Newsletter 9/13-9/17

Here's What's Happening...

English/Language Arts: This week, students will review and practice using the RACES strategy for answering open response questions.  This is an important strategy that we use throughout the year in many subjects, not just ELA.  Our writing this week will focus on practicing hooks and students will begin working on Word Work List 2 by completing the sort and definitions.  The end of the week will bring the opportunity to engage in stations to practice these skills, as well as the opportunity to meet with me to discuss their ELA data and do some goal setting.

Science: We will continue activities and investigations that help visualize distances and sizes of stars in relation to the earth and the sun.  In addition, students will gather further evidence as to why we only see the sun in the daytime.

Social Studies: The next lesson in Social Studies discusses further Spanish expansion in the Americas.  In particular, students will learn about how Cortes conquered the Aztecs and the creation of the colony of New Spain, as well as how Pizarro conquered the Incas.  

Advanced Math:  Our focus of our Math lessons this upcoming week will be on triangles.  We will focus on comparing and contrasting different strategies to determine the area of a triangle.  Students will learn how to use different strategies accurately to determine the area of a triangle, as well as make connections between the areas of triangles and parallelograms that have the same dimensions.  They will also describe characteristics of polygons and find the area of them.  On Friday, we will review our learning from the week, as well as what we already know about finding the area of parallelograms.

Important Info:

CURRICULUM NIGHT A SUCCESS!

Thank you to those of you who were able to join me virtually last week Wednesday for our Curriculum Night.  It is such a privilege to work with you this year to support your student in any way that I can!  I know our time went quickly, so please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions about the information that was shared, or as you read through our fifth grade policies.  If you didn't make the event, you can click the links below to view the slide decks that I used during my presentation that evening!

Homeroom Curriculum Night Slides

Math Curriculum Night Slides

Schedule of Events

• Monday, September 13th: Monday Choir Practice, 2:45-3:45pm
• Tuesday, September 14th: Tuesday Choir Practice, 2:45-3:45pm
• Tuesday, September 14th: Art Adventures, 2:40-3:40pm
• Friday, September 17th: PV Movie Night, 6:30-8:30pm

Pictures!

Here are a couple pictures from our Columbian Exchange activity in Social Studies!