5B - Mrs. Volinski

5th grade has continued with our busy year.  We had our first field trip this year.  We went to United Skates of America where we participated in some STEM activities, like sorting a small bag of m&m’s by color and finding the range of skate sizes needed.  Then we spent the rest of the trip roller skating!

For math our focus has been on fractions.  We have spent much of the quarter practicing how to add and subtract fractions with different denominators…we need to find a common denominator first and we need to multiply the numerator and denominator by the same number before we can add or subtract.  We also learned how to solve “fraction of” problems.  As the quarter wrapped up, we have switched our focus to decimals.  We have focused on equivalent fractions and decimals (if we can write a number as a fraction, then we can write it as a decimal).

In science, we spent much of the quarter learning about ecosystems and biomes.  We discussed ideas of ecosystems in general before learning more details about the six major land biomes.  We explored the general characteristics, animals, and plants for each biome and created a rough sketch of a biome’s food web.

We have been studying topics related to the Lenten season.  We looked at the gift of strength, the anointing of the sick, confession and penance, and the commandments.  We had a penance service at the beginning of Lent, which was a chance for everyone to pray with one of the priests.  We finished the quarter by learning about religious life and vocations.

5th is currently working on reading, writing, and grammar skills.  All three of these components will help to prepare us for MAP tests in the spring.  We are practicing writing for longer periods of time with a given prompt.  We are enjoying this concept by writing about our favorite African American and presenting information to the class. 

Looking ahead, we are writing about Famous American Women that have helped to shape our history.  We look forward to learning about them when we present what we have learned.  In Reading, we are learning to infer information given to us in a reading passage and answering questions about those passages.

5th grade social studies has focused on connecting the past to the present.  One major topic was why people, products, and ideas move.  This topic looked at several key factors from push and pull factors to environmental economic factors.  We also focused on the cultural diversity found in the western hemisphere.

During Enrichment this quarter, we have continued to read articles on Achieve3000, watching the Newsdepth program that Ideastream/PBS broadcast each week, and beginning to work on Junk Bots.