5th Grade
Keefe, Kingsley & Ward
Upcoming Events
December 14 and 15: 5th grade choir rehearsal - 8:45-10:45 am
December 18th- Unit 3 Test
December 21-23: Poetry Reading (More Information to Come)
January, 19th: First Stage's production of Holes
March 23rd: D.A.R.E. Graduation
Reading
Poetry and building comprehension are in full force!
We will be having our annual "Coffee House" on Monday, Dec. 21st and Tuesday, Dec. 22nd. Students are examining the theme, making inferences and determining the main idea of many poet's compositions. They will be dressing as hippies and reciting a modern, traditional and one of their personally written poems for this fun-filled event.
As we continually work on building comprehension, we will be making connections to better understand the text. The following connections will help us build a stronger comprehension base: text to self, text to text, text to world and text to media,
Writing
Students are redrafting their historical informational essays this week. This is a big task, so in order to do it well, students have been writing one subtopic at a time (they will have 4 minimum) and keeping track of their sources in an ongoing bibliography. I have been extremely impressed overall with the level of writing that our fifth graders are displaying! Next week we will continue to revise, and following, learn how to do in-text citations (4 opportunity).
Math
What a week full of division! Students spent time creating their own division word problems including an equation (division & multiplication) and a visual.
On Friday, December 18th we will be wrapping up our unit on dividing and multiplying fractions. We will spend the beginning of the week reviewing how to multiply fractions & mixed numbers, how to divide unit fractions & whole numbers and how to create our own division word problems. In addition, students will practice how to distinguish between multiplication and division word problems.
Social Studies
We are also continually doing our Geo Adventures (geography) and CNN current event activities, along with studying exploration. We are making a literature connection stressing the point of view reading strategy and will begin writing a historical, persuasive proposal that fits in with the time period that we are studying.
Science
This week students have been learning all about fungus and how they play a special role in the decomposition process! Specifically, students are growing mycelium (the main part of fungus) in coffee grounds as a science lab. After reading and taking notes on fungus students had a quiz to assess their knowledge.
Over the weekend, students are to brainstorm examples of animals and organisms that work together to make a food chain. Mrs. Kingsley's students should return on Monday with a brainstorm of: 1 producer, 2 consumers, and 1 decomposer.