Welcome back from vacation! I hope you all had a wonderful relaxing/fun/healthy vacation! I got in some skiing and LOTS of reading!
This week we have the SAS Writing test for 2 hours each morning on Wednesday and Thursday. This test is typically a long one, so it is important kids come in well rested, with a good breakfast and healthy snack to get them through. We start right at 8:45 so it is helpful if they are at school on time.
Reading: We dive deeper into understanding the themes that emerge in Home of the Brave, expanding our thinking about these themes in writing and synthesizing across the text. In addition, we will be studying the plot structure in this and other narrative texts.
Writing: We are beginning a mini- project in which the kids use descriptive and figurative language and practice the ‘show vs.tell’ technique to write an adoption advertisement for a unique pet. After practicing these techniques, along with our investigation into narrative plot elements, the kids will be beginning a two week project on writing a story narrative.
Math: This week we are learning to add and subtract mixed numbers, finding the least common multiple to create common denominators, reducing to lowest form, changing a mixed number into an improper and regrouping to change an improper into a mixed number.
Science: This week we begin our unit in Astronomy! Today we watched a Generation Genius video that introduced us to the topic and got us thinking about what we know about our solar system .Tomorrow we investigate earth’s rotation and revolution and see some amazing images in our Mystery Science lesson.
Social Studies: The Native American groups presented their visual and poster to other fifth graders before vacation! You will be able to see these on display at the end of the year at our celebration of learning! This week, each group is presenting their slideshow to the classroom. They have been practicing creating bullets of information instead of putting whole paragraphs on their slides, and presenting by using notecards or memorizing their topics to elaborate in their oral presentation. Our first group went today and did a fantastic job!