Weekly Update October 7-11
Welcome back, I hope everyone had a great break! I am so excited that our
week is off to a great start!
I was a little nervous to begin our work with alternate
division strategies, as it usually illicits lots of grumbling from students and
bewilderment for parents. This ‘box method’ is NOT the way you and I learned
how to divide. Despite the initial confusion, I love that this method truly
teaches children to understand that division is repeated subtraction of equal
groups AND it makes large division problems workable for ALL students,
regardless of their mastery of multiplication facts. If all they remember are
their “2’s” they can still solve the problem- they may get tired of drawing
boxes, but they CAN do it!
In reading we have begun our historical fiction unit. As I
discussed with your in our report card conferences, this unit will focus on the
Holocaust. Of course, this topic is not 100% age appropriate for 5th
graders, but we have worked to find novels for book clubs and picture books for read alouds that
allow the students to learn about this period on their level. This week we are
working to build the students prior knowledge and understanding by creating a
timeline beginning in the early 1930’s to start identifying causes and
important events leading up to World War II and the Holocaust. We have just
started our read aloud novel, One Eye Laughing, One Eye Weeping by
Barry Denenberg. Next week we will
continue to add events to the time line and read picture books to build more
background knowledge and start our book clubs.
In science we have started our unit on force and motion.
Today we worked on essential vocabulary to prepare for some fun tomorrow! We
will conduct experiments with Hot Wheels cars on difference surfaces to learn
about friction.
In writing we are working on responding to reading by making
predictions and writing opinions/thoughts about our new read aloud. So far we have
learned that the main character Julie lives a very privileged life in Austria
in the mid 1930’s. Based on what the students have written so far they don’t
think too kindly of her and her fancy life. It will be interesting to see how their
opinions change as Julie’s life changes when the Nazi’s invade Austria.
Important Dates:
October 16 Early
release day, 11:20
17 DC parent info meeting in the library 5:45
17 DC parent info meeting in the library 5:45
