Fifth Grade Happenings

Math-This week we continued to work on large number multiplication. We also began our study of division. We spent time working through a variety of strategies to help break down large division problems, into more manageable pieces. By the end of the week students were beginning to work on solving division problems using the US algorithm ( long division). We will be working hard on mastering problems with one digit divisors and two, three and four digit dividends. 

Science- Students are working to design their own Rube Goldberg contraptions (Rube Goldbergs are widely known as deliberately over-engineered or overdone machine that performs a very simple task in a very complex fashion, usually including a chain reaction.) Students are being challenged to include all eight forms of energy in their design as they work on the culminating project. Students will be taking their Energy chapter test on Thursday Oct. 31st. Students should be studying for about 15 minutes each night.

Writing-(Personal Response Essays)-A new feature in our curriculum is monthly personal response narratives. Students will be given a topic each month, have the opportunity to brainstorm ideas (together and individually), and write a one-page piece on the topic. We will be focusing on interesting and powerful topic sentences, expressing ideas in complete and thorough sentences with supporting details, organizing ideas sequentially and cohesively, and crafting concluding sentences. Students will also be editing their pieces on their own, following basic fifth grade writing convention expectations. 

Fifth Grade Basic Conventions Expectations

This list will also be available all year long in the Resource Tab. Students are now held accountable for these basic conventions in all of their writing. They can do it!

Conventions Expectations: What YOU (fifth-grade student) are expected to detect and correct on your own, from now until forever!

Capitalization

·     First words in sentences

·     Proper names of people and places

·     I

·     Titles: first word and all important words

Punctuation

·     Ending sentences with periods, exclamation points, question marks

·     Commas in a series (dog, cat, and mouse)

·     Apostrophes for contractions (she’s = she is) and possession: the dog’s bone (1 dog) and the dogs’ bones (more than 1 dog)

Spelling

·     REREAD your own work

·     Run spellcheck (if your piece is written on the computer)

·     Search for common spelling errors

·     Look out for words that sound alike but are spelled differently:

o  There-their-they’re

o  Its-it’s

o  Your-you’re

o  Which-witch

o  To-too-two

o  Etc.