October 27-31

Happy Halloween Week! Lots of fun things happening this week...

Wednesday- Boosterthon Fun Run (during school 10:30-11:30)- come and support the kids if you can!
Friday- Halloween Parade 2:00, then classroom parties 2:30
Friday- report cards become active on the HAC at 4 PM

For those kids involved in Service Club, we have a meeting this Wednesday after school until 4:45.

5H Math: 
We continue with NBT2- understanding exponents and how to use them to show the powers of 10. Then kids will practice multiplying and dividing numbers by powers of 10 that are written as exponents  (14 x 10^2). This will take the first couple days of the week, and then we will move into unit 3 (standards below). We will begin with division. 

Unit 3 Standards 

•  5.NBT.A.4. Use place value understanding to round decimals to any place. (REVIEW)

•  5.NBT.B.6. Find whole-number quotients of whole numbers with up to four-digit dividends and two-digit divisors, using strategies based on place value, the properties of operations, and/or the relationship between multiplication and division. Illustrate and explain the calculation by using equations, rectangular arrays, and/or area models. (NEW)
•  5.NBT.B.7. Add, subtract, multiply, and divide decimals to hundredths, using concrete models or drawings and strategies based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction; relate the strategy to a written method and explain the reasoning used. (dividing decimals- NEW)

•  5.NF.B.3. Interpret a fraction as division of the numerator by the denominator (a/b = a ÷ b). Solve word problems involving division of whole numbers leading to answers in the form of fractions or mixed numbers, e.g., by using visual fraction models or equations to represent the problem. (NEW)

Language Arts/Social Studies:
We will finish our anchor text, "Becoming Naomi Leon" this week. We respond to the text each day by answering questions about the text, writing a summary, or studying vocabulary. After finishing the text, we will think back about the journey Naomi has gone on to help us make conclusions about why the text is entitled "Becoming Naomi Leon". 

The kids' "Where I'm From" poems are just wonderful. I hope you have seen your child's; I think they've done a great job! The kids are presenting their poems on Tuesday and Wednesday this week- they already know which day they will be presenting on. They should make sure they are practicing at home before their presentation to make sure they can fluently read their poem. Later in the week, we will write a "Where I'm From" poem from Naomi's perspective using what we've learned about her throughout the book. 

This week we will learn about the proper usages of commas. We'll do this by looking in the kids' own novels, and trying to determine the "rules" for commas. 

Soon, kids will be writing a narrative (a story). We will begin working towards this, this week. Kids will write a narrative from the point of view of an Aztec person when Cortes and the Spanish came to Tenochtitlan. We are preparing this week by reading about the Aztecs and Cortes through our social studies books and through primary sources and other text/online sources. Kids will model their narrative after the book "Encounter" that we read a couple weeks ago. This book described what it may have been like when Columbus and his crew landed in the Bahamas where the Taino lived. This writing will carry over into next week as well. 

October 20-24

Reminders

-Tuesday is Picture Retake Day

-Boosterthon, a new fundraising program for the school, is starting this week. Kids (and staff) will be learning more about this, this week. There is an assembly on Monday to explain the program.  
-Please return conferences slips as soon as possible. If you cannot make the day/time listed, please list alternate days/times that are better for you- thanks! 

-Friday is the end of the 1st Quarter

5H Math:

Students will get their Unit 2 tests back on Monday and will fill out the unit reflection for homework. This "reflection" is a grid of the questions on the test; it helps students evaluate how they did on the test, and which skills they are doing well with and what they need practice. Students should share this reflection with you. 

Then students will complete the Unit 2 Transfer Task which is a word problem that combines several skills from the unit. Later in the week we will revisit two standards from unit 1: NBT1 and NBT2- 

5.NBT.1. Recognize that in a multi-digit number, a digit in one place represents 10 times as much as it represents in the place to its right and 1/10 of what it represents in the place to its left.

5.NBT.2. Explain patterns in the number of zeros of the product when multiplying a number by powers of 10, and explain patterns in the placement of the decimal point when a decimal is multiplied or divided by a power of 10. Use whole-number exponents to denote powers of 10.

Students will take a quiz on these two standards on Friday. We may begin Unit 3 on Friday; unit 3 focuses on division- I will post the standards in next week's message. 

Language Arts 

This week we work on finishing our "Where I'm From" poems and putting together our digital project to accompany the poem. Kids will create a Google slideshow using the program "slides". Students will take the text of their poem and separate the stanzas to include a couple lines on each slide. Students will then incorporate images that help the "audience" understand the poem. 

