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: Finding common denominators, adding fractions with unlike denominators, subtracting fractions with unlike denominators.

Activities This month, a majority of our time has been spent adding and subtracting fractions along with finding common denominators. Students have completed activities in both Desmos and Khan related to mastering the processes and procedures necessary to add and subtract fractions. Students have learned to analyze fraction pairs and to then find common denominators, then convert the initial fraction into an equivalent fraction, and then perform the necessary addition or subtraction. Specifically, in the Desmos activity Adding and Subtracting fractions, students communicated their understanding of the rules of adding and subtracting fractions and then explored how to address fraction pairs that didn’t have common denominators.

Teacher Tip: Have your student log into their Khan academy account and show you what they have been working on during class!

Teacher Info: Mr. Garlatz, tgarlatz@meridian.wednet.edu

Topics: Constructed responses, nonfiction, narrative writing, poetry.

Activities: This month, we have focused on providing constructed responses to writing prompts. Students have practiced reading nonfiction articles and answering questions using text evidence to justify their answers. We have stressed the importance of restating the question in an answer to a writing prompt. In addition, students presented their first book projects, completed their narrative writing projects and shared them in class, created "black out" poems, practiced editing, and completed daily journal writes. We have just started exploring our upcoming readers' theater project.

Teacher Tip: We'll have another book project presentation day in March. Instructions are up on Google Classroom.

Teacher info: Ms. Keegan, akeegan@meridian.wednet.edu

Topics: Key battles, Emancipation Proclamation, Main Idea and Supporting Details.

Activities: We have continued our hard work learning about the Civil War this month with a focus on reading comprehension. Specifically, we are working on finding the main ideas and supporting details of informational texts. Students have been provided with graphic organizers, sentence starters and other tools and strategies to help them unravel reading passages. After learning about the early Battles of the war at Fort Sumter and Bull Run last month, we took a look at a couple more significant battles this month. Students read about America’s deadliest day at Antietam and the turning point of the war at Gettysburg. For each battle, students learned about the leaders and the outcomes. We also identified a main idea (or two) and organized the supporting details. We read about the Northern and Southern Generals and students were able to describe their strengths and limitations. Confederate General Robert E. Lee was recognized as our country’s greatest while Union General George McClellan was best remembered for how he frustrated President Lincoln. Students also read about President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. We had rich discussions about how the Proclamation changed the purpose of the war and why Lincoln chose to only free the slaves in the “rebellious states.” This required students to do some investigating and read more deeply into Lincoln’s intentions. Students were able to demonstrate understanding and reading comprehension to their ReadWorks passages with paired questions and assessments designed on formative.

Teacher Tip: Continue working on those reading comprehension skills at home. Learning to identify a main idea and supporting details in an informational text takes practice.

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

Mr. Caraco, jcaraco@meridian.wednet.edu

Topics: Keyboarding, Google Slides, Internet Research, Google Sheets

Activities: As most of the class was still struggling with internet research and creating Google Slide presentations, the first two weeks of this month were spent fixing October's project. As a class we talked about plagiarism and the importance of understanding information before using it in a project. The students were challenged to be able to discuss the relevance of each piece of information they used for slides. Many students have still not finished the project and we may circle back in January.

The second part of the month was spent reviewing Google Sheets and skills they learned last year. Currently the students are gathering data to create a new type of candy. They will work to create bar and pie graphs to present their work.

Reflection Questions: When using information from the internet for a project, why is it important to be able to explain the significance?

Teacher Info: Mrs. Montgomery, rmontgomery@meridian.wednet.edu

This month Art could be added to your Social Studies class.

Topics: Elements of Art: Form, Shape, Space, & Texture; Principles of Design: Emphasis & Pattern; Techniques: bead weaving, 3D form

Activities: Students listened to the poem, In Flander’s Field, and created three-dimensional poppy flowers to mark Veterans Day. They used overlapping organic-shaped petals to build the poppy’s form and nestled it in the foreground of a field full of poppies. Next, in honor of Native American Heritage Month, we learned about Wampum Belts of the Iroquois. The beads were made by hand from shells and woven together to make belts used for ceremonial purposes or to mark agreements between people. Students learned new vocabulary including loom, warp, and weft as well as how to weave with beads on their looms. They created a pattern to follow and fully enjoyed the process of bead weaving!

Reflection Questions: Bead weaving is an easy project to recreate at home! If your student would like to continue making these Wampum-inspired belts at home, please email me and I’ll share the materials list and how-to!

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