5M Highlights:
·
On
Wednesday we had our second whole school community meeting. These meetings are
a chance for our entire school to get together and work on social learning and
community building. The meeting follows a typical morning meeting format:
greeting, share, activity, and morning message. This month we enjoyed hearing
the second graders share about their study of the Arctic.
·
Monday
marked the beginning of Puberty classes. Students learned about changes that
happen to males during puberty. As expected there was some uncomfortable
giggling, but students survived. I would like to remind students to be sure to
remember that this is fifth grade material and is not suitable for conversation on the bus or anywhere else where
younger students might be.
·
Students have done a great job doing investigative
lab work on rocks and minerals. So far
they have completed two labs: one on properties of rocks and minerals and one
on the luster of minerals. Next week we will
continue with the hardness lab. Students will be able to rate the hardness of
minerals using Moh’s Scale, which was created by Freidrich Mohs in 1812.
·
This week we began our next writing project. This
will be a creative narrative where students will tell a story from the
perspective of a rock in the rock cycle. They are full of zany, wacky ideas!
·
We have begun using the standard algorithm method
of multi-digit multiplication. This is
the traditional way that we all learned multi-digit multiplication, so it
should look familiar to you. The target
for fifth grade is to be able to accurately solve a 3 digit by 2 digit problem.
·
In our book Winter Camp, the kids have learned a
ton of information about surviving in the arctic tundra. This week we practiced
analyzing a character (Toughboy) and how he responds to problems. Additionally,
we did some work around foreshadowing (when an author gives hints or clues
about what might come later in the story).
