March 2, 2019
Dear 5B families,
Happy snowy Saturday!
This week we have been busy preparing for the Wax Museum, which is Thursday, March 7 from 1:30-2:30 (if possible, families are encouraged to come between 1:30 and 2 because other classes are invited from 2-2:30 and it gets more crowded).
Students have been rehearsing their speeches at home and in class, and they are making great progress with memorizing their speeches! The patriots and loyalists also got their costumes on Friday. Here's a little sneak peak!
Practicing speeches! We make sure to sometimes practice all at the same time so that the kids can get used to the distractions they will face during the big day.
A sneak peak at the costumes! Fifth graders patiently came in and out of the conference room on Friday as we found items that matched their character and fit them!
We invite you to come see us Wednesday morning at All School Meeting when the fifth graders perform Queen renditions to inspire loyalists and patriots to attend their Wax Museum! Mr. Murdock has done an amazing job preparing them for their performance!
Fifth graders also finished creating wonderful illustrated timelines of both the Revolution and the events leading up to the Revolution. The timelines are now hanging up in our room and are incredibly helpful for keeping track of events, especially as we continue to enjoy episodes of Liberty Kids during lunch.
In math we continued with basic algebraic concepts. In order to practice using variables and solving multi-step problems following order of operations, students solved multiple problems on task cards scattered around both our room and Ms. Bookstein's room. They said it definitely helped them feel more comfortable with the topic! Since 5th grade algebra is a shorter unit, we are aiming to have a test on algebra next week. But I also want to make sure they are prepared. I will keep you updated!
On Thursday we enjoyed our fresh patch of snow with a sledding venture! The whole fifth grade went down to the sports field, and we met up with a few Farmhouse friends as well.
I hope you all have a great weekend!
Best,
Rebecca
February 24, 2019
Dear 5B families,
Fifth graders have been hard at work this week, but that didn't leave them without time for fun! They took what little snow there was and fully enjoyed it!
Maddie, Lily, Vicky, Keira, and Jack went "sledding."
5B students have finished their Wax Museum scripts and have begun memorizing their speeches and movements. Their speeches are so great! And they are working so hard to memorize them! Every night for homework this week they will be asked to practice their speech at least three times to help them memorize it. The Wax Museum will be the afternoon of Thursday, March 7. Students will be costumed in outfits that we have on campus, and we will begin to talk to them about their outfits and props this week.
Now that our scripts are complete, during Social Studies the class is busy at work creating a timeline for the years leading up to and during the Revolutionary War. The goal is to incorporate their knowledge of fractions and make the spacing of their timeline relatively accurate. Next week they will finish these group timelines and then create visual timelines for their Wax Museum character.
The class is doing research on their own to make sure they include the most important and accurate information on their timelines. They are also adding illustrations.
In English, we are finishing up our book club groups on dystopian fiction. These groups have been so fun! I have loved watching my group on The Firefly Code debate and predict throughout the book. Ad they were so excited for the sequel that some kids have already finished or made a huge dent in the book! Now that all groups have finished their books, we are concluding the unit with a final project utilizing storyboardthat.com, which is a fun and educational website that allows students to make their own digital comics. I'm really excited to see how they come out!
In math we concluded our unit on adding and subtracting fractions and have begun our algebra unit which introduces students to variables.
Here Keira is completing a foldable to practice writing numerical expressions from words, a foundational principle in algebra.
Best,
Rebecca
February 8, 2019
Dear 5B families,
We are almost done with the 5th grade ERBs! The class has now completed 6 out of their 8 ERBs (that's 3/4 of the way done if you simplify the fraction!) and just have the two math ones to take next week. They are doing great by staying focused, remaining positive, and keeping up their stamina. Almost done!
5B has somehow gotten fascinated by random holidays. They think it's great that there are special days such as National Nutella Day (Tuesday this week) and Talk Like a Pirate Day (alas, matey, it was in September). This week we celebrated National Write a Friend a Letter day on Thursday, and today we made origami kites because it's Fly a Kite Day. It's fun to have little things to celebrate :)
Here are a few of our origami kites!
The class is making great progress on their Wax Museum projects. Most of them have completed the research for their historical figure and made a timeline of their life. Now they get to begin their speeches! Our Wax Museum will take place on Thursday, March 7 from 1-2pm in the Commons. In previous years we have also gone to the New Bedford Whaling Museum, but we weren't able to make the timing work this year. So our museum will only be open on March 7th at FA. Please invite friends and family!
In math we are continuing with our unit on fractions. We will have a test the week after conferences. It will cover adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators, adding and subtracting mixed numbers, estimating with fractions, simplifying fractions, and converting between mixed numbers and improper fractions. Multiplying and dividing with fractions is included in a separate unit.
On Wednesday our book club groups came together as a whole grade to discuss how dystopian communities in our books formed. We discovered that in all of our books, the community or rules were created for three reasons: an environmental disaster, war, or disease (or any combination of the three).
This led to the beginning of a great discussion on real communities in the world (and within the U.S.) that may be dystopian.
See you all at conferences next week!
Rebecca