5th Grade Newsletter

Our Medieval Times Field Trip is on November 19th.

Please send in permission slips and money by November 6th.

Students will need picked up from WES at 3:45.

Building Systems & Relationships

📜We will learn how the U.S. government was created and why its power must be kept in check. Students will look at real historical documents to see how early American leaders worked through big disagreements after breaking away from Great Britain. They will learn about key moments like the Constitutional Convention, the Great Compromise, and the Three-Fifths Compromise, helping them understand how these decisions shaped our country, who was granted citizenship, and how early choices still affect people's rights today.

📜Students will also explore how our government operates day-to-day and how it protects everyday citizens. They will learn how power is shared between the national government, state governments (like Maryland's), and local towns, ensuring no single leader or group gets total control. Finally, students will study the Bill of Rights—the first ten amendments to the Constitution—to learn about the basic freedoms guaranteed to all Americans and what it means to be a responsible, active member of our community today.

In October we will be starting Unit 2: Ancient American Civilizations. The Big Idea of this unit is that large complex civilizations, including those of the Maya, Aztec, and Inca, developed in the Americas before the arrival of Europeans. This unit orients students to the geography, climate, flora, and fauna of the Americas. It also presents an overall history and timeline highlighting the rise and fall of the Maya, Aztec, and Inca civilizations. In addition, the unit describes innovations and discoveries of the Maya, Aztec, and Inca and features myths from these ancient civilizations. Students will create a Codex project encompassing their learning about each civilization!

🔺🔺🔺Please continue to encourage your child to READ everyday for at least 20 minutes and track their reading in their monthly reading calendar🔺🔺🔺

We will continue working on Unit 2 and fractions in October. Our focus will be on multiplying and dividing fractions and whole numbers. We will use lots of models to help fifth graders understand this important concept. We should finish Unit 2 around the end of October and then begin Unit 3 in which we will continue to work with multiplying fractions. Students will take the Math Interim in the beginning of November.

Please check ParentVue on a regular basis to see how your child is progressing in math. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Your child should complete their homework packets every week. Homework is a review of the skills covered in class. Students earn extra recess and Willie Bucks for completed homework. Homework is not graded.

Have fun with math in October!

🧮Students will bring home weekly math homework.

🧮Please encourage your child to complete their homework to practice the skills learned in class as well as a review of fourth grade skills that we need to for fifth grade.

🧮Students will receive Willie Bucks for homework completion. Please make sure to sign the homework planner each night. This is a great way for parents, teachers and students to communicate.

What We’re Learning in October

This month, we’re diving into Module 1: Earth Systems! Students will explore how Earth’s four major systems—the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere—interact with and shape one another. We will also investigate where water is found on Earth, graphing the surprisingly small percentage of fresh water available in various reservoirs.

To guide our learning, we will be using the ADI (Argument-Driven Inquiry) approach. Students will work like real scientists by making a claim, collecting hands-on data and evidence, and writing a solid justification of their findings!

This month we will be starting our poetry unit! This unit teaches students tools and strategies for approaching poetry, training them in the methods and devices poets use, and equipping them to read and interpret both formal and free verse poems. It gives them continual opportunities to create poems themselves, allowing them to practice what they have learned. The poems in this unit are drawn from various literary traditions over the last several centuries. The poems themselves are similarly diverse; some employ precise meter and rhyme schemes, while others use free verse and experimentation. Throughout the unit, students practice close reading and writing. They learn about many of the formal elements of poetry as they identify those elements arising organically from the text. They also pair that work with writing poetry themselves.

Our 5th Grade Exhibition of Learning is Thursday, November 5th! Please come out to celebrate your students hard work!

At the beginning of November, 5th grade students will discover what it means to multiply and divide fractions and whole numbers. They will use lots of models to show the meaning of multiplying and dividing fractions and whole numbers. From there, students will spend time problem solving with fractions. After Thanksgiving, we will continue with Unit 3 and multiplying and dividing fractions. Students should continue practicing math facts daily. Math fact fluency and strategies for math facts will greatly increase your child’s success in math. Math homework will continue to be sent home weekly. This gives your child a chance to practice facts and skills at home. Students must return the homework (by Friday) for Willie bucks. We are looking forward to a great November with fractions!

In SCIENCE, students are finishing up the unit dealing with the 4 Earth systems: atmosphere, biosphere, geosphere and hydrosphere.

Social Studies: We will start Social Studies at the beginning of next marking period, Nov 6th. We will be looking at the perspectives of the North and South on the topics of the Civil War and slavery. We will also learn about Maryland's status of a border state during the 1800’s and the conflict it brought. We will learn about the Underground Railroad and the significance it held for slaves during the 1800’s.