September 20, 2018
Dear Fifth Grade Parents,
We have been very busy in 5A this week! Students have been practicing the procedures and code of conduct to be successful in Grade 5!!
BE SAFE
BE RESPONSIBLE
BE RESPECTFUL
Reminders:
Sell Magazines!!!!
Parent PowerSchool Account – PowerSchool brings the power to the parent by giving you online access to your child/ren’s grades, attendance, teacher comments and other classroom information. Parents and students should check PowerSchool regularly to stay informed on grades and assignments. Students have already received their account information. In addition to the web interface, there is an iOS and an Android app for both parent and student use. Email preferences can be set by parents so that daily, weekly, bi-monthly or monthly reports are sent with current grade, assignment, and score information. If you have already have a PowerSchool account with an older child, your fifth grader has been added to that account and you do not need to do anything further. If you do not have a Powerschool account, please email Mr. Barker at jbarker@holyrosaryws.org with a preferred username and he will set up your account. Thank you!
The following is a curriculum update for the week of September 24 – 28, 2018.
Religion
We have begun Chapter 1, God’s Plan for All Creation. In this chapter students will reflect on God’s personal invitation through Scripture, explore all of creation as the gift of God’s goodness, recognize that God revealed himself in a unique way through Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition. Students will also be defining and understanding providence and stewardship as well as examine the gifts of the Earth used in the Seven Sacraments as signs of God’s presence and power. A Study guide will be handed out on Friday 9/21. Students will have some time in class to begin to work on the study guide. Looking ahead the test will be on 10/2.
Steps to Respect – We have just completed Lesson 1, Recognize, Report and Refuse in the Bullying Prevention Curriculum. Next week we will begin Lesson 2, Bystander Power. The students seem to really enjoy this new curriculum!
Math
Ms. Semandiris
9/21 – Chapter 1 Test
9/24 – Ch. 2 Lesson 1, Prime Factorization
9/25 – Ch. 2, Lesson 3, Powers and Exponents
9/26 – Ch. 2 Lesson 4, Multiplication Patterns
9/27 – Check My Progress Lessons 1-4
9/28 – Ch. 2 Lesson 6, Hands On: Use Partial Products and he Distributive Property
Math
Mr. Schreck-
We will be skipping non-essential lessons periodically in order to teach the geometry unit late in the school year.
Here’s an overview of the next lessons:
Chapter 2: Multiply Whole Numbers
Friday: Lesson 1, Prime Factorization
Monday: Lesson 3, Powers and Exponents
Tuesday: Lesson 4, Multiplication Patterns
Wednesday: Review Lessons 1, 3 & 4
Thursday: Quiz, Lessons 1,3 & 4
Math
Mrs. Heuer
This week we are concluding our first unit: Understanding Decimals. In this unit, we learned some background on decimals, which helped us to better understand how to add and subtract decimals. Next week we will begin our second unit where we will learn how to multiply and divide decimals. Next week the students will also get their username and password for ALEKS, which will be a supplemental online learning system that we will use in class periodically throughout the year. Students are also encouraged to work through their ALEKS path at home. If a parent or student ever needs any information on math homework, please visit my homework page @ math.holyrosaryws.org and click on the 5th homework page.
Science
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.
Reading
The 5th graders will take their first Selections Test on Tues. 9/25. In preparation for this test, students can go to the ThinkCentral website to study vocabulary and re-read the story. We have discussed story elements, (setting, characters, conflict and resolution), point of view and the author’s craft of irony as each relates to A Package for Mrs. Jewls. Interactions with your child on the website and conversations about the story to include those elements will increase your child’s enjoyment and understanding of the story. thinkcentral.com username: first two letters of your child’s first name plus their last name (lower case). PW: gators4142
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 9/28. I will be giving a hard copy of the study guide as well for this first chapter. Please remind your child to study for this test using the study guide, text and their Interactive Notebook.
Language Arts
This week we had our first spelling test on Lesson 1 words while also exploring sentence fragments, and the difference between declarative and interrogative sentences. 5th grade LA should also expect another spelling test this upcoming Friday, Sept. 21st on Lesson 2 words, no challenge words.