Sunday, November 5, 2017

Week 13


TWiG5This Week iGrade 5



Welcome to week 13 of learning, exploring and having fun!!!



Reminders!


-Kid’s Day Parent Volunteers Needed

This year's Kids' Day will be held on Wednesday, November 22nd, 2017 from 8:00am to 11:30am. Students will then be dismissed at 11:30am for a long Thanksgiving weekend. This is a half day for CAC and Pre K-5 will be participating at the same time. For new parents to the school Kids’ Day is a fun-filled day in which they can show off their house spirit, participate in a wide variety of physical activities, and enjoy each other! The Elementary PE Department needs parent volunteers to help with the games and activities. You will be partnered up with an Elementary Teacher and teacher aide to help run an activity. If you could volunteer on that day, please fill in the (google form) by Thursday, November 16th at the latest. Mr. Greene will contact you via e-mail with your assignment by Monday, November 20th. Please mark your calendars for the date and time NOW!
Thank you, Phil Greene pgreene@cacegypt.org & Mark Mayfield mmayfield@cacegypt.org




-5K Assembly on Tuesday, Nov. 7th in ES Hall
-Math End-of-Module Assessment on Thursday, Nov. 9th
-Visiting Poet Kenn Nessbitt here from Nov. 7th - 9th. Books will be on sale each day at the front gate. The ES will have an opportunity to hear Kenn on Thursday morning at 7:55 in the ES Hall. Students should place their backpacks neatly in their assembly area and head to the Hall when the whistle blows. Grade 5 will have another chance to be with Kenn on Nov. 8th.
-General Services Appreciation Lunch: Held on Monday, Nov. 20th. This is a chance for the school community to show gratitude to the people who help keep CAC a safe, clean and fun place to be. Grade levels will be assigned a specific dish in which they can donate on Nov. 20th. More details to come!

-Student Leadership had a great opportunity to work with other student council members from MS and HS in an engaging afternoon lead by Cathy Berger. Students connected, communicated and collaborated as Cathy lead them in leadership building activities. Please see below a few pictures of our 5th graders in action!!




Curriculum Corner

Reading Workshop: "Reading Like a Fan: Understanding Characters" unit is wrapping up this week, as we finish off and reflect on all the character work that we have been doing to answer our Guiding Questions: a) How can I read in a way that let's me grow deep theories about characters? and b) How can I become an author-expert critiquing character development? Students will wrap up their reading across books and characters this week, seeking similarities and differences, as well as growing bigger theories. Citing evidence is a huge skill of this unit - there needs to be support from the text to back up any ideas the students develop. Students will be comparing characters from one book to another. We will ponder how these characters are alike, what is similar about their situation, and if there is something common in their way of solving their lives' issues? We will have a reading celebration in our class where students will present their 'Medal-Winning Jots' for gold, silver and bronze!!!
  
Writing Workshop: Our poetry writing unit is coming to a close, as we focus our attention on applying and revising the 2 "toolboxes" of "meaning" and "music" to their poem drafts. A poetry revising checklist will be used this week both by the individual poet, and also in partners. This list of guiding questions enables the poet to determine whether it is the best that it can be for an audience, by getting feedback for such things as: Does the poem make you feel anything? Can you see images in the poem from the words chosen? Does the poem "show", rather than just explain? Does your mind start to wander? What images, words or thoughts catch you by surprise and give you that "ahhhh!" feeling?! As students publish their selected poems on Glogster, they will also fill in an accompanying reflection sheet.


Math Workshop: Our current unit ends on Thursday with the end-of-module assessment. Reviewing exit tickets is one way your child can review and practice. Students are welcome to seek extra help from the teacher during recess times, if needed.
This week, lessons focus on the knowledge students have accumulated about whole number division with double-digit divisors and extends it to division of decimals by double-digit divisors. Parallels between sharing or grouping whole number units and sharing or grouping decimal units are the emphasis of Topic G. Students quickly surmise that the concepts of division remain the same regardless of the size of the units being shared or grouped. Placement of the decimal point in quotients is based on students’ reasoning about when wholes are being shared or grouped and when the part being shared. Students reason about remainders in a deeper way than in previous grades. Students consider cases in which remainders expressed as whole numbers appear to be equivalent; however, equivalence is disproven when such remainders are decomposed as decimal units and shared or grouped. Students apply the work of the module to solve multi-step word problems using multi-digit division. It is important that students take their time to think through the problem and draw visuals to support their thinking.



Social Studies: As a culminating project to this unit on World Development, for the next couple of weeks, students will be engaged in researching information following the Big6 model. They have chosen which role they wish to take on: Aztec, Spanish Conquistador or Historian, and will be using both books and web-based resources found on the CAC ES Library Visual tab to find information towards their guiding questions. They have a research booklet which enables them to follow through all of the steps required. A particular skill to emphasize in discussion is the art of maintaining an accurate bibliography, and also being sure to put information in their own words, rather than copying from the source directly. This will be an on-going focus through our new upcoming units in Reading and Writing Workshop. The work will mostly be done in-school , and students will be encouraged to use efficient and effective hunting skills for information. They will be supported by lessons with Mrs. Fitzgerald, our librarian. The research will wrap up this week, so that they can synthesize that information and complete their "product" by next week.



Photos from a 'jigsaw' activity




Circle Solutions: Each month we come together and celebrate one of our seven core values. With American Thanksgiving around the corner, November is all about COMPASSION! With your child discuss what compassion means to you and your family. How do we show compassion? How do we demonstrate compassion at school, at home, on the playground, or wherever we are? Classes will have discussions around this topic this month and will read our special core value book.



Your partners in education,
LeeAnn Kasal   lkasal@cacegypt.org
Bonnie Greene barmstronggreene@cacegypt.org
Jonathan O'Sullivan josullivan@cacegypt.org
Caitlin Johnson cjohnson@cacegypt.org

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