Barry 5th Grade Team Silver
Tuesday, March 12th, 2019
Important Dates
March 13 - PLC Early Release @ 12:50
March 15 - 3rd Quarter Incentive Celebrations
March 18-22 - Spring Break
Reminders
Please check your child's planner each night for updates on what we are working on in class, upcoming events/reminders, and behavior tracking. Your child can help you find this information, and provide more details
Read 20 minutes a night, 5 nights a week
Practice on Reflex Math 15 minutes a night, 3 times a week
Reading
We spent time this past week focusing on finishing our Research Based Arguments but will continue to explore locating the Main Idea of a nonfiction piece and determining details that support the main idea during Reader’s Workshop next week.
The last day to take quizzes for third quarter Accelerated Reader goals was Friday, March 8. I will begin setting goals for 4th quarter next week and will communicate that last day to take quizzes for fourth quarter soon. Students on Team Silver will need to continue to work on reading at home and at school toward their 4th quarter AR goals. I am encouraging the children to read at a good pace and to read carefully to help them have success on their AR quizzes. The children must pass their quizzes in order to receive points toward their goals on the books they read. The point value awarded for the book also goes down with each question missed on the quiz. Students on Team Silver are given time in class to read during Reader’s Workshop but are also encouraged to read at home to help them work toward their AR goals. Students in 5th grade will receive a “W” for work in their planners for AR goals not met by the end of the quarter.
In order to help encourage students to meet their AR goals and reading goals I am asking students on Team Silver to read for at least 20 minutes a night at home for homework to help them make progress in their books. I am asking students to read for 20 minutes at home at least 5 nights a week. This is the main homework the students will be focusing on for ELA during the year other than working on writing projects or other projects that might need more time to finish.
Writing
During Writer’s Workshop, we have been working toward finishing our Research Based Arguments. We reviewed the key parts of the five paragraph essay that allows readers to see not only our arguments but also the reasons for the arguments and data that supports those reasons. We realized that a successful Research Based Argument begins with a lead sentence and thesis statement that states the argument and three reasons for the argument, utilizes three body paragraphs to explain each reason with data and facts as support, and restates the thesis statement and leaves the reader with one last important idea to remember in the conclusion. Final published pieces for our Research Based Arguments are due on Friday, March 8. Our next unit of focus in Writing that we will explore during fourth quarter will be creating a Feature Article on a topic.
Math
- Estimating
- Finding common denominators
- Adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators
- Using models
- Adding and subtracting mixed numbers
Science
Social Studies
We have been focusing on early colonial settlements in North America this past week. We have learned about the locations of early colonial settlements of the Spanish, English, Dutch, and the French and some of the reasons for these countries to set up colonies within North America. Next week, we will be focusing on early British colonies in New England during the 1600’s and 1700’s.