Friday, February 16th

Announcements and Reminders 

• 2/19  School Closed for President's Day
• 2/20  Registration Cards Due for TJMS
• 3/2    Classroom Visit from a National Geographic Explorer!
• 3/2    2 Hour Early Dismissal

Thank you for the wonderful donations for our Valentine's Day Party!  I really appreciate the parents who came in to help things run smoothly.   The kids had an enjoyable afternoon snacking, exchanging cards, and chatting.

Grading Change:  In an effort to increase responsibility and prepare for middle school, Math homework will be collected on Friday and will be worth 10 points.  Late work will go down 2 points per day.  The lowest score for worked turned in will be 5 points.

Reason to celebrate:  Both our Quarter 2 Math Assessment and our Unit 6 Math Assessment averages were above the district average!!!

Math 

Focus Standards:

• 5.NF.B.3- Interpret a fraction as division of the numerator by the denominator (a/b = a ÷ b). Solve word problems involving division of whole numbers leading to answer in the form of fractions or mixed numbers, e.g., by using visual fraction models or equations to represent the problem. For example, interpret 3/4 as the result of dividing 3 by 4, noting that 3/4 multiplied by 4 equals 4, and that when 3 wholes are shared equally among 4 people each person has a share of size 3/4. If 9 people want to share a 50-pound sack of rice equally by weight, how many pounds of rice should each person get? Between what two whole numbers does your answer lie?
• 5.NF.B.4a - Interpret the product (a/b) x q as a parts of a partition of q into b equal parts; equivalently, as the result of a sequence of operations a x q / b. (In general, (a/b) x (c/d) = ac/bd)

Explanation of 5.NF.B.3 and Sample Problems

Multiplying a Fraction by a Fraction

Writing 

We are writing opinion pieces about celebrating Columbus Day.  So far we have researched to understand both sides of this debate.  We will be evaluating our research this week and determining our own opinion.  We will learn how to introduce that opinion and lay out our argument for our feelings to explain how we came to our conclusion about the issue.

Reading 

We will continue to focus on comparing texts to discuss similar themes, messages, and/or author techniques.  We will also work on expressing our opinion about these similarities and differences in short responses.

Social Studies/Science

All hail science!!  This week we will begin our Chemistry Unit.  As part of the unit students will be learning the difference between physical and chemical changes and how mass is affected when substances interact.