We have two sessions in the computer lab to work on this, but students may be working on this at home as well. Students' written poems and Google slides are due by Friday. Students will present their slideshows to the class the week of 10/27.

We continue to read Naomi and work on strategies for understanding new vocabulary as well as continue to work on summarizing both fiction and nonfiction. Students will also practice quoting from the text to support their answers to text-dependent questions. 

Social Studies

We will be reading from our social studies texts this week to learn why European explorers ventured west across the Atlantic (their purpose) as well as the effects of this exploration. 

Citizenship

This week we will discuss ways to respond to disrespectful behavior. 

October 14-17

Hi all! I hope everyone enjoyed the weekend. I hope the kids have remembered their responsibility of giving you things from their accordions; last week there were various things sent home (ISAT scores from 13-14, Fall CBM scores, and pictures and "child-safe cards"). 

This week kids will bring home a conference request form with a date and time. Some people have already signed up for a date (at Curriculum Night) so you will receive a letter with the day/time you've chosen; please return the form as a confirmation. If the day/time does not work, please list better days/times when you return the slip- thank you!

5H Math: 

This week we will continue working on multiplying whole numbers by decimals and decimals by decimals. Then we will work with word problems, a combination of multiplying whole numbers and adding/subtracting/multiplying decimal word problems. Kids will need to use their computation skills as well as comprehension skills to determine what type of problem each word problem is. I am planning the Unit 2 test for Friday. I will hold optional study sessions Wednesday after school until 4:15 or Thursday during lunch and/or recess. We will also review rounding decimals throughout the week. 

Language Arts:

I planned entirely too much for last week, so several skills are being carried over to this week. We will work on summarizing both fiction  and nonfiction texts focusing on using only the most important information. 

While reading "Naomi", our anchor text, we will also work on understanding vocabulary by using context clues. 

We are also working on our end of the quarter Performance Task, by brainstorming ideas for our "Where I'm From" poem and beginning our rough drafts. 


Word Study: 
This week we'll focus on correctly using the following homophones:
their, they're and there
its and it's
to, two, and too

Social Studies:
We pick up this week by reading text from Christopher Columbus's own journal. We are comparing his perspective of landing in San Salvador to the Native's perspective. We will use several texts to discuss and write about whether we think Columbus Day should be celebrated. 

Citizenship: 
This week we'll talk about the difference between disrespectful and bully-type behavior. 

October 6-10

Track and Field Day is Monday! I hope the weather works out! Please make sure kids have comfortable clothing and a water bottle for the event. 

Several graded papers will come home Monday, and a couple came home last week as well. 

For those kids interested, Service Club begins this Wednesday after school and ends at 3:45. 

This week:

5H Math: 

The end of last week, kids worked on deepening their understanding of multiplication. Kid worked in small groups to try and explain why the traditional method of multiplication works. The groups started to present to the class on Friday and we will continue this on Monday. Most multiplication quizzes came home last week, but I have a few more to hand back tomorrow. Kids' math fact errors are to blame for a lot of missed problems! Any games you can play at home to work on math facts would be helpful (especially the 7s, 8s, and 9s facts). 

Next, we will be working on adding and subtracting decimals. I had asked students to bring a restaurant menu by Monday, but we probably will not need them until Tuesday. We will practice adding and subtracting decimals using the menus. Later in the week, we may get to multiplication of decimals. 

Language Arts:

With our anchor text this week, "Becoming Naomi Leon", we will learn about foreshadowing as well as pay attention to the author's use of similes and metaphors. We will also practice summarizing chapters using the most important information from the chapter. 

Kids will prepare for writing their own "Where I'm From" poem (which is part of their Quarter 1 Performance Task I spoke about at Curriculum Night) this week by analyzing what types of information the author used in the original poem. Then kids will list similar information about their own lives to use when they write their poems. 

This week we will also look at a nonfiction article together to practice synthesizing. 

Word Study: 

Kids will have a homophone quiz on Tuesday; we talked about this Friday and the kids have the words they need to study in their word study notebooks. 

We are finishing up Open Syllables and so we will probably have a second short quiz on Friday, with words that have open syllables. Kids already have example words in their notebooks, but will have more added on Wednesday. 

Social Studies:

We are beginning our Exploration unit this week. We will begin by discussing what we know about the exploration of North America and Christopher Columbus before reading "Encounter" a literary informational book that will show a different side to exploration. Students will see exploration from the natives' perspective.