Newsletter 4/5-4/9

Here's What's Happening...

English/Language Arts: I am so excited to be starting Unit 3 in ELA!  This unit is entitled Hardships in History, and starts with a deep look at multiple accounts of Paul Revere's midnight ride!  It coincides nicely with our Social Studies curriculum as well.  To begin, students will engage in an Instagram activity about hardships (not real Instagram, just a template we will use), as well as be introduced to the essential questions of the unit and give their initial answers to these questions.  We move on to look at the vocabulary for our first Paul Revere text, entitled "And Then What Happened, Paul Revere?"  After students read the text, they will work on station work that includes a RACES response, Text Dependent Questions (TDQs), Word Work List 9 Sort and Definitions, and the start of an organizer they will use to compare important events of Paul Revere's ride across the multiple texts.  I hope they will enjoy this unit as much as I do!

Science: We will review the Soil Investigation we did before break, and connect it with our next lesson, which utilizes our next book, entitled A Walk in the Woods.  Students will complete an anticipation guide both before and after reading, as well as list three new things or interesting facts they learned.  If we have time, we will also move on to start our next lesson on decomposers.

Social Studies: We will move on to the first part of Chapter 8, Lesson 2, which focuses on the Boston Massacre and the Committees of Correspondence.  We will continue to focus on creating sequence notes, as well as identifying and defining key terms.

Advanced Math: This week, students will complete a reflection of their performance on the Topic 8 Test, and then take the Topic 9 Pretest, which focuses on Rational Numbers.  They will then learn about converting between fractions and decimals, which is a pre-requisite skill for some of the lessons in Topic 9.  We will finish the week out by playing Quotient BINGO in partners.

Important Info:

The End is Near!

It  is SO hard to believe that it is April, and our school year will be coming to a close before we know it!  These last two months of school in 5th grade can sometimes be the toughest to manage.  We still have important content and skills to cover, but we also enter what I call "assessment season."  In the coming weeks, students will be taking the Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR), the Illinois Science Assessment (ISA), Spring MAP tests, and Spring Common Assessments.  Add to that the fact that we also begin to work on helping our students transition from Prairieview to Lakeview, and generally this creates a myriad of feelings and emotions.  I have always tried to maintain a good sense of balance for the kiddos during this time, and this year is no exception.  I will continue to stress the importance of giving their best effort in all they do, but also plan for some "low key" activities, especially on those days when they will be taking tests.  I'm looking forward to savoring each and every day I have left with this class!

 

Schedule of Events

• Monday, April 5th: No school
• Tuesday, April 6th: Remote Learning Day (Due to elections)
• Monday, April 12th: Full Day Schedule begins!