Welcome back and happy new year! I hope everyone was able to enjoy and fun and relaxing break. Below is a recap of some of the highlights of November and December, as well as a look ahead to what's coming up in January. As a reminder, please click on the homework tab of the blog to see daily homework assignments.
Looking Back:
STEM has continued to be a favorite activity for students. The kids worked hard in their groups to complete their Native American houses to look as realistic as possible.
Our next challenge was perfect for our explorer unit, as well as Thanksgiving. The Mayflower Challenge was to build a boat that could float and hold the weight of five pennies in only 25 minutes. The materials were limited to foil, sticky notes, pipe cleaners, beads, and toothpicks. The children worked hard to redesign their boats to make them float for longer lengths of time and to hold additional weight.
We even had some holiday STEM tasks where the kids were tasked with creating a parachute for Santa.
Be thankful and giving back was a big focus for our class over the last several weeks. Here are some of the thankful notes students created for the display in front of the school.
All of fifth grade students and staff worked together to hold a luncheon for Crestwood Fire and Police. The event was a huge success, and our guests really enjoyed eating with the students. Our event even made the local news! I am proud of all of the students, and thankful for all of the parent help and support. Click here to watch the news coverage. Also, here are links to a few pictures:
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Coming Up:
In math, we will be continuing to study decimals. Students will be learning how to multiply and divide decimals, as well as continue to work with estimation skills and representing decimals with models.
For both reading and writing, the class will begin exploring argumentative texts. In reading, students will learn how to read texts that discuss debatable topics. After becoming informed about a variety of topics, students will choose one and gather further evidence to support a side for a class debate. The writing unit coincides with what the students will be learning in reading. The children will learn how to write an argumentative piece that states a claim and provides reasons to support the claim. Examining counterclaims and rebuttals will also be part of the unit.
Our study of the Age of Exploration continues in social studies, as the students will each be researching a specific explorer and creating a project that displays what they found. In addition to including a map of the explorer's voyage and a letter written as the explorer, several options will be given to students for the components of their projects, including creating timelines, trading cards, help wanted posters, and poems.
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