Being Proactive in Fifth Grade

We have spent a lot of time discussing what it means to be proactive this week.  It has been nice to teach the traits in class and observe students being proactive throughout the school day.  Each day I am observing students who are taking charge by asking questions during lessons, joining after school clubs, and keeping a positive attitude throughout the day.

Here is a quick update on our studies. It has been a very busy second week back.

Reading
We started unit 1 in Reach for Reading this week.  This unit investigates the immigrant experience and discusses how location affects who we are.  The reading strategy of preview and predict is introduced, and students are learning to describe how a character changes in the beginning, middle, and end of a story.

Social Studies
Geography is the focus of unit one in TCI.  We are practicing how to identify major physical features and landforms on U.S. maps.  We've learned the differences between the terms bay and gulf, cape and peninsula, and mountain and hill.  Our test over unit 1 concepts will be on Tuesday, September 1st.  Please see your child's study guide for unit details. 

Writing
This week we have had a chance to discuss the writing trait of ideas.  Our class has learned how to "slim down" writing topics and ask questions to create clear topics. 

Math
Students are learning how to represent a multiplication problem as an array or number model in this unit.  We've used counters and dots to represent these problems.  This unit also covers divisibility rules, prime & composite numbers, square numbers, and prime factorization.  Please log on to EDM online for more information.


Mrs. L

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