January 28-February 1

Hope you had a great weekend! Let's get to work!

Notes for the week...



**For the next few weeks, we will be using personal electronic devices regularly in class for Language Arts, Reading, and Math.  Please allow your child to bring his/her tablet or laptop to school. We will be using the applications Google Drive, Google Docs, and Google Slides, so please ensure that these apps have been installed on your child's device.  We use these apps throughout the year for many different projects!

This week in class...

Language Arts

In Language Arts this week, we will continue with our new class novel Holes, by Louis Sachar.  Students will continue using Google Slides to respond to what they read throughout the book.

This week, we'll begin looking at Greek and Latin roots to help us understand the meaning of words we encounter that we don't know. We will begin with the roots chron, dec, tract, therm, uni. There will be a quiz on Friday over the words that we study.

Math

This week in math class we will continue to work with fractions. Students will be gathering videos to practice independent investigation and self-paced learning. Students will organize their own videos in their digital study guides. This week we will look specifically at finding factors as a tool for comparing fractions, finding equivalents fractions, and also finding the simplest form of a fraction. Students should bring their devices to class if possible. We will have a short quiz on Friday to assess the skills we have covered in our fractions unit to date.

Homework:

Monday: One Xtramath.org lesson, find and watch two videos explaining
greatest common factors and add any necessary vocabulary to your Study-Guide

Tuesday: One Xtramath.org lesson, Math IXL K.9
Wednesday: One Xtramath.org lesson, Math IXL K.8
Thursday: One Xtramath.org lesson, Math IXL K.10
Friday: Relax!

Science
This week we'll begin building our eco-columns, which will model both a terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem.  In addition, we will be setting up our Science Project investigations for our Elementary Science Fair coming up in April!  Students will be investigating the rate of decomposition for different man-made materials.

Thank you for all of your support, parents! Please feel free to email us if you have
any questions.

Ms. Amy and Mr. Andrew

January 22-25

We hope you had a great weekend 
and are ready to get back to work! :)

Notes for the week...


**Friday is a half day with afternoon schedule. The students will be dismissed at 11:45am.

**For the next few weeks, we will be using personal electronic devices regularly in class for Language Arts and Reading.  Please allow your child to bring his/her tablet or laptop to school. We will be using the applications Google Drive, Google Docs, and Google Slides, so please ensure that these apps have been installed on your child's device.  We use these apps throughout the year for many different projects!

This week in class...

Language Arts

In Language Arts this week, we will dive into our new class novel Holes, by Louis Sachar.  Students will be using Google Slides to respond to what they read throughout the book.

We will continue using "mentor sentences" to observe and practice grammar skills, and we will be looking more closely at prepositional phrases. We will also continue working on our research as we build background for our science project about decomposition.

Math

This week we will be looking more closely at improper fractions and mixed numbers. We will be creating our own digital study guides using Google Slides and some other applications of Google Drive. As a class, we will discuss where to find good sources when doing self-driven learning or independent distance learning. Students will type some of their notes electronically and then also respond to several questions to help them develop independence, introspection, and self-efficacy as learners.

Homework:

Tuesday: One Xtramath.org lesson, add one video and any necessary vocabulary to your Study-Guide

Wednesday: One Xtramath.org lesson, Math IXL M.5 and M.6
Thursday: One Xtramath.org lesson, Math IXL K.6
Friday: One Xtramath.org lesson, watch the MathAntics video on factoring, answer the four questions in the Google Form

Science

This week we'll continue looking at food webs in different environments and how
invasive species can affect the delicate balance of ecosystems. We'll also be using
a tool called the Sustainability Compass to analyze how the health of ecosystems
affects society, the economy, and our well-being. Then, we'll begin building our
eco-columns, which will model both a terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem as well as their relationship to each other.

Thank you for all of your support, parents! Please feel free to email us if you have
any questions.

Ms. Amy and Mr. Andrew

January 14-18

Welcome back to another week in Discovery School Grade 5! Thanks for checking back in with us!

Notes for the week...


** This Friday will be an early dismissal in order to leave space for parent/teacher conferences if they are necessary. There will be NO SCHOOL on Monday, January 21, due to the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.

** This Wednesday at 10:10, 5th graders will have their pictures taken for the yearbook.  Students should not wear white or green due to the backgrounds that will be used. The all-school picture will be taken on Thursday at 8:10am.

This week in class...

Language Arts

In Language Arts this week, we'll continue practicing our reading fluency and expression by presenting our picture books to kindergarten and 1st-grade students.  Then we'll begin our new class novel Holes, by Louis Sachar.

We will continue using "mentor sentences" to observe and practice grammar skills. We will also continue working on our research as we build background for our science project about decomposition.

Math

This week we will continue to study how to multiply fractions with whole numbers. We will continue to use visual models and our understanding of division and multiplication to solve these problems in an abstract manner. We will also touch briefly upon division of fractions. On Thursday we will have a short quiz to galvanize our understanding of equivalent fractions and how to add and subtract with like denominators.

Homework:

Monday: One Xtramath.org lesson, Math IXL M.2

Tuesday: One Xtramath.org lesson, Math IXL M.3

Wednesday:One Xtramath.org lesson, Math IXL M.4
Thursday:One Xtramath.org lesson

Science

This week we'll study the intricate systems of food chains and food webs, as well
as what can happen when an invasive species is introduced to another ecosystem.

Understanding Food Chains
Food Chains Game

Thank you for all of your support, parents! Please feel free to email us if you have
any questions.

Ms. Amy and Mr. Andrew

January 7 - 11

Happy New Year, and Welcome Back to a Brand New Semester!

We hope you had a wonderful and restful holiday filled with love, friends, and family! We are ready to begin an exciting new year of learning and fun!

Notes for the week...


** Don't forget, we need students to bring in one or two 2-liter soda bottles for our next science unit!  We will be cutting them apart and joining bottles together to create "eco-column" models of a terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem, so they all need to be the same size and shape.

This week in class...

Language Arts

In Language Arts this week, we'll be practicing our reading fluency and expression by choosing a picture book to read to a kindergartner and 1st grader.  We'll be spending this week practicing independently, with the teacher, and with partners, so that we set a good example to our K and Grade 1 friends, as well as keep them interested in the stories we share with them!

In addition, we will begin using "mentor sentences" from novels we have read to enhance our language skills in identifying parts of speech, revising and editing to make a sentence sound better, and imitating complex sentence structures in our writing.  We will also begin practicing our language skills as scientists as we begin the process of forming questions, hypotheses, and research for our science projects.

I am excited to announce that our "Recess Rules" PSAs have been published, and are ready to be shared with our fellow elementary students as we return to the routines of school!  Click on the links below to see our finished work!

Recess PSA Episode 1
Recess PSA Episode 2
Recess PSA Episode 3
Recess PSA Episode 4
Recess PSA Episode 5
Recess PSA Episode 6

Math

This week in Math class we will be starting into our infamous fractions unit. We have some yummy review activities planned and will be talking about equivalent fractions and adding and subtracting fractions this week.

Homework:

Monday: One Xtramath.org lesson

Tuesday: One Xtramath.org lesson, Math IXL K.4

Wednesday:One Xtramath.org lesson, Math IXL L.3
Thursday:One Xtramath.org lesson, Math IXL L.2

Science

This week we will begin a new unit in Science about Ecosystems. We'll be
developing our own definition of an ecosystem and designing an experiment
to determine the most important factors for a plant's survival.

Thank you for all of your support, parents! Please feel free to email us if you have
any questions.

Ms. Amy and Mr. Andrew