Last Week of School!

The Fifth Grade Farewell last week went wonderfully! The kids will definitely have a fun day to look back on. Thank you so much to the parents that organized and volunteered! 

Well, we have 6 days of school left, and a lot to do! :) 

5H Math: 

We'll continue math all week as we finish up the review skills in unit 9 as well as learn about a final new standard. Kids will take an end of the year assessment this week, on all of the standards they've learned. The skills we'll work on this week are: plotting coordinates on an x-y axis, determining volume of rectangular prisms and of combined rectangular prisms (2 put together), and toward the end of the week, kids will learn about the order of operations.

Language Arts:

We'll be finishing up a lot of things this week, including the 4th quarter performance task and our anchor text Maniac Magee. I will talk to students tomorrow about part of the performance task that they will need to complete at home this week. By Friday, kids will need to either create or find an artistic piece (poem, song, piece of art or other item) that represents a personal quality (character trait) they admire. They will have to explain the connection between the character trait and artistic piece. We'll be discussing this and kids will be determining the character trait they admire. The written portion of the performance task will be completed in class. 

Each day this week, I'll be reading a picture book to the class. At the end of the year, I like to read picture books to the kids which have lessons/themes that I want them to remember as they move forward :). 

Science: 

This week in the small life/microscope unit kids will get a chance to look at plant and animal cells through their microscopes. Before this we will learn how to make a wet mount slide and how to determine the range of field of view. We learned about the parts of a microscope last week and what each does. Kids will have a quiz this Wednesday in which they'll need to label the parts of a microscope. Later in the week we'll get to look at three different types of protozoa: Euglena, Amoeba, and Paramecium. Kids will learn about the parts of each and what they do. 

Social Studies:

Kids are finishing presentations on Westward Expansion events on Monday. 

Any time we have left in the week will be devoted to learning about the causes of the Civil War as well as events that occurred during the war. 

May 26-29

As I'm sure you know, the Fifth Grade Farewell is Tuesday! Kids should bring their skates, if they said they were bringing their own. Also, kids do not need to bring a lunch. It should be a fun day! 

For Service Club Members: Wednesday is our last meeting! Kids need to bring their permission slips if they'd like a treat. 

All LMC books are due Friday! Also, if you notice any books at home that say: Happy, Lundgren, Guleserian, or Pederson...they belong in the 5H classroom library. I also get books from the Aurora Public Library, so if you notice any of these laying around that aren't familiar to you, please have your child bring them back in! THANK YOU! 

5H Math: Kids will get their Unit 8 Tests (Part 2) back on Wednesday. We'll then be moving on to Unit 9. The skills for the unit are listed below with the standards in parentheses if you want to learn more about the specific skills. We'll start with volume of rectangular prisms. 

review skills
-multiplying fractions (5.NF.4 and 5.NF.5)
-converting measurements (5.MD.1)
-finding volume of rectangular prisms  (5.MD.3, 5.MD.4, 5.MD.5) 

new skill
-graphing points on coordinate grids (5.G.1 and 5.G.2)

Language Arts:
We'll be focused on our Performance Task as well as reading Maniac Magee. The performance task requires kids to identify a trait they think is important in their life and explain why they believe this. Then they will need to describe a literary character and historical figure who also possess this characteristic/trait. Additionally, kids will need to explain how this trait will help them move forward wisely in their own life.

Kids will have a word study quiz (second list of words with vowel teams) on Thursday. We've been working on these words since last week. 

Social Studies: 
Kids will have a test this Friday about the Constitution. Study topics:

-what the Articles of Confederation were and why they failed

-what changes were made from the Articles of Confederation to the Constitution

-the three branches of government (what they do, the leader of each branch)

-checks and balances (what this is, why it’s important, and examples within our government)

-the Bill of Rights (what this is and have knowledge of the rights given to citizens through these amendments)

-how a bill becomes a law

This week we'll also be learning about events that occurred in the early years of our country (Louisiana Purchase, Trail of Tears, Gold Rush, Industrial Revolution, etc.). 

Science:
This week we'll be learning about the parts of a microscope and their function. 

May 18-22

I apologize for the late post. Please contact me if you have any questions. 


5H Math: Tomorrow (Tuesday) kids will get their tests back from last week. This was the first part of the Unit 8 math test. Kids will take the second half of the test this Friday. The second half of the test will include multiplication and division problems involving fractions. This means kids need to really think about whether a problem is using multiplication or division. Also, I continue to push kids to make an estimate so they can determine if their answers are reasonable. 

Kids only need to know how to divide with unit fractions...meaning 1/4 divided by 5 or 6 divided by 1/3. The rest of the week we will work on division with fractions and then spend some time solving mixed multiplication and division problems. 

Language Arts:

This week kids will be writing an informational paper about the Astronomy topic they've been researching over the last couple days. They will be working on organizing information in a logical structure that includes an introduction, body paragraphs and a conclusion. 

