January 5-January 9

We encourage all families to join our 5th Grade Facebook page! While the same information is always sent home through email, our Facebook page is a great place for quick reminders and to see photos of what’s happening in 5th grade. It’s an easy way to stay updated and feel connected to the exciting learning and events happening in our classrooms.

Dear Fifth Grade Families,

We are so excited to begin this new nine weeks. We will be reading more complex and challenging nonfiction texts. We will learn how to have an informed viewpoint by reading argumentative and informational texts in a critical and analytical way. We will research both sides of an issue to write persuasive letters and essays that include claims supported by text evidence. 

During Reader’s Workshop, we will continue using our tools to help us read critically and demonstrate comprehension through constructing a response to text. We will learn that readers wonder as they read, summarize to hold what is most important, and make connections across texts to inform and support ideas that are important to us. 

In writing, we will focus on expressing our opinions about topics that matter through argumentative writing. We will research to support our claims with strong text evidence. We will also revise and edit our writing to ensure the message is clear. 

Family Support

You can help your child in several ways:

• Share new learning from informational text and point out features of nonfiction.

• Engage in discussion with your child about his/her reading of informational text.

• Let children see you write often. You're both a model and a teacher. 

• Talk through their ideas with them; help them discover what they want to say. 

• Talk to your child about how different texts connect with each other. 

• Research a topic together, state a claim, and provide text evidence to support your claim. 

Unit 3: Fraction Operations

Our Focus

Our Fraction Unit focuses on adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing fractions. The student is expected to add and subtract fractions with unequal denominators, multiply whole numbers times fractions that refer to the same whole number, divide whole numbers by a unit fraction and divide a unit fraction by a whole number. 

Instructional Approach

The students will transition from working with fractions with like denominators to working with fractions with unequal denominators. Finding the factors and multiples of numbers is a very important piece of this process.  Therefore we will be spending lengths of time decomposing and building numbers. The students will use fraction models, decimals, and pictorial models to help them understand how converting fractions to equivalent fractions makes adding and subtracting fractions simpler. We will use repeated addition to represent the multiplication of fractions and whole numbers. We will use strip models to help illustrate the division of unit fractions and whole numbers. 

Family Support

• practice multiplication facts

• practicing multiples of numbers

• finding equivalent fractions within the home or real world

• have your kiddo teach you something they have learned about fractions that day

• play online games 

• vocabulary: numerator, denominator, simplify, common denominator, factor, multiple, equivalent

Adding and Subtracting Fractions with Unlike Denominators 

• Using models

• Using strip diagrams

• After building the concept, we will show the process of using multiples to find common denominators to add and subtract fractions. 

Multiplying Fractions and Whole Numbers

• Using models

• using repeated addition

Dividing Unit Fractions and Whole Numbers

• using models

We are now in our Earth Processes unit for Science! This unit consists of three lessons:

1. Weather and the Water Cycle

2. Formation of Sedimentary Rocks and Fossil Fuels

3. Formation of Landforms

By the end of this unit, your child will be able to:

• explore how ocean currents can affect weather and climate

• model how sedimentary rock and fossil fuels form

• describe how Earth’s landforms are shaped

At-Home Activity:

To prepare your child for TEKS 5.10, try this short activity:

• In a small bowl, make a mixture consisting of about three parts gravel and one part of a softer substance, such as sugar cubes, hard candy, or croutons. These are your rocks.

• Take turns with your child shaking the bowl several times for 30 seconds. Observe what happens to the softer substance each time. 

Engage your child by asking these questions:

• Why were some of the rocks but not others affected by the shaking?

• What could happen to the bits of rock that broke off?

Science Summary:

Vocabulary for this topic includes atmosphere, condensation, evaporation, precipitation, water cycle, weather, deposition, erosion, fossil fuel, sediment, sedimentary rock, weathering, canyon, delta, and landform.

• The sun’s heating of ocean waters and the flow of ocean currents transfer heat energy around the world.

