5th Grade News
January Newsletter
We hope you had a very happy and relaxing winter break! Please remind your fifth grader to dress for the weather. We are in and out of the buildings during the day, so it is important that students are dressed appropriately. We go out for recess whenever it’s above 20°F, so gloves and hats are recommended as well as a warm coat. Additionally, our classrooms can vary between hot and chilly, so wearing layers or keeping a warm sweatshirt in students’ lockers are great ideas!
It’s cold and flu season and we’ve seen our share of runny noses lately! As as result, our classrooms are in need of tissues and wipes. We would greatly appreciate your donations! Thank you!
Civility
You may have been hearing a lot of talk about CIVILITY recently. Some ways to help your child learn and live civility are:
Encourage your child to look outside themselves to help others
Model tolerance and acceptance
Teach good-old fashioned manners
Involve your family in community service
Try to set a positive example in all you say and do
Reading Update
Students have been focused on specific strategies for comprehension of nonfiction text. We have learned to determine the main idea, summarize and paraphrase of a variety of articles and other nonfiction resources. Students learned about the five different text structures used in non-fiction and the purpose of each. In conjunction with our informational writing unit, students will use these nonfiction reading skills to conduct research on a historical topic.
At home, students should read each night for at least 30 minutes. After your child reads, please ask them to tell you about their book, as this will help them practice important comprehension skills such as summarizing and identifying main ideas. The link below provides some great questions and ideas for book conversations at home. Please also remind your child to record the titles of the books they finish for their 40 Book Challenge!
Scholastic: Tips for Talking To Your Child About Books
Reading Questions BookmarkScience
January Writing
Math
In January, we will wrap up our review of multiplication and division before moving on to exploring the concept of volume. Students will develop an understanding of volume as an attribute of three-dimensional figures through a variety of hands-on activities using centimeter and inch cubes to fill different sized boxes. While students will learn the formula for volume by the end of the unit, we will wait to introduce it until students have a firm understanding of volume as a concept so that they understand not just how to multiply the dimensions but also why the formula works.
Please remember to check your child’s progress in Tenmarks and Xtramath. These online programs provide important practice on the topics we are learning about in class. Specifically, the skills we are working on in January require students to be fluent with their math facts, so students should be practicing on Xtramath daily. Thank you for your support!
For additional ways to support your child in math this month, check the link below:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iZ_7WErzcVS5wTPRMpGcLPtr5QQn4cP4LjM7WwgrQdk/edit