Dear 5S Community -

Greetings from Room 402! Please read on for classroom information and curriculum updates.

Classroom Information

Winter Celebration: We will be having a winter celebration on Wednesday, December 21 in the afternoon. Please see the Sign-Up Genius if you would like to contribute. Just a few slots are left. Thank you to those that have signed up already!

During the celebration, we will have a sock exchange - white elephant style. Students that would like to participate should bring in a pair of new socks, wrapped and labelled - boy/girl/neutral.

Upcoming Events:

12/20: Winter concert (2:30-3:00)

12/21: Winter Celebration

12/22-1/2: Winter break

1/3/2023: School resumes!

Curriculum Update

ELA: We have finished reading Esperanza Rising and students will be writing their assessment essay during the short week. The essay will involve evaluating and comparing how Esperanza responds to her challenges throughout the story.

Our next novel will be The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich, an authentic historical tale of a young Ojibwa girl living on an island off Lake Superior in the the 19th century. Students will be drawing historical parallels between the text’s plot and setting with actual events.

ELA WIN: As a fifth-grade team, we have decided to have differentiated reading groups 4 days a week. Students will go to their groups for targeted reading instruction during this time. These groups have been determined by assessments that were taken this year. As your child’s data changes, so will the student’s group assignment. The groups are flexible and will last 4-6 weeks.  We will be doing reading groups Monday-Thursday 10:20-10:55.

**Please make sure that your student is reading every day for 30 minutes.  Students should be finishing about one chapter book per week.**

Math: Students have taken and reviewed their results on the decimal’s mid-unit assessment. We will finish adding and subtracting decimals before the break and then pick up with adding fractions (Lesson 12) in January.

For specific information on each Lesson, please find the Family Letters on the 5S website here. As you will see, Unit 2 has nine lessons with 3-4 sessions in each lesson so we will be spending a considerable amount of time exploring, developing and refining decimals and fractions concepts.

Social Studies: Students learned about the interactions between the rich and poor colonists and then researched different jobs/trades in order to create employment advertisements.

Science: Students explored matter using the Project Lead the Way curriculum with Ms. Ellison.

SEL: This month's focus is on Empathy. One way to think about Empathy is “understanding and connecting with other people’s feelings.” Empathy is a practice that can help us grow strong relationships.  

As always, please do not hesitate to reach out as necessary.

In partnership,

Sarah Silver