We continued our study in folktales this week.  The students read two unfamiliar fairy tales (The 12 Brothers and The 6 Swans) and used a Double Bubble Thinking Map to compare and contrast the plot of each one.  They also dug deeply into each story to discover the theme based on the characters' point of view and lessons that he/she learned.

Our 5th graders are concluding the calendar year with one final narrative.  This time, they picked from a variety of  fun holiday prompts.  I am meeting one on one for writing conferences each day to discuss with each child his/her strengths and goals based on the last two narrative prompts that were written.  This way, I hope to encourage them to focus on just the things he/she needs to work on rather than being overwhelmed by a list of all the components that make up a good story.  We are also focusing on adding sensory detail to our stories and have had a lot of fun writing creative settings and embellishing our characters.

We concluded our unit in divided decimals by decimals.  This unit seems to have flown by, but will flow nicely into our next unit on fractions. The students have struggled a bit wrapping their brain around the "why" in dividing with decimals, so hopefully the fraction unit will help them see the concepts more clearly.

We concluded our unit on Watery Planet this week and have moved on to "Age of Exploration".  In this unit, we will be meeting European explorers, learning about the technology that went into exploring, which routes they took, how they interacted with the Native Americans, the Atlantic Slave Trade and the Columbian Exchange.  We will be participating in a lot of fun activities throughout this unit!