• Weathering is the breaking down of rocks. Erosion is the process of moving weathered rock and soil from one place to another. Deposition occurs when water drops the sediment it carries. Sedimentary rocks and fossils form when materials are compacted under intense pressures.

• Wind, ice, and running water shape the landforms found on Earth.

Misconception Alert!

If your child has one of these misconceptions, here’s how you can help.

• Misconception 1: Rocks do not change.

To address this, talk with your child about how it is hard to know if you have grown taller unless you measure height over time and compare the measurements. Explain that rocks can be changed by wind and water, but such change takes time. 

• Misconception 2: Weathering and erosion are the same thing.

To address this, have your child tear a sheet of paper. Then tell your child to take a handful of the torn pieces and walk them across the room. Explain that tearing up the paper is modeling weathering, and moving pieces across the room is modeling erosion.

Grade 5 Family Letter:  The Constitution

Dear Fifth Grade Families,

Our Focus

Do you remember Schoolhouse Rock?  They had an unforgettable song about a certain preamble that began like this:  “We the people….”  These three words are the opening lines to the longest surviving constitution in the world, our U.S. Constitution.  But there was a time when our nation lived under a weaker rule of law, the Articles of Confederation.  During the early years of our nation, after we won our independence, leaders came to the conclusion that there was a need for the government to adapt and change in order to meet the needs of its citizens.  So why and how did this single governing document come to be created?  And what are the powers and rights it provides?  

Instructional Approach

Your child will develop his or her understanding of our constitution by exploring the events that led to its creation through an inquiry approach:

• Why didn’t the Articles of Confederation work in the early years following the American Revolution? Imagine a two legged stool.  Not much balance!  A constitution needs fairness and balance to meet the needs of all citizens as well as checking power.  Students will find out the structure known as our three branches of government. 

• What are the roles and responsibilities of a government?  Why can’t one person hold all the power of government?  Students will gather information and consider the jobs of each branch’s members. 

• Who were the people who created this enduring document?  Did Thomas Jefferson write it?  Who was James Madison?  What was George Washington’s job? Through the use of primary and secondary sources, students will learn about the men who spent a hot summer in Philadelphia drafting the document.   

• Why did some refuse to sign the Constitution?  Without our treasured Bill of Rights, our constitution may never have been signed.  Students will learn important rights and even debate which they believe to be most important.  Which right do you think is most important? 

After learning through instruction and inquiry, the student will use his or her learning to think through the perspective of another individual.  Which Bill of Right is most important to a parent, to a writer, to themselves and even to an accused  thief?  Students will consider these perspectives then write and explain their thinking.

Family Support

Your support is always appreciated in your child’s learning. Here are some ways you can help:

• Discuss the need for laws.  What are the best laws that serve a community or country?

• Research together the Bill of Rights and discuss together which of the rights you believe is most important. To deepen thinking, be sure and ask him or her to explain and support their belief.  Enjoy this “growing schema” time together—you may change your mind, too!

• Why should we vote? Is an educated vote part of being a good citizen? 

It’s our hope that you will find yourself historically and personally curious, too, about our nation’s constitution. 

Sincerely,

The Fifth Grade Team

Each 5th grader now has a Student Data Binder, which will be sent home on selected Fridays, usually in the middle and at the end of each 9 weeks. Binders should be returned the following Monday. Please note: papers should remain in the binder at all times. Inside, you will find an acknowledgment form—parents/guardians should sign this form each time the binder comes home.

Parents also have access to their child’s daily work through Google Classroom. If you need help accessing it, please contact your child’s homeroom teacher. At the end of the school year, the binder will be yours to keep as a record of your child’s growth.

This first binder will focus on your child’s Beginning of Year (BOY) assessment information.

✅ Quick Review

📅 Sent home selected days: December 17th

📖 Return the following Monday

📝 Do not remove papers from the binder

✍️ Sign the acknowledgment form each time

💻 Daily work also available in Google Classroom

🎓 Binder is yours to keep at the end of the year