Friday, September 29, 2017

Week of September 25th-29th

Thank you for taking the time to stop by our blog and read about what's going on in 5th Grade. Please be sure to check the Google Calendar that is linked at the top of the blog for important updates.

What we are learning...

In Reading, we explored and discussed what makes a solid summary. Learners practiced writing summaries using their Books Club books. We will continue exploring the elements of fictional texts.

In Writing, our mentor sentence focused primarily on similes. We were able to practice the various parts of speech while also revising and imitating our mentor sentence to add more 'meat' to our writing. Learners also continued writing and revising their imaginative pieces. Please refer to the Google slide for extra help on Mentor Sentence HW.

In Math, we have been exploring decimal place value. Learners drew on their desks with chalk markers in order to compare and order decimals. They also participated in many other decimal explorations and activities.

 


In Science, learners explored density, mass, and volume to see how they are related and different. Learners have been completing explorations with water and salt to see how to manipulate the density of water.

In Social Studies, we continued to learn about the 13 colonies. We focused on the Middle colonies and learning about the different industries, resources, and geography in this colonial region.

Announcements

There is no school October 9th. 

REMINDER: The second payment for our Sky Ranch trip in April will be due Friday, October 27th. You can send the full payment of $200 at this time, or you can send your second payment of $50. Please make checks payable to Town Center Elementary. If your son/daughter has a different last name than the name on the check, please include your son/daughter's name in the subject line. Thank you to all who have already paid. If you have any questions or concerns, you can contact your learner's homeroom teacher. 

Fall Parent Conferences: If you have not done so already, please make sure to sign up for conferences using the links below. 



Finally, thank you again for taking the time to read our blog. We know how important it is for our TCE families to know what is happening at school! If you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to ask.

Friday, September 22, 2017

Week of September 18th-22nd

As the year goes on our 5th graders continue to grow and shine at Town Center. It was yet another great week down C-Hall.






In Math this week, students finished up our whole number operations unit of multiplying and dividing whole numbers, and we moved into our place value of decimals unit. We looked at place value to the thousandths place and compared that to the tenths and hundredths place. 

In Reading, learners continued exploring their book club books. We began talking about the elements of fiction texts. Learners have practiced reading out loud and asking/creating questions relevant to their text. 

In Writing, learners continued to work on their imaginative pieces. They also focused on adverbs and adjectives for mentor sentences. Learners also practiced words that followed the long vowel digraph spelling rule. 

In science, we have been continuing our density activities. We found the volume of items and learned about displacement. We also found the density of film canisters filled with different items by getting them to float, sink, or suspend. We also looked at the similarities and differences of weight and mass.

In social studies, we began learning about the 13 colonies. We will continue focusing on the New England colonies first and learning about the different industries, resources, and geography in this colonial region.

Thank you to all of the parents, families, and special friends who were able to come to our Special Friends Day. It was so great to see everyone. Here is the link to a Google Folder that has all of our pictures from the photo booth and our special day! 

REMINDER: The first payment for our Sky Ranch trip in April will be due next Friday, September 29th. You can send the full payment of $200 at this time, or you can send your first payment of $50. Thank you to all who have already paid. If you have any questions or concerns, you can contact your learner's homeroom teacher. 

Math Homework: Please remind your learners to be getting on Reflex Math 4 times a week until they have reached their green light. Once they are 100% fluent in their Reflex Math facts they can switch from playing 4 times a week to using an online program called Moby Max. The learners know how to get on this website and it can also be found on your learners' math teacher's Google Site. This is a great opportunity for extra practice at home. As a parent you can sign up for parent accounts on both of these sites and track your learners progress as well. 
Also, we will be sending home Go Math books in the next week. This is another resource for you to use at home to practice with your learner. They can do any of the pages that cover whole number operations as well as decimal place value. All of these are great resources for your learner to practice their math skills at home. 

ELAR Homework: Please remind learners that they need to be reading at least 20 minutes per day. We encourage learners to read out loud to you to help with text fluency. Please refer to your ELAR teacher's Google Site for Mentor Sentence and spelling resources.

