In this month dedicated to Thanksgiving, let us begin by thanking our wonderful Room Reps for an extremely fun, festive, and very special Halloween party.  Thanks to all of you who made October a “hauntingly happy” month.

And here’s what we’ve been doing when we aren’t being party animals….

Math

        The fifth grade is studying the addition and subtraction of decimals. We are reviewing place value on both sides of the decimal point as well as graphing, rounding and multi-digit word problems.  Remember to check www.eduplace.com for additional games and resources that will help your child with these challenging concepts.

Language Arts

        We are very excited to be continuing RTI.  Please ask your child what he or she is reading and enjoying during the language arts block.  All groups are working on answering comprehension questions completely and supporting their answers with evidence from the text.        Our writing emphasis has been personal narrative.  We have been focusing on the essential elements of a narrative, most especially what gives writing an author’s voice.   Our students’ ideas are wonderful and we cannot wait to share the writing with you!         In oral language, our news teams continue to share information and practice strong speaking skills. We are learning so much about current events.

Social Studies

        We are wrapping up our Explorers group project and can’t wait to hear all of the presentations!  Students have been working on creating a PowerPoint presentation to share information they have found about their explorers.  Each child is also completing a Novelty Project which will showcase creative talents.  We are really excited to see those ships, drawings, interviews and speeches!We will soon begin discovering more about the colonization of America in an exciting unit that will include a research project. Science

      We have been studying all of the body’s organ systems in science, both in the classroom and in lab.  The students are going to dissect a chicken wing and a frog to enhance their understanding.  That should make for some fun dinnertime conversation!

IOLA

        As you know the students are taking many of their assessments on the computer because we want to provide them with a lot of practice with how they will be tested throughout their academic careers.  You will receive your child’s score and a breakdown of achievement in each standard that was covered.  However, you will not receive the test or the individual questions missed.