have a little time to study in class on Wednesday. Notes will be allowed on this test; with the aid of their notes kids will need to provide in depth answers to the questions. 

How stars are formed 

Supermassive black holes: where they are, what they do, and how they form 

How do stars die? know this process for average stars and massive or giant stars 

Constellations- what they are and why they were originally created

The process all stars use to create energy 

How photons escape the sun 

Coronal Mass Ejections- what they are, and what they can do to Earth

Social Studies: We are working on making a timeline to help us remember all we've learned about American history thus far. We are moving into the 1800s this week. We'll learn about people moving westward in our country as well as the War of 1812. Several of these topics should be familiar to the kids because they have been discussed in prior grade levels. We're working our way to the Civil War! 

April 14-18

The April showers have arrived! Hopefully the weather channel is wrong and we won't have any April snow showers tomorrow! 

• For those kids in service club, we have a meeting Monday after school until 4:45. 
• There is no school this Friday. 
• Thanks to everyone that has turned in their Proof of Residency forms; on Friday I told kids who had turned theirs in and who hadn't-please ask your child if you're not sure if you've returned this form.
• Please have your child return their permission slip for our field trip to the planetarium as soon as possible. 

This week and the weeks to come, our classroom will focus on ways to show kindness and respect to each other within our classroom and other kids and adults we come into contact with. It will be something I continue to remind students about and look for students who do show these behaviors. 

5H Math: 

The first half of the unit 8 test is tomorrow, Monday. Then we will continue unit 8 by working with division of fractions. We'll start by comparing actual story contexts of multiplication and division. We will think about what the story contexts mean and try to model what is happening in the problem. We are not starting with the computation steps of how to divide fractions. Students need to understand what they're doing before we discover or learn about any "tricks". 

Language Arts:

The kids finished their picture book mash-ups last week and they will get the opportunity to read-aloud their new story to the class this week. 

Kids are working on understanding the Bill of Rights. Kids are working in partnerships to understand their bill. Each group will make a poster telling the parts of the bill as well as what freedoms this bill grants us. We will be relating each bill to our lives today as well as current events when applicable. Each group will give a short presentation on their bill. 

For word study, we are learning about our last syllable type, r-controlled vowels. Kids will brainstorm words that have this pattern all week and we will choose words for our list on Thursday. Kids will take the quiz on this syllable type next Monday, 4/21. 

We will also be looking back at what we've learned so far about the history of our country this week, when kids create a timeline that focuses on the major events we've learned about our country. Kids will create an image as well as do a short writing describing why this event is important and how it helped our country
move forward. 

Kids won't have as much time as they normally do for independent reading this week, so they need to spend time at home reading their independent reading books. 

Science
This week we will learn more about the life cycle of stars as well as black holes, supermassive black holes and dark matter. The Astronomy Quiz will be the week of 4/21. 

Social Studies
We will have our second quiz about the Constitution this Thursday. Kids will come home with what they need to help them study on Monday. 

Students have chosen a week in which they will present a current event, so please check with your child to see when they are to prepare and present their current event. 

Word Study

Here are the words the kids decided on for the silent consonant quiz that will be this Friday.

wriggle
wrath
rhinestone
resign
gnat
knight
knock
spaghetti
ghostly
bought
lightning
Autumn
column
bombing
comb

extra credit (thanks, Paige): rhombencephalon (part of the brain)

April 7-11

I hope you've all enjoyed some time with your kids! Thankfully, it finally seems as though spring may be here! Unfortunately it looks as though it will rain a few times this week; this means we may end up inside for recess some days. The kids have voiced that they have "nothing to do" and although I remind them to bring things in, this hasn't really happened. So, it would be great if you could help your child determine something they could bring in to play with their friends during recess (cards, board games, fun books, quick crafts). 

Plans for the week:

5H Math: We're continuing unit 8 and will focus on the skills listed below. You should notice your child will have homework most nights. 
-estimating the product of a fraction multiplication problem (e.g. 2/3 x 7, will the product be equal to, greater than or less than 2/3, how do you know?)
-multiplying mixed numbers- kids have to change the mixed number into an improper fraction before multiplying; they need to remember to simplify their answers as well
-modeling a mixed number multiplication problem using an area model
-solving fraction and mixed number multiplication story problems

The unit 8 test is long (there are a lot of standards in this unit), so I am splitting the test. The unit 8 test (part 1) will be Monday, April 14. I will have study sessions Thursday during lunch and/or recess and Thursday after school until 4:15. 

Language Arts: 

Kids will finish their picture book mash-ups this week. They are due Friday morning. We will have time every day to work on them and students should be working on it for homework. For those students working with a partner (most kids are), they will split up who will take it home each night. I will give the kids time to decide who will take it each night and they will decide together what should be accomplished each night. 

The kids will have their independent reading time, and we will also continue reading and making sense of the Constitution. We will work on this every day, and kids may need to complete some of this for homework throughout the week. Later in the week, we'll learn about the Bill of Rights- what each means and why they're important to us. 

Word Study: We will have a quiz Friday on words with silent consonants. Kids will come home with the words tomorrow (Monday). 

Science: We're moving on to our astrology unit. This is a short science unit, with a focus on stars. This week, kids will learn about the sun through readings and videos. This unit includes a trip to the planetarium at Waubonsie, which will occur in a couple weeks. You'll get a permission slip home soon!