5th & 6th Grade Weekly Newsletter
April 8th, 2016
UOI # 5: Journeys and Adventures
Lines of Inquiry:
- Adventures often lead to discoveries and personal growth.
- Explorations impacted people and their world.
- Explorers have different motivations for embarking on adventures.
- The Sun, planets and Moon are tools used by explorers.
Back to School with a new Term and a new UOI!
This week, students have launched into UOI #5 with inquiring about explorers and exploration. Students created a concept map to use during the UOI and develop connections as they work through the unit.
Students also inquired about the discoveries of early explorers, followed the routes of early explorers on maps, identified the Silk road and explored goods traded between countries.
Students also explored the significance of the discoveries of early explorations.They investigated the explorers Captain James Cook, Christopher Columbus, David Livingstone and Roald Amundsen, to identify who they were and what they discovered.
In Vocabulary, students recognized and explained the meaning of adages and proverbs.
Due to my unexpected absence on Friday, the Unit 7-9 Vocabulary Test will now be on Tuesday, April 12th.
Next week, we will be beginning Sadlier-Oxford Vocabulary Workshop Unit 10. Vocabulary words can be found on the websites listed below.
Presenting Book Summaries
They were evaluated using a rubric on 5 components.
The winners of this round will be announced this week. Stay tuned!
Najla presents "Whatever After"
Amr presents "Big Nate".
Yusra presents "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire".
Yusuf presents "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban".
Asiya presents "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows"
Ahmed presents " Diary of a Wimpy Kid"
Math Activity using Order of Operations
Creating a game
5th Grade Math group
Math
Students continued to work on understanding the meaning of fractions and percents.
Focus Points:
- identify fraction and percent equivalents through reasoning about representations and known equivalents and relationships.
- order fractions and justify their order through reasoning about fraction equivalents and relationships.
- compare fractions and percents to the landmarks 0, 1/2, and 1.
Students also reviewed composite and prime numbers, representing decimals on a hundred chart, addition and subtraction with word problems, finding the quotient of decimal problems and multipication of decimals through the Weekly Math Homework.
6th Grade
Students continued the unit on Expressions and Equations.
Students were able to:
- evaluate numerical expressions and recognize that in the absence of parentheses, exponents are evaluated first.
- use the order of operations to evaluate numerical expressions.
- create an order of operations game.
Students also reviewed solving expressions using PEMDAS, multiplying fractions and decimals, dividing fractions and decimals, adding and subtracting fractions and using input tables to find the rule.
Unit 10 Vocabulary Words
bumbling
consequence
delude
dole
engulf
foil
formulate
initiative
memento
nonconformist
null and void
panorama
posterity
pry
refurbish
resourceful
rigorous
subsequent
unerring
Summative assessment is on this Monday, April 25th.
Students are encouraged to use vocabulary words in writing, as well as incorporate them into conversations. It is important for students to study the words regularly. You can also access games and other resources at the websites below.
Growth Mindset and Motivation
In 1978, Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck made a profound discovery: children who believed their intelligence could grow did better in school, and better in life. She called this basic belief about intelligence “mindset.
Children with a growth mindset tend to see challenges as opportunities to grow because they understand that they can improve their abilities by pushing themselves. If something is hard, they understand it will push them to get better.
In order to develop students' growth mindset, we have been using Class Dojo to learn about this idea and develop strategies. You can view some of the videos in the links below.
We will also use a discussion board on Manage Bac this week to discuss our ideas and reflections, as well as homework for the parents! Please check Manage Bac this week for details!