The countdown is on for your children to finish out 2019. There is a lot of excitement in the air, but also lots to do in the next week. Please be sure to check the Upcoming Events portion of this page (to the right) for important dates!

Also, please note that Beginning Band starts for 5th grade students in January. You can find out more and register for band and many other wonderful after school enrichment programs for the next session here. 

Reading: This week, we have finally been dealing with the concept of irony and how it applies to the stories we’ve been reading and our own writing. Specifically, we’ve been covering three main types: verbal irony, situational irony, and dramatic irony. After having an overview lesson of all three yesterday, we spent today practicing our ability to recognize ironic situations and explain how they know which thread of irony it is. Throughout the rest of the week, we’ll spend some time reading and discussing O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi” (a holiday-inspired short story that’s infamously ironic), and apply our skills to the whole of Holes (which, as we’ve mentioned before, is a story rife with irony).

Finally, we’ll conclude with a viewing of Disney’s Holes, the 2003 adaptation of Louis Sachar’s novel. The film is rated PG, so you should expect to receive a permission slip from your student tonight. If you are comfortable with your student watching the film, then please have them return the signed slip as soon as possible.

Math: This week in math we are shifting gears to fraction foundations. This will help as we begin to understand the relationship and equivalencies between fractions and decimals. Students have been using “tape diagrams” to show the decomposition of fractions into unit fractions. It is difficult for many students to grasp the fact that decimals and fractions can be written in several equivalent ways, and that they occupy the same position a number line. For this reason, we will spend several weeks of class moving between fractions and decimals in order to make more sense of this abstract concept. As we work through these next units, I highly encourage you to talk with your children about fractions and decimals as they relate to money. This helps them make an abstract concept become more concrete. For example, pointing out that 1/2 of a dollar is the same as $0.50 whether that is in the form of 5 dimes (tenths of a dollar), or 50 pennies (hundredths of a dollar). Another helpful discussion is how 1/4 of a dollar is the same as $0.25 or 2/10 and 5/100.

History: This week, your students will be working their way through the Southeast Region of the US, which will culminate with another State/Capital quiz on Friday. As they prepare in class and at home, they will also be finishing up their first individual State Project (which they began last week) and move onto researching their second state. Though it doesn’t appear that we’ll make it through each of the US regions before Holiday Break, we’ll pick right back up with our remaining states in January.

Science: As we continue our planning for our garden project, we have been discussing some main areas that will need to be studied and addressed. A few of these topics are planning and plantings, soil composition, and environmental impacts. In order to simulate an engineering type project management system, students groups will be using “scrum teams” in order to become experts within their assigned topic area, and will need to use their knowledge to explain their portion of the project to the other teams. Teams will then need to work together to decide on each next course of action for the good of the greater project.

Hold on to your hats folks! This year we have a REALLY quick turn around between Thanksgiving Break and the Holiday Break.

THANK YOU so much for the wonderful birthday surprise! The cards, gifts, flowers, and cupcakes were such a wonderful, unexpected treat. – Kimberly

Below you will find a few pictures of things that have been going on in fifth grade recently.

Decorating the Gingerbread Houses for the PFA’s Holiday Breakfast (We hope to see you there THIS SATURDAY- see flyer)

*Special thanks to our room parents who were able to come in to help with this project!

An afternoon game of Codenames- if you have not checked this game out, you definitely should. We both highly recommend it!

Congratulations to Cabell and Elizabeth on a wonderful job in the latest CYT production, A Christmas Carol!

Here is what we are up to in our academic classes this week:

Reading: Though we finished reading Holes before we departed for Thanksgiving Break, we have a few more upcoming tasks and activities I’d like to do before saying goodbye to Stanley Yelnats. Firstly, the students will put the finishing touches on their Peach Recipe Projects so they can present them between Wednesday and Thursday. Once each group has presented their recipe research, my goal is for them to vote on the recipe they’re most interested in so that next week, we can put on our chef hats and get in the kitchen.

We’ve also been looking at the ways in which justice (and its nasty inverse, injustice) is a key theme of the book. We began by looking at the ways in which wrongs have been enacted upon our main characters, how these wrongs influence their decisions, and determining whether they’re redeemed and justified by their narratives’ end. Determining whether some characters and actions are justifiable becomes a little murky and abstract, so we’ll continue with this theme throughout the week.

Math: We have been working on strengthening our understanding of patterns. Students have been using a rule to generate and analyze patterns. These patterns are then plotted as an input (x) and output (y) on a coordinate grid using the format (x,y). This is the beginning steps of the algebra we remember from our school years. I love teaching this unit because it really leads students into seeing relationship between math and science. We have been using Khan Academy as a tool in class as well. There is so much to learn right at our fingertips with this site. You just might find your children looking to learn chemistry, art history, or any of the other many “courses” listed on the site!

History:

Before the break, we took a pre-test to see where each of the students were at with their knowledge of US States, but now that we’re back, we’re hitting the ground running with this unit. Today, we identified the eleven states (and their capitals) in the Northeastern Region (New England down to Maryland) and practiced identifying each on blank maps. Tomorrow, they’ll have these maps handed back to them which they should use to study for the region quiz we’ll have near the end of the week.

On Wednesday, we’ll also be introducing our State Project, in which each student will be responsible for researching and compiling information on their assigned state, such as their state flag, bird, motto, and drink, for example. Once each student has completed their research and created slides with their information, we will assemble a slideshow of all 50 states for them to use as we progress through the unit.

Science: Our scientific method unit has technically come to a close. Your child should be asking you to sign and return their science test tonight a part of their homework. Once I have checked off the parent signature for them, please know that the test will be in the science section of their binder should you wish to look it over more closely with your child. Just because we have finished our unit, does not mean we are “done” with the scientific method. As I am sure the students are well aware, this is a topic that repeats throughout all scientific investigation.

We are in the beginning phases of our garden project as well. Soon six work teams will be developed to work on specific goals in relation to revamping of the garden in the Lower School Playscape. We are looking forward to hearing all about their research and designs with this yearlong project!

Have a wonderful (short) week!

Kimberly & Tim