5th Grade Weekly Update for Week of March 11th
Photo Highlight of the Week: We are looking forward to celebrating Pi Day on Thursday!
Friday, March 15th is the last day of the third quarter. Since we will be traveling when report cards typically are sent home, we will send third quarter report cards home on March 26th.
ELA: This week, we will finish up our final Daily Paragraph Editing Lesson with a culminating test on Friday. The same skills we have covered over the last 8 weeks will be on the test. Ending punctuation, commas, spelling, language usage errors, and apostrophes will all be on the test. I’m choosing one paragraph from each of the last four weeks to make the test. Reviewing weeks 5-8 is the best preparation for the test. Some students are close to finishing their outlines, but most will need a couple more days to finish up before starting on rough drafts. Students will use their outlines to type their rough draft, then we will print and edit for mistakes. If you know your child is a slower typer, practicing their typing skills for a few minutes each day will help to prepare them for writing their rough draft. Mrs. Butcher has all students already set up on Type to Learn and they are free to use it at home. After our test on Friday, we’re going to take a little break from our research paper and students will participate in a fun St.Patrick’s Day reader’s theater. We’ll identify story elements like main characters, the problem and resolution, theme, setting, and the significant events.
History: Students are finishing up their posters for their Maya, Inca, and Aztec group project this week! Groups will present before we leave for Camp Widjiwagan on the 20th.
Math: National Pi Day is coming up on Thursday, March 14th! Last Friday, students made Pi Day bracelets and helped decorate a Pi Day mural, which we will hang on our bulletin board. On Thursday, students will compete in a fun Pi Day challenge to see who can memorize the most digits of Pi! The winner will receive a certificate and small prize. On that day, we will also explore the meaning of Pi with a hands-on activity that will help students explore the concept of circumference. Our next unit of study will be decimal operations. Students will practice adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing decimals. This week, we incorporate fun St. Patrick’s Day themed activities as we practice!
Science: Since I was out sick on Friday, students will present their extra credit science projects on Monday. I can’t wait to see them! We are working hard and efficiently in lab and moving quickly through our investigations of Simple Machines. This week, we will conclude our exploration of levers. In lab, students are learning that a lever does not change the amount of work done due to a trade off between the force exerted to lift a load and the distance over which the force exerted. Students will discover that a longer effort arm allows you to use less force over a longer distance. We will learn the difference between a first, second, and third class lever. Then, we will move on to the inclined plane. As students are creating more and more flashcards for our unit, it is important that they study these a little each night! Thank you for your support at home with this!
Week at a Glance:
Monday: Extra credit science presentations
Thursday: National Pi Day celebration and contest
Friday: Daily Paragraph Editing Test and Leadership Lite