Saturday, September 21, 2013

Fifth Grade News

Things have been moving right along.  Routines are established, and the students seem to be enjoying fifth grade.  They are a fun group of kids to teach!

In math, students have been working hard on estimating and adding and subtracting with decimals.  We will finish up chapter three with a test on Tuesday.  Students have a study guide in their folder that we completed in class earlier in the week.  Please take some time to look it over with your child before Tuesday.

Reading groups have gotten underway, and we are learning to make predictions with support from the text. We have also been focusing on questioning and themes of stories.  Reading seems to be a favorite of many students!

I am so proud of the writing the kids have been doing in class!  They have increased their stamina and are able to write for much longer than they could at the beginning of the year,  After the mini lesson of the writing skill or strategy, students are allowed to choose a spot around the room to write.




On Wednesday, we had a celebration of our writing where every student shared a piece of writing they were excited about.  Everyone has been making progress in writing, and we are continuing our study of personal narratives for the next several weeks.


In Science, we are getting closer to doing our Oreo investigation.  We have learned how to write testable questions, how to write a hypothesis, and how to write a procedure.  Next, we are learning what variables are and how they affect investigations.  Later in the week, we will use what we have learned to perform an investigation to find out which type of Oreo sinks faster.  The kids are very excited to learn science with Oreos!  If you would like to donate a box of Oreos for us to use, please let me know and I can tell you what type we need for our experiment.

We also had our first buddy activity this week where students were paired up with a second grader from Mr. Jobst's class.  We plan on meeting monthly with our buddies, and each meeting is focused on one of the 7 habits.  This week fifth and second graders talked about being proactive.  The fifth graders did a great job of making their buddies feel welcome in our classroom!

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