Math

Last week ended our first unit in 5th grade covering Data Analysis. We will spiral back on this concept throughout the rest of the year as we move on to Unit 2 Place Value of Whole Numbers and Decimals to the thousandths. In 5th grade, we go up to the billions place for whole numbers and the thousandths place for decimals. The students will learn about writing numbers in expanded notation, which is one step further than expanded form.

1.234

Expanded form: 1+0.2+0.03+0.004

Expanded Notation:

(1x1)+(2x0.1)+(3x0.01)+(4x0.001)

We will also review comparing, ordering and rounding decimals up to the thousandths place. We will continue with our Flexible Math rotations (JAMS) as it's been working well for us in class.

Science & Social Studies

Last week was a short, fast week and we are spending most of this week, once again, hands-on in the Science lab! We are in our second week of investigating mixtures and solutions and will have multiple station rotations for students to visit this week as they explore the differences between the two concepts!

This week in Social Studies, we wrap up our study of geography and map skills. We will review the West, Southwest, Southern, and Midwest regions and begin exploring the states in the NORTHEAST region of the United States. We will also continue our study of map features, types, and functions.

Don't forget to be studying the states, capitals, and abbreviations for our Friday quiz!

Reading/ Writing

This week in Reading, we will be continuing our class novel called Walk Two Moons. We will continue reading some of this together in class and students will also be reading some on their own or with a partner. We will be focusing on setting, characters/traits, sequence of events, main idea, as well theme this week. The students will have a quiz over chapters 12-22 on Monday (carried over from last week to give students more time to read). We will also be going to the library on Tuesday to check out and/or return books. If your child has books that need to be returned, please remind them to put them in their backpacks for Tuesday. This is a reminder that the 1st book talk assignment will be due on Oct. 8!! The rubric for this is posted in Canvas.

In writing, we are working on writing our own personal narratives. We are including a small moment in time, emotions in our hook and throughout our story, as well as remembering to capitalize words correctly (like we have discussed in our Patterns of Power grammar work).

Students received new spelling words last Tuesday in class. They will need to complete 2 spelling activities (posted in canvas) by this Friday Sept. 17. Their spelling test will be this Thursday Sept. 16.