Week of April 25-29

Reminder:  Coming up on May 3^rd, we would like to invite you to Lunch with Someone You Love and to our final Scholastic Book Fair of the year.  Lunch will begin at 11:53 and last until 12:18 followed by a visit to the book fair.  Anyone is welcome to attend—aunts, uncles, moms, dads, grandparents.  :o)

5^th Grade Recognition

Mark your calendars!  Our 5^th Grade Recognition is fast approaching.  It will take place in the cafeteria on Wednesday, June 1^st at 9:15am followed by a brief reception with cake.  However, there will be a special twist this year.  Following the recognition ceremony and cake families are invited to a 5^th Grade Showcase.  This will be an opportunity to see some of the amazing work your kids have been doing in class from Photo Stories to fractured fairy tale plays to math games!  Please plan to stay with us until approximately 11:30am on June 1^st so your child can show you some of the fantastic work he/she has done this year!

Upcoming Tests:

Measurement Conversions Quiz on Friday

Math:  In math we are reviewing now, especially ratio, percent, and probability because a lot of the kids had some trouble with this on the last test and there will be an opportunity to take another test Wednesday morning.

Reading:  We are taking the opportunity during reading this week to practice some great test taking strategies to help the kids prepare for the KCCT which is begins on Monday, May 9^th.

Social Studies:  The kids’ glogs about the 20^th Century turned out great and I hope you will come to see them at our 5^th Grade Showcase on June 1^st.  This week in social studies, we have begun learning about Kentucky.  This will culminate in a project where the kids will create displays to form a “Tour of Kentucky.”

Word Study:  To deepen their understanding of measurement, we are still studying measurement conversions. The quiz has been moved to this Friday.  Please help your child to prepare.

Writing:  Today we began collecting ideas for a short story.  The kids already had lots of creative ideas as I asked them to begin writing their own fractured fairy tale today.  Tomorrow I will open it up to more ideas that the kids can explore.

Week of April 18-22

Coming up on May 3^rd, we would like to invite you to Lunch with Someone You Love and to our final Scholastic Book Fair of the year.  Lunch will begin at 11:53 and last until 12:18 followed by a visit to the book fair.  Anyone is welcome to attend—aunts, uncles, moms, dads, grandparents.  :o)

Upcoming Tests:

Math Test over Unit 12 on Friday

Measurement Conversions Quiz on Monday, April 25

Math:  In math we will continue to learn about ratios, rates, and probability.  There will be a test on Friday over unit 12.

Reading:  In reading this week we will be learning about how to critically analyze what we read.  In other words, we will be examining what we read for author’s bias, looking for missing information, and making judgments about texts.

Social Studies:  We are wrapping up our unit over the 20^th Century this week with a fun culminating project where the kids will have the opportunity to work in small groups to explore a 20^th Century topic over their choice and create a poster about it.

Word Study:  To deepen their understanding of measurement, we will be studying measurement conversions.  Today I had each child tape a measurement conversions cheat sheet into his/her planner to help them prepare for a quiz next Monday.

Writing:  Over the past week we have been working on fractured fairy tale plays and this week the kids will be performing them.  I will, of course, record these fantastic performances to share with parents at a later date.  :o)  These performances will segue into our unit on short stories.  Later this week the kids will begin collecting ideas for writing their own short story.

Week of April 11-15

Wow, what beautiful Spring Break we had last week!  I hope everyone enjoyed the week off and made the best of their time off school.  I had a blast playing with my kids and reading some great books over the break!  Now it is time to get back to the grind with only 7 weeks left to finish out the school year!  I can’t believe how fast it’s gone by and how soon these kiddos will become middle schoolers.  Speaking of middle school, please note that our 5^th Grade Recognition Ceremony will officially take place at 9:15am on Wednesday, June 1^st.  Please view the calendar on this website for other important upcoming dates.

As the school year winds down, we are still covering lots of material in class.  Below you can see what we’re learning this week.

Math
*Please view the Family Letter for this new unit over Probability, Ratios, and Rates, Unit 12 at http://everydaymath.uchicago.edu/parents/homework_help/5th_grade/.  This will give you insight into key vocabulary as other necessary information to help your child with his/her homework.
This week we will be learning all about probablility and ratios.  In order to kick that off we learned today about finding the GCF of two numbers using factor trees.  Finding the GCF helps us to quickly simplify a ratio or fraction.  If your child has difficulty with tonight’s homework, please check out the following website for extra help.  http://www.studyzone.org/mtestprep/math8/a/gcfl.cfm

Writing
This week we will kick off our short story writing unit by studying fractured fairy tales.  Today in class we watched the Muppets perform some fractured fairy tales and we analyzed those for the story elements.  Tomorrow we will begin practicing and learning parts for fractured fairy tale plays to be performed next week.  I will record these and put them on the blog for parents to view.

Social Studies
We are currently focusing on the 20^th Century.  The kids will be learning about major events of the 20^th Century for the next several days including WWI, WWII, the Cold War, the Great Depression, and the Civil Rights Movement.  Next week they will be given the opportunity to work in groups to research and present information about a 20^th Century topic of their choice.

Word Study
You might notice a new word study sheet in your child’s planner tonight.  We are going to learn measurement vocabulary as we explore the different units of measure and the different tools for measuring followed by measurement conversions and a quiz next week.

Reading
In reading we will continue learning about main idea and supporting details followed by a mini-unit over author’s bias and how to locate author’s bias in a reading passage.