I hope you all had a wonderful and restful Thanksgiving. It was fun to hear how many families spent the break; traveling, shopping, eating, playing outside. The students were excited to share!
It is hard to believe winter break is around the corner. We have a busy and fun few weeks ahead.
Writing
We began our December writing piece this week, " To Be or Not To Be....A Teacher." We are asking the students to brainstorm both the pros and cons of this career and write a piece reflecting the wonderful and the not so wonderful aspects of teaching. It has been fun to see the student's creative brainstorms and to shed some light on the profession for them!
The monthly writing has been great and everyone is making terrific progress. I am proud of every single student's efforts. In addition to the larger writing goals, we are discovering small pockets in our writing that we can improve, such as not starting sentences with "when, like, and, or, so, because and but...". Students are working to write creative and engaging topic sentences, strong concluding sentences and seeing the value of adding detail and description to their ideas. The monthly writing pieces are just getting better and better!
Social Studies
We learned about the legislative branch this week. Ask your child how old a person has to be to run for the Senate or how population is involved with the number of representatives a state has! Your government buffs might even be able to tell you how laws are made, got for it, quiz them!!
Math
Fractions, Fractions, Fractions!
We began chapter three this week! It was busy! Many of the ideas in the chapter opener were only briefly discussed in fourth grade, so we made sure to spend plenty of time reviewing and learning these skills. This week we discussed Like and Unlike Fractions, Improper Fractions and Mixed Numbers, Prime and Composite Numbers, Fraction Equivalency, Simplification of Fractions and adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators...PHEW, did you get all that? I told you it was a busy five days! Our study of fractions will take us through winter break and into January. Please read the Math in Focus parent letter for more information on this chapter!
Chapter Three Parent Letter
Reminders!
Please make sure to get pictures of your kids to MK Countryman or Keri Ganz for the graduation video. I have attached Keri's message from a few week ago, as a reminder.
In order to create the scrapbook DVD, we need your help! We are asking each family to submit the following by Friday, January 31st, 2014:
- One baby/toddler photo of your 5th grader (please only send 1 photo)
- One current photo of your 5th grader (please only send 1 photo)
- Any candid group photos of the fifth graders class that have been taken over the course of their years at Blake (from PK- 5th Grade) (********pictures must be at school or school events********)
There are a few ways you can get your photo's to us:
- E-Mail pictures to MKCountryman@me.com (please put 5th Grade Video in subject line)
- Dropbox.com - uploading your pictures to this site automatically creates the best resolution of your picture (To use Dropbox, you will need to create an account. You will be sent an email from "MK via Dropbox". Follow the link. You may upload your pics to the Fifth Grade Video shared box, or create your own folder and share it with MK. Please let MK know if you need help. As an added insurance that we received your pictures, please send MK an email letting her know you uploaded pictures to the dropbox.)
- Hard Copies (least preferred)
As the season of giving is upon us, I wanted to remind you that while giving gifts to kindergarten buddies is often done, it is NOT required and we do ask that if you and your child decide to give a gift to a buddy, that the gift be small, perhaps even homemade. Also, please stress the importance of finding a non-disruptive time to give buddy gifts, perhaps before or after school? We will be talking about this in class as well. If your child shares a buddy with another fifth grader is is important for the students to discuss their ideas around gift giving, so that one fifth grader is not surprised when their buddy is given a gift. Thank you for your support in making sure everyone's feelings are considered!
