Room 26 Weekly News
September 5, 2017
Announcements
I hope you thoroughly enjoyed the three-day weekend!
As your students may have told you, I need to have foot surgery. My surgery is scheduled for Friday, September 8. I am planning to be out for one week, although I will be on crutches for about a month after the surgery. I will be leaving the class in the very capable hands of Mrs. Curley, who will be substitute teaching for me for the week I am out. Mrs. Kawzenuk and Mrs. Ellis will also be with our class, as usual.
I am planning on returning to the classroom on Monday, September 15th.
Academic Updates
Math
This week, our focus is on the Order of Operations. You may remember this as "PEMDAS" or "Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally." In 5th grade, students learn how the Order of Operations can affect the equations they encounter. They also learn how parenthesis, brackets, and braces affect math operations. We will move from Order of Operations into Expressions and Equations. (For example, "12 less than the product of 5 and 8" represents the equation 5 x 8 - 12.) We will also include expressions and equations with variables, such as "Twice the sum of some number and 7" being represented by 2 x (a + 7).
Language Arts
We are in Week 2 of our first ELA unit. Our essential question for this unit is "Why do laws continue to evolve?" Last week, we read about the creation of the U.S. Constitution. This week, we will be reading about some of the events leading up to the American Revolution, as well as accounts of events and issues that have led to changing laws in America.
Last week, we learned about how to use coordinating conjunctions ("FANBOYS") to combine two simple sentences into a compound sentence. This week, our language skills focus will be on using subordinating conjunctions to create complex sentences. Our goal is to be able to write varied and more complex sentences as we progress through 5th grade and into middle school.
Our writing focus has been on informative writing. Students have been learning about writing strong introductory and closing sentences. This week, we will focus on how to incorporate text evidence into our detail sentences in the paragraphs we write.
Science
Social Studies
Last week, I introduced students to the procedures for learning the 50 states and capitals. They will be taking their first quiz on Friday. I present the U.S.A. in regions, so students can "chunk" their learning in reasonable amounts and build up to knowing all 50 states/capitals. I have found this to be very effective for most students. Once a student passes a quiz (100%) for a particular region, he/she should begin studying for the next region. Quizzes will be given every other Friday. For the quiz this Friday, students should know all of the Southern Border states and their capitals. Students have a map and study guide for this region in their binders. However, if your students has been studying and preparing over the summer or is very motivated to learn all 50 states at once, he/she is welcome to take the "All 50" test whenever he/she feels ready. (Tests are a blank map with states numbered in random order. Students must write the capital city and state name for each numbered state.) 5th grade team policies in all classrooms are: (1) students must get 100% on the All 50 test in order to pass (spelling does not count, as long as we can tell what the city and state are); and (2) students will receive THREE opportunities to pass the "All 50" test. (Students who pass All 50 states and capitals will receive recognition at 5th grade promotion.) Once a student has passed all 50 states and capitals, he/she is eligible to take the "100% Spelling" test. (This is an additional challenge and will be recognized separately at 5th grade promotion at the end of the year.) For this, students must get 100% on the spelling of all 50 states and capitals. Students will receive THREE opportunities to pass the "100% spelling" test. Knowing all 50 states and capitals is a year-long goal. EVERY student in the class is more than capable of passing all 50. However, this definitely takes effort, so please encourage your student to study, practice, and play lots of games to reinforce their geographic knowledge. I have many links on my classroom website that they may use!
This week, we will begin our first Social Studies unit. We will be learning about the landform and geographic regions of the United States, as well as early civilizations of North America.
Specials
Tuesday - none
Wednesday - P.E.
Thursday - Music and Library
Friday - Flag Salute 8:45 A.M.