Curricular Update 1/24-1/28

Here is what 5V will be up to next week in our studies:

Reading:

• We will read a non-fiction selection called Oceans, analyze it, take a test on it, and write an essay based on the selection.
• We are finishing up our read aloud story called Word Nerd.
• The kids are going to continue to analyze the mood an author evokes in their stories as part of the sports fiction project. They will also practice identifying main idea and writing 7-10 word summaries for the project.
• We'll be in the lab working on our trailers using the movie maker program.

Writing:

• Students in writing will be reviewing figurative langauge and writing for particular audiences.
• In addition, they will work on their own publishing pieces of writing.
• In grammar we are studying capitalization and apostrophe usage.
• I hope to do another debate essay with the class this week as well.

Math:

• Monday is the 5V math test. The test is on data collection and a tiny bit on fractions.
• Our following unit concenrs itself with more number usage like exponents, order of operations, and postive/negative numbers.
• We'll continue to study math boxes and have quizzes.
• We are working hard on studying traditional multiplication and division. You may want to reinforce this at home.

Science:

• In science class we'll start the week with our unit on health and digestion. The kids will study the parts of the body that are used in the digestive process.
• We will also have to take our mini quiz on the electricity unit we just finished.
• The Robert Crown Fieldtrip is on Thursday, February 3rd in the morning.
• The Robert Crown representatives come back to our classrooms to talk to the kids on Thursday, February 16th.

Important Dates and Reminders 1/10-1/13

Important Dates and Reminders!

Monday, January 10th:

• No Math Fact Monday
• CMB Testing for 5th Grade
• Turn in those fieldtrip forms!

Tuesday, January 11th:

• CBM Testing for 5th Grade
• After school class meeting for interested students.
• Turn in those fieldtrip forms!

Wednesday, January 12th:

• Turn in those fieldtrip forms!

Thursday, January 13th:

• Magnetism Mini quiz
• Thursday Math Quiz

Curricular Update (Week of 1/10-1/13

Another busy week in 5V! Check it out:

Reading:

• Students are going to practice answering short answer questions and using evidence. We will finish reading the non-fiction selection The Summer of Fire.
• Students will also read for purpose with their self selected books and their genre log their thoughts about their reading.
• The kids will have project work time to record information for their sports genre projects.
• On Wednesday, we are going to read a variety of articles from our Time for Kids magazines and analyze the non-fiction in our own creative ways.
• Time for essays! The students are going to write another OEQ or extended response essay and try to build upon the already stellar work they have completed in this task.

Writing:

• The students are working on a special reflection project. You will see it one day ;)
• We're going to have a few lessons on expository writing this week.
• As always, the kids will write their own student made stories and writings.
• Reminder for kids: Make sure to meet your publishing due dates! Your families have been emailed about them AND you have the due date reminder sheet.

Math:

• This week in math we will study how to create and interpret something called a stem and leaf plot which is a graphic organizer used to store data.
• We'll also study mystery graphs and try to determine what their data reveals-these are quite fun!
• The kids are going to study sample sizes with an M&M activity. This also involves studying fractions and percentages.
• Essay writing! Yes, we will write another math essay this week if time allows!

Science:

• We will wrap up our magnetism unit this week. The kids have really enjoyed it.
• We will study attraction and repulsion.
• The kids will also review general magnetic properties that we have studied already.
• There will be a mini quiz on Thursday about magnetism and the properties of magnets that we have studied.
• On Wednesday, we will start a mini unit on electricity, exciting!

Citizenship:

• 5V will review the May Watts school policies and behavior expectations.
• As always, lessons on respect, attitude, and effort occur during the week every now and then.

Welcome Back Curricular Update 1/5-1/7

Welcome back! I am ready to start the second half of the year. Can you believe, just 99 days of school left?! Here's what we will be up to during our first week back:

Reading:

• The class and I will read the non fiction selection The Summer of Fire and we will read it to study the figurative language that the author uses in her writing.
• The class will study two new challenging vocabulary words. Ask your kids about the other ones-they know them real well!
• The students will have reading conferences with me and we will study particular reading skills and strategies during the conferences on Thursday and Friday.

Writing:

• The kids will be working on writing letters to Lance Corporal Mark Scott, a former May Watts Wolverine, now a marine. He visited our school prior to winter break.
• The kids will also be working on a self reflection writing project that you will see at the end of the month.
• As always, the kids will be working on their own student created literature. They will be working through the writing process and conferencing with me about their literature.

