Class Update 1/9/16

Happy New Year! I hope everyone was able to have an enjoyable break. I thought it would be appropriate to post some of these cute snowmen that were created in art class, as the first snow of the season is falling.

Important Reminders

Thank you very much for all of the generous donations that were brought in for our hat day on Friday! The money raised will go directly to members of our school community that were affected by the recent flooding.

Middle School Band - This Tuesday, students will be visited by teachers from our middle school band department. An overview of the band program will be discussed with fifth graders so they can know what music opportunities are available to them next year. This past week, we were treated to a performance by the middle school choirs as well.

Wednesday, January 13 will be an Early Release Day. Students will be dismissed at 1:40. Please make sure your child knows how they will be going home that day in case it is different from their normal routine.

Our school Spelling Bee will take place on Friday, January 15 at 2:00. We are very proud that Keira and Maddie will be representing our class!

School is closed on Monday, January 18 in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Enjoy the long weekend!

Class Updates

We started the new year by making some resolutions that can support new learning and school and home. Each child made a New Year's foldable with goals for 2016.

In math, we have been reviewing the concepts of area and perimeter. We have also started Chapter 6, which focuses on multiplying and dividing decimals. Somehow cheese crackers always makes learning about this better!

The children are working on estimating products of decimal problems and using base ten models to represent products. Going forward we will also be multiplying decimals by powers of ten and reviewing the properties of multiplication. Now is a good time for your child to review their basic facts in both multiplication and division, since we will be using them a lot to help us solve more complex problems! We will be having a quiz on Lessons 1-5 at the end of the week.

Our lessons in reading this week have been centered on finding the theme of a fiction text. We have been exploring what the common themes in books are, such as friendship, courage, and equality, among many others, by examining shorter picture books. Students will begin exploring what they think the themes of more complex chapter books are within their book clubs as well. Children will be combining evidence from the text with inferences to support their ideas about theme.

We have begun a new unit in writing. Students will be working towards publishing an argumentative letter about the topic of serving chocolate milk in schools. Each child will be conducting research that covers both side of the debate on this topic. After researching, they will form an opinion based on the evidence they found.

In social studies, we are currently on Chapter 3, which covers exploration. The students will be learning about a variety of European explorers and their voyages. We will focus on the positive and negative causes and effects of exploration on the Americas. We will also be taking a look at advances in technology and inventions that helped further exploration. Reading and obtaining information from timelines will be addressed as well.

The week before break, we had a visit from the St. Louis Cardinals and their "Doin' It Right" Program. Al Hrabosky and Fred Bird spoke with students about saying no to drugs, eating right, and being physically fit. Josh, from our class was lucky enough to help out during the presentation and won a Cardinal hat!

Finally, thank you to all of the parents who helping organize our winter holiday party before break. The students had a great time! Here are some pictures from the party, including the "photo booth".