Friday, May 4th

Happy Star Wars Day; may the 4th be with you!

Announcements and Reminders 

We are finally back to regular schedules and activities this coming week!!  Homework will resume on Monday.  In addition, there are quite a few events coming up, including some author visits to our great city, so please mark the following dates on your calendar:

• Thursday, May 10th - Field Trip to the National Museum of the American Indian
• Friday, May 11th - Spring Fling!
• Saturday, May 12th  1 PM Authors Mark Barnett and Jon Klassen will be at C Burr Artz Library (Great for younger siblings; although, we really enjoyed a couple of these picture books for morning meeting too!)
• Wednesday, May 16th, Volunteer Luncheon
• Wednesday, May 16th, 7 PM Author Jewell Parker Rhodes will be at C Burr Artz Library to promote her newest book Ghost Boys.  Several students in our class read her last book, Towers Falling.

Regarding our field trip on Thursday:  We will need to leave before school starts to make our first group's scheduled tour.  Buses will pull out at 8:30.  We will meet here between 8 and 8:15, and breakfast will be provided for those who need it.  Eat a hearty breakfast; lunch will be at 2 at East Potomac Park on the way home.  Other attractions that we can visit are the National Air and Space Museum and the Botanical Gardens.

Donations Needed:  We are in need of gently used books for our school-wide spring book give away.  Thanks!

Volunteer Opportunity:  SRES is looking for volunteers for Spring Fling and to serve on next year's executive board.  Our PTA provides so much for the students, school, and staff; please consider helping out.

Math 

Focus Standards:

• 5.G.A.2 - Represent real world and mathematical problems by graphing points in the first quadrant of the coordinate plane, and interpret coordinate values of points in the context of the situation.
• 5.G.B.3 - Understand that attributes belonging to a category of two-dimensional figures also belong to all subcategories of that category. For example, all rectangles have four right angles and squares are rectangles, so all squares have four right angles.
• 5.G.B.4 - Classify two-dimensional figures in a hierarchy based on properties.

This coming week we will wrap up Unit 8.  We will look at graphing growth over time using coordinate grids and review classifying shapes.  The unit test will be Friday, May 11.

Writing 

Focus Standard:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.5
With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach. 

We will continue using the skills we developed in narrative and informational writing to craft our memoirs.  Our lessons will also focus on sentence structure and how to punctuate the complex sentences we are using to add variety and interest to our pieces.

Reading 

Focus Standards:

• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.4  Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative language such as metaphors and similes.
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.5  Explain how a series of chapters, scenes, or stanzas fits together to provide the overall structure of a particular story, drama, or poem.
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.6  Describe how a narrator's or speaker's point of view influences how events are described.

We are focusing on chapters 11- 15 this week in our class novel, Blood on the River.  Students are studying the author's craft as we focus on the standards mentioned above.  We worked on the responses for chapters 1-4 together in Google Classroom; on Monday the students will respond to chapters 5-10 for a reading grade.

Social Studies

Our simulation is coming along very well.  I hope your student has been talking to you about it.  This activity helps students gain the understanding of how the early colonists lived as well as their impact on the neighboring native tribes.  We will be coming to the end of the activity in the next couple of weeks.  It has been a truly enriching experience.