Dear 5B families, It has been a busy week! I feel as if I can feel the end descending upon us, and I'm trying to squeeze in the last bit of learning that we can! Next week is our last full normal week before the end of the school year. Wow, has this year gone by quickly! Below is a bit more information on what we've been up to recently, but first a couple of announcements: -Blue & Gray Day was postponed until Friday, May 25. Parents are invited to watch the last event that will happen on the field around 2:15, followed by an optional early dismissal at 2:30. If parents choose to dismiss their student at 2:30, please check in with their teacher (on the field) before leaving. Parents who are unable to attend may pick their student up at the regular dismissal time. -You will find field trip photos on the photos page, along with most of the Outside the Classroom photos! I still need to upload some photos from the last group on Giants Ladder. -We have an afternoon field trip to Buzzards Bay on Tuesday, May 29. Teaching We had several students teach us how to do something recently! Charlotte taught us how to draw a flower. Ben taught us how to make an aerodynamic paper airplane. Then we all went outside to fly them! Kadian taught us how to draw a tent, just like the ones we took camping! Wilson taught us about throwing footballs. Multiplying and Dividing with Decimals This week fifth graders learned how to multiply and divide decimals. I love teaching this unit every year, because in the beginning of fifth grade, students are very intimidated by multiplication and division problems with decimals if they happen to come across them. When they learn that it's actually not so tricky, it's like a door into harder math opens for them as they accomplish a task they thought was so hard not so long ago. They wrote the steps into their Interactive Student Notebooks and I reminded them that these notebooks can go with them to sixth grade as reference tools for when they review the same topics in sixth grade math. They agreed that was a good idea! Portfolio Showcase On Wednesday we welcomed families into the fifth grade rooms for our Portfolio Showcase, where students presented in small groups on such topics as Home of the Brave, independent study projects, signposts, renewable energy, lattice multiplication, 50/50 Day, and so much more! Here are a few photos from the event. There are many more on the photos page! Journey to Topaz Through our reading of Journey to Topaz, quotes from those interned, and looking at photographs from the time period, the students have noticed that some of the ways the Japanese were treated during WWII was either meant to or had the effect of stripping them of their humanity. They helped make a chart with some examples. I can tell that they are starting to get more interested in the book and angry about how American citizens were treated without any evidence. I hope this passion continues with them throughout their lives and helps them speak out against injustice when they encounter it. Here is a link to some striking Dorothea Lange photographs and quotes from Japanese Americans who were interned. Until next week!
Cheers, Rebecca Comments are closed.
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