September 18, 2014
Dear Fifth Grade Parents,
We are currently working on procedures and materials management in the fifth grade. They are getting better each day in these areas! I hope everyone has fun at Westfest this weekend!
The following is a curriculum update for the week of 9/22-9/26:
Religion
We are currently working on Chapter 1, Longing for God. Students have received the study guide for this lesson and we will be completing it in class next week. The test for this Chapter will be on 10/1.
Math
9/22 Lesson 7, Compare Decimals
9/23 Lesson 8, Order Whole Numbers and Decimals
9/24 Lesson 9, Problem Solving Use the 4-Step Plan
9/25 Chapter Review
9/26 Chapter Review
9/29 Chapter 1, Test
Place Value
Social Studies
The fifth graders are busy learning about Chapter 1, The Geography of the United States. Students will work in pairs to complete their Interactive Notebooks in class for Maps A-D. There is also an on-line study guide for this lesson. This is located on the right hand side of my web-page (Ms. Semandiris 5A) under the word HISTORY ALIVE! Just click on it and then select the correct lesson in this case it is Chapter 1. The test for this 9/26.
Science
Students will wrap up their experiments with pendulums with a quiz based on their experiments and notes copied in class next Wednesday (9/24).
Students will begin a unit on Earth Science in the text. In this unit, students will explore layers that make up the earth and discover how weathering, erosion and deposition change the earth. The students will learn about the earth’s atmosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere and the layers of the earth-the crust, mantle, and core.
Language Arts
This week in Language Arts students began unit 1 in the Journeys textbook. Students have focused on short vowel sounds in spelling this week. In grammar, students have learned about subjects, predicates, and what makes a complete sentence. We have focused on how to find and fix sentence fragments. 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.
Reading – This week, 5th graders identified context clues to better understand unfamiliar Vocabulary words. Our Comprehension strategy was using story structure to examine details about characters, setting and plot. Next week we will learn how characters’ qualities and actions help us to recognize the theme of a story.