Math:

• The class will be studying number theory. They will learn how to organize data in different types of graphs.
• The kids will also learn how to find the mean, median, mode, and other values, including maximum, minimum, and range of a set of values.
• The kids will also interpret graphs and what the data means.
• This unit (unit 6) is quite a change from the fraction unit we just had.

Science:

• The kids are enjoying our unit on magnetism.
• We're studying more properties including attraction and repulsion of magnets, and magnetic strength.
• Soon, we will study the properties of electricity and circuits.

Citizenship:

• I will be teaching the kids how to respect themselves in the area of organization. This includes organization of their desks and their binders.
• We are going to also review our school's Citizenship Matrix which details the expectations for different areas of our school.

Advertising in Schools

Last week the students of 5V read an article in their Time for Kids magazine about schools raising funds for clubs, programs, and supplies by allowing companies to advertise within the school. The idea would let a company buy wall space, floor space, locker, or bus space, and post their ads in or around the building. Companies like CUB foods, State Farm Insurace, and Avery Office Supplies have already gotten involved.

I asked the kids if they thought it was right for advertisers to promote and sell their products within a school. Here were the results:

YES: 54%

NO: 46%

This was our closest vote yet! Here are some of the opinions:

Supporting:

• Schools can make money and they don't need to get rid of their programs.


• Kids see commercials all the time. Who cares if it's at schools.


• Kids can choose to ignore the commercials or ads at school. They'll be happy when the school makes money from it.

Rejecting:

• Kids are forced to see advertising at all times during school. At home they can change the chanel. At school they have to see it.


• School isn't a place for advertising. What if it's inappropriate advertising?


• School is a place for learning, not selling stuff.

Curricular Update (Week of 12/6-12/10)

Hello 5V Families! Here is what we are up to this week in 5V and in 5th grade:

Reading:

• We are studying two new challenge words this week (skeptical and subtle)
• Students will practice using vocabulary in skits.
• We are going to practice searching for evidence in texts to support our answers or opinions.
• We are going to practice drawing conclusions about characters, setting, events, or action based on evidence we find in the text.
• We are going to read articles in our Time for Kids magazine and make connections, give opinions, and share thoughts about them.
• We will study a debate topic this week as well.

Writing:

• This week in writing we focus more on poetry and four different types of poems: (Limerick, Cinquain, Free Verse, and Quatrain)
• Students will write poetry to their first grade reading buddies.
• Students are going to write letters to their second grade pen pals.
• Students are going to practice using the thesaurus, writing dialogue, using the show not tell writing strategy, and elaboration in their writing.
• All students will work on some of their own student created writing and have conferences with Mr. Vaid about their work.
• We will also research at atom from the Periodic Table of Elements.

Math:

• We continue studying fractions this week.
• This week we study how to convert fractions to decimals.
• We also study how to round numbers up to the nearest hundreth or thousandth or whole number.
• One of our more challenging concepts will be converting fractions to percents.
• In addition, another challenging concept will be to find a part of a whole when given a %. For example, if 30% of May Watts children have glasses and there are 500 students in the school, how many wear glasses?
• We will study bar graphs and learn how to create bar graphs as well using six components of a bar graph.
• Weekly quiz this Friday.
• Test is anticipated to be next Wednesday, December 15th.

Social Studies:

• We wrap up our unit with the test on Tuesday.
• We will continue to study current events through out the week.

Science:

• Our goals this week in science include studying the atom.
• We want to know what an atom is.
• We want to know the parts of the atom: proton, neutron (make up the nucleus) electron shells, and electrons.
• We will study the Periodic Table of Elements and complete research on an atom of our choosing.
• There will be a quiz on Friday covering what we have studied this week about atoms.

Important Dates and Reminders

Here are some important reminders for the next week or so:

Monday, December 6th:

• Math Fact Club 3:45-4:15pm
• Musical Practice after school
• Spelling Test: "Colonies Unit"
• Orchestra Concert for 5th graders at Hill Middle School, 6:30pm.

Tuesday, December 7th:

• Social Studies test: Part I in the morning.
• Social Studies test: Part II in the afternoon.
• 2:30pm musical practice in the gym.

Wednesday, December 8th:

• 9:30am Musical Performance for families.
• 6:30pm Students should arrive in classroom 5V for the evening Musical.
• 6:45pm Students from 5V report to Music room.
• 7:00pm Students perform Musical.

Thursday, December 9th:

• Research atoms in computer lab in computer lab continues.
• Finalize poetry books for 1st grade buddies.

Friday, December 10th:

• Friday grammar quiz on adverbs
• Quiz on parts of the atom.
• Weekly Friday math quiz.