It’s finally starting to feel like fall this week!  A few things to put on your radar – Wednesday is a uniform buy-out day and the Gala is on Friday!  Here’s the plan for the 5th grade classroom this week:

Reading: We’re getting into Fatty Legs.  Students are looking for similes and metaphors, especially as birds are used symbolically throughout the novel.  We are also paying attention to learning: what do people learn from their families?  What do people learn from school?  How do all types of learning play a role in our lives?

Writing/Social Studies: Furthering their research, students will be using websites of Native American nations to learn about how those nations continue to honor and celebrate their culture today.  To practice an executive functioning skill today, we discussed a long term goal (having our research completed by Friday) and shorter, SMART goals (completing 4 research questions per day to achieve that larger goal).  We are always thinking about breaking up our large tasks into smaller, achievable goals to gage our progress and make deadlines.

Language Study: It’s a spelling week! Spelling check on Friday!

Science: Earthquakes this week, including ways that communities and scientists develop ways to mitigate earthquake-related damage and injuries.

Math: We are wrapping up this math unit by learning about subtraction of fractions.  We will review and prepare for the math assessment, which will take place on Friday.