5th Grade Happenings

Today our buddies performed their dress rehearsal! Enjoy these buddy and sibling photos from after the show. The 5th graders were a great audience. 

Fifth grade is a busy place these days! As students become more comfortable with 5th grade expectations and routines become, well, routine, we are moving along through the curriculum at a faster clip. Here are some curricular highlights:

History: Students are wrapping up investigations into what life was like in the Americas, Europe, and West Africa prior to the arrival of the Europeans in the Americas. Students are learning that each continent supported thriving cultures, and will thus have context for when these regions become intertwined during the period of European exploration. Next week we will explore Columbus's voyages, and the following week we will begin new research projects on European explorers. Detailed assignment sheets will be available on paper and posted to the blog once the projects are announced. 

Math: We are looking at contexts for adding fractions with unlike denominators. Specifically, we are using money and clocks to provide an easy way to determine fractional amounts. For example, students can look at a clock and see that one third of an hour is 20 minutes, and then can add one third to one half (30 minutes) to easily see an answer of 50 minutes, or 5/6 of an hour. 

For resources, check out this interactive clock model or this blog post about our curriculum's methods. 

Reading: We are reading Zilpha Keatley Snyder's The Headless Cupid together, enjoying discussions as well as analyzing the author's technique for inspiration for our own novels. Ask your child about Amanda, David, Janie, Blair, and Tesser!

Writing: We are writing brief pieces analyzing Ms. Snyder's technique, as well as preparing for our upcoming novel, in a more traditional way. Students work in their NaNo workbooks at their own pace and some are storyboarding key scenes in their novel for inspiration. Excitement is building! In the coming weeks, we will discuss typing versus handwriting and select a way to enable our best writing come November. 

Join us for the NaNoWriMo Kickoff party. Check out the flyer here.