The last author we had visit the school was awesome. He was able to speak to the kids in depth about being a writer, and the process he uses and what works for him. He also talked with kids about the structure of stories, and how every story has "3 acts". This was very interesting...we'll take a look at our past anchor texts and see if we agree with him. I'm hoping we can write another narrative before the end of the year! 

We continue to read Maniac and respond to the text! This week I will also begin having the kids think about their last performance task of the year. This task requires kids to think about a trait they possess that they feel is important. Kids will be comparing themselves to a character from one of our texts. 

Word Study- This week we continue to learn about vowel teams. There will be no quiz this week; kids will have a quiz next week. 

Social Studies:
We are finally getting to our learning and presentations about the Bill of Rights. Groups are learning about different amendments and will share on Wednesday. They are explaining what rights are given to citizens and how this is relevant to our lives today. Later in the week we'll learn about Western Expansion and the growth of our country. 

Science: 
Toward the end of the week, we may begin learning about the parts of the microscope as we move into our last science unit of the year. 

May 11-15

I hope everyone enjoyed their Mother's Days! 

We have a few special things happening this week:

Tuesday: Multicultural Night is 6:00 to 8:30. I'll be there; hope to see you! 

Wednesday: 

• We are lucky to have another author coming to visit the fifth graders. He'll be able to talk to kids about the writing process. 
• Marble Party- the kids voted for an outside day again for our marble party. It looks like the best weather for this will probably be Wednesday. So we'll have our celebration in the afternoon.
• Service Club meeting after school. 

Friday: 5H and 5C will be going to the Planetarium at Waubonsie Valley High School. Our trip will take place mid-morning and will cause us to be gone during lunch. Kids will need to bring a cold lunch on Friday. We will eat when we return to school around 1:00. 

5H Math: We will have the Unit 8 (Part 1) test this Wednesday. Kids need to be able to:

• multiply whole numbers by fractions
• multiply fractions by fractions 
• multiply mixed numbers by mixed numbers and fractions
• solve word problems involving all of these types of problems
• simplify their answers and write them as mixed numbers and not improper fractions 

Later in the week we'll begin to divide fractions by whole numbers and whole numbers by fractions. We will only be working with unit fractions (fractions with 1 as the numerator, e.g. 1/4, 1/5). This gets difficult for kids because they have a difficult time determining which word problems are multiplication and which are division. It will be important for kids to visualize the word problem to aid in their understanding. 

Language Arts/Science/Social Studies:

We continue reading Maniac Magee, hopefully your child brought home their copy of the text last week to share with you and tell you a bit about the book. This week we'll continue to look at figurative language as we read to understand the text. We'll also be looking more closely at the relationships Maniac has created and how the people in the book have affected one another. 

Our Astronomy test, as you know, is Monday. The study topics were posted last week. This week kids will have the opportunity to determine a related topic to research and eventually write an informational paper. 

For social studies, we continue to learn about the Constitution and how our government works. Kids will learn about the three branches of the federal government and what checks and balances are and why they're important. Later in the week we'll learn about the Bill of Rights.

Word Study: Our words this week will have "vowel teams," meaning two vowels that work together to create one sound. The vowel teams we'll work with are, "ai," "ay," "ee," "ey," "oe," "oa," "ue". Kids will have a quiz this Friday. 

Astronomy Study Topics

Test Monday! Here are the topics to study:

• How stars are formed and the process of how they die (star life cycle for stars like our sun) 
• Constellations (what they are and why ancient people created them)
• The process all stars use to create energy 
• How long it takes photons to travel from the core of the sun to earth 
• Coronal Mass Ejections (what they are and why they are dangerous to earth)
• Galaxies (what a galaxy is, the types of galaxies, what type of galaxy we live in)

May 4-8

This Monday we visit Hill Middle School for our tour of the school. It's always a fun day! We will return before lunch, so kids will be able to eat lunch as they normally would. 

This week we have our last round of CBM tests (Wednesday and Thursday morning). 

This past Friday, kids brought home their science and word study quizzes. On Monday, I'm having kids bring home their reading notebooks and a copy of our current anchor text, Maniac Magee. Kids need to share with you the work they've done in their reading notebooks. They should share responses from our last book, Red Kayak, and tell you about our current text. 

5H Math: 

This week kids will learn how to multiply mixed numbers; we will learn a couple different strategies to do this. The first strategy will be to use the distributive property, then kids will learn how to convert a mixed number to an improper fraction and then multiply. Kids will also learn how to model these types of problems and solve word problems. By the end of the week, we should be able to start learning about division of fractions. 

Kids will have a quiz on Wednesday on multiplying whole numbers by fractions and fractions by fractions (not mixed numbers). 

Language Arts: 

While reading Maniac Magee this week we will work on:
-recognizing how the author uses repetition in the text
-recognizing and understanding the figurative language the author uses (the type of figurative language and the meaning)
-seeing an event from a different perspective, and rewriting a scene from this other perspective


Word Study: This week kids will practice working with words that have the "r-controlled" syllable. This means words with either -ar, -er, -ir, -ur, or -or. They will have a quiz Friday . 

