Mrs. Russo's Fifth Grade

       

This week in reading we started unit 3 which focuses on the big question, “What do people gain from the work of inventors and artists?” This week’s question was, “How do inventors inspire our imaginations?”. We read an amusing drama about a science fair where the children invented a perpetual motion machine! How timely for us! We worked on sequencing and tenses of verbs. Future tense proved to be a little tricky.

In math we finished up learning about patterns. The students took a pre-test on fractions. We will start our fractions unit on Monday with new groups. Our goal is to get a small head start before vacation on what fractions are and review equivalent fractions. When we return we’ll push full steam ahead on all operations with fractions, decimals, and percents. Whew!

In writing the students continued editing and revising their invertebrate stories. These will be turned into books that they will share with their second grade buddies. The final draft is due on Tuesday. They were reminded to bring them home just in case!

In science we continued our invention unit. All logos, slogans, drawings (with at least 3 views), paragraphs, and prototypes are due on Thursday. The students are going to practice explaining their inventions to the three 5th grade classes. The actual Invention Convention is on Friday from 9-10:30. Feel free to stop by if you can! Remember that the invention is just a model. It doesn’t really have to work.

In fifth grade we don’t officially celebrate Valentine’s Day in order to avoid any emotional difficulties. Instead we have a voluntary activity where the students chose one name out of a container. They will create a word search for that person. They got the template on Thursday. They need to come up with 10 kind words to describe the person. Then they make the word search. Please check to make sure your child knows who their secret person is. We will exchange our word searches on Thursday.