Dear parents:
We began our Colonial presentations Friday. The students have been very excited to present their work and did a fantastic job. On Friday we heard from Grace, Nathan, and Jenna and we learned about colonial food, animals, and the Mayflower. Students presented the Wampanoag perspective in addition to the settlers' perspective. Thank you for your support at home! Each student crafted a set of notes that we will all study and we'll have a quiz on the information. When we schedule the quiz date we'll add it to our agendas!
In math, we began multiplication. Students have a good grasp of one digit long multiplication (great job Mrs. Lawless!) so we've moved right on to two digit. We've assessed math facts and reviewing multiplication tables of 6, 7, 8, 9 is needed for many students. I've added a few online game links to the blog so students can play them at home as a way to beef up their facts. We will begin Tom Harding packets next week and these integrate problem solving, an introduction to fractions, and some good brain teasers into our unit. Students also learned to play Mastermind with colored blocks this week as a cognitive activity. If you are familiar with Mastermind, the commercial game uses black and white pegs to keep track of correct and incorrect moves. Our version of Mastermind removes that element and challenges students' working memories and cognitive flexibility. They have to decide a next move based on past moves and hold on to information mentally rather than recording it. I was pleasantly surprised to see how quickly they caught on and how well they did with this. Lastly, Symphony Math is in full swing. Students have two class periods a week to use Symphony. Working on it at home is encouraged too!
We have been collecting entries in our Writer's Notebooks for a fiction piece. Students are trying out ideas for characters, setting, a problem, wish, etc. They will pull from these entries to create drafts next week. We have been experimenting with spicy words as a way to make our writing more interesting and help create pictures in the reader's mind (visualization). We will discuss interesting beginnings as a way to hook the reader. Our writing is the inverse of what we're learning in reading. I am excited to see our fiction drafts come together!
Literature Circles are also underway in our class! Students are using the reading strategies we've learned and they are organizing story parts on a graphic organizer. I will lead them through the preparation for the first Literature Circle meeting this week. Once they get the hang of it, preparation will also happen at home. Literature Circles are a great way to improve comprehension and engage students in exciting conversations about books.
I wanted to extend a HUGE thank you for all of the donations to our Holiday Hope service learning project. SBS wrapped five bins of gifts with our Upper Division buddies and enjoyed cookies, hot chocolate, and candy canes thanks to Mrs. Gaudet. Fifth grade is taking the lead role on collecting and delivering the Holiday Hope gifts for the entire school. On Tuesday we will board a bus with the gifts from Friends and deliver them to Child & Family Services. We will leave after lunch and return around 2:00 P.M. Child & Family Services will give us a tour of the facility and explain how our outreach will help families in our local community. This is a great service learning opportunity for 5th grade.
We have a lot coming up in the next two weeks. Stay tuned for more information about the Winter program on Friday, December 17th. The program takes on a new format this year and it will be a lot of fun. I hope you all mark your calendars so you can try to attend.
Warmly,
Laura
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