5th Grade MP3 Campus

School Data is open on the 1st for parent reviews. These are due by the 5th. We hope the cut and paste grade level newsletter will be helpful to supplement your remote learning plan reviews. Thank you for submitting in a timely manner and if you need help, please reach out to your SLPC.

Topics: Numerical Expressions

Activities: For September, students completed their iReady diagnostic assessment for Fall, and we started our first unit. For our numerical expressions unit, we are practicing how to speak, listen to, read, and write math so that we can visualize what others are saying, we can read a word problem and write out the expression to solve, and we can speak to others accurately so that they can follow the problem we are talking about. Students have been discussing synonyms for the 4 operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Our first goal was to be able to listen to a numerical expression and accurately write that expression using numbers and operational symbols. For example, if I were to say, "Three less than five," students would write 5 - 3 on a white board. Our next goal is to be able to read aloud numerical expressions so that a peer can write that expression accurately to match what we a reading.

Teacher Tip or Reflection Questions: Read a problem out loud for your student to write down. Have your student read a problem from their text out loud and see if you can write it down to match the text.

Teacher Info: Mrs. Alexander, halexander@meridian.wednet.edu

Topics: About Me, Dear Mrs. Oscarson, Acrostic Poetry, Fall Haiku Poetry, Ten Things I Did NOT Do This Summer, iReady Testing

Activities: Writing classes are off to a great start at MP3! We spent our first day talking about classroom routines - emphasizing our overarching goals for the year to BE BRAVE and BE KIND. We dove right into our first writing project called About Me. This provided an opportunity for students to write about themselves and learn about the people they share tables with. Then to practice our letter-writing skills, we replied to an introductory letter from Mrs. Oscarson. Next, we created acrostic poem banners with our names as the anchor word to describe ourselves and brighten the room. An important part of narrative writing is brainstorming ideas so we practiced by making a list of ‘Ten Things I Did NOT Do This Summer’. The results were very funny and students were eager to share with one another. Haiku poetry that focuses on autumn was a fun way to practice using descriptive writing and following a poem pattern. Students drafted 2-3 examples in their notebooks and then picked their favorite to share on the poetry wall. Two days were spent on the iReady diagnostic test. Students worked hard and now their iReady lessons contain personalized instruction that focuses on the specific skills they need to learn. Adding these lessons to your at-home practice can be a great way for students to concentrate on particular areas of need.

I am thrilled to partner with you in your child’s learning. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions!

Teacher info: Mrs. Oscarson, roscarson@meridian.wednet.edu

Topics: Classroom Agreement, Expectations in the art room, Art Discussions, Elements of Art: Color, Value, Line, Shape, & Texture; Principles of Design: Movement & Pattern; Techniques: Chalk pastels

Activities: This first month of art class has been a busy one! We began the year by touring the art room and discussing what we want our classroom to look, sound, and feel like. Students helped create specific definitions for the Meridian Mindsets—Caring, Open-Minded, Trustworthy, and Courageous—and agreed to follow these guidelines. Each student then added their name to our bulletin board, creating the message: “We shine brighter together!” (See the picture below!) Every Monday, during Masterpiece Monday, we examine a piece of art and discuss it together. Students share what they notice, consider what the artwork might mean, ask questions, and reflect on how they connect with it. Our first featured artist was Dan Tavis. After discussing one of his illustrations, we read Fluffy McWhiskers: Cuteness Explosion, a story about a character who struggles to make friends. Students explored the different emotions Fluffy expressed throughout the story before creating their own Fluffy McWhiskers with chalk pastels. Our wall is now a true “cuteness explosion,” covered with colorful Fluffys!

Teacher Tip: Ask your student to tell you about their experience with chalk pastels and what their Fluffy’s expression was showing.

Teacher Info: Mrs. Warnock, swarnock@meridian.wednet.edu

Topics: Westward Expansion, Manifest Destiny and the Nation's Growing Pains

Activities: Our first month of learning is in the books! Our 5th graders have been doing an excellent job learning about some challenging topics in US History. We began by examining some ideas that were familiar, like westward expansion and a term that was new for most students, Manifest Destiny. To build our understanding of this important idea, we have relied on some .ppt presentations and some super fun discussions. As we learned about America expanding into new territories, we discussed how that growth led to new challenges. Students reflected on how America's growth impacted different groups, including

-Many Native Tribes

-Our neighbors to the south, Mexico, with whom we fought to acquire new land

-Enslaved people

The impact on this final group is where we have spent most of our time. We learned about three compromises our government struck as they decided what to do about a very tricky question; Would slavery be allowed in the new states and territories that were becoming parts of the USA. These compromises included:

1. The Missouri Compromise

2. The Compromise of 1850

3. The Kansas-Nebraska Act

Most recently, we began to think about the country in the years building up to the Civil War from a few different points of view. Students will be working in table groups to learn about the perspective of a particular group, students were asked to focus on daily life, the power that group had in society and the important political issues they faced.

Students have done a super job reading and listening but I have been especially impressed by everyone's willingness to tackle the tough work of notetaking. Nice job!

Teacher Tip: Topics and work we do are shared in Google Classroom. Feel free to ask your student for a peek at what we have done so far.

Teacher Info: Let me know if you have any questions!

Mr. Caraco, jcaraco@meridian.wednet.edu

Topics: Our learning objectives for this month were the following: *Discover that a mixture is a combination of two or more materials that retain their own properties.

*A solution is a mixture in which one material seems to disappear in another.

*A crystal is the solid phase of a material that forms in an identifiable shaper or pattern.

*When a solid dissolves in a liquid, the solid seems to disappear but can be observed again once the liquid evaporates.

*Evaporation can separate a liquid from a solid in a solution.

*liquids evaporate (they change into gas and disperse into the air).

Activities: Students made mixtures and solutions with different solid materials and water. They separated mixtures and solutions using screens, filters, and evaporation. They measured solids and liquids. Students compared the mass of a mixture to the mass of its parts. Students discovered that when they added salt to a solution it appeared to disappear, but through evaporation were able to see the salt again. They were also able to observe that once the salt molecule had been separated by water it reformed in a crystal or lattice formation which they were able to observe with their eyes and under a microscope.

Vocabulary: property, mixture, solution, and dissolving.

Teacher Info: Mrs. DeWaard, hdewaard@meridian.wednet.edu