November 2022 5th Grade Newsletter

By Jenny Collins & 5th Grade Team
Fifth Grade
November 03, 2022

Important Dates & Reminders

  • November 8 - Holiday - Election Day
  • November 11 - Student Holiday - Veterans Day (School Planning Day & Parent Conferences)
  • November 23-25  -  Thanksgiving Holiday
  • Sign up for a parent teacher conference if you have not already done so.
  • Make sure your child comes to school with one easy and healthy snack and water bottle every day.
  • Contact the attendance office if there is a change to your child’s schedule

Language Arts

What we learned this past month:

Reading:

  • We continued to make connections with characters to develop theories about characters’ motivations, relationships, and conflict.  
  • We considered multiple points of view within a text.
  • We expanded our thinking by hearing the perspectives of other readers in the classroom and built on ideas in our discussions. 
  • We also began our Critical Literacy Unit: 
    • Looking at advertisements and media messages
    • Determining the difference between fact and opinion
    • Consider the author’s perspective 
      Students sitting in a circle for Socratic Seminar
      Socratic Seminar - discussing "I Love the Look of Words"

       

Writing: 

  • We finished our memoirs.
  • We began brainstorming about persuasive essays.

What we will be learning next month:

Reading:

  • We will continue our Critical LIteracy Unit
  • We will begin learning about Nonfiction texts
    • Using them to evaluate multiple points of view
    • How readers’ beliefs impact how they interpret text
    • How text is crafted to communicate information

Writing:  

  • We will write persuasive essays, publish them and then conduct a Socratic Seminar about a few of our classmates' essays.

Math

What we learned last month:

  • We have been solving single-step and multistep practical problems involving addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of whole numbers.  

two students work together on a math problem

What we will be learning next month:

  • We will be estimating and determining the product and quotient of two numbers involving decimals
  • We will be creating and solving single-step and multistep practical problems involving addition, subtraction, and multiplication of decimals, and create and solve single-step practical problems involving division of decimals.

Advanced Math

What we learned last month:

  • We learned to multiply and divide fractions and mixed numbers
  • We learned to solve single-step and multistep practical problems involving addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of fractions and mixed numbers.
  • To solve multistep practical problems involving addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of decimals. 

students playing math game

 

What we will learn next month:

  • We will be comparing and ordering positive rational numbers. 
  • We will be identifying and representing integers. 
  • We will be comparing and ordering integers. 
  • We will be Identifying and describing the absolute value of integers. 
  • We will be recognizing and representing patterns with whole number exponents and perfect squares.
students playing math game

Science

What we learned last month: 

students collaborating about project
Students creating projects
  • Force, Motion, and Energy sources
  • We created projects using force and motion and presented them to our class
  • The projects are now displayed in the STEAM lab

What we will be learning next month:

Students will begin learning about Landforms!

Students will:

Students add to their projects
Students work on their projects
  • identify and describe the layers of the earth and how they interact.
  • describe how changes in Earth’s crust cause earthquakes and volcanoes.
  • describe the rock cycle and how rock types can change.
  • make a connection between Earth’s history and fossil evidence.
  • determine the effects of human impact on Earth’s landforms and how it can be controlled.
Students test out their design
Students present their project.

Social Studies

What we learned last month:

  • We learned that culture is a way of life of a group of people who share similar beliefs, traditions, values, and customs.
  • We learned that cultural universals are common attributes that may be different across cultures. 
  • A person’s culture often shapes their identity and behavior.
  • Relationships are purposeful and can change over time.
  • People and countries/cultures often establish relationships that can lead to interdependence (being mutually dependent on each other). 

What we will be learning next month:

  • Technology and innovations continue to grow and change over time. 
  • Cultural values, norms, and belief systems shape the identity and behavior of a group of people. 
  • People are dependent on, adapt to, or change their environment. 
    cultural symbols mind map
    Cultural Symbols Mind Map​​​​​