5th Grade News
February Newsletter
It’s hard to believe that we are officially half way through the year! The third quarter began on January 29th. Report cards went home on February 6th. If you have questions or concerns about your child’s second quarter grades, please contact your child’s teacher. Email is usually the best and quickest way to get in touch. We will be happy to discuss your child’s progress with you!
Urbana Middle School is preparing registration information for incoming sixth graders. Please be on the lookout toward the end of February for Find Out First emails as well as registration information sent home in Thursday folders. If you haven’t signed up to receive updates from UMS via Find Out First, please consider doing so as soon as possible!
Valentine’s Day Parties are coming up on February 13th! Please check your child’s Thursday folder or your email for information or for donation requests. Thank you in advance for helping to make this last class party extra special!
A special thank you to all those parents who chaperoned our Outdoor School field trips! We had a blast despite the chilly weather. Our next field trip will be this month! Fifth grade classes will be taking a field trip to the Earth Space Science Lab on February 14th and 15th. Permission slips were sent home in Thursday folders. This is only a morning trip, so packed lunches will not be needed.
As we continue through these cold weather weeks, please make sure your children are dressed in layers during the cold weather. We make frequent trips in and out of the main building, in addition to outdoor recess if appropriate, so it is important for students to be prepared!
Many students and classrooms are running low on school supplies. Please check with your child to see if he/she is in need of fresh pencils, glue sticks, highlighters, colored pencils or notebooks. Teachers are always appreciative of donations of tissues, hand sanitizer, glue sticks and expo markers! Thank you in advance for your generosity!
State assessments are quickly approaching. Fifth graders will take the Maryland Integrated Science Assessment during the week of March 11th-15th . The test is made up of four “units.” In each of the first three units, students will read information about three separate phenomena and answer questions. One of those questions will be a constructed response question, and the other questions will be a combination of multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, matching, and other technology-enabled item types. We will complete a practice test before administering the actual assessment so that students are familiar with the format and question types. If you wish to help your child review for this assessment, the following websites are excellent sources for review:
http://studyjams.scholastic.com/studyjams/jams/science/index.htm
https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/subjects/z2pfb9q
Fifth graders will take PARCC on the following dates:
ELA- April 24th, 25th, and 29th
Math- May 2nd, 3rd, 8th, and 9th
Math this Month
Fractions, Fractions, Fractions! This month will be all about operations with fractions. We will begin with a review of adding and subtracting fractions. During this review, students will solve word problems involving addition and subtraction of fractions referring to the same whole, including cases of unlike denominators, by using visual fraction models or equations to represent the problem. They will use benchmark fractions and number sense of fractions to estimate mentally and assess the reasonableness of answers. Students will make a line plot to display a data set of measurements in fractions of a unit (½, ¼, ⅛) and use operations on fractions to solve problems involving information presented in plots.
After mastering addition and subtraction of fractions, we will move on to multiplying fractions. Students will apply and extend previous understandings of multiplication to multiply a fraction or a whole number by a fraction. For example, we will use a visual fraction model to show ⅔ x 4= 8/3 and create a story context for this equation and do the same for ⅔ x ⅘. Students will reason about the product in relationship to the factors when multiplying fractions greater than and less than 1 by comparing the size of the product to the size of one factor on the basis of size of the other factor, without performing the indicated multiplication. Students will explain why multiplying a given number by a fraction greater than 1 results in a product greater than the given number and explain why multiplying a given number by a fraction less than 1 results in a product smaller than the given number. Students will solve real world problems involving multiplication of fractions and mixed numbers by using visual fraction models or equations to represent the problem.
For examples of the visual models we will use, please check out these resources:
Language Arts this Month
We have started the third quarter focusing our reading of literary texts. We are reading a wide variety of short stories, poems, and novels in order to expand our understanding of figurative language, theme, and point of view. We will practice quoting accurately from a text when explaining what the text says, comparing and contrasting two or more characters, settings or events, or stories and summarizing text. Students will also begin “buddy books” or book clubs soon.
Later this month we will begin our unit of study on argument/opinion writing. This is always a highly engaging unit for students because they get to share their opinions and learn to back up their reasons with support and facts! Everyone has an opinion, but being a critical thinker and learner requires research on both sides of a topic.
Science
During the beginning of February, we will be finishing our Structure and Properties of Matter unit in Science. Students will pretend they are forensic scientists in order to conduct investigations and solve “crimes.” The cases investigate changing states of matter, physical and chemical changes, magnetism and conductivity.
This month we will also begin our first Social Studies unit. We will dive into America’s Beginnings