Newsletter

November 30, 2018

Dear 5B families,

Fifth graders hit the ground running after our Thanksgiving break!

We spent the week in math reviewing division. We did a fun activity called Division Around the Room with Ms. Bookstein's class. Walking around the room with a partner, kids solved a division problem, and the answer led them to the next division problem. They kept going until they got back to where they started.

We also learned a new method of multiplication, called lattice, which a number of students found really interesting. Several students even now prefer this method over both partial products and the traditional method! The video below shows how lattice multiplication works. It's quite interesting!

This week fifth graders began writing their PPPs, a fifth grade tradition that stands for Pawtuxet Perspective Project. Students will write journal entries from the perspective of a Wampanoag child, young adult, or adult from the time period that the Pilgrims arrived. Students picked a gender and age at random, and will write from this perspective! It may be a challenge for some to write from the perspective of an adult or the opposite gender, but they will have fun with it! So far this week they have worked on writing an entry set shortly before the Pilgrims arrived in Pawtuxet (the Wampanoag's name for what we call Plymoth). Soon they will begin an entry at the time the Pilgrims arrived. Expect to see this assignment coming home for homework some nights.

If you have an older student who went through fifth grade, you might know this project as the Plymoth Perspective Project. We used to have some students write from the perspective of Pilgrims, but this year we decided that we already hear plenty about the Pilgrims, and we want fifth graders to learn more perspectives that are less often heard.

This week we have also started reading Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt. The class immediately noticed how much shorter this book is than Out of My Mind, but they are quickly noticing that it has more depth, and takes longer to read through the many metaphors, old fashioned words, and advanced vocabulary than Out of My Mind. That being said, they are really enjoying the book so far. Each chapter ends with the sounds, "dun dun dun" in their minds, and it makes the book quite exciting!

Best,

Rebecca

November 20, 2018

Dear 5B families,

We have had a busy week and a half! Last week we had a visitor from Plimoth Plantation, went to Plimoth Plantation, and a visit from the children's author and illustrator Matt Tavares. This week we finished Out of My Mind (the sign of a good book--the class was so sad to see the book end!) and moved on to division.

Read on for a few more details and some photos!

On Thursday Tim Turner visited our class to speak about what life was like for the Wampanoag. Tim works at Plimoth Plantation and is very knowledgeable about Wampanoag history and every day life before, during, and after the European settlers came.

Last Friday we went to Plimoth Plantation. It was cold and rainy (especially when we first got there), but as a plus this meant it was also less crowded! We had the Wampanoag village all to ourselves at first, which gave us the opportunity to ask more questions. We also saw Tim again, tending a fire in the winter home.

We also finished Out of My Mind this week. The class really loved the book! This was our first time reading the book as a whole class read in fifth grade, and we are so glad we did! When asked to write a paragraph about if they would recommend the book to other fifth graders, here is what they said:

• It teaches you many great life lessons. Like, don't judge people by how they look, have confidence in yourself, and try hard.
• This book is beautifully written and is a joy to read.
• It's great how there are cliffhangers at the end of almost every chapter.
• It's funny, like when Melody teases her mom when she is pregnant.
• Everyone can enjoy it!

Until next week!

Rebecca

November 9, 2018

Dear 5B families,

We have had a busy week! Between the three play performances, our Out of My Mind essays, learning more about Jamestown, studying Wampanoags and Pilgrims to prepare for our field trip to Plimoth Plantation next week, and a 5A and 5B combined multiplication activity, we have not had a dull moment in 5B this week!

This week we watched a documentary called Nightmare in Jamestown all about the horrors

To move from Jamestown to Plimoth, 5B students were asked to brainstorm some advice. First, putting themselves in the shoes of surviving Jamestown settlers, they gave advice to the Plimoth settlers 15 years later. Some of the advice they gave was:

• Don't overcrowd your boats!
• Bring different kinds of useful people, like a doctor, farmer, laborers.
• Don't drink salty water! Settle in a place with a lot of fresh water.
• The summers and winters will be gruesome!
• Don't come looking for gold because you'll find none.
• Beware of illnesses! Bring a few doctors with you, not just one.
• Be prepared for a battle with the Native people living there.
• Bring some seeds with you so you don't run out of food.

Then they put themselves into the shoes of the Powhatan, and they gave advice to the Wampanoag. Some of the advice they gave was:

• The white people will want to trade with you because they won't bring enough food. The shiny things are useless!
• These people think about land differently. When we give land we are sharing it because land can't belong to one person. They believe in owning land forever.
• They have new deadly weapons. But our arrows are faster and more agile!
• They will try to steal your food because they aren't prepared for our land.

In math we completed a culminating multiplication mini project this week in mix it up partners.

The goal of the activity was to have fifth graders visually represent multiplication done in many different ways using color to show parts of the product in an easy to understand way. Since research shows that being flexible with numbers leads to higher achievement and higher enjoyment in math, we posed a question to them: Can you represent a multiplication problem in multiple ways...visually?!

Students first worked with their team on creating a draft. Then we had a gallery walk and students left advice and feedback for their classmates giving ways to improve for the final draft. After receiving feedback, students had time to make changes to their final versions before we displayed the art. To view the final products please visit the bulletin board outside our classroom.

Their work was extraordinary, and Mr. Lobato, the 7th and 8th grade math teacher, even attended a lesson and visited our bulletin board. He was thoroughly impressed!

The first photos are of students working on their final drafts.

It was a great week!

Rebecca