Fall Parent Conferences: Please be looking for a sheet to come home to sign up for your fall parent conferences this year. You will send back this sheet to your learner's homeroom teacher letting us know which method of a parent conference you prefer. You can also sign up using the links below. 



Friday, September 15, 2017

Week of Sept. 11-15

It has been another great week in 5th grade. We are really getting into the groove of things down C-Hall! Please remember to check the Google Calendar linked on this blog for important dates and events coming up!




Evidence of Our Learning:

This week in Math, we continued practicing our multiplication and division strategies. Learners practiced the strategies using real world problems such as buying popsicles for a school popsicle party or having to calculate rent for an apartment.

This week in Writing, we worked on creating imaginative stories. We focused on the characteristics of an imaginative story, and we started putting our ideas into story maps for organization.

This week in Reading, we discussed how characters change over the course of a book. Characters go through problems and conflict, they may face challenges, and they may change because of these things. We also emphasized plot since we are integrating it with writing.

This week in Social Studies, we are finishing up learning about the early settlements. The learners explored the oldest city in America through a webquest.

This week in Science, we began learning about volume, mass, and density, and how they are related. We did lots of fun demonstrations to show density as well!




Some "tweets" from this week:









Share your talents and join us in creating memories for our learners! Our TCE Book Fair is right around the corner and we're looking for volunteers to help make it a huge success. Please sign up at: tinyurl.com/TCEBF17


5th Grade is so excited for the Book Fair!!




Also, a HUGE congratulations to our 5th Grade Student Council Officers for the year!


Friday, September 8, 2017

Week of Sept. 4-8

It has been another great week in 5th grade. We hope everyone enjoyed the Labor Day holiday on Monday! Even with our short week, we have been doing some exciting things down C-Hall! Please remember to check the Google Calendar linked on this blog for important dates and events coming up!




Evidence of Our Learning:

This week in Math, we continued to practice our multiplication and division strategies. We also explored a new learning tool called Performing Math, which utilizes open-middle word problems to allow learners choice in coming to an answer of a problem. 

This week in Writing, we started Mentor Sentences. Learners were able to break down and then revise a model sentence from a book. Moreover, we discussed the VCCV/VCV rules that connects to the words we had on our Friday spelling test. Also, learners brainstormed and explained a place they would like to visit.

This week in Reading, we continued reading and discussing our book club books. We talked about the importance of asking relevant and in depth questions and also began discussing the elements of plot.

This week in Social Studies, we learned about the early settlements of America. The learners explored St. Augustine, which is the oldest city in America.

This week in Science, we continued our discussion on matter by taking an in-depth look into the phases of water. We also visited the garden and participated in some explorations while out there!


Some "tweets" from this week:










Share your talents and join us in creating memories for our learners! Our TCE Book Fair is right around the corner and we're looking for volunteers to help make it a huge success. Please sign up at: tinyurl.com/TCEBF17



Friday, September 1, 2017

Back into the Swing of Things!

It has been another great week in 5th grade. We are starting to get back into our routines! Below you will find the presentation with the information from Curriculum Night. If you have any questions please email your learner's homeroom teacher and we will answer them for you as soon as possible. 




Important Information: 
Please ask your learners about the safety patrol application. They were given the QR code for these yesterday and the application to join this team will be due on Tuesday, September 5th. 

We also are sending home information on Sky Ranch. Please be looking for that note to come home and if you have any questions or concerns you can contact your learners homeroom teacher. 

Evidence of Our Learning:

This week in Math we began to talk about our multiplication strategies for solving multiplication word problems. We looked at the area model, partial products, and the standard algorithm. We also got started on Reflex Math again to help start building our multiplication fact fluency. 

This week in Writing the learners continued to work on their compositions about what makes them happy. They spent time deciding what brings them joy and were able to use details to describe why. We also started to type up the compositions using Google Docs and began the revising and editing process.

This week in Reading, we started establishing our book club norms. Learners received their books for book club and created realistic schedules to follow by as they read.

This week in Social Studies, the learners learned about the early settlements of North America. We learned about Jamestown and Plymouth and how both colonies had hardships, but they both prospered.

This week in Science we began our first unit on matter and energy. We began to explore the properties of matter such as magnetism and practiced finding the mass of items using a triple beam balance.

Some "tweets" from this week: