What's been happening in our class?

Some highlights from the past week:

Language Arts

~For our word work lessons, students have been using our new Time for Kids magazines to make meaningful vocabulary connections and use our critical thinking with pertinent information to our lives. The students have been reading about how natural disasters have affected Japan, National Conferences about Bullying held at the White house and Civil War history.

-In Language Arts, the students have built on their knowledge of inventors and inventions from the past week and started to create their own inventions. Students have been brainstorming ways to tweak and refine an invention to improve the lives of others or to solve a problem. They will continue to build, conference, refine and challenge themselves this week and the week following the "School of the Wild" week. Then, they will write persuasive essays to defend the importance of their creation. I have seen the students motivate each other and themselves so well this week and it is incredible what students can do when they invest in a project that they find interesting. Please ask your child about their invention, what they are doing to challenge themselves, and what they are enjoying about the project!

~Science: We are wrapping up our Microworlds unit. Students have presented their projects and I will soon post a sideshow of the work that went into preparing for the presentations and the finished products as well. In one week, we will begin our "Mysterious Powders" unit.

~5th grade math: Students are working with fractions. Here are some important skills we are expecting them to learn and eventually master:

-Convert among fractions, decimals and percents
-Find common denominators
-Order and compare fractions
-Use an algorithm to subtract mixed numbers with like denominators
-Use an algorithm to multiply fractions with mixed numbers

Tonight, students did not have homework, but most nights they should continue to come home with a study link, or their math journal.

The chapter 8 test will be next week, either on Tuesday or Wednesday.

**Students were outstanding performers at the music performance this Thursday. Well done Hoover hawks!

NEXT WEEK: School of the Wild at McBride.

Students will relieve their group rotation schedule and journal on FRIDAY APRIL 8th.

They will keep these at school to use each day from April 11-15th.

Please read the informational packet that was sent home and if you have any other questions, please feel free to email me!

Go Hoover Hawks!

~Ms. Dobyns