October 12, 2011
Dear Fifth Grade Parents,
We have been very busy in the fifth grade this week. You should have received your time slot for conferences. Next week we will be busy preparing the fifth graders. In the fifth grade the students lead the conference, which is quite exciting.
Math
Monday 10/17: Lesson 25, Listing the Factors of Whole Numbers
Tuesday 10/18 Test # 4
Wednesday 10/19 Lesson 26, Division Algorithm
Thursday 10/20 Lesson 27, Reading Scales
Religion
Today we began Chapter 2, Worshiping God. In this lesson we will be learning to express thankfulness for God’s creation and to recognize how human work can give glory to God. We will also be learning to identify the connection between stewardship and God’s providence.
Social Studies
The fifth graders are taking the Lesson 2 test tomorrow 10/14. I have told them in class several times that to prepare for this test they should practice the on-line pre-test, review the questions from the Hopi Origin story in their 5-subject notebook and reread the lesson.
Next week we will begin Lesson 3, Native American Cultural Regions. In this lesson students will learn about the seven cultural regions into which scholars often divide Native Americans. They will be working in pairs to learn about the environment of each region. They will use the information from the text to debate which artifacts on the handout were likely to have been created by a Native American from each region. This will be completed in class.
Science
Students will take a test on lessons 1-4 next Wednesday, Oct. 19th. Students will study the rock cycle to learn how rocks reveal changes on the earth. Students will also learn how fossils indicate how the earth has changed.
Reading
5th graders will begin reading Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. This author often becomes a favorite of 5th graders, many of whom go on to read other books in the series. While reading this novel, we will be working on oral reading fluency and revisiting some of the Target Skills from the past several weeks, including cause and effect, summarizing and character. We will also be learning about the main idea, visualization and plot elements while enjoying this story. Some of the reading will take place in class but much of the reading will be assigned as homework. Sometimes the reading assignment will be accompanied by written work but often not. Please help reinforce the importance of completing all homework reading assignments in order to be well prepared for class.
1st Trimester Book Report: Each student has received a copy of the directions and rubric for this assignment. Your child can also download one from the 5th Grade Reading website.
Language Arts
Students have been busy this week organizing, self-revisng and peer-revising their rough drafts of their descriptive essays. Final drafts of the descriptive essays to Farmer Cantu are due, October 17th. We will conclude our descriptive writing unit by watercoloring pumpkins the students have drawn. Next week students will be introduced to compound words and content words. Please be on the lookout for additional vocabulary homework.
Have a great week!
Ms. Semandiris