I hope you all are enjoying this weekend!  Saturday was just beautiful!

Monday, October 21st is picture day!  Your student was given an order form last week and should bring it with them on Monday.

Parent Teacher Conferences will be held November 4th by appointment.  I will be sending a Signup Genius this week for you to pick a time to meet.

MATH

We will continue working with decimal computation (5.5 and 6.5) this week.  There will be a test on decimal computation on Wednesday, October 30th.  This skill will be primarily assessed using word problems.  We will be practicing with word problems this week during stations and with homework.  Weekly Math (Sunshine Math #1) is due on Wednesday, October 23rd.  Sunshine Math is a problem solving activity that requires students to use age-appropriate problem solving skills.  Students need to show all of their work as they will be given credit for their process more so than their answer.  In other words, they will receive credit for their methods even if they have the wrong answer.  This assignment is meant to help them grow their problem solving muscles in a way that builds on the skills they have now.  Using a formula will not develop these skills in the same way that drawing pictures will.  We discussed this at length in class to be sure that they understand the expectations.  I will be helping students individually and as a whole group with questions throughout the week.  Your student has lots of time to work on this assignment in class.  Please encourage them to do so.  Thanks so much for your support with this.

LANGUAGE ARTS

This week the students will be identifying main idea and themes, making predictions, and recognizing internal and external character conflicts.  The students will be writing a prediction of events following the end of Chapter 16 for Running Out of Time.  We will also be identifying specific conflicts happening in the novel.  We had our first meeting with our second grade book buddies and the students helped mentor the second graders with predicting in the books they are reading.  Book buddies is such a fantastic opportunity for the fifth graders to be leaders and teachers of a skill while practicing the skill as well.  Such a great thing to see!  The mystery book report is due on October 31st.  The next book report will be biography/autobiography if your student is ready to get started on it.

SCIENCE

Virginia’s Resources (4.9) is our review topic this week.  The students started working on a resources pamphlet last week and will complete it this week.  There will be a quiz on this material on Thursday, October 24th. This is a change! The students have notes in their notebooks to help prepare for this quiz.  Next, we will begin exploring the oceans!

SOCIAL STUDIES

We will finish up our study of Henrico County this week.  The students will begin creating an illustrated geography terms dictionary.  Then they will use lines of latitude and longitude to locate specific places.  There will be a quiz on geography terms on Tuesday, October 29th.  Next week we will make maps using map skills.

IMPORTANT DATES

10/21 – Picture Day

10/24 – Resources Quiz –This is a change!

10/28 –  Student half day

10/29 – Geography Terms Quiz

10/29 – Henricopolis Conservation Visits 5th Grade!

10/30 – Henricopolis Conservation Visits 5th Grade!

10/30 – Decimal Computation Test

10/31 – Mystery Book Report due

11/4 – Family/Teacher Conference

11/5 – Student Holiday