Earth Day Week!

A Week in Review

April 21 - 25

 

Happy Friday! I hope you've had a great week, I know we did! We celebrated Earth Day on Tuesday, finished Unit 7 in Math, and dug deeper into understanding our three branches of government. We also had a fantastic World Cultures Family Night here on Wednesday! Thank you to everyone who volunteered and those who came to celebrate with us.

 

 

Virtue Awards:

Meghnath has earned a Virtue Award for demonstrating the virtues of helpfulness and commitment when Ms. Arika asked him to help her read some books for her and give honest feedback on them. Thank you for being a reliable 5th grade leader!

 

Reading:

Our main selection in Journeys was Rachel's Journal: The Story of a Pioneer Girl by Melissa Moss. We used this Historical Fiction text to practice our target skill cause and effect and our target strategy analyze/evaluate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Writing:

We've started writing persuasive essays. Students will choose either dogs or cats and write to persuade their reader to see their point-of-view. I will model the essay by writing about owning a fish. Our class beta, Russell Wilson, enjoys being in the spotlight!

 

Math:

Unit 7: Multiplication and Division with Whole Numbers and Decimals wrapped up this week. We took the end-of-unit assessment on Wednesday and continued practicing multi-digit multiplication and long division.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Science:

Ms. Keenan and our class started their new science unit, Environments. They started the unit making a terrarium by planting five different kinds of seeds. They'll spend the next few weeks caring for them and observing them, while also conducting other investigations.

 

 



 

Social Studies:

This week, we examined the three branches of government more closely (legislative, executive, and judicial). We analyzed each branches' powers and created "power cards" that we used to play a game to deepen our understanding how the checks and balances work. The game gave different scenarios and students identified which branches would act and in what order.

 

Thank you for another fantastic week! Have a wonderful weekend!

 

 

Go Seahawks!

~Mrs. Hatlestad

Upcoming Events:

23 May - No School (1/2 day paid Professional Day for teachers)

26 May - No School in observance of Memorial Day

5 June - Band/Orchestra concert (school time 8:45am, evening event 7:30pm)

20 June - 5th Grade Graduation in the cafe (afternoon time TBA)

23 June - Last Day of School (unless additional snow days occur)

 

Paul Owen Lewis Visits!

A Week in Review

April 14 - 18

 

Welcome back from Spring Break! We've picked right back up where we left off, it doesn't seem like we even went on break! I'm proud of how our students have eased right back into their learning. We also had a school visit from publish author Paul Owen Lewis. He has written books like Storm Boy, Frog Girl, Davy's Dream, and The Jupiter Stone. He came to our class for a question and answer session with our students about his writing! A special thank you goes to Mrs. McClelland for organizing this for our entire school!

 

Virtue Awards:

Our entire class has received a Virtue Award for their hard work on their Science presentations. Read below in the Science section to see how amazing they were!

 

 

 

 

Reading:

Our main selection in Journeys this week was Vacqueros: America's First Cowboys by George Ancona. We used it to practice our target skill: main ideas and details and our target strategy: summarizing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Writing:

We examined word families this week and word roots. We also practiced using transition words. Students worked to identify words that link one sentence to another and words that tell time order.

 

Math:

Unit 7 Multiplication and Division with Whole Numbers and Decimals is coming to an end! Only one lesson remains before we take our end-of-unit assessment (next Wednesday). We worked this week divide whole numbers by decimals and divide decimals by decimals. We also practiced long division, multiplication, and word problems that involved both whole numbers and decimals.

 

 

 

 

Science:

Ms. Keenan and our students completed their Public Service Announcements. Students presented their pollution solution projects in front of our class, their purpose being to educate their audience on the pollutant their group chose. The students created posters, pamphlets, and PowerPoint sideshows to help make their point. Ms. Keenan was so very impressed with our student presentations, each Science group received a 4 on their presentation!! They were poised, clear, and presented their topic with confidence and expertise! Way to go!!!

 

Social Studies:

Did you know that the U.S. Constitution is like a 3-legged stool? Students compared the Articles of the Confederation (weak, limited power, like a 1-legged stool) to the U.S. Constitution. We tried to balance our textbooks on 1 pencil, witnessed how unsteady it was. Then we tried to balance one textbook using 3 pencils and saw how easy it was - this analogy helped students see how our government keeps any one branch from having too much power.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for another great. Enjoy the weekend!

 

Go Seahawks!

~Mrs. Hatlestad

Upcoming Events:
23 April - Explore World Cultures Family Night 5-7pm

23 May - No School (1/2 day paid Professional Day)

26 May - No School in observance of Memorial Day

5 June - Band/Orchestra concert (school time TBD, evening event 7:30pm)

20 June - 5th Grade Graduation in the cafe (afternoon time TBA)

23 June - Last Day of School (unless additional snow days occur)

 

 

Science Week!

A Week in Review

March 31 - April 4

 

Science week was a great success! We started and ended the week with Science assemblies and even Skyped with a professor from CalTech this week about Quantum Mechanics.Thank you to everyone that was able to make it to last night's Family Engineering Night. I was out sick, but I heard it was an amazing night!

 

 

Virtue Awards:

Sandy has earned a Virtue Award for displaying the virtues of orderliness and responsibility. Sandy works hard to stay organized and complete her assignments with quality work. She is ready for middle school!

 

 

 

 

 

Reading:

Our main selection in Journeys this week was The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich. We used the text to practice our target skill theme and our target strategy infer/predict. Students worked hard to take their learning from Journeys and use it with their independent reading books.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Writing:

We finished up our Research Reports this week! Our students were focused and enthusiastic about their self-selected topic and attention to ensuring they had five complete paragraphs and a bibliography. I look forward to reading them!

 

 

 

 

Math:

Division, division, division! We worked hard this week on long division. We divided with single and double digit divisors. We examined the remainders and interpreted them. We will continue with Unit 7 when we return from break.

 

 

 

 

 

Science:

Ms. Keenan and our students worked on their public service announcements for their Pollution Solution assignment. They worked in groups to create posters and PowerPoints to show the public how pollutants are harmful to our environment.

 

 

 

Social Studies:

Chapter 13: The Revolutionary War, was our lesson this week. We used the analogy tug-of-war with unbalanced team to describe what it was like for the colonists (the weaker team) fighting against the British (the stronger team). Ask your student how the game helped explain how the Americans won the Revolutionary War.

 

Thank you so much for another great week! I hope you have a restful and relaxing Spring Break!

 

 

Go Seahawks!

~Mrs. Hatlestad

Upcoming Events:

7-11 Apr - No School, Spring Break
23 April - Explore World Culture Night (time TBA)

23 May - No School, 1/2 day paid Professional Day

26 May - No School in observance of Memorial Day

23 June - 5th Grade Graduation (tentatively scheduled) cafe at 8:30am

23 June - Last Day of School (unless additional snow days occur)