Update

Fifth Grade pictures are this Friday, September 26. Students have received flyers with information on ordering. They should return these on Friday if you are interested in ordering pictures.

Homework
I have not assigned homework yet this year. With our new expectations for longer reading, writing, and math blocks, we have been getting a great deal of practice work in during our school day, and I haven't felt the need to send additional work home. I have been getting some questions about homework, so I will begin to assign some differentiated spelling/word study practice, as well as some math home connections. Please look for that by early next week.

Reading
We are finishing up "The First Twenty Days" of setting up Reading Workshop. We have done overview lessons on genre, elements of fiction, comprehension strategies, and how to write reading responses. We have also begun working in small groups during reader's workshop, with an emphasis on speaking and listening.

Writing
We are also well under way with our Writers' Workshop. Students are learning how to become self-directed writers. We did several lessons on generating ideas to support the three text types we will be continually working on: narrative, informative, and opinion writing. This week, we are doing lessons that will introduce the six traits of writing: ideas, organization, voice, sentence Fluency, word choice and conventions.

Math
Our first unit is on Place Value giving special attention to decimals to the thousandths place. Students have been working on reading and writing numbers in standard and expanded notation. This week we are multiplying and dividing by powers of ten learning about exponents.

Social Studies
Our first unit, "A New Nation" will look at how and why our country began and then will transition into a look at our system of government. Ask your students if they can recite the Preamble of the Constitution!

We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.