Week of October 7th

Important Dates

-Thursday 10/10 Fall Festival @DES

- End of the 1st 9 Weeks 10/11
- Conference Week 10/14-10/18
- Spooky Science Night 10/30 @ DES

This week in Mrs. Plante's Math....

We are starting Unit 2: decimals. Our focus is reading, writing, and comparing decimals to the thousandths place value. We will also start adding and subtracting decimals later next week.
HERE is the Parent Letter from the Georgia Dep. of Education outlining what your student will learn in this unit. 

You student can review these skills through IXL.com (login information is located in their agenda) Skills to review are G.3 (word form), G.4 (place value), and G.10 (comparing decimal numbers).  

Videos for our new unit:
Rounding Decimals
Ordering Decimals
Comparing Decimals
Place Value of Decimals

Videos from our previous unit to help review:

Partial Quotient Strategy for division Video

Area Model Multiplication Video

Standard Algorithm Multiplication Video

HERE is a video explaining multiplication and division with Powers of 10.  

HERE is a video explaining the Order of Operations

This week in Mrs. Allen's Writing...

In writing this week we will continue to work on our fictional narratives. The focus for this writing is on showing sentences (with details), pacing, planning, important details. One way you could help your student in writing is to have them journal about their day every night. Each night your student will have Daily Oral Language for homework. We will check them each day in class and each Friday they will be assessed. 

This week in Mrs. Allen's Science.

In science we have begun our unit on Microorganisms. Your student will have to be able to identify how microorganisms are benefits and how they are harmful to larger organisms. Our test on microorganisms will be October 10th. 

S5L4. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about how microorganisms benefit or harm larger organisms. (Clarification statement: Possible microorganisms could include Tardigrades, Lactobacillus, Probiotics, Rotifers, Salmonella, Clostridium botulinum (Botox), E-coli, Algae, etc. Students are not expected to know these specific microorganisms. The list is provided to give teachers examples.) a. Construct an argument using scientific evidence to support a claim that some microorganisms are beneficial. b. Construct an argument using scientific evidence to support a claim that some microorganisms are harmful.

Vocabulary:

Cell- The basic unit of structure and function of all living things., tissue- A group of cells that work together to perform a certain function. 

organ- A group of tissues that work together to perform a certain function.

organ system- A group of organs that work together to do a job for the body.

microorganism- An organism that is too small to be seen with the unaided eye. 

bacteria- A certain type of microorganism 

mold- a kind of fungus 

protist- A one-celled organism that shares traits with plants or animals. 

HERE is a great site to check out more information on our current unit. 

This week in Mr. Brumbelow's Reading Class...

***Students will continue to have weekly reading homework that they can work on every night at home. It's just a short reading passage with a few questions each day to keep their reading and vocabulary skills sharp. These homework sheets are due every Friday morning, however they can turn it in early if they would like. If your child doesn't turn in this homework then they will receive a negative dojo and forfeit their recess for the day.***

On Monday:

We will be taking another round of Reading Inventory (RI) assessments. This gives us a reading Lexile score that tells us what grade level your child can read independently and proficiently while still understanding the text. 

On Tuesday and Wednesday: 

We will be taking our 1st 9 weeks Reading Assessment. This is another assessment that gives us insight into how well your child can perform with reading content that is on the 5th grade level. The should have a completed practice test coming home with them today. We went over all the answers with them as a whole class, except for the essay. Please review this with your child over the next few days as our "real" assessment will be very similar. 

The rest of the week:

We will continue reading our first nonfiction, Shared Reading book, Plant Cells and Life Processes by Barbara A. Somervill. We will be keeping track of all our text structure elements as we progress through the book. We will begin with vocabulary work, read chorally as a class, and then partner reread to ensure comprehension. Students will use their reading notebooks to complete some vocabulary word work. Students will also be answering a written response to the text in their reading notebooks. There will not be a spelling and/or vocabulary test over words from this book. We will use these words daily in our written response answers. We will also be preparing for our 1st 9 weeks reading assessments.

***Please make sure your child has a library book at home with them every day. It should be kept in their book bags unless they are reading them and brought to school with them every day. It is extremely important that your child read at least 20 every night for them to continue to improve their reading abilities.

We will also continue our NBI (Needs Based Instruction) reading rotations. Some students will be working in the computer labs on Read 180 or System 44. Other students will stay in the classroom and meet with me in small groups to work on reading fluency and comprehension. This program helps students that are reading below grade level become more proficient readers. It will also have students that are on grade level continue to grow their reading skills and vocabulary up to and beyond the fifth grade reading band. Each of these segments will last 45 minutes.