Science:

We're finishing up our Star Unit this week. We will do an activity early this week with the types of galaxies, and then move on to constellations. Kids will learn what constellations are and why people have "created" them throughout history. Then kids will research a constellation of their choosing. Finally, we will study constellation myths, and kids will write their own...tying in narrative writing. 

Kids will have their end of the unit test on Monday, May 11th. This Wednesday we will review kids' materials they will need to study for the test, and I will post study topics. 

Social Studies:

Last week we started to learn about the Articles of Confederation. This week we'll continue to learn about the struggles early Americans had in setting up the new country, and how they decided a new Constitution was needed. 

April 26-May 1

This week:

Kids take the End of the Year PARCC this week. They will have one English Language Arts assessment on Monday, and a Math assessment on both Tuesday and Wednesday. They will take each test first thing in the morning. 

Kids can bring in books for the book exchange any day this week. Most kids did not get their mail Friday, so they will bring home a note about the book exchange Monday. 

ECO club members: ECO club meeting/field trip on Tuesday
Service Club members: meeting Wednesday until 4:45 

5H Math:

Kids will get their math quizzes back on Monday. There will be no math Tuesday, because of shifting of schedules due to PARCC testing. The rest of the week we'll focus on multiplying fractions by fractions and mixed numbers. This will include drawing models to show our solutions and solving word problems. 

Language Arts:
We'll read from our anchor text, Maniac Magee, each day this week. We'll work on a variety of skills:
-determining character traits based on evidence from the text
-annotating the text to demonstrate our thinking, we'll focus on annotating parts of the text that provide new information or that make us wonder
-looking at how and why the author uses repetition in his writing 

In addition, we are always learning about vocabulary and responding to questions about the text. We will also practice annotating with our nonfiction science texts. Kids will have a word study quiz this Thursday on -ine, -age, and -ege.

Science:
On Friday, kids completed paintings of the structure of the sun. They turned out great! Kids will have a quiz on the structure of the sun this Wednesday. They need to know the 3 inner layers of the sun as well as the layers of the sun's atmosphere. Kids will need to know basic information about each layer as well. We'll review on Monday. 

This week kids will watch a video and do some reading to learn about the stages in the life cycle of stars. By the end of the week, I hope we will be learning about the types of galaxies. 

April 20-24

As a reminder from the office, please remember to turn in your Proof of Residency information as soon as possible. Last week kids got a couple social studies papers returned, and they will get their quizzes back tomorrow (Monday) as well as their presentation grades. 

Events this week:
Tuesday: Bike Safety Assembly and Author Visit (kids can dress up as a fairy tale character!)
Wednesday: Fifth Grade Program- kids need to arrive at school at 6:45 PM, program starts at 7:00

Students will be taking part in the End of the Year PARCC assessments next week 4/27-4/29. 

5H Math:

We'll finish up Unit 7 this week with a quiz on Wednesday. The quiz will be on adding and subtracting mixed numbers, kids will need to know how to "borrow" or regroup when subtracting mixed numbers. The quiz will have computation and word problems. Kids got an exit slip handed back last week and will get another one tomorrow, to show how they're doing on the skills that will be on the quiz. We'll focus on word problems Monday and Tuesday. 

Later in the week, we'll be moving on to Unit 8, which will involve multiplying and dividing fractions.  

Language Arts: 

The kids' six word memoirs about the main characters we've read about turned out wonderfully. The kids showed they understood who the characters are and what was important to them. They're hanging up in the room right now, but will be sent home later. 

We continue with Maniac Magee. After reading the first chapter, we wrote down a lot of questions we had and as we read we are figuring out that the author is slowly revealing the answers to these questions. We are getting to know Maniac and will be answering the same questions about him as we have our other characters (Who is he? How has he shown courage? What choices/challenges has he faced? How is he moving forward?). We will also study the figurative language the author is using, this week. 

Word Study from last week has been moved to this week. So we will learn about the suffixes -ine, -age and -ege. We'll learn about the meanings of the these suffixes as well as the meanings of words that have these suffixes. I will update you and the kids about when the quiz will be for these words. 

Earth Day is this week, and we will read from our latest Time for Kids magazine which focuses on Earth Day to incorporate some nonfiction reading. 

In addition to all this, we will start to learn about what the colonists did to form their own government after they won independence from Great Britain. This will lead to a study of the Constitution, but we will first learn about the Articles of Confederation, which was the colonists' first attempt at a Constitution. 

Science: We continue our unit about the Sun. Kids will learn more about the layers of the sun this week as well as start to learn about the Sun's life cycle as well as the life cycle of larger stars. 

April 13-17

I hope you all enjoyed the beautiful weather this weekend! 

This week:
Monday: ECO club meeting for those kids that participate
Tuesday: Jump Rope for Heart during school- kids should be prepared to be outside for a couple hours. Fifth grade jumps in the morning. If your child is collecting pledges, money is not due until April 27th, but they can bring in envelopes any time. 
Wednesday: Service Club meeting until 4:45 for kids that participate.

