It seems like January lasted for forever, especially with the snow and cold days...but we are finally into February! This month always seems to fly by though! Anyways, read below to find out what we have been up to lately :)
Things To Note:
As always, thanks for all your support and all you do for your kiddos at home! I hope you all stay warm this weekend!
- I/E: We are continuing with our novel, Holes. Students have been working on pulling details from the text to complete various activities, such as a WANTED poster for the main character, Stanley, who was arrested. We are also continuing to work on answering comprehension questions as we read.
- ELA:
- Writing: We focused on opinion writing these last two-ish weeks. We discussed that opinion writing is when a writer chooses a topic they feeling strongly about and writes about that topic using feeling and voice. Whenever we focus on writing, we always start by reading and expert model and highlighting different features that go with that type of writing. Some of the features we highlighted were clearly stating your opinion, using evidence and reasons to support that opinion and putting the strongest reason last. The opinion prompt that students need to answer was "Do you think that fifth graders should be allowed to have a cell phone?" As you can imagine, pretty much all students had a strong opinion about this topic ;) Students first put their opinion, reasons and supporting details into a graphic organizer. From there, students wrote their rough draft by hand (a very foreign concept for most of them haha) using their organizer to guide their ideas. After their rough draft, we talked about the importance of having an "editor" or second set of eyes on your work. Students participated in peer review before ultimately using their peer feedback and personal review to write their final draft of their opinion piece.
- RAPS: A strategy I have introduced to students in small groups is the acronym RAPS. This is a strategy I am implementing for students to use when answering comprehension questions from a text, specifically when they are answering guided reading questions. This strategy will allow for students to be more thorough when answering questions about various texts. It stands for the following:
- R: restate the question
- A: answer the question
- P: prove your answer with text evidence
- S: summarize your answer
- Greek/Latin Root Word: BIO
- Grammar: Linking Verbs
- Math: As we start to wrap up topic 5, please note that next Friday, February 15th, will be our topic 5 assessment. We have continued to work on division and finding quotients with both one and two digit divisors. Working with your child at home on division, as well as multiplication, will be a good way to help prepare them for the upcoming assessment. We have been using our knowledge of number sense to know where to place the first digit of the quotient, as well as estimating before finding our answer to help us know that our answer is reasonable.
- Social Studies: Chapter 4 is about establishing new societies and how they are formed. Specifically, we started reading about the New England, Middle and Southern colonies in Lesson 1. We learned about why they were each started and how their geography contributed to the business/trade they were able to create due to this. We will continue into Lesson 2 next week.
- Science: We started and completed our "Food Webs" unit this week. Students did an awesome project where they worked in teams to come up with an entire meal that they wanted to show visually using a food web. Everyone's food web started from the sun, since that is where all organisms obtain their energy to begin with before moving on to various other organisms. For example, for steak, students needed to create an energy path starting with the sun -> grass -> cow -> steak. The teams did an awesome job on these and were able to create a "mobile" of their meal. These are displayed in our classroom whenever you get a chance to come in next!
Things To Note:
- Valentine's Day: We will be having a Valentine's Day party on Thursday, February 14th from 2:00-3:10. With that said, please be mindful of the items your child is able to bring to school that day. A letter went home earlier in the week outlining these items (see below). If students want to write or bring cards, there needs to be enough for each person in our classroom (24 students). As a class, we discussed items we would like to bring in for the party. Students volunteered to bring in various items and should relay that information to you. If for some reason you are unable to bring in the item your child volunteered for, please let me know and we will make adjustments!
- Spring PT Conferences: A letter went home in Friday Folders about Spring Conferences. As the note says, if there is a sign up sheet attached to your letter, I am requesting a conference with you. Please send back the attached sign up sheet as soon as possible. If there was not a sign up sheet attached, I am not requesting a conference with you, but feel free to email me for availability should you feel you would still like one.
As always, thanks for all your support and all you do for your kiddos at home! I hope you all stay warm this weekend!