Thursday, December 4, 2014

January Newsletter!

Can't believe it is January already! The 5th grade is moving full steam ahead into 2016. Our best wishes to all our 5th grade families for a happy and healthy New Year. 
Onward and upward, 
the 5th grade teachers

Special dates in December and January: 



January 
14: Career Day (fundraiser)
15: PS 58 Read-a-thon starts!
16: Cine Bistro Night!

18: Dr. MLK, Jr. Day (no school)



Our 5th Grade mathematicians have mastered many different multiplication strategies and are ready for division. This second unit will deepen their understanding of whole number division and numerical expressions. Students will be asked to use different strategies from the previous unit to double check their understanding for this unit.

From there, 5th graders will go directly into fractions. In this unit students will learn the relationship between fractions, decimals, and percents. Using this knowledge, the students will find equivalent fractions, order fractions, and add commonly used fractions. They will multiply and divide fractions and whole numbers. Our 5th graders will also work on ordering, adding, multiplying, and dividing decimals. In order to work with fractions and decimals, students will use different models such as number lines and area models in order to assist and deepen their understanding.


In reading, 5th graders completed their interpretive book club units with wonderful projects which demonstrated their individual mastery. The students have since moved onto informational reading.  In this unit, students will determine main ideas and key supporting details, compare and contrast text structures, and analyze multiple points of view on a topic. They will become “experts” in a topic of their choosing and learn that not all information comes from a single source.

For our writing unit, the 5th grade has been developing research skills, learning different strategies of note taking to get the most out of our non-fiction reading. We have been focusing on finding the main ideas of sections of text as well as the supporting details for those ideas. Using various presentation styles, students will culminate the unit by teaching one another about their topic of interest.

In current events, the campaign trail is heating up, but we have wrapped up our unit on the U.S. Government and the election process. 5th graders are moving west to begin our study of Westward Expansion. It was during this period that the United States had a destiny and mission to expand its boundaries by moving westward. Students will research The Trail of Tears, the Transcontinental Railroad, Lewis and Clark, The Gold Rush, and The Oregon Trail. They will learn how these were turning points which changed life for thousands of people. 

We are pleased to announce a partnership with the Anne Frank Center in NYC. Once a week, a teaching artist will be coming into each of the 5th grade classrooms where students will learn lessons of Anne Frank in a meaningful and relevant manner. The program will integrate artistic, literary, historical, and/or performance-based components. The students will be taught how to respond as leaders in challenging discrimination, intolerance, and bias-related violence in a positive and constructive way. 

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