April 16, 2015
Dear Fifth Grade Parents,
Please turn in your camp permission slip form as well as medical forms that are in the camp packet that you received.
Reminders:
BINGO BASH TOMORROW NIGHT!!!!!!!! 4/17
Friday: 4/16 Wear Green!! Join us for a prayer service to honor Father John at 2:15pm.
Turn in Camp Forms!
Math
4/17 Ch. 9, L. 1 Round Fractions
4/20 Ch. 9 L. 2 Add Like Fractions
4/21 Ch. 9 L. 3 Subtract Like Fractions
4/22 Ch. 9 L. 4 Hands On Use Models to Add Unlike Fractions
4/23 Ch. 9 L. 5 Add Unlike Fractions
4/24 Check My Progress
Religion
We have been working on Chapter 19, Answering Gods Call. This chapter is about The Sacraments of Commitment: Marriage and Holy Orders. We have also talking about choosing a “vocation” in life as a way of answering God’s call. The test for this chapter will be on Wednesday 4/23.
Social Studies
The fifth graders are currently working on Chapter 10, To Declare Independence or Not? Next week they will be participating in a live debate! Students have been working on the content for the debate in class this week. The debates will be held on Thursday 4/23. The test for this chapter will be on Friday 4/24.
Reading
This week in Reading, 5th graders received a packet to work on in class and at home. The packets provides students with some choice about when and where they would complete it, and allowed me a greater opportunity to meet with individuals and small groups. Students were given partners and worked both together and independently. Optional challenge opportunities were built into the packet, which many were eager to try. The homework assignment was selected each night from a list of options. Students seemed to enjoy the flexibility and element of choice provided. The packets are due on Monday when they will be tested on the week’s Vocabulary and the story.
Science
Students will start a unit on motion and design. They will focus on the use of drawings in the design process. Students will draw vehicles they build from K’Nex building pieces. In small groups they will use their visual and spatial perception skills to build a vehicle pictured in a technical drawing. Next students will focus on force and motion by conducting experiments to determine how applying a force to an object changes the motion of the object.
Language Arts
This week in spelling students looked at changing root word endings for the suffixes –ful, -ly, -ment, and –ness. Students learned about indefinite, possessive, and interrogative pronouns in grammar. In writing, students used their autobiography pre-writing to write a rough draft that they will peer edit at the end of the week. Students will share their final drafts next week.
Update from the Art Room:
5A has been using Art time to explore 3-dimensional space through the free-style manipulation of paper. Our unit kicked off with an engineering challenge, wherein students raced to build the tallest tower they could using only paper and tape/glue adhesives. Following this, students were given the task of either creating a small-scale scene or rendering a real-life 3D object in miniature form (again using paper and adhesives). While kids were given some general pointers on paper manipulation, they were largely encouraged to problem solve and brainstorm their own original techniques and solutions. Greater emphasis was placed on this process of creative problem solving and innovation than on the appearance of the actual finished project, in order to encourage risk taking and divergent thinking. I am totally in awe of the vast scope of techniques and designs that they came up with!
This project has served as a lovely segue into the study of origami that we are now beginning. Kids are learning how to decipher the symbols used for origami folding instructions, and then using these instructions to fold houses, hats, and other objects of increasing complexity. I am always amazed by how quickly they learn these new folding techniques!
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Ms. Semandiris