Grade 5 Newsletter
What’s happening in fifth grade this month?
Reading:
Literature – Comparing characters, settings, and events; explaining the plot structure and the point of view; continuing to identify the theme of the story and supporting it with evidence from the text. Students will study the genre of mysteries and suspense. Students will be able to explain how the events in a text can fit together to create mystery and suspense.
Informational Text –Identifying the main idea and key details in an informational text. Identifying what each author wants the reader to know. How the text structure (ex.- chronological, problem and solution) of a passage helps to make its purpose clear. Students will be focusing on the text structure of cause and effect.
Language/Vocabulary – Understanding and accurately using content-specific vocabulary; studying figurative language: similes and metaphors, and using resources to increase student understanding of synonyms and antonyms.
Writing:
Student will complete the two writing projects that they began before the Winter Break. In narrative writing they are creating their own story that includes the key elements of a plot (characters, setting, problem and solution, and logical sequence). For informational writing they are creating an infographic to communicate in words and pictures what they learned about an important world figure. Our final writing project, opinion, will focus on the topic of year-round schooling.
Use of LanguageWe are continuing to emphasize the importance of carefully checking written work for the accurate use of capitalization, punctuation, and spelling (especially words that are found in the text/question). Students will be able to demonstrate their understanding of verb tenses.
Math:
Number and Operations in Base Ten –Students are completing their work on multi-digit division strategies to successfully solve problems involving up to four-digit dividends and two-digit divisors, both with and without remainders.
Number and Operations – Fractions – Students areapplying their knowledge of equivalent fractions (1/2 = 2/4)to compare and order fractions and to add and subtract fractions with like and unlike denominators. Students will begin working on multiplying fractions by a whole number.
Math5/6:
Students will develop a deeper understanding of dividing fractions. Students will review division of fractions using models and progress to understanding the standard algorithm when dividing fractions. Students will revisit division and develop a deeper understanding of the standard algorithm in division. Students will revisit multi-digit decimals and be able to solveproblems using mathematical operations.
Science:
Wave Properties: During this unit students will be:
learning how digitized information can be transferred over long distances using waves.
describing wave patterns in terms of amplitude and wavelength.
developing a model to describe how we depend on light reflection to see objects.
using their knowledge of waves and their properties to design a system to communicate over a distance.
brainstorming ideas for a payload for a CubeSat and define a specific mission based on NASA’s mission ideas.
investigating Earth’s gravitation force on objects and create a model to explain how satellites stay in orbit.
Social Studies:
Students have completed their study of some of the key battlesthat led to American victory in the American Revolution. They are currently studying the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution.
Shakespeare Workshop:
5th Grade students will be again participating in a Shakespeare Workshop that is offered at Woodlin. Students were a part of the program last year where they studied Shakespeare’s play The Tempest” with a version called “Tiny Tempest”. This year students will study Shakespeare’s play “Mid-Summer’s Night Dream”.
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Sligo Middle School community –
This communication is to explain a curricular shift in the grade 6 social studies course that will begin in the fall of 2018 for next school year.
Montgomery County Public Schools will implement a new grade 6 social studies course beginning in the 2018-2019 school year for all grade 6 students. The new course, Historical Inquiry in World Studies 6, will be taught from an advanced level of instruction. As a result, Sligo Middle School will no longer offer an “advanced” versus “on-level” grade 6 World Studies course for students. Beginning next school year, all students will be scheduled into this new advanced-level Historical Inquiry in World Studies 6. All Students matriculating to the MCPS high schools will then have this new advanced class code reflected on their individual report cards to help with proper placement in high school courses. As you may recall, a similar shift occurred within the MCPS middle school science curriculum two years ago.
We, at Sligo MS are encouraged by this curricular shift, as our students continue to show amazing academic performance both in the elementary level and here at the middle school level. Our performance data is rapidly approaching the top ranks of middle schools within MCPS. Our current grade 6 students had some of the highest elementary transition scores within the new MCPS Evidence of Learning data. We are so excited about where our Sligo MS students can go in the future!
To give you more of a perspective into the new Historical Inquiry in World Studies 6 course, please see the following course descriptor from MCPS:“Students in Historical Inquiry in World Studies 6 will learn about the rich cultures and history from the earliest human settlements of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, and China to great civilizations of the year 1000 CE. Students will be challenged to analyze archeological evidence, ask questions to further their knowledge, and understand history as an ongoing investigation. Students are introduced to historical thinking skills including sourcing, close reading, corroboration, and research as they analyze primary and secondary documents. This course will lay a foundation for students to understand key principles of cultural, political, economic and geographic systems both in the past and today.”
Sligo Middle School will continue to share our curricular information with the current grade 5 families throughout this school year. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact Sligo MS at 301-287-8890.
Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks in advance .
Sincerely,
Cary Dimmick, Principal
1401 Dennis Avenue; Silver Spring, MD 20902
Ph: 301-287-8890 Fax: 301-649-8145
“Look for something positive in each day, even if some days you have to look alittle harder.” - Anonymous
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