#2 This Week in 5th Grade

WHAT WE'RE LEARNING IN CLASS

Math: We started our place value unit this week. By the end of the unit, students will know how to read, write, and compare decimals to the thousandths.

• Write decimals in standard, word, and expanded form
  • Standard form: 5.67
  • Word form: five and sixty-seven hundredths
  • Expanded form: (5 x 1) + (6 x 1/10) + (7 x 1/100)
• Compare decimals
  • 6.78 > 6.078

Literacy (Reading & Comprehension): We have been working on pulling direct quotes from a text to answer a question. In 5th grade, we focus heavily on using evidence to support our reasons. Direct quotes must (1) credit the author, (2) have quotations, and (3) be copied word for word. Next week we will work on explaining direct quotes.

• Example of a direct quote
  • According to the author, "Britain signed separate peace treaties with France and Spain (which had entered the conflict in 1779), bringing the American Revolution to a close after eight long years."

Writing: The past week we have been working on summer personal narratives. We've been focusing on adding descriptive language (figurative language, adverbs, adjectives, verbs, senses) to our writing, as well as reviewing that a sentence is made up of a subject and a predicate.

Social Studies: We are starting to learn about various explorers. This past week we read passages about Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan. This upcoming week we will be "discovering" other early explorers. We are also starting practice on Mondays for Hope of America! Hope for America is an awesome opportunity for 5th graders all over the area to come together and sing songs about our country - which is directly aligned with our Social Studies curriculum, U.S. History. This will be taking place in May.