Rocket News – Our 5th grade family is having a wonderful adventure together. It is so enjoyable to see the relationships flourish between students. Watching them grow and mature as the year progresses is truly rewarding for us teachers. We are so proud of how they are learning to reflect more upon their learning, set realistic goals, persevere with learning targets, and display a growth mindset.
We are tackling our learning targets in our classes with great attitudes. Math class challenges us with decimals and place value concepts. Soon we will face multiplying and dividing whole numbers and decimals. Our new program, Bridges, has helped our kids expand their number sense. Reading class presents us with many strategies and skills to help us become engaged readers. We have been working on determining relevant information within a text and summarizing. We encourage the kids to log into Compass Math and Compass Reading from home to help further skill development.
This online resource places the students in personalized learning paths derived from results of our MAP scores. In language class, we are learning how to completely and clearly answer questions using a strategy called the RACE method. We are also working on sharing and supporting our opinions with writing.
Science has been fun learning about ecosystems, mold, and decomposers. It was also very challenging using balloons and scales to determine whether or not air has mass. We also can’t forget about the time spent on the early explorers and the Revolutionary War in Social Studies.
The past month has been quite busy as we prepared for the annual mock Iditarod at the Spencer School Forest. We enjoyed the novel titled Woodsong by Gary Paulsen. It was an awesome way to learn about the Iditarod. We have been using online resources to study the race. On Thursday, January 31 we will hit the trail and run a mock race at the forest. We cannot run this event without parental support and are so thankful for how our parents step up each year to make this a reality. Your willingness to always help out is so much appreciated! Let’s hope Mother Nature cooperates and provides us with some snow to make our race more enjoyable!
We must share with you how very impressive the 5th graders were with leading the November Food Drive. We enjoyed a shopping trip to Great Lakes Fresh Market and pooled our donated money together to shop for the food pantry. The kids did an amazing job representing our school out in the community and learned the importance of helping others out. They helped the younger kids with sorting their food items, and then packed it all up for transport. They did a super job. This group of children shows great concern for others and it is evident in the classroom, on the playground, and out in our community.
We truly look forward to the second semester of the year and our future endeavors. Check out our Spencer Elementary Fifth Grade Facebook page and like us.
www.facebook.com/spencerfifthgrade
