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.

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.

Students will take their End of Unit Assessment (EUA) for Unit 1 on Tuesday, September 17th.

In this unit, students learn to find areas of polygons by decomposing, rearranging, and composing shapes. They learn to understand and use the terms “base” and “height,” and find areas of parallelograms and triangles. Students approximate areas of non-polygonal regions by polygonal regions. They represent polyhedra with nets and find their surface areas.

Big Ideas:

• Multiple strategies (decomposing, composing, rearranging, and enclosing, using nets, etc.) can be used to find the area and surface area of a polygon.

• There is a relationship between the area of triangles and the area of parallelograms.

• Formulas can be derived and justified when finding area and surface area.

Hello, parents!

This week, we'll be wrapping up Module 1 in Language Arts, centered around inventors and their inventions. As a reminder, even numbered modules will culminate in a computer-based assessment that will present them with multiple texts and check for comprehension. Odd numbered modules (such as this) will culminate in a writing project. This module's writing project will be an expository essay on an inventor of their choice, detailing in its body paragraphs (1) background information, (2) the steps they took to invent, and (3) how their invention changed the world for the better. At this point in the module, students have selected their inventor and are in the process of researching using the suite of tools provided by BCPS Digital Content. We will then form the introduction, body paragraphs and conclusion from our research. Lastly, we'll revise, edit and publish our final product. I can't wait to see what your kiddos can do!

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.

During our first week, we'll put a heavy focus into learning how to construct a proper scientific response to questions we'll encounter throughout the Unit (using the CER Method - Claim, Evidence, Response), as well as learning the proper safety precautions necessary to make experimentation successful and fun for all. We're in for a really fun unit!