Week of December 9

2019-2020 Teton and Acadian Homerooms

Google ExpeditionIt’s been a busy couple of weeks!   In science we are wrapping up our Magnets and Motors Unit.  We will take small motors apart and put them back together before reviewing for our unit test.  We went on a google expedition to visit examples of our next topic in science - biomes! We had a couple of library lessons to learn about the inquiry process and how to take “dot jots.”  We will use these new skills as we begin researching and choosing a way to present our information on biomes. 

How many fifth graders does it take to fill a cubic yard?

In math we are finishing up our unit on area, perimeter, and volume.  We will review early next week and take our assessment on unit 1 before break.  We have been learning about the differences between centimeters, square centimeters, and cubic centimeters.  This is a struggle for some children.  To help develop these skills we have done many activities and investigations.  We recently built rectangular prisms and filled them with centimeter cubes to find the volume.  We developed several strategies and formulas for finding the volume of a rectangular prism.  Children have counted the cubes, this led to the understanding of multiplying the area of the base times the height, which further developed into length times width times height.  To help develop our understanding of the relationship between cubic inches, cubic feet, and cubic yards, we filled a cubic yard with fifth graders!  How many fifth graders does it take to fill a cubic yard?  About 12!  Or in our case 2/3 of 18!  

Our next unit will be fractions!

Counting Cubes

HELP?!

It’s that time of year when our students often need resupplying.  Many students have run out of pencils and erasers, not to mention quite a few have lost their headphones.  We use these supplies everyday.  Please check in with your child to see if they are in need of new supplies.  Great Hanukah gifts or stocking stuffers!  LOL

Please send in board games for next Friday Games like: Trouble, Jenga, Connect Four, etc.

We are learning about and discussing theme in reading. We took notes ( see picture) in our Reader's Notebooks. We are talking about the themes in our own books.  Theme = the message.  We read two Patricia Polacco books this week: An Orange for Frankie and The Junkyard Wonders. The students shared the themes that are in the books and gave examples of how they knew that particular theme matched the story. They considered the actions, thoughts, feelings, and words of the characters. Both stories are magical.  Please ask about them.

In writing we are continuing to work with new vocabulary.  Students are writing to prompts daily.  We are going over spelling 'rules' such as the 'i' before 'e'.  we had a fun time sharing our figuratively speaking posters with the other 5th graders. We will be writing persuasive essays after break.

 Conversation starters:
The Junkyard Wonders
An Orange for Frankie
theme
Google expeditions
biome
dot jot
cubic yard