Dear Parents,
In these last two months the children and I have been completing the design phase of our Biome project by completing our scale drawings of the hallway and we are now ready to start planning on how to decorate the hall. We have been measuring and converting our measurements and cutting and hanging up the background paper for our Biomes. We will be continuing our research on the different aspects of the Savannah Grasslands and Rain forests.
In Language Arts, we have been writing,rewriting, editing, and working on finishing up our narratives and created a final copy of "Our Favorite Things". We will continue to add onto that and expand our writing of that narrative in January. We have also finished in our reading group the book called "Extra Credit" and have been writing to fellow students in Israel. We are starting to write to other children in Germany to hopefully learn about their culture as well as share our culture with them via emails. In our reading group we have started another book called the "The Forgotten Door".
The fifth graders are also currently reading a book called "A Wrinkle In Time" by Madeleine L'engle. We have been discussing and answering questions on what we have been reading concentrating on characterization, theme, inferring and using what we have read in the text to support our answers. The fourth graders finished the book, "The River" and have answered questions during discussion and writing answers concerning the characters and theme of the story using information from the book to support their answers. We have inferred and predicted what we think would happen next. The fourth graders have just started to read another book called "Bridge to Terabithia" by Katherine Paterson. This story is about a close friendship that develops between two people that usually would most likely never occur. It is a story of friendship, love, tragedy, and loss that hopefully the students will walk away with a new profound knowledge about what courage, strength and friendship is, the theme of the book. The fourth and fifth graders in addition to reading their books have also spent time analyzing short stories concentrating on theme, characterization, inferring and using the text to support their answers.
In math, the fifth graders have learned long division by using two-digit divisors dividing into a 4 digit dividend , have practiced multiplying 4 digits by 2 digits using the standard form.. The children also have been learning divisibility rules, prime and composite numbers and factors. We have looked at order of operations while using parenthesis and exponents. We have studied area and perimeter of different quadrilaterals and triangles and are trying to find the area of irregular shapes. We have worked on measurement, examining the metric as well as the customary system looking at length. We were able to utilize a lot of that information while preparing our walls to display our different biomes. We have worked on divisibility rules to help us locate multiples of numbers and have looked at different properties such as the Commutative, Associative and Distributive properties for Algebra. The fifth grade is currently working on how to measure angles, the different types of angles, as well as using formulas to look at areas of different quadrilaterals and triangle areas.
The fourth grade has learned how to multiply numbers by using 2-digits as their multiplier. They have learned how to find factors. They students also learned about multiples and how to find multiples of numbers, using divisibility rules. The 4th graders have worked on order of operation rules while solving different arithmetic equations also using exponents and parenthesis. The fourth grade practiced on how to use standard division rules while dividing with one divisor. We are currently also working on identifying points, lines, rays, angles and measuring angles. In January we will be finishing up some of the geometry and starting to examine the fractional and decimal relationships with each other along with ratios and proportions.
I hope everyone has a blessed and wonderful Christmas and holiday.
In these last two months the children and I have been completing the design phase of our Biome project by completing our scale drawings of the hallway and we are now ready to start planning on how to decorate the hall. We have been measuring and converting our measurements and cutting and hanging up the background paper for our Biomes. We will be continuing our research on the different aspects of the Savannah Grasslands and Rain forests.
In Language Arts, we have been writing,rewriting, editing, and working on finishing up our narratives and created a final copy of "Our Favorite Things". We will continue to add onto that and expand our writing of that narrative in January. We have also finished in our reading group the book called "Extra Credit" and have been writing to fellow students in Israel. We are starting to write to other children in Germany to hopefully learn about their culture as well as share our culture with them via emails. In our reading group we have started another book called the "The Forgotten Door".
The fifth graders are also currently reading a book called "A Wrinkle In Time" by Madeleine L'engle. We have been discussing and answering questions on what we have been reading concentrating on characterization, theme, inferring and using what we have read in the text to support our answers. The fourth graders finished the book, "The River" and have answered questions during discussion and writing answers concerning the characters and theme of the story using information from the book to support their answers. We have inferred and predicted what we think would happen next. The fourth graders have just started to read another book called "Bridge to Terabithia" by Katherine Paterson. This story is about a close friendship that develops between two people that usually would most likely never occur. It is a story of friendship, love, tragedy, and loss that hopefully the students will walk away with a new profound knowledge about what courage, strength and friendship is, the theme of the book. The fourth and fifth graders in addition to reading their books have also spent time analyzing short stories concentrating on theme, characterization, inferring and using the text to support their answers.
In math, the fifth graders have learned long division by using two-digit divisors dividing into a 4 digit dividend , have practiced multiplying 4 digits by 2 digits using the standard form.. The children also have been learning divisibility rules, prime and composite numbers and factors. We have looked at order of operations while using parenthesis and exponents. We have studied area and perimeter of different quadrilaterals and triangles and are trying to find the area of irregular shapes. We have worked on measurement, examining the metric as well as the customary system looking at length. We were able to utilize a lot of that information while preparing our walls to display our different biomes. We have worked on divisibility rules to help us locate multiples of numbers and have looked at different properties such as the Commutative, Associative and Distributive properties for Algebra. The fifth grade is currently working on how to measure angles, the different types of angles, as well as using formulas to look at areas of different quadrilaterals and triangle areas.
The fourth grade has learned how to multiply numbers by using 2-digits as their multiplier. They have learned how to find factors. They students also learned about multiples and how to find multiples of numbers, using divisibility rules. The 4th graders have worked on order of operation rules while solving different arithmetic equations also using exponents and parenthesis. The fourth grade practiced on how to use standard division rules while dividing with one divisor. We are currently also working on identifying points, lines, rays, angles and measuring angles. In January we will be finishing up some of the geometry and starting to examine the fractional and decimal relationships with each other along with ratios and proportions.
I hope everyone has a blessed and wonderful Christmas and holiday.