Fifth Grade Newsletter
May 2016
Reading/Language Arts
Mrs. Tascillo's class just finished Old Man and the Sea and will be working on an in-school project as a formal assessment to the novel. Moving forward, students will be reading Number the Stars and will complete a book report partially in school and partially at home. Finally, there will be a culminating writing assignment in school based on a work of historical fiction.
Mathematics
Mrs. Tascillo's class is working on adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing fractions and mixed numbers. Students need to know how to simplify fractions, as well as convert from an improper fraction to a mixed number and vice versa. Students have a major assessment coming up that will determine their ability to complete all of these operations accurately.
Science
Social Studies
Hebrew
This month, as we are getting ready to finalize this year’s work, we will finish up filming our movie while perfecting both our reading and speaking skills and learning to speak like true “Israelies”.
In our writing, we will perfect our ability to write a paragraph using both present and past tenses while making sure we read out loud these paragraphs with great intonation and pronounciation.
As we get closer to the holidays, our class will learn important facts Yom Ha’Shoa, Yom Hazikaron, Yom ha”Atzmaut, Lag B’Omer and the holiday of Shavuot. We will learn about the significance of each of these ceremonies and holidays. The class will learn the story of Megilat Ruth and explain the Mitzvot and rituals associated with this holiday.
Chodesh Tov!
Torah
Spanish
During the month of May, students will be working on a special Mother’s Day card. They will be learning about Cinco de Mayo, a holiday celebrated in the United States. Then, they will be reviewing previously learned concepts.
Mandarin
Exploratorium
Physical Education
Art
We want to extend a big "thank you" to our parent volunteers, Mrs. Kaplan and Mr. Pinhasi, who came in as guest teachers!
SeaCamp
- Snorkeling Trip - We took a boat ride a few miles away to explore the ocean floor and its creatures. We learned about the preservation of this area and how we had to be aware of our surroundings to not disturb any wildlife. Interesting creatures we saw included barracuda, eel, oysters, sea cucumbers, lobsters, and many other various fish!
- Horseshoe Island - We shuffled our way across the water to visit the island and explore the mangroves--a crucial element of the ecosystem of south Florida. Our shuffling helped us avoid any run-ins with sting rays! However, we did see the ferocious blue crab once we made it to the island and managed to stay on his good side.
- Algae Lab - We put our investigation skills to the test as we dissected an assortment of algae to find the various sealife that live within the algae. We found tiny crabs, worms, shrimp, sea slugs, and more!
- Night Adaptations Lab - With our flashlights in hand, we directed our guide to discover what was hiding in the dark waters near the sea wall. We now have the honor of being the first group to find a baby octopus at SeaCamp!
- Echinoderm Lab - This hands-on lab enabled us to learn more fun facts about the sea cucumbers, urchin, and brittle stars we saw during our snorkeling trip. Did you know the mouth of the urchin is called "Aristotle's lantern"? Or that a pearl fish can live inside of a sea cucumber?
- Campfire/Astronomy Lab - We roasted marshmallows and made s'mores while learning about the constellations we could see in the night sky. Orion's Belt, the Big Dipper, and Ursa Major were just some of the ones we discussed.