Dear Students and Parents
I can't believe that we are almost half way through this school year. Report cards are going home February 1st marking the end of the second marking period. While we have accomplished so much, there is still so much left to be done.
In Language Arts, our focus has been writing in response to reading. Students are writing response journals and literary essays to show what they are thinking while they are reading because good readers are active participants. As we publish our literary essays, we have come away with a deeper understanding of what readers should do and better comprehension skills and strategies. In Math, we have just begun our study of fractions and are currently looking at various algoritms for adding and subtracting fractions with both like and unlike denominators. In the near future, we will include algorithms for calculating with mixed numbers and multiplying and dividing fractions as well. Our Buoyancy unit is also coming to a close and we are beginning to prepare for our annual Boat Expo which will be held before the February vacation. We are also beginning a new unit in Social Studies about the American explorers that will eventually lead to the infamous fifth grade Explorers Research Report.
As you can see, the fifth graders have much they should be proud of and still much to look forward to. I look forward to seeing everyone at our Boat Expo in February and our Poetry celebration in May.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Walker
