Weekly News
5/11-5/15
Both fifth and sixth grade mathematicians began exploring geometry topics before the Spring Trip. Fifth graders looked at classifying quadrilaterals based on their attributes. This week they focused on finding the area of rectangles, beginning with concrete models before moving to using side measurements and a formula. Finally we used this knowledge to find the area of composite figures made up of squares and rectangles. Next week we will focus on volume. To learn more about this topic, please check out the family math letter. Sixth grade mathematicians also worked on finding areas of shapes, including, triangles, trapezoids, parallelograms, and composite figures. Next week we will focus on finding surface area of three dimensional prisms and pyramids.
In Writing, we began our poetry workshop in the poetry unit by looking at a variety of samples and talking about the difference between poetry and prose. We then introduced our first theme of poetry as seeing the world in different ways. Galaxians then practiced responding to poetry by discussing several published poems together. Finally, Galaxy students had the chance to draft and revise several of their own poems.
In Reading class, we introduced the Poetry Journal. Throughout the poetry unit, Galaxians will be collecting favorite poems that they have copied and written, researching a poet, reflecting on poetry and assembling all this work in a journal that is due the last week of school. The homework each night is to spend at least 25 minutes working on their Poetry Journal.
In Integrated Studies last week, Galaxians began working on a Google Slides presentation about our Spring Trip. Each student wrote and revised a topic related to our trip and then created one to two slides using both text and pictures. It’s been a wonderful chance to reflect on our trip and we look forward to sharing the link with families when we’re all done! We ended the week by enjoying the Disney movie ‘Coco’ as a fun culmination to our Mexico unit.
Upcoming Events
Study Session: weekly on Wednesdays, 3:10-4 p.m.
Wednesday, March 25
End of Unit Mexico test
Friday, March 27
GrandFriends Day, RSVP here
Tuesday, March 31
STEM themed Unit celebration, 2:15pm
