Our Week in 5th Grade! 10-18-19

Although the weeks are short, we have been packing in a ton of learning! Read on to find out what your student’s are doing in each of their classes.

Advisory: 

The advisory classes began watching a Netflix series called The Kindness Diaries. The series follows a man who travels around the world relying entirely on the kindness of strangers for his meals, shelter and any other needs. We have had really wonderful conversations about how each of us can put a little kindness out into the world. Keeping with our kindness theme, the students filled out a Kindness Survey and reflected on the items on the survey that they could improve. We are so impressed with their self-awareness and willingness to be vulnerably share areas they feel they need to improve upon. In addition to our kindness work, the students also learned how to properly write an e-mail to their teachers. We discussed a correct heading, how many lines to skip, where to indent, and how to sign off an e-mail.

Humanities: 

In Reading class the students continued to read from Wonder. We are working on literary skills such as making connections, tracking character development, and using the text to make inferences. We read about Mr. Browne, Auggie’s English teacher, who puts a precept on the board each month for the student’s to discuss. The class did some research into precepts and motivational quotes and chose one that they felt stood out to them and represented how they would like to live their life. Each student then explained what their precept meant to them and created an illustration to go along with the quote.

During Writing the students chose a topic for their personal narrative. We discussed how to write an introductory paragraph that includes information about the setting, characters and introduces the “problem.” We talked about how a “problem” doesn’t always have to be a bad thing in a story. The students wrote an introductory paragraph and then shared it with a classmate to give and get feedback.

In Social Studies we began our study of Early Humans. The students learned about four major groups of early humans and what separated them from each other. During one activity, the students pretended they were archeologists studying cave paintings and tools left behind by early humans. They noticed details about the artifacts and made hypothesis about the reason each artifact was created and what it was used for. We also worked on some map and timeline skills in preparation for digging deeper into the study of Ancient Civilization.

Math

The 5th grade has started Chapter 2. We have been focusing on multiplying and dividing by 10, 100, and 1,000. We have been using puzzles to help master this skill. Coming up next, we will learn about powers of ten represented with exponents and multiplying and dividing those numbers. It is going to be so fun!

Science

The month may be full of three day weeks and special activities, but the 5th grade scientists have been making the most of their time in science! After completing their catapult challenge, students are beginning to learn the specifics of the engineering design process. It was great to see that, after going through the motions with little instruction for their catapult design process, students already had a very good idea of what steps are part of the engineering design process. Ask, imagine, plan, create, and improve- an endless cycle that leads to success. Students are now explicitly following these steps as they complete their next challenge- paper airplane design! This unit of physics and design theory is off to a great start.

Judaics: 

Hebrew