Here is what we will be working on this week as we get going on the 2nd trimester.

Math - We will continue to work on operations with decimals.  Students are also practicing this skill on ST Math, and we are trying out another website called FrontRow Math to see how we like it. 

ELA - Students will be focusing on poetry this week.  We will discuss the themes of poetry and try writing our own!

Science (Martin) - The students will continue working on writing code to create a program that represents an ecosystem.  They have a predator and prey and will examine the effects of changing the amount of each species present.

Science (Ziegler) - We will work on creating an autonomous robot that is able to safely move three blocks out of a specified area in under 2 minutes.  The kids have learned that it's best to program small amounts at a time, and that it takes a lot of trial and error!

We were very lucky to have Aaron Murphy come in this afternoon as a guest speaker.  He spoke to all of the 5th grade classes about his job as Tester's Chief of Staff.  He had a great presentation about civics and even had some interesting facts to share (ask your kids about the candy drawer).  We learned a lot from him today!

Happy snowy Monday!  

This week in Science, the students are working on creating a program for their robot.  The students will have a goal and then create some code so their robot is autonomous (ask your kids what that word means :) )

In Math, we are moving on to decimals!  We are focusing on place value of decimals and comparing decimals.

In ELA the students are working on their narrative writing piece.  We wrote one together the last 3 weeks and went through the the writing process.  This week, they are given three prompts to choose from and will go through the whole process on their own!  The grade they earn on this will show up on their report card the first trimester.  Remember, they will have writing pieces each week, so we are just looking for improvement as the year progresses. 

Also, remember that this Friday is the Veteran's Day concert.  The students in general music will perform at 8:45 for parents and at 9:45 for student.  Please make sure that all of the permission slips are sent back by then!