Weekly Update 2/22/20

In math, we have finished up the lessons in Chapter 8. Students have been working on word problems involving money and are finding multiple ways to count coins that add up to one dollar. The kids love it when our fifth grade math leader comes to help the class! We will be reviewing on Monday and Tuesday. Please watch for review sheets to come home. Our test will be on Wednesday.

In reading, we have continued our study of cause and effect by exploring examples found in non-fiction books. We read a book about the life cycle of butterflies and were able to write cause and effect sentences about what we learned.

The children finished drafting their subtopic chapters and wrote conclusions in their informational book drafts. After that, they chose important vocabulary words related to their topics to include in a glossary.

In science, students learned that matter can change states. We did several hands-on activities to explore how heat and temperature changes can cause matter to transform from solids to liquids and gasses. Children recorded observations of candles and then were able to see how the materials in the candles changed after being lit. We were able to see changes in state, size, and color. Students saw the wax go from solid to liquid, and then back to a solid. They also compared how much an ice cube melted when it was under a heat lamp vs. not under a lamp. Students recorded both temperature and the amount of liquid that occurred due to melting.