Room 26 Weekly News
August 28, 2017
Announcements
It was so nice to meet most of you at Back to School Night. I am excited about the year ahead with your wonderful students!
Thank you to everyone who sent in school supplies for your child. It has made for a very smooth start to the year, and I really appreciate the classroom donations of paper, wipes, Kleenex, glue sticks, etc.
Academic Updates
Math
We have already started instruction in our first unit of 5th grade math. Last week, your students learned about divisibility rules and factors. This week, we will be learning about Greatest Common Factors (important for division and for simplifying fractions later in the year), Prime/Composite numbers, Prime Factorization, and Order of Operations.
Language Arts
We are beginning our first ELA unit this week. ELA units last three weeks and alternate between a non-fiction and fiction focus. Our first reading unit has a non-fiction focus. We will be reading a variety of texts, all of which address the essential question, "Why do laws continue to change and evolve?" Throughout each unit, students will be learning vocabulary, spelling, and Greek/Latin root words and affixes. There will be a test on these skills at the end of each 3-week unit. This week, we will also be focusing on using Coordinating Conjunctions to write compound sentences. In writing, we will be practicing how to write strong introductions and conclusions, and how to incorporate text evidence in our informative writing.
Science
Our first unit of science explores the human brain and how we learn. We learn about the brain in conjunction with learning about Growth Mindsets. This is an interesting way to start the year, and the ideas we explore during this unit about learning styles, persevering during challenges, and growing our brains will carry through everything else we study this year. I will be using our science lessons during this unit to introduce note-taking and study skills as well.
Social Studies
While we are not working on an official Social Studies unit at this time, many of the texts we will be reading during our current ELA unit are related to 5th Grade Social Studies standards, including the development of the U.S. Constitution. I will also be introducing the regions of the United States, as well as our procedures for taking States & Capitals tests this year.
Specials
Monday: PE
Tuesday: none
Wednesday: PE
Thursday: Music and Library
Friday: none