5th Grade January Newsletter
We hope you all had a wonderful holiday. Now is a good time to check in with your child to see if they need any supply replacements for the new year. Please also make sure all of their materials at home are organized. Thank you!
Reading
We have completed Unit 2 of our Readygen curriculum. We will be working on Unit 3 in our Readygen Unit, which covers solar system concepts. We will read the novel, “George’s Secret Key to the Universe” and other nonfiction books to learn about space, while also working on reading skills. The skills we will work on will be the author's viewpoint, drawing conclusions, theme, compare and contrast characters, figurative language and more.
Math
In Math, the fifth graders are currently working on Topic 6, which is long division of decimals and whole numbers. Next, we will work on coordinate grids and then begin Topic 7, which is adding and subtracting fractions, finding common denominators, and simplifying fractions. Please continue working at home on Reflexmath.com to help with memorizing math facts.
Social Studies
In Social Studies, we are in chapter 9 that explains the U.S. Constitution and specifically the three branches of government. When we get back from break, we will work on the Bill of Rights, the War of 1812, and eventually move into the Lewis and Clark expedition and the expansion of our country. The students will be working on Google Classroom to submit different projects, graphic organizers, watch videos, and much more. It is a great experience using this technology!
Science
In Science, each classroom has completed work on Aquatic Ecosystems. The students really enjoyed creating our ponds and we even got to dissect owl pellets to learn more about consumers in ecosystems. We will then begin our next units, which are matter and the solar system. There will be some great hands-on experiments that students can do to show how the states of matter can change between solid, liquid, and gas. We will also incorporate solar system concepts while we read about them in Readygen. Ask your child what their favorite part of our science ecosystem unit has been!
Thank you for all of your support. We look forward to the second half of the year with your students!
The Fifth Grade Team