September 15, 2016
Dear Fifth Grade Parents,
5A students are so excited for Westfest! I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
The following is a curriculum update for the week of 9/19 – 9/23.
Reminders:
9/16 – Noon Dismissal & Dress in Westfest Colors/T-shirts
9/20 – Sell Magazines….Turn in on Tuesday
9/20 – Picture Day – Free Dress/Bring in Picture Order Form by Tues.
9/21 – Mass 8:45am Perfect Uniform
Religion
We have completed lesson 1, in the Steps to Respect anti-bullying curriculum this week. Students learned the responsibilities of teachers and students at school. We learned about the idea of “intention” and how sometimes people can jump to conclusion about the “intentions” of another without communicating. We learned about communicated with others and we also learned about Friendship and keeping friends.
On Monday we will begin Chapter 1, Longing for God. In this chapter students will examine the importance of material goods vs. things that we need that money can’t buy. Students will be learning that having a relationship with God is the way to true happiness.
***Today we visited the relics of Sts. Faustina and St. John Paul II.
Students were given prayer cards to bring to the church and after they prayed in front of the relics they placed the prayer cards/and or artifact they brought from home so as to touch the relics. This action made those items 3rd class relics.
Math
9/19 – Chapter 1 Test
9/20– Chapter 2, Lesson 1, Prime Factorization
9/21 – Chapter 2, Lesson 3, Powers and Exponents
9/22 – Chapter 2, Lesson 4, Multiplication Patterns
9/23 – Check My Progress
9/26 – Check My Progress Quiz Lessons 1-4
Social Studies
The fifth graders are busy learning about Lesson 1, The Geography of the United States. Students will work in pairs to complete their Interactive Notebooks in class for Maps A-D.
Students will be able to:
Label:
- 4 Hemispheres
- Compass Rose
- Equator
- Prime Meridian
- 7 Continents
- 4 Oceans
- Using:latitude/Longitude to find locations on the Earth’s surface
- Define and be able to locate on a map: 14 geographical terms, (bay,ocean,peninsula..)
- Be able to identify 15 major physical features of the USA
I.E:(Mississippi R., Sierra Nevada, The Great Plains.
The test for this Chapter is on 9/23. The Study Guide will be handed out on Thursday 9/15. Please remind you child to study for this test using the study guide, text and their Interactive Notebook.
Reading
5th graders continue to enjoy reading Hatchet. Students have been describing events of the story from the main character’s point of view, and are encouraged to use text evidence when responding to questions about the story. Next week we will pick up our pace a bit as we focus on the Character and Plot of this great adventure story.
Language Arts
This week in Language Arts students began unit 1 in the Journeys textbook. Students focused on short vowel sounds in spelling this week. In grammar, students reviewed subjects, predicates, and what makes a complete sentence. Students also began a narrative writing unit this week. We focused on the elements of a short story and how to write a clear beginning, middle, and end for a short story. Students have worked on planning and pre-writing for their own short stories and will soon begin writing their rough drafts.
Science
Students will wrap up their experiments with pendulums with a quiz based on their experiments and notes copied in class next Tuesday.
Students begin a unit in the Engineering is Elementary program. Students will explore the field of environmental engineering as they design a process to clean an oil spill in a model river. They will learn how pollution can negatively impact the organisms in the ecosystem and how engineers must consider both short and long-term effects of pollutants on the organisms in a given ecosystem.