Fifth Grade News

Thursday, October 3 - Systemwide Professional Development Day - Schools Closed for Students

Friday, October 18 - Schools Closed for Teachers and Students (MSEA Convention)

Friday, October 25 - Field Trip to Oregon Ridge (more information coming soon)

Thursday, October 31 - First Marking Period Ends - Schools Close 3 Hours Early

Friday, November 1 - Systemwide Professional Development Day - Schools Closed for Students

Tuesday, November 5 - Election Day - Schools Closed for Teachers and Students

Thursday, November 14 - Report Cards available on Focus

Tuesday, November 19 - Parent Teacher Conference Day - Schools Closed for Students

Wednesday, November 27 - Schools Close 3 Hours Early

Thursday, November 28 - Friday, November 29 - No School

Friday, December 20 - Schools Close 3 Hours Early

Monday, December 23 - Wednesday, January 1 - Winter Break - Schools Closed for Teachers and Students

Thursday, January 2 - Schools Reopen

Monday, January 20 - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day - Schools and Offices Closed

Friday, January 24 - Second Marking Period Ends - Schools Close 3 Hours Early

Wednesday, January 29 - Systemwide Professional Development Day - Schools Closed for Students

When notifying the school about a change in dismissal or early dismissal, please send an email to both fifth grade teachers as well as both of our office staff Barb Balestrini bbalestrini@bcps.org and Katherine Taylor ktaylor3@bcps.org on the morning of the change or early dismissal.

Student will take their Unit 1 Assessment on Wednesday, September 25th. Review assignment can be found in Schoology, in the Week 5 folder of Unit 1.

In this first unit, students use the study of volume to review and extend skills and concepts related to multiplication.

Big Ideas:

• Multiplication and division are inverse operations.
• Using different models and strategies for multiplication and division can lead to efficient computation.
• Understanding properties of operations promotes efficient computation.
• Relational thinking can be used to interpret and relate expressions using symbols and tables.
• Estimation serves as a tool for judging reasonableness of computations.
• Algebraic expressions and equations can be used to symbolically represent real life situations.
• Volume of rectangular prisms can be found by using a formula.

In this unit, students...

• Learn to understand and use the terms “ratio,” “rate,” “equivalent ratios,” “per,” “at this rate,” “constant speed,” “constant rate,” “unit rate,” “speed,” “pace,” “percent,” and “percentage.”
• They recognize when two ratios are or are not equivalent and that equivalent ratios have equal unit rates.
• They represent ratios as expressions, and represent equivalent ratios with double number line diagrams, tape diagrams, and tables.
• They represent percentages with tables, tape diagrams, and double number line diagrams, and as expressions.
• They use these terms and representations in reasoning about situations involving unit price, constant speed, measurement conversion, color mixtures, and recipes.

Hello, parents!

In Language Arts this week, students are editing and revising their Module 1 essays and submitting their final draft on Tuesday, officially wrapping up the module. Students have carefully researched their inventor and invention, took detailed and relevant notes and built their introduction, conclusion and body paragraphs. I've been incredibly impressed with what I've seen thus far!

This week, we'll also begin Module 2 titled "What a Story." In this module, students will listen to, read, and view a variety of texts and media that present them with different ways to tell a story. A genre focus on fiction provides students with opportunities to identify characters, setting, plot and conflict in order to better understand unfamiliar texts. Students will also encounter poetry, myth, and fantasy/adventure to build knowledge across genres. As students build their vocabulary and synthesize topic knowledge, they will learn that the elements of a great story can be found in literature of all genres.

In this unit students will learn about...

• Thirteen Original Colonies
  
• Colonial Crafts and Trades
  
• New England’s Economy
  
• Economy of the Middle Atlantic Colonies
  
• Colonial Gristmills
  
• Hidden Figures of African History
  
• Economy of the Southern Colonies
• Southern Plantation Life
  
• Linking Cash Crops to Slavery
  
• Trade with Britain in 1750
  
• Triangle Trade Routes

Unit 1 of the BCPS Science Curriculum is called "Blast Off!" and will have students working in teams to plan and conduct investigations developing a fuel for a rocket they will design. At the end of the unit, they will put their fuel to the test by using it to launch their own liquid-propelled rocket and measure its altitude. Finally, after reviewing the flight data, they will propose how to make their rocket fly even higher.

We will begin constructing our rocket in the coming week. To do this, we will need donations of empty 16.9oz soda bottles. Any help would be greatly appreciated!