5th Grade Newsletter

We hope you had a very happy and relaxing winter break! Please remind your fifth grader to dress for the weather. We are in and out of the buildings during the day, so it is important that students are dressed appropriately. We go out for recess whenever it’s above 20°F, so gloves and hats are recommended as well as a warm coat. Additionally, our classrooms can vary between hot and chilly, so wearing layers or keeping a warm sweatshirt in students’ lockers are great ideas!

It’s cold and flu season and we’ve seen our share of runny noses lately! As as result, our classrooms are in need of tissues and wipes. We would greatly appreciate your donations! Thank you!

Civility

One skill that we work on developing with our fifth graders is showing CIVILITY. Some ways to help your child learn and live civility are:

• Encourage your child to look outside themselves to help others

• Model tolerance and acceptance

• Teach good-old fashioned manners

• Involve your family in community service

• Try to set a positive example in all you say and do

Students have been focused on specific strategies for comprehension of nonfiction text. We have learned to determine the main idea, summarize and paraphrase of a variety of articles and other nonfiction resources. Students learned about the five different text structures used in non-fiction and the purpose of each. In conjunction with our informational writing unit, students will use these nonfiction reading skills to conduct research on a historical topic.

At home, students should read each night for at least 30 minutes. After your child reads, please ask them to tell you about their book, as this will help them practice important comprehension skills such as summarizing and identifying main ideas. The link below provides some great questions and ideas for book conversations at home. Please also remind your child to record their reading in BeanStack!

Scholastic: Tips for Talking To Your Child About Books

Reading Questions Bookmark

This month we will continue our informational writing unit. We have learned how to select topics and conduct research using text and digital resources. We’ve also learned how to create outlines and write five-paragraph essay drafts from these outlines. This month, we will use these skills to conduct self-selected historical research reports. Students will be given an opportunity to choose a topic from our previous studies that they are interested in learning more about. They will research this topic and use their research to write a “feature article.” that will be included in the class magazine.

We will be wrapping up our unit on Space Systems. Then, we’ll begin our unit, Structures and Properties of Matter. 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.

In January, we will wrap up our review of multiplication and division before moving on to exploring the concept of volume. Students will develop an understanding of volume as an attribute of three-dimensional figures through a variety of hands-on activities using centimeter and inch cubes to fill different sized boxes. While students will learn the formula for volume by the end of the unit, we will wait to introduce it until students have a firm understanding of volume as a concept so that they understand not just how to multiply the dimensions but also why the formula works.

For extra support with these skills, please check out this resource. Unit 5 Parent Letter

Please remember to check your child’s progress in Study Island. These online programs provide important practice on the topics we are learning about in class. Also, the skills we are working on in January require students to be fluent with their math facts, so it never hurts to reinforce those skills. Thank you for your support!