Mrs. May will be talking to the kids about an upcoming author visit; you can look for information to come home this week. The author visit is next Tuesday. 

5H Math: 

Kids will most likely get their tests back on Monday (still working on them!). We are starting unit 7, but this will be a quick unit. The only two standards in the unit are about adding and subtracting fractions and mixed numbers, which we worked on during unit 5. We will go further with these skills in this unit. Kids will learn how to add and subtract mixed numbers as well as how to subtract mixed numbers when you have to "borrow" or regroup. When solving fraction problems we will be working on using benchmark estimates to help us determine if our answers are reasonable, and we will work on making visual models to represent the problems. 

Language Arts:

We're starting our 4th quarter theme, "Moving Forward" this week. We'll be thinking about the below essential questions as we read different texts this quarter:  


1. How do individuals and groups move forward in their lives?
2. What is the value of reflecting and acting on knowledge gained from past experience when trying to move forward?


Our next anchor text will be Maniac Magee, which we will start later in the week. To begin the week, we will think back to the main characters of our previous texts, and think about how each theme from the year applied to each character...for example, "Who was Naomi?" (Identity), "How did Naomi show courage?" (Courage), "What choices did Naomi have to make?" (At a Crossroads), and "In what ways did Naomi move forward?" (Moving Forward). After we've reviewed the main characters we've read about this year, kids will write short memoirs for each character...very short in fact, they'll write a "Six Word Memoir" for each character. This will require students to think carefully about the 6 best words that represent each character. 

I love this theme because it connects so well with our social studies concepts and to the students as they "move forward" from elementary school! We're just wrapping up learning about the American Revolution, and soon we'll learn about how the people of the new United States moved forward after the war.

For word study this week, we'll learn about the suffixes -ine,  -age, and -ege. Kids will learn the meanings of these suffixes and we will then study a list of words, learning about their meanings and how to spell them. Kids will have a quiz Monday, April 20.  

Social Studies: 

In small groups, kids have been learning about important events that happened during the American Revolution. On Monday, groups will finish creating posters for their events and preparing for their presentations on Tuesday. On Tuesday we will review what kids need to know for their second quiz on the American Revolution. Kids will be helping create the quiz questions! The quiz will be Friday.

Science: 

We are beginning our Astronomy unit! This week we'll learn what a star is and start to learn more about our closest star, the Sun, through readings and a video. Here are the essential questions for the unit, although we will learn much more than this:

• What is the life cycle of a star?
• What are the names of some of the basic star patterns? (constellations)
• What are the basic parts of a star?
• What are the 4 basic types of galaxies?

April 6-10

I hope you all had a nice week with your kids :). We had a good first day back! By the way, Mrs. Donaldson, our music teacher, awarded 5H the "Golden Record Award" for 3rd quarter! This means 5H earned the most marbles during music class this past quarter out of all the 5th grade classrooms! 

Friday: Report cards will be available online. 

Kids brought home graded papers Monday. 

From Service Club: 

Way to go May Watts! The Service Club fundraiser, "Kids Helping Kids" for the Make a Wish Foundation was a great success! Maybe we should have called it "Community Helping Kids"! Together, we were able to raise $1,435.67​! ​All of your donations will go to helping Illinois kids with life-threatening conditions. Thank you for your help in making children's dreams come true! 

5H Math: This week we are finishing up Unit 6. Kids will take the unit 6 test Thursday. This will include converting within the metric and customary systems (word problems and computation), rounding decimals and line plots. We started learning about line plots today and will continue working with them on Tuesday. Kids need to be able to make a line plot from a set of data as well as be able to answer questions about the data. Wednesday we will review all the types of problems before the test Thursday. 

-Kids brought home their customary converting quizzes Monday. 

Language Arts/Social Studies: 

We finished up our Anchor Text, Red Kayak, before break, and will be reflecting about the book and how it fit the theme "At a Crossroads" this week. 

Kids are finishing up their performance tasks and will be presenting by Friday at the latest. As a reminder, their performance task requires them to write a newscast of a crossroads event in American History. They also write an interview with a person who experienced the event; they need to show their understanding of how the event impacted the person- this is hard! Some kids are presenting as early as Wednesday. Kids need to make sure they are well-practiced- they should be practicing at home. 

Kids will be finishing up reading about the American Revolution this week. The kids have learned a lot about the causes of the war, and this week we need to go a bit deeper into some of the events that happened during the war. We will read about several turning points during the war, which include ordinary people helping the Patriot war effort, important battles, and other countries coming to the colonists' aid. We will be reading multiple texts about the Declaration of Independence, and combining important information from each to gain a better understanding of the document and its importance. The students will also read more about what it was like to be a patriot or loyalist during the time period. Kids will most likely have a bit of SS reading homework this week. Next week we will have another quiz to end the unit. By the way, kids did an awesome job on their first American Revolution quiz! 

We will be moving into science next week, our Astronomy unit. Any astronomy experts that would like to share their knowledge with the class? We will be learning about stars, with a focus on the life cycle of the sun. 

March 23-27

This is the last week of third quarter! Wow, time is flying! FYI...report cards are issued the week after Spring Break. 

