Week of March 27-31

Happy Friday to all 5D Families!

Happy almost April Fool's Day.  We had some pranking all day long in 5D! Make sure to ask your child all about it!  They are pretty funny.....

Tomorrow marks the start to April.  We are almost in our home stretch of the year!  I look forward to seeing many of you this coming week for conferences.  Here's what we did this week...

• Math
• Students worked on angles, classifying triangles by their sides and angles as well as supplementary and opposite angles
• We ended the week with an assessment
• Literacy
• The students have done a lot of work in their argument!
• They built in strong evidence and layered in their own personal flavor
• We wrote strong leads and added in counterclaims
• All students have created a strong, clear, passionate, argument
• Science
• Each student came up with a hypothesis, materials and procedure for their matter experiment
• Groups performed their experiments on Tuesday
• All students individually wrote up their data, notes and conclusion
• We also discovered the differences between physical and chemical changes
• Read Aloud
• Scar Island is enthralling!  Make sure to ask your child about it!

Important Dates Coming Up

Early Release 4/5

Early Release 4/12

April Vacation 4/24-4/28

Smarter Balanced Testing Window 5/8-5/19

Boston Field Trip for 5D 5/25

April Fool's!

Using protractors

Science Experiments

Week of 3/20-3/24

Happy Friday 5D Families!

I cannot believe we are almost to the end of March.  One more week left!  I'm noticing the students becoming more and more independent and mature.  Here are some things the students have been working on!

In math

• We finished our division of fractions and began geometry this week
• Students learned about polygons, quadrilaterals and triangles 
• One center is a review/choice center where students will choose what skills they need to strengthen

In literacy

• Students researched both sides of a argument of their choice
• Some students used Padlet to organize notes
• Some arguments involve using animals in testing, hunting elephants for ivory, having recess in middle school, college being free (I'm partial to this one) :)
• After they researched, students chose their side and flashdrafted from their notes

Read Aloud

• We finished The Luck Uglies
• We just began Scar Island by Dan Gemeinhart (author of The Honest Truth)

Science

• Along with 5L, the students performed a density experiment to see whether certain objects with different densities would sink or float
• Students began self guided stations around mixtures
• Students grouped to create an inquiry question of something within matter they can text and brought home a list of things they may need for Monday

Social Hour

• Together with 5L we talked about belonging and friendships changing this year into the next transition.  Students shared about both of these as well as Mrs. Loh and me.  We shared that change is inevitable but how your react to it can be controlled.
• We also talked about the digital age and how what you text/message can be construed differently than was intended.  If there are any issues, we encouraged all to ask to speak directly with the other person.  If that doesn't work, ask an adult for help.
• As a parent, I definitely check in with my children about things that are done on their technology.  It's not an easy job but one that needs to be done.

Canned Food Drive

Please bring in any canned or boxed food to help support our food drive!

Conference Dates and Sign Up: Please see the link below 

5D Conference Schedule

Important Dates Coming up

Early Release 4/5

Early Release 4/12

April Vacation 4/24-4/28

Smarter Balanced Testing Window 5/8-5/19

Boston Field Trip for 5D 5/25

Enjoy your weekend!

Shannon

Density Experiment

Research and Padlet

Week of March 6-10

Happy Friday to all!

We had a busy, productive week back after vacation.  Your children worked hard!  I had a blast at the game last night and wished I could have played with each and every one of my students!

Math

• Reviewed multiplication of fraction
• We persevered through tougher word problems
• Assessed on Thursday and Friday

Literacy

• We started our Argument and Advocacy unit
• Students engaged as active thoughtful citizens to see a claim with reasons and evidence
• As citizens, we suspended our judgement to see two sides to a societal issue
• We formed groups to research topics such as extreme sports, climbing Mt. Everest, orcas in captivity, sharks and outer space versus underwater exploration
• We will debate these issues on Tuesday

Science

• Began our Matter unit with 5L
• Bill Nye taught us about the three states of matter
• Students filtered through centers around matter over two days
• We created Density Towers, explored vocabulary, illustrated terms, used some tech to teach and reflected as scientists

CLASSCRAFT!

• Please ask your child to show you Classcraft at home!  Each student is a character working in a team as part of 5D.  I get to be the Gamemaster who shares a Daily event each day.  Students are rewarded for positive, expected behavior and points are taken away for negative behavior.  Points earned can be redeemed for different powers! We will be doing this throughout the remainder of the year.

Important Dates

• Early Release 3/16
• Teacher Workshop Day 3/17
• Conference forms for April conferences will go home next week

Science Centers

Argument and Advocacy


Have a wonderful weekend! Until Monday....

Shannon