A Week in Review

January 28^th – February 1^st  

 

It’s February already?  Yup!  This week was quite productive for us 5^th graders; A new Math unit, Science Inquiry and conclusion writing, Social Studies Story Path Colonial setting and Reading Buddies with Miss Muller's class on Friday made this week fly by! 

 

 



Virtues Awards:
Sarah Z. and Lauren S. have earned a Virtues Award for showing the virtues of SERVICE and CLEANLINESS. Sarah and Lauren selflessly volunteered to clean an organize our Science materials after our Science Investigation! Their commitment to keeping our classroom clean, allows us to do our best learning. Thank you ladies!!
 

Writing:
Students wrote 5-paragraph essays this week! We worked together to brainstorm, organize, and write our essays. Students completed their rough drafts and revised independently. We reviewed the importance of transition words and created a "bank" of them (displayed on the wall) that students can refer to if they get stuck. I shared my own writing with students and modeled revising, making meaningful changes to my rough draft.

Math:
We started our new Math unit this week, Unit 4: Circles, Polygons, and Angles. This week, we reviewed concepts learned in 4th grade (i.e. line, ray, angle, vertex) and began using protractors to measure angles. We also used two known angles in a triangle to identify the third missing measurement. We ended the week classifying polygons.

 

Social Studies:
Students began working in cooperative groups designing and creating the "frieze" or "setting" for our Social Studies Unit, Story Path: The Struggle for Independence in Colonial Boston. We used what we learned from our reading to determine the important businesses that were vital to the community, as well as the geographic features of Colonial Boston at that time. The frieze will be on display in the 5th grade hallway, right along with the other 5th grade classrooms.

Science:
This week was full of Scientific exploration as we partnered again with the University of Washington for two investigations.  Students learned  that a solution is saturated when as much solid material as possible has dissolved in the liquid.  We worked together to form the conclusion that solubility is the property that substances have of dissolving in solvents. Solubility is different for different materials and can change with temperature and different solvents. Students wrote conclusions to demonstrate and share their knowledge.  The UW will be back next week, guiding students in designing their own investigation! 


Upcoming Events:
February 4^th – 8^th:  Human Growth Development classes (Monday, Wednesday & Thursday)
February 7^th – Heritage Writing – coming to America!
Saturday, February 9^th - Auction
18-Feb - Mid-Winter Break! (through Feb 24)