We have some exciting integrated projects in the making. Currently students are diligently working on a bill to law digital comic. They are creating images with Animation-ish or Kidpix and will be using Comic Life Magiq to create a polished comic that shows how a bill could become a law.

Additionally, students are working on narrative writing while using art as an inspiration for storytelling. We hope to make podcasts and have a fifth grade art museum to showcase all the hard work.

And very shortly we hope to have fifth graders making I-movie trailers to solidify students’ understanding of the theme of their SEL book groups. Stay tuned for an opportunity to check out completed work (tbd in January).

I hope all families received report cards last week. As noted in comments – if you wanted to schedule a parent/teacher conference please email.

WOW! -Amazing how determination can quickly lead to success. This was a very difficult hands on challenge to build a cube with puzzle pieces.

 

 

“When given the choice between being right or being kind, choose kind.”  – Wonder (RJ Palacio)

After trust falls students thought about how they build trust within a class setting (or what could hinder trust).  One of our very insightful fifth graders reflected that when his classmates choose kindness over all else, it makes him have trust in them and allows him to feel safe taking risks.

It was a fun filled week back after Thanksgiving recess. Students are learning new math strategies, reading new book group books, and switching into creative narrative writing. Furthermore students took on a few hands on challenges in both science and social studies: creating a matchbox remodel and designing a branches of government bulletin board. Please ask your child some of the highlights of their week. And check out our race photos.

While report cards were initially anticipated to already go out to families, this has changed and the new anticipated report card release date is December 8th. Administration needed to make this shift with middle school grading policy changes and some kinks with the web2school portal. Thank you for patience and understanding. If you have any concerns about how your child is doing in 5M please don’t hesitate to contact Mrs. Markey.

We are about to start a new STEAM unit and today attempted to piece together 100 piece puzzles to practice patience and problem solving. Fifth grade teachers are working towards kicking off a Project Lead the Way Robitics unit in the second trimester.

 

Don’t forget to bring a packed lunch tomorrow. We don’t think we will be back from our field trip in time for cafe lunch.

Here is a brief list of some of the things we’ve been working on this week…

Reading:  pulling out evidence to confirm the theme of a story

Writing: wrapping up independent, research-based argumentative writing pieces

Math: taking the math assessment and moving on to order of operations, basic division facts, and averaging

Science: presenting biome projects

Social Studies: introduction of the Constitutional Convention and the Constitution through a reader’s theater

Word Study: learning the parts of speech and comma usage with conjunctions

 

We are looking forward to our two day week next week with a trip to the theater to watch Wonder.

Students rallied to show their enthusiasm for all the curriculum related music they’ve learned this past term. They busted out the rules of divisibility rap, Yankee Doodle, and the biome song for the whole school.  It was just awesome to see the kids really get into their singing and dancing. Please ask your child about this week ending highlight.

Term I math assessment scores and biome project scores were sent home today for parents to review, sign, and return.