October 29, 2015
Dear Fifth Grade Parents,
We have been working so hard this week in the fifth grade. The students are very excited for tomorrow’s Halloween party! The following is a curriculum update for the week of 11/2-6/2015.
Reminders:
10/30 – All Saint’s Day Mass 8:45am
10/30 – 2:00 – 2:45 5th Grade Halloween Party
Religion
The Chapter 2 & 3 test will be on Wednesday 11/4. It will be very similar to the study guide. Next week we will move on to Chapter 14, Reborn In Christ. In this chapter, we will learn about the RCIA process and the Sacraments of Initiation. Students will make a “My Baptism Collage” about their own baptism.
Math
11/2 – Ch. 3 Lesson 6, Hands on Division
11/3 – Ch. 3 Lesson 7, Hands On Distributive Property
11/4 – Ch. 3 Lesson 8, Divide Three- and Four – Digit Divisors
11/5 – Check My Progress Lessons 5-8
11/5 – Ch. 3 Lesson 9, Place the first Digit
Language Arts
This week students decided on a topic for a short Halloween narrative and spent one day brainstorming and pre-writing story events together as a class. Students then had a day in class to write their stories. Students also reviewed descriptive writing this week with a short piece about a Halloween costume. Students will end the week with the option to share their writing with their peers.
Reading
We’ve taken a couple weeks out of our Journeys text to read the trade book: Hound Dog True by Linda Urban. This has provided us with the opportunity to read and discuss a good story together as a class, while working on characterization, visualization, figurative language and oral reading skills. These activities also serve as a foundation for our book clubs that we will do later in the year. Hopefully your child is enjoying this story!
Science
Students begin a new unit in Life Science. Students will begin with the cell, the basic unit of all life. Students will discover the basic parts (organelles) of plant and animal cells. They will learn the activities that all living things carry out. These are called life processes.
Social Studies
We have begun Chapter 5, Routes of Exploration to the New World. In this chapter students will learn how the voyages of early explorers encouraged the major powers of Europe to explore the Americas between the 15th &17th Centuries.
- Identify areas in North America claimed by explorers sponsored by Spain, France, Holland, and England.
- Describe the impact of the various European expeditions upon Native Americans.
Students will be working with a partner to become an “expert” on one of the 8 explorers we are studying. They will be completing their Interactive Notebooks as well as a large Wall Matrix which is a fun way to record a variety of information in a simple way. This is also a great study tool for the students to learn for organizing large amounts of content.