5th Grade Weekly Update Week of October 8th
ELA: We had so much fun working on our haunted house writing last week, please feel free to stop by at drop-off or pick-up to check them out in Mrs. Armstrong’s room! This week, we are starting our next novel study, Shades of Gray by Carolyn Reeder. Students will be introduced to a little background information about the Civil War and some basic Virginia geography to gain a better understanding of where our story begins. We will begin a new vocabulary unit covering terms in Chapters 1 and 2. We will also complete a character chart that covers all of the characters that they are introduced to within the first two chapters. In grammar, we will continue our study of diagramming sentences by learning how to identify prepositions, prepositional phrases, and the object of the preposition in sentences. Once we’ve mastered this skill, we will add this last section to our diagramming! Last week, I sent out an email about purchasing Turn Homeward, Hannalee for the start of literature circles by the 15th! Please make sure your student has his or her book by that date! More information about literature circles will go home in Friday Folders this Friday.
History: We will continue our study of westward expansion before the Civil War by studying how settlers took over more land following the Louisiana Purchase and how we acquired Texas from Mexico. Students will create a timeline of events leading up to Texas becoming part of the Union. In Studies Weekly, students will learn about Pittsburgh and what it was like in the 1800s and how the city grew. Students will learn about Chicago during the 1800s including the industries housed in the city and the 1893 World’s Fair. While learning about Chicago students will learn about the famous stockyard, which started in Chicago. Finally, students will learn about Nellie Bly and Andrew Carnegie who were famous during the period.
Math: We had a blast this week as we played partner games, such as Bump, and participated in classmate trivia! In classmate trivia, students learned surprising facts about their classmates as they solved long division problems to uncover the facts! This week, we will continue to explore division and order of operations. On Tuesday, students will take the divisibility quiz. Students are expected to write the rules for 2,3,4,5,6,8,9, and 10. Then, they will need to apply these rules to determine if larger numbers are divisible by them. On Friday, students completed an activity to see if they are ready for the quiz. You will find this worksheet in Friday Folders labeled “Am I Ready for the Divisibility Quiz?” If he or she would like additional practice, please refer to the PowerPoint I sent last week or textbook.
Science: I am incredibly excited to see our cell models on Monday! We will all share our cell models at 9:45 am. Students will walk around to see all the projects. Then, they will partner up to try to identify the organelles of a classmates’ model. As students are in Spanish, I will prepare our edible models to share at lunch time. If you are sending in an edible model to share, please provide a serving utensil. I will have plates, napkins, and cutting tools if needed, but I do need serving utensils. Thank you again for helping in this fun learning experience!
Last week, students received a study guide for our first unit test. They were given class time to work on it. The guide is due on Wednesday, October 10th. We will check it together and students are expected to refine answers based on our discussion. I will grade it using the attached rubric. The unit test will be on Monday, October 15th. Then, we will begin preparing for the performance assessment!
Week at a glance:
-Cell projects due Monday.
-Divisibility quiz Tuesday.
-Science study guide due Wednesday.
-Microscopic Explorations test on October 15th.
-Purchase Turn Homeward, Hannalee by October 15th.