Our Week in Fifth Grade- 1-10-20
Happy New Year! Welcome back to school! We have jumped right back into learning! Read on to find out what is happening in fifth grade…
Advisory:
The fifth graders will begin their visits to BAC (Brooklyn Autism Center) next week. This is a wonderful opportunity for our students to interact with other children who are differently abled. We introduced the visits by talking about what ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) is and how it might manifest in the students we’ll be working with. The students then created a fun “get to know you:” activity that they will share with the students are BAC. We’re looking forward to our visits!
PLEASE REMEMBER TO FILL OUT THE BAC PERMISSION FORM LINKED HERE: FORM
Humanities:
During class this week we began our novel study of A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park. This novel explores the stories of a Lost Boy of Sudan and a young girl living in Sudan in present time. In preparation for our reading, the class read an article detailing the history of violence in South Sudan. We also looked at some images from South Sudan and did a short simulation of life as a young boy and girl in Sudan with a “choose your own adventure” style. Next week, we will begin reading the novel.
In Social Studies, we moved onto our next civilization, Ancient Egypt. This week was focused on the geography of Egypt with particular focus on the land surrounding the Nile River. The students explored a map of Egypt, made their own map, and read about three aspects of geography that affected settlement: water, topography, and vegetation. Next week, we will study the Nile more in-depth.
Math
Happy New Year! It has been great being back in the classroom and hearing about all the wonderful things that happened over break. 5th grade has continued on with the second half of Chapter 4, which focuses on dividing fractions. Next week we are going to start a project that mimics what it would be like to open a lemonade stand! Make sure to ask your child about it.
Judaics
In Judaics we returned to our Chumash text. We are getting up to the point where Joseph is going to be by the pit with his brothers. We are working on asking kushiyot (text-based questions) as well as identifying and translating nouns and who they belong to. Students have also been working on reading directly from the Chumash, navigating the psukim and recognizing how the trope (music notes) act as punctuation. We also have started signing off leadership abilities for the Amida. Students practiced leading the “kedhusha” and are all almost ready to be able to lead in the Beit Midrash!
Shabbat Shalom!
Laura
Hebrew Heritage
Science
The 5th graders have moved on from their engineering design unit into a physical sciences unit. They have been working on understanding Mass and Weight. They learned the difference between the two- mass is how much “stuff” something is made up of (measured in grams) while weight is the force of gravity on an object (measured in Newtons). This all gets very confusing because we don’t normally measure our bodies in Newtons and misuse the word weight all the time. To help clarify the two, students worked on two labs. First, they used Explore Learning to measure different objects virtually with spring scales and balance scales. Explore Learning also allowed them to switch between different planets reinforcing that weight changes based on gravity (since it’s the force of gravity) while mass doesn’t change based on location. Then, students measured classroom items using a digital scale and a spring scale. They also learned and practiced how to calculate weight using the weight formula. The 5th grade scientists have been making me so proud as they show how skilled they are at running through labs and as they develop their lab writing skills.
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