Hello parents! 

As another component of our "Leader in Me" initiative here at Concord, the 5th grade teachers would like to give the opportunity for students to lead their conferences. 

We are proposing that your student lead the first 5-7 minutes of your conference time where they will report to you their achievements and progress so far this year. For the rest of your conference time, your student will be dismissed to the hallway, so you may have the opportunity to voice any questions or concerns.

We really feel this is a fantastic way for your child to take ownership of their learning and prepare them for student-led conferences that are being held at the middle schools. Please let me know if you have any questions or if your child will be unable to attend. Thanks! 

Please be on the lookout later this week, for a letter reminding you of your conference time or a letter to sign up for a conference time. Conference dates are October 24th and 26th. 

Here is what is happening this week in room 34... 

Science:  We started new science stations with a focus on the ocean is a major reservoir in the Earth's water cycle. Students are engaged in science stations as they learn the material through technology (online textbook and mycapstonelibrary.com), guided reading lessons with the teacher, and other hands-on projects. By the end of each cycle, students are expected to show their learning and understanding of the material with a lesson quiz.

Writing:    We will wrap up our narrative unit with an on-demand assessment and will begin to research for our first historical research report! Our focus will be on an event relating to the American Revolution.  Later in the unit, our second research report will be on a historical event of students' choice.

Reading:  We are beginning a new unit on text complexity, looking at nonfiction.  We will begin a new read a loud, titled Chains, by Laurie Halse Anderson. Chains is the first novel in the Seeds of America trilogy, a series of historical novel that follows the story of thirteen-year-old Isabel, an African-American slave fighting for her and her younger sister's freedom while the Revolutionary War is occurring.  We will continue to delve into literary analysis, and applying all of our interpretive thinking into our book club discussions and guided reading lessons with the teacher.  We are wrapping up our second literature book club and  we will celebrate our amazing book club work at the end of the week!

Math: We are continuing our unit on division as we show our complete understanding of the process through models, distributive property, partial quotients, and the standard long division algorithm. 

***It is SO IMPORTANT that students know their basic multiplication and division math facts! It is becoming increasingly difficult for those students who do not know their facts to complete the higher level thinking and problem solving that 5th graders are expected to do. Thank you for taking the extra steps to make sure your 5th grader is working towards mastery of these facts!  Math Magician is a great website to practice math facts. Students can also work on their QuickTables in ALEKS.

Social Studies:  We are focusing on a various native american cultures from early settlements-  peoples of the Northwest, Southwest, Plains, and East.  We will wrap  up our work with Native Americans with  a student choice project. Students will choose a tribe and a way of presenting their knowledge (Google slides, create a Kahoot, prezi, video, etc.) We will begin presentations on Friday!