February Newsletter
5th Grade News
Half Way There!
It’s hard to believe that we are officially half way through the year! The third quarter will begin on January 30th. Many students and classrooms are running low on school supplies. Please check with your child to see if he/she is in need of fresh pencils, glue sticks, highlighters, colored pencils or notebooks. Teachers are always appreciative of donations of tissues, hand sanitizer, glue sticks and expo markers! Thank you in advance for your generosity!
Valentine’s Day Parties are coming up on February 13th! Please check your child’s Thursday folder or your email for information. Thank you in advance for helping to make this last class party extra special!
A special thank you to all those parents who chaperoned our Outdoor School and ESSL field trips. We had a blast!
As we continue through these cold weather weeks, please make sure your children are dressed in layers during the cold weather. We make frequent trips in and out of the main building, in addition to outdoor recess if appropriate, so it is important for students to be prepared! With so many illnesses circulating during this time of year, we want to remind families that students need to be fever free for at least 24 hours before returning to school. This helps to prevent spreading illness.
State assessments are quickly approaching. Fifth graders will take the Maryland Integrated Science Assessment (MISA) during the weeks of March 9th and 16th. The test is made up of four “units.” The types of questions students will answer include constructed response questions, and the other questions will be a combination of multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, matching, and other technology-enabled item types. If you wish to help your child review for this assessment, the following websites are excellent sources for review:
http://studyjams.scholastic.com/studyjams/jams/science/index.htm
Time to replenish school supplies!
Weeks of 3/9 & 3/16: MISA Testing
Feb. 13: Valentines Parties
UMS Academic Information Night
Urbana Middle School invites all 5th grade families to the 2020-21 Academic Information Night on February 13 from 6:00pm-7:00pm in the UMS Cafeteria.
In preparing to register for classes for the 2020-21 school year, the event will provide parents the opportunity to hear about a day in the life of a middle schooler. Parents will receive their child’s registration forms for next year. If for some reason you cannot attend the informational session your child will receive their registration form on February 14th from their 5th grade teacher.
Completed registration forms are due by February 21 and should be turned into your child’s 5th grade teacher.
Thursday, Feb 13, 2020, 06:00 PM
Urbana Middle School, 3511 Pontius Ct, Ijamsville, MD 21754
Language Arts this Month
We have started the third quarter focusing our reading of literary texts. We are reading a wide variety of short stories, poems, and novels in order to expand our understanding of figurative language, theme, and point of view. We will practice quoting accurately from a text when explaining what the text says, comparing and contrasting two or more characters, settings or events, or stories and summarizing text. Students will also begin “buddy books” or book clubs soon.
Later this month we will begin our unit of study on argument/opinion writing. This is always a highly engaging unit for students because they get to share their opinions and learn to back up their reasons with support and facts! Everyone has an opinion, but being a critical thinker and learner requires research on both sides of a topic.
Math
Fractions, Fractions, Fractions! This month will be all about operations with fractions. We will begin with a review of adding and subtracting fractions. During this review, students will solve word problems involving addition and subtraction of fractions referring to the same whole, including cases of unlike denominators, by using visual fraction models or equations to represent the problem. They will use benchmark fractions and number sense of fractions to estimate mentally and assess the reasonableness of answers. Students will make a line plot to display a data set of measurements in fractions of a unit (½, ¼, ⅛) and use operations on fractions to solve problems involving information presented in plots.
After mastering addition and subtraction of fractions, we will move on to multiplying fractions. Students will apply and extend previous understandings of multiplication to multiply a fraction or a whole number by a fraction. For example, we will use a visual fraction model to show ⅔ x 4= 8/3 and create a story context for this equation and do the same for ⅔ x ⅘. Students will reason about the product in relationship to the factors when multiplying fractions greater than and less than 1 by comparing the size of the product to the size of one factor on the basis of size of the other factor, without performing the indicated multiplication. Students will explain why multiplying a given number by a fraction greater than 1 results in a product greater than the given number and explain why multiplying a given number by a fraction less than 1 results in a product smaller than the given number. Students will solve real world problems involving multiplication of fractions and mixed numbers by using visual fraction models or equations to represent the problem.
For examples of the visual models we will use, please check out these resources:
Science
During the beginning of February, we will be finishing our Structure and Properties of Matter unit in Science. Students will pretend they are forensic scientists in order to conduct investigations and solve “crimes.” The cases investigate changing states of matter, physical and chemical changes, magnetism and conductivity.
This month we will also begin our first Social Studies unit. We will dive into America’s Beginnings.