This week:
Wednesday: School-wide PJ party for Make a Wish Foundation- see below for more info! 
Friday: no school for kids-beginning of Spring Break
-Safe travels to anyone heading out next week for a Spring Break Adventure!  

"Kids Helping Kids"

Make a Wish Foundation

A May Watts Service Club Project

The Service Club is organizing a fundraiser to support the Make a Wish Foundation of Illinois. This foundation makes dreams come true for Illinois children with life-threatening conditions. On Wednesday, March 25th, we're holding a school-wide PJ party. To participate, students donate $1.00 or more to wear their PJs and help a child's dream come true. For more information about the organization, visit their web site: http://illinois.wish.org/

5H Math:

This week we'll finish up working on converting customary units. We need a little more work with volume (pints, cups, etc) and then will move on to customary weight (ounces, pounds and tons). We'll have a quiz this Thursday on converting customary length, volume and weight measurements. 

Language Arts:

All week we'll be working on our third quarter performance task. For this quarter, kids will need to write an "on the scene" report of an event that occurred leading up to the American Revolution. They will need to combine information from multiple sources, and determine the most important information about the event. Then students will have to choose either an historical person who took part in the event or a fictitious person who could have experienced the event. The second part of their writing piece will be a Q&A with their chosen person about the event. Kids will need to express how this event impacted the life of the person. 

In addition to the performance task, we will try and finish up Red Kayak. We will look at a couple passages from the text that are particularly important; one that helps us better understand the characters and their motivations and another that is a turning point in the story. I'll be collecting kids' reading notebooks at the end of the week to grade a few written responses they've made about Red Kayak. They'll get these back after break, and I'll have them bring them home for you to see. 

We'll also be working on comparing how two different texts present information about the same topic, and think about how texts are organized. For example, some nonfiction texts are written chronologically, while others are written in a cause/effect or problem/solution format. We'll look for key words that help us understand the structure. 

Social Studies:

This week we'll finish watching "America the Story of Us" which will allow kids to see more of the events that happened during the war. Kids will learn about two important leaders, George Washington and King George III. We will also do a bit more reading about the Declaration of Independence. Kids will have social studies homework at least once this week. 

This Wednesday, kids will take a quiz on the causes of the American Revolution. Kids need to know several events that lead to the eventual war between the colonies and Great Britain. They will need to explain how these events lead to war. They also need to have an understanding of the similarities between the events- the colonists felt Great Britain was exercising too much control over the them and Great Britain thought they had the right to complete control over the colonies. 

Citizenship: We'll be talking about personal responsibility this week. 

March 16-20

No special events in the classroom this week, although we will hopefully have our "marble party" later in the week. The kids wanted some time to play outside, which makes sense, and ice cream. So, this means you'll have a permission slip coming your way sometime this week. I just have to get the permission slip approved by the office, first! 

I passed back a few papers last week (science quiz, vocabulary sheet, and converting sheet) and will let you know when you can expect to see more this week. 

5H Math: 

Kids take their converting quiz on Monday- see email. Then the rest of the week we will be practicing measuring and converting within the customary units. We will again work with distance, volume/capacity and weight.

Language Arts/Social Studies:

The next couple weeks, language arts and social studies will be very much intertwined. Our theme, "At a Crossroads", fits perfectly with our social studies unit of the American Revolution...when the colonies were at a crossroads. As we learn about the events and people that lead to the American Revolution we'll also be discussing how decisions were made and the consequences of these decisions. 

We started watching "America the Story of Us" last week, and we will also be reading from our social studies textbooks to go deeper with the events and people shown in the video. For example, this week we will read more about the taxes Great Britain imposed on the colonists and why. We will also learn more about Patrick Henry and read and hear some of his famous speech that included the line "give me liberty or give me death!" We will also review The Boston Tea Party, The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere and the beginning of the war in Lexington and Concord. 

We will also use the text "George vs. George" this week which presents both sides of the American Revolution. I will pair passages from this text with passages about similar topics from their social studies books so we can compare and contrast the information. 

Each day we will be reading about and discussing events that lead to the war. It would be great to ask your child each day what we discussed, to help them review.

We will continue to read "Red Kayak" during language arts as well. 

Word Study:

This week we'll study the suffixes "al" (like in the word "global") and "ity" (like in the word "security"). Kids will learn the meanings of the suffixes and words, how to change the spelling of a word to add the suffix, and a few homophones this week. Kids will have a short homework assignment Monday night for the homophones. 

Citizenship this week is about personal responsibility in school. Last week we focused on following directions the first time, and the kids did well. They earned all their marbles in every specials class last week :)! 

March 9-13

The kids did a great job last week working through the PARCC assessments! They focused and tried their best. 

No special events this week to remind you about; there is a service club meeting this Wednesday after school, though. 

