Grade 5

Greetings Grade Five Parents!

Here’s an update on all of our adventures!

History: Out with Akkadia and in with Babylon….this week students are learning about Hammurabi and his code of laws, the first set to be written down. Students will be creating their own laws and consequences this week, as well as selecting a location for their year-long civilization project. We will also be exploring several versions of the epic of Gilgamesh, another first—the oldest recorded heroic tale. Mesopotamia continues to surprise us with all of its innovations…and catch out the photos below of our attempts to write in cuneiform, one of the four pristine writing systems of the ancient world.

Math: Comparing, rounding, and reviewing place value are helping us to introduce a unit on decimals. We’ve been noticing in class how we can use our facility with coins and money to help us understand decimals and percents. Most likely students will have a quiz or test on decimal concepts in the next week or two.

Writer’s Workshop: We’re exploring how good writers often recycle ideas. Inspired by David Wisniewski’s book, The Secret Knowledge of Grown-Ups, last week ,we generated our own explanations for why parents say the things they do. Students also completed peer edits for their personal narratives, and additional revision.

English: Our weekly grammar focus has been on identifying subjects and predicates. Students are now receiving a weekly subscription to Time for Kids for which they will have assignments to help develop their non-fiction reading skills. Please encourage your child to do this work independently. Finally, we are all enjoying reading Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls.

Helpful Hints:

• PTR projects are due Wed. October 5. Please encourage your child to practice his/her presentation several times at home in order to stay within the 5-minute limit. All written work must be original and in a student’s own words (not taken from the internet).
• Weekly spelling words are posted in the planner. Tests are on Fridays and students should know the meanings of the words as well.
• Please remember to check in with your student before you sign off on the planner each night.

Please let me know if you have any questions!

I am so excited to be working with this creative group of learners.

Cheers!

Jilly

The first two weeks of school have blown by! We’ve been working to have fun and ease into our academics. It has been exciting to welcome four new students into the Grade Five fam: Juliana, Maddie, Raoul and Sophia!

Here’s a brief snapshot of the week:

Advisory:

In advisory, students have been setting some personal and academic goals for themselves. We have also created our Grade Five House Rules which are now up in the classroom. Our focus has been in learning to organize our materials and use our planners.

History: Get out your shadufs—we’ve landed in the Fertile Crescent, and the nomads are becoming farmers. This week students created their own raps/songs inspired by changes brought about by the Agricultural Revolution. They are finding their way around Mesopotamia by practicing the map daily in anticipation of the quiz next Friday.

English: We have begun our first novel, Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls. Each class, we take turns reading aloud to develop oral fluency, while pausing frequently to ask ourselves what we read.

Writer’s Workshop: We have launched into our first unit in our student of the 6 traits that comprise effective writing—the ideas trait. Students have been practicing the skills of zooming into a moment in time and stretching it out by providing details. Most students have completed their first draft of a personal narrative and next week, we will begin to peer edit these.

Math: We’ve been reviewing concepts from the fourth grade curriculum such as line and bar graphs, and line plots, as well as working with some new concepts such as in/out boxes. Students will have their first test on Monday, and have been reviewing since last Wednesday. This week, we will begin a unit on place value.

Helpful Hints:

• PTR projects are due Oct. 5
• Please send in the forms for Nature’s Classroom
• Planners need to be signed even when there is no homework–please check the front pocket for notes and important papers.
• PTR books should come back to school each day.

Please let me know if you have any questions!

Cheers!

Jilly