Important Dates & Reminders

• April 27 - Reading SOL
• May 5 - Band and Strings Concert, 6 pm
• May 13 - Math SOL
• May 19 - Science SOL 
• May 30 - Memorial Day Holiday

Language Arts

What We Learned This Past Month:

In reading: 

• We established book clubs and created our own routines and habits.  
• We set reading goals for our book clubs.
• We focused on the power of discussion to deepen our thinking of a text.

We also have learned that readers actively prepare for test questions using everything they know about tests and the genre; they monitor for understanding throughout the testing experience; and they use test-taking strategies to select the correct answers or answers.

What We Will Be Learning Next Month: 

Students will participate in the Global Awareness Technology Project (GATP).

• GATP is an inquiry based research 
• Students will choose a topic aligned to specific aspects of ancient cultures (cultural universals) that transfer across all cultures.
• Students will learn that research is a spiraling process and curiosity and knowledge drive research, leading to deeper understanding and more questions.
• Technology will be used to create a final product.

Math

What We Learned This Past Month:

5th Grade Math:

We have begun our unit on probability and data.  We will be determining the probability of an outcome by constructing a sample space.  We will represent, interpret, and compare data in line plots and stem-and-leaf plots.  We will learn to describe mean as fair share and the range of a set of data as a measure of spread.  We will determine the mean, median, mode, and range of a set of data.  

Advanced Math:

We are learning to represent data in a circle graph and  make observations and inferences about data represented in a circle graph.  We are comparing circle graphs with the same data represented in bar graphs, pictographs, and line plots. In addition, we will  represent the mean of a data set graphically as the balance point and determine the effect on measure of center when a single value of a data set is added, removed, or changed.

Science

What We Learned This Past Month:

We finished all of our science units for the year!  

To help us prepare for our science SOL on May19th  we will be reviewing all 4th and 5th grade topics. These include:  

• Force, motion, energy
• Plants
• Movements in space
• Ecosystems and food webs
• Forecasting weather
• Electricity and magnetism
• Plate tectonics and the rock cycle
• Cells
• Classification
• Light and sound
• oceans

One way to help your students practice at home is to use SOLpass.org.

Social Studies

What We Learned This Past Month:

We continue to learn about ancient civilizations.  For a culminating project students will choose a topic based on interest and related to an aspect of culture.  They will find, evaluate, and select appropriate resources for a research product.  Their project will be technology based.