Updates and announcements
I hope everyone had a wonderful
3 day weekend. I was able to go to two of my husband’s performances-a Best of
Broadway show and a Veteran’s day concert with the Salt River Brass.
We reviewed the results of the homework
survey and saw mostly positive feedback! It was consistent with what we discussed
with every family in conferences. Remember, if your child is consistently far
exceeding about 1 hour and 15 minutes of focused homework time per night,
please let me know and we can work something out.
Our week in learning
Students will learn about the idiom “Make a
mountain out of a mole hill.”
Students will learn about the roots cutis, cor,
dorsum, and athlon. Students will be quizzed over these roots next Wednesday.
Students should expect a similar quiz each week.
Students learned about the poem “The Road Not
Taken” on 10/30 and recite it on 11/15.
In Literature, students will continue reading
“Where the Red Fern Grows”, ending the week with chapter 8. Students will
journal every day we read in Literature about a given prompt. We are a
spoiler-free school, so if students or older siblings know the end, please
encourage your child to discover the text on their own (especially the
ending).
In Grammar, students will use the writing process
to construct an essay from the perspective of a turkey around the holidays who
is convincing a farmer to not eat him/her. Students will work through
brainstorming, pre writing map, sentence outline, and rough draft this week.
Students will have class time to work on all of these components, then what
they do not finish is homework.
On
Tuesday, students will take their classification test. This test will be
partially open notes. Thursday will be a work day for science fair-we will go
over how to write the science fair essay and begin writing the essay in class.
To complete the essay, which is due November 18th, students must already have
their results and conclusions finalized. Work on the poster should begin on the
15th, with posters being due on the 22nd. On Friday, students will start their
study of cell theory by learning about Robert Hooke and the beginnings of cell
theory, and be given additional time to work on their essays. Study guides for
this unit will be distributed the following week to allow more homework time
for science fair.
This week we continue with our
unit on England, and discuss the end of Elizabeth I’s reign, including
England’s ruling navy, their chief sailor, Sir Francis Drake, and their
escalating relationship with Spain. We will move to the monarchs after
Elizabeth I, including James I of England, and the Civil War that broke out
under Charles I, resulting in his execution. The religious conflicts between
Catholics and Protestants will be a major theme for these rulers, as well as
the governmental shift in which England left their pure monarchy and developed
a strong parliament. On Wednesday we will look at the life of William
Shakespeare, and reading a retelling of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Homework each evening will be to work on study guide questions in response to
the day’s lesson.
As we explore this period in
the history of England, please utilize this student reader, and other free
resources on Core Knowledge’s website: https://www.coreknowledge.org/free-resource/ckhg-unit-06-england-golden-age/student-reader/
In math, students will divide a fraction by a
fraction and solve multi-step word problems that involve division of fractions.
Here are the dates for math groups for the rest of the quarter:
11/13
When a “test b” (multiplication test) is assigned
for homework, it contains questions very similar to a quiz the following day.
We take a lot of low-stakes math quizzes in fifth grade. All math workbook
assignments are half of every type of problem. Please keep in mind that
students may do test corrections on any math quiz for partial credit (fill in
the blank sheets, not multiple choice homework sheets).