5H Math

This week we continue converting within the metric system. Kids need to be able to convert from a larger unit to smaller and vice versa. We are working on kids understanding why it makes sense to move the decimal in a number when converting within the metric system. Kids need to understand that the metric system is based on the base ten system. Each larger unit is ten times greater than the last unit, and when you move the decimal in a number you are also making it ten times greater or smaller depending on the direction you move it. The more practice we get with measuring, the better their understanding will be. 

Later this week, kids will begin converting not only length, but also with metric weight (grams) and metric capacity (liters). Conversions are the same with these types of measure as when converting between metric lengths/distances. This Friday kids will have a quiz on converting- all three measurement types will be on their quiz. All this week, I will be working with kids on having them make sure their answer makes sense. For example, if converting meters to centimeters, does it make sense for your number to get smaller? No...because it takes more centimeters than meters to measure the same distance. 

Language Arts

We continue Red Kayak, our anchor text. Today we worked on narrative writing by writing from a different character's perspective. Kids had to think about the events from the chapter and put themselves in someone else's shoes while considering how the events may have effected this other character (Mrs. DiAngelo). 

Kids were supposed to print or send me an article about a current event they are interested in. We will be using this current event to practice informational writing again. Kids will practice what we learned last week, to gather information about their topic and write a short information piece this week. Tuesday night they will need to find an additional source that provides further information about their topic. Then kids will work on determining what information is important to best communicate the current event.  

Word Study

Kids are learning about the Greek and Latin roots "tract" (to pull) and "mini" (less). We will do several assignments this week to learn about the meanings of the words and how to use them appropriately. Kids will take a quiz this Friday. 

Social Studies

We are building up to the American Revolution. Today we reviewed and learned more about how Spain, England and France claimed land in North America. We learned how each group is starting to try and claim more land and how this will create conflict. 

For the next couple days, kids will read and learn about the French and Indian War. This is important because England will spend a lot of money in the war to protect the colonists, and will then need to tax the colonists to regain some wealth. As we know, "taxation without representation" was one of the causes of the American Revolution. 

Later this week we'll start watching "America the Story of Us" from the History Channel. There are a couple great episodes that will help the kids visualize the events leading up to the war as well as the war.

The essential questions for the unit are listed below, in case you're curious! 

-How did the colonists learn to govern themselves?

-Which events made the colonists decide to break away from Great Britain?

-How did the patriots' point of view differ from the loyalists' point of view?

-What are the basic principles of the Declaration of Independence?

-Which important leaders helped to establish our new nation?

-What were the important events during the Revolutionary War?

Citizenship

This week we are working on following directions the first time given. 

March 2-6

Happy March! 

Thank you to anyone that helped provide dinner to the staff Thursday night during conferences. The food was wonderful, as were the desserts and the room looked great! 

As you know, this week the kids will be taking the PARCC assessment. Students will take one session of the test each morning this week. Monday-Wednesday will be ELA (English Language Arts) and Thursday and Friday will be math assessments. 

A couple reminders/new pieces of information:
-please have your child bring headphones if they are able and haven't already brought them in
-kids will need to have a book to read when they finish the test each day, and they can't read off their devices (of course they can get a book at school if needed)
-because of testing, 5th grade and 2nd grade will be switching lunch times- this means 5th grade will eat lunch at 12:20 instead of 12:00 


5H Math:

The plan is to have math Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week, since we will be short on time due to testing, we will not have math every day. Math will take place in the afternoon. 

Kids will get their unit 5 math tests back on Monday, and we will start unit 6- standards below. We will start by reviewing how to multiply and divide by powers of 10, because students need to be able to do this in order to convert between measurements within the metric system. Our next two math days will be focused on understanding the metric system in order to convert measurements. 

Unit 6 Standards 

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

5.MD.A.1. Convert among different-sized standard measurement units within a given measurement system (e.g., convert 5 cm to 0.05 m), and use these conversions in solving multi-step, real world problems.

5.MD.B.2. Make a line plot to display a data set of measurements in fractions of a unit (1/2, 1/4, 1/8). Use operations on fractions for this grade to solve problems involving information presented in line plots

Language Arts:

Every day this week, we will have a writing lesson on research/informational writing to help us write our paper about the liver. First, we will write an outline for our introduction. Second, we'll write an outline for each body paragraph. Then we'll have a lesson on how to move from an outline to paragraphs (adding information and transition words as needed). Finally, we'll have a lesson on writing a conclusion; kids will write an outline and then use all of their outlines to write their paper. Throughout each lesson, we'll be comparing research/informational writing to opinion writing- there are many similarities in the structures and components. 

We will read some of Red Kayak each day- this week we will work a bit on character analysis through the eyes of the main character. So, this will require kids to take the perspective of Brady and analyze the text to determine his thoughts about the other main characters. 

Science:

Kids will take part in a nutrition activity the first couple days of this week. With a partner, kids will write a two-day menu. They will need to include the 6 types of nutrients in each day, and work on including appropriate amounts of each. I'll be bringing in some magazines with recipes and cookbooks kids can look through. Kids can bring some from home too :). 

We'll have our last quiz on the digestive system this Friday. Kids will need to tell what each part of the digestive system does (mouth, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, anus) - they have notes on this that I have returned.  

