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: Place Value and Operations

Activities: This month we worked on adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing numbers with decimals. Students ended the month starting their unit post-assessment which had a variety of place value and operation questions that decoded a secret message. These assessments were done in teams of two or three.

Teacher Tip or Reflection Questions:

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

Topics: Personal Narratives, Creative Writing, Constructive Feedback, Book Project Gallery Walk

Activities: During our narrative writing unit, students crafted two stories - one real and one imagined. For both the personal narrative and the creative writing assignments they planned, wrote and edited their work. I have been so impressed with the final product! You can see them by looking in their Google Classroom, but I will also be sending home paper copies soon.

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

Topics: Rubber Band Races, BaseBots, Drive Trains, Controllers, Force, Friction, CodeIQ, Tug of War Unit, Tractor Pull Exercise, Scientist Biographies

Activities: We finished up our Rubber Band Car competition and then the kids finally got to build their first BaseBots with the VEXIQ system. They were super excited and they did a fantastic job! They learned the basics of the CodeIQ window including how to set up a Drive Train, set up, pair and use a Controller. Then they learned to both read and create basic coding. We learned about force and friction and are currently engaging in a Tractor Pull competition which is teaching them a lot about how different tow angles and the direction of the force can make a huge difference in the bot’s tow capacity. Next month, we will learn about GearTrains and work towards a full on Tug of War competition. We’ve continued our short biographies of famous scientists series. Some we have covered so far include: Ada Lovelace, Otis Boykin, Alan Turing, Emmy Noether, & Charles Kuen Kao.

Teacher Tip: Baking with your kids this holiday season is a fantastic way to help them practice precision, following multistep directions, and building that endurance to stick with hard tasks that grant awesome rewards!

Teacher Info: Mrs. Clayton - aclayton@meridian.wednet.edu

Topics: Federalism, A 4th Branch of Government, Founding Fathers and Mothers

Activities: This month, students took several days to learn about the idea of federalism. We used the way our school is organized (Meridian School District, MP3, Classrooms) as a metaphor for understanding the levels of government (Federal, State and Local.) Students referenced venn diagrams to help them understand the different jobs that each level of government was responsible for and tried to build connections to their own experiences. Students were asked to distinguish between the roles and responsibilities of federal and state government as well as the responsibilities that are shared. In table groups, they played a game in which they were asked to sort 20 cards based on whether the scenario it described was the job of the Federal Gov, the State Gov or a shared responsibility. Throughout, we built several opportunities for asking questions, sharing understandings and testing our knowledge by completing sentence stems, fill in the blank questions and more.

Next, we took some time to explore whether We, The People, should be considered as a 4th Branch of Government. Students learned ours is a government of the people, by the people and for the people. At least that's how Abraham Lincoln described it. Through an excellent resource created by iCivics, students were able to compare the role of citizens in each branch of government by filling out a comparison table and compare the impact of citizens on the President, Congress, and the Supreme Court. In the end, we decided that "the people" may not be a 4th branch but the other branches wouldn't exist without the people.

Toward the end of month, we introduced a new unit that will help students get to know the Founding Fathers and Mothers of the United States. Learning about and celebrating some of the historical figures that helped to make our country great will be a focus for the next few weeks and I am excited to introduce them to some household names as well as some lesser-known American heroes.

Teacher Tip: Ask your student how they understand the role of the people as a 4th branch of government.

Teacher Info: Don't hesitate to contact me if you have a question.

Jeff Caraco, jcaraco@meridian.wednet.edu

Topics: Continued heart review

Activities: We continued with our study of the heart. Students created “heart art.” This art had to contain all the parts of the heart (labeled), as well as show the path that blood takes through the heart. We also spent time in centers reviewing the circulatory system, using a model to visually track the flow of blood through the heart, labeling a heart diagram, observing anatomically correct models of the heart, and identifying which parts of the heart contain oxygenated and deoxygenated blood. Students matched parts of the heart with appropriate definitions and location. We completed our study of the heart with a written test as well as observing a sheep heart. Students applied their knowledge of the parts and functions of the heart to identify the parts of the sheep heart.

Vocabulary: cell, oxygen, carbon dioxide, heart, blood, pulse, blood vessels, arteries, veins, capillaries, right atrium, left atrium, right ventricle, left ventricle, pulmonary artery, pulmonary veins, aorta, inferior and superior vena cava, and circulatory system

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