5th Grade Weekly Update Week of Jan 15th
ELA: After practicing and critiquing note cards, we have begun our presidential research! On Thursday and Friday, students created sample note cards about Abraham Lincoln and then we conferenced individually to check for accuracy and errors. This practice helped them to begin researching their own presidents. Research will start with general information about their president’s childhood and family life. We will continue to research these topics throughout the week. Grammar got moved to the back burner last week because of the inclement weather day. We will pick back up with it this week, reviewing writing sentences correctly and capitalizing proper nouns and adjectives. Our Studies Weekly this week will cover FDR’s New Deal, famous Americans of the 1930s: Duke Ellington, Margaret Mitchell, and Jesse Owens, and the various agencies created from Roosevelt’s New Deal, like the Tennessee Valley Authority. Students will answer comprehension questions relating to the reading they complete in class. We will also choose three Power Words this week to focus on that will help us gain a better understanding of the material.
History: We are nearing the end of our Civil War unit. This week we will learn more about the aftermath of the war. We will study two plans for reconstruction in the South: Congressional reconstruction and radical reconstruction. We’ll look at the addition of Black Codes and the 14th Amendment and how they affected African Americans during the time period.
Math: Last week, students practiced simplifying fractions before they multiplied using the greatest common factor between numerators and denominators. Then, they learned how to multiply a fraction by a whole number, as well as multiplying mixed numbers. They, followed up this lesson with a fun partner game named Bump! This week, we will dive into dividing fractions. We will use visuals and real-world scenarios to help students understand the concept. Then, they will learn a fun song to help them remember the procedures! Once students have a firm understanding of the procedural knowledge, we will shift our focus on problem-solving.
Science: Last week, students reinforced the ideas from our previous investigation by creating a rap that shared the similarities and differences between mass and weight! This week, we will continue our investigation of frictional force by learning how to measure an object’s frictional force in lab. Students will also investigate how an object’s mass affects the frictional force.
Other: No school on report cards will come home on Thursday, January 18th. No school on Monday, January 15th in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.