February 23-25

It's a short week for the kids! 

Reminders/Upcoming Events: 

• Kids have no school Thursday or Friday this week. 
• If I sent home a conference invitation, please have your child return this as soon as possible. Conferences are this Thursday. 
• Please have your child return their Fifth Grade Farewell permission form as soon as possible (if your child plans to attend)- thank you! 
• The PARCC assessments will take place for fifth grade students next week! March certainly has come up quickly. PARCC testing will be taking place all week 3/2-3/6 in the morning.

From Mrs. May:

May Watts Book Fair Luau (February 26, and March 2-7)

On Tuesday and Wednesday our students will be previewing our Spring Book Fair. We will be open for business during conferences from 1:00-8:00 on Thursday, all next week during the school day, then in conjunction with the May Watts Fun Fair on Saturday, March 7th. Our Book Fair is again run through Anderson's Bookfair Company, supporting one of our most valued local businesses.

Your purchases help to provide new and replacement books for our LMC.

Happy Reading!

- Mrs. May

5H Math: 

On Monday we will play a review game to prepare for the unit 5 test which will take place on Tuesday. On Wednesday, we will take a pretest for unit 6 as well as complete the transfer task for unit 5. The transfer tasks are multi-step problems that require students to combine their knowledge of multiple skills they've learned. I'll post unit 6 standards next week. 


Language Arts:

We did not begin our research on the liver last week, so that will happen this week. Kids will read 2 texts about the liver and practice paraphrasing to take notes. Then we will have lessons on: organizing our notes, writing a thesis statement/main idea, and writing an introduction to a research/informational paper. We will compare the structure of the informational paper to that of an opinion paper, which we have had more practice with. The writing of this paper will continue into next week. 

In preparation for the PARCC assessment, students have taken part in a trial run in the classroom as well as a tutorial. We will do 2 more tutorials this week, one for ELA and one for math. The tutorials help kids to understand the technology components of the assessment as well as the types of questions they will be asked. 

Word Study- No new lessons this week.   

Science: 

Kids are finished or just about finished with their digestive system projects. Kids will present their projects Tuesday. This week kids will need to log what they eat for a whole day and then determine what kinds of nutrients they eat, and which they may need more of. On Wednesday kids will have a quiz requiring them to label the parts of the digestive system and the types of teeth and what each type of tooth does.  

February 17-20

Thank you to our party organizers for a great Valentine's party this past Friday! The party turned out wonderfully with lots of fun games. 

Thank you kids and parents for your kindness in all the sweet cards and treats...the kids know I have a thing for sugar :). It was very thoughtful and I'm appreciative of all your kindness! 

This week:

Family Reading Night takes place Tuesday from 6:00-7:45- I hope to see you there!
Service Club meets this Wednesday after school until 4:45
The Robert Crown follow up takes place this Friday (your child received a letter from the school about this last week) 

Tomorrow students will receive conference notes. 
Please return the Fifth Grade Farewell permission slips as soon as possible! 


5H Math: 

This week we will finish up with the skills for this unit. We will have the unit 5 test next week, probably Tuesday the 24th. This week we'll work on solving word problems that require division of whole numbers which lead to answers in the form of fractions (4 divided by 5 = 4/5). Then we will review a few skills from earlier units: rounding and comparing decimals. For those students that do not already know, we will also work on converting improper fractions to mixed numbers and vice versa. 

Language Arts: 

This week we'll spend some time each day reading from our anchor text Red Kayak. We just barely got started last week. This week we'll look back at the text and get to know the characters better by looking at what the author tells us. 

Kids will also research the liver this week in order to practice our research skills as well as our informational writing skills, and of course to connect to our study of the digestive system. Kids will use multiple sources to take notes by finding important information and paraphrasing it. Then students will organize their information into a paper that includes an introduction, body paragraphs and a conclusion. They will also need to make sure to use appropriate vocabulary in order to inform about the liver.  

The kids and I will go through another PARCC tutorial this week to inform them of the features of the test. 

Word study:

We will study another set of Greek and Latin roots this week: "man/manu" and "ject".  Students will learn the meanings as well as words that use these roots and how they are connect to the meaning of the root. Kids will take a quiz this Friday that will require them to use the words we've studied to "fill in the blanks" of given sentences. This means students will be given the words, so they do not need to necessarily practice their spelling, but do need to recall their meanings. 

Science:

Kids will finish their partner projects about the digestive system this week. We will share our projects this Friday.  This week kids will also learn about the different types of nutrients our bodies need and what foods provide these nutrients. We will do some reading and research and students will make a "nutrient book" to show their learning.  

February 9-13

This week:

Tuesday we have our field trip to Robert Crown. Kids will need to bring a cold lunch. We will eat at school when we return around 1:30, when hot lunch will be unavailable. 


On Friday we are having our Valentine's Day parties. I gave students a class list last week so they can make Valentine cards if they choose. 

This past Friday kids got permission forms for the Fifth Grade Farewell.


5H Math

Kids will get their exit slips back tomorrow which show how they're doing with the skills we've worked on so far in unit 5. On Tuesday we will have a comparing fraction quiz. Then we will spend a couple days working on adding and subtracting fractions by solving word problems. Kids will first have to find a common denominator. We will also work on simplifying our answers. Finally toward the end of the week we will work on word problems that require division of whole numbers which lead to an answer in the form of a fraction (4 divided by 5 = 4/5). 


Language Arts

We began reading the Robert Frost poem, "The Road Not Taken" last week and will reread the poem several times this week with a different purpose each time. We will practice fluently reading as well as gaining a better understanding of the poem by analyzing the words. We will also think about the structure of the poem. Later in the week, kids will write about a time when they had to make a choice and the effects of their choice. 

We will start our anchor text this week, Red Kayak. The book fits with our theme "At a Crossroads" and will require kids to consider the choices of the characters and the consequences of those choices. 

On Monday, we will finish up our latest opinion papers. Kids may need to finish these at home. 

Word Study

Last week we learned the meanings of several prefixes and this week kids will brainstorm words that include each prefix to make up our word study list for the week. We will have a quiz Friday over the words. 

Science

This week kids will research the path food takes through our digestive system. They will learn the parts of the body food passes through and what each part does to the food. After researching, kids will choose a project method of showing their learning. 

February 3-6

Thank you so much for coming in for Open House if you were able. It was great to see you all! 

Reminders:

Service Club Members- we pack food at Feed My Starving Children this Wednesday from 6:00-7:30. 

The Talent Show is this Friday evening! 

If anyone hasn't turned in their Hill Middle School form, it is past due. 

Also Robert Crown permission slips are due as soon as possible- we go next week (2/10)! Parents, I know some (maybe most?) of the kids are nervous about going...I keep telling them it is not as bad as they may think :). I will be talking with the kids before we go, and I would really appreciate if you could also do this...about appropriate behavior (we must be mature!) and about what they'll be learning. Thanks so much! 

5H Math: 

Kids will get several graded papers back on Tuesday (both quizzes from last week and some in-class assignments). We start unit 5 which has some review skills and some new skills:  

• 5.NBT.A.3a. Read and write decimals to thousandths using base-ten numerals, number names, and expanded form, e.g., 347.392 = 3 × 100 + 4 × 10 + 7 × 1 + 3 × (1/10) + 9 × (1/100) + 2 × (1/1000).
• 5.NBT.A.3b. Compare two decimals to thousandths based on meanings of the digits in each place, using >, =, and < symbols to record the results of comparisons.
• 5.NBT.A.4. Use place value understanding to round decimals to any place.
• 5.NF.A.1. Add and subtract fractions with unlike denominators (including mixed numbers) by replacing given fractions with equivalent fractions in such a way as to produce an equivalent sum or difference of fractions with like denominators. NEW
• 5.NF.A.2. Solve word problems involving addition and subtraction of fractions referring to the same whole, including cases of unlike denominators, e.g., by using visual fraction models or equations to represent the problem. Use benchmark fractions and number sense of fractions to estimate mentally and assess the reasonableness of answers. 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. 

We will start with the new skills. We began talking about equivalent fractions last week and will continue this week before moving on to comparing fractions. Kids need to have a good understanding of this so they can determine if their answers are reasonable when we move on to adding and subtracting fractions. We will also work on using equivalent fractions to find common denominators, and by the end of the week we will be adding fractions with common denominators. 

Language Arts:

For the first couple days this week we will work on an opinion piece which will require kids to make an opinion about the text we just finished, "The Liberation of Gabriel King" and whether or not the book was an appropriate choice for the theme of courage. Based on their past opinion writings, we will work this week on summarizing our thoughts and restating our opinion in a conclusion as well as including transition words throughout.

We begin our third unit of the year: At a Crossroads: Challenges, Choices, Consequences. We will take a look at our different texts for the unit and talk about the task of decision making and the effects of decisions. We open the unit by listening to the song, "Man in the Mirror" sung by Michael Jackson, that I hope the kids have heard before! We will relate this to our theme and talk about changes we think need to happen in our world today. Next we'll take several days to analyze the classic by Robert Frost, "The Road Not Taken". 

Word Study- this week we will study common prefixes. This week we will be working on understanding the meaning of the prefix as well as collecting words that include the given prefix. Prefixes include: sub, post, semi, multi, ultra, non, over, inter, extra, anti, counter. No quiz this week- the quiz will be on words including these prefixes next week. 

Social Studies: 

We've finished up our colonization unit and the test is Thursday. Kids have notes and know what to study!

Science: 

We started our Digestion unit last week! This week we will read about the performance of oral health as well as begin to learn about the parts of the digestion system and their functions. Kids will learn the different types of teeth and their functions as well as the importance of saliva- the first digestive enzyme. 

Citizenship: 

This week we will be talking about manners. A great thing to carryover into home conversations :). In particular, I want to start by connecting this to respectful behavior while at our specials classes. Recently I've gotten some less than positive feedback from specials teachers about appropriate behavior.