Book Report: Your book report for December must be a biography, memoir, or autobiography. The presentation will be Wednesday, December 21. For this book report you can select from one of my examples, or you can come up with your own idea. You need to provide a detailed account of the person’s life, have a visual, and give a presentation.
Here are a few examples:
Example #1:
Illustration of your person
5 character traits that relate to your person and evidence
Write a summary about your person's life
Do you think it was a good idea to write a biography about this person? Why or why not?
Example #2:
5 character traits that relate to your person and evidence
Example #3: Power Point
Photo Collage
Birth & Childhood
Education
Adulthood - Family and jobs they had before becoming famous
What made them famous
Interesting facts about your person
Later Years/Death
Math: In math we have started unit 5. The first lesson focused on solving parts and whole problems with fractions and finding a fraction of a whole. We have also worked on converting fractions from mixed numbers to improper fractions and converting them from improper fractions to mixed numbers. Last week we compared and ordered fractions and found equivalent fractions. The students also learned how to convert fractions to decimals and rounding decimals. This week, we will continue to work on converting fractions, to decimals and work on equivalent fractions. On Friday, we will construct, read, and label bar and circle graphs.
Writing: This week in writing we will finish our picture book mash up. The students take two different picture books and mash them up into a new story. When we finish the mash up books, we will begin a collaborative writing activity dealing with needs and wants using a variety of catalogs with a range of items costing between $20.00 and $60,000. We will begin with a pre-writing activity of what a want is and what a need is. Then I will use some online catalogs and have the kids generate a list of the items that I show into a needs or wants section. After the lessons on needs and wants, we are going to watch some old TV classic commercials and discuss how the companies are marketing their products. There will be a mini lesson on marketing and the different ways companies try to sell their products. After all the mini lessons are done, the students will be put into groups, and they will be given a sample of items cut out of a magazine or they can bring in their own items. Their group will pick one of the items to develop a marketing plan and advertise the item. They can select how they would like to present this item: TV ad, radio ad, billboard, print ads, a web page, or Prezi. The students need to think about who is your target and develop a marketing plan to reach the audience. These will be presented in class.
Science: Last week in science we focused on the atom. The students learned that an atom is made up of protons, neutrons, electrons, and a nucleus. They also learned about ions. We discussed the periodic table of elements, and the students learned how to read it. After learning about the periodic table of elements, the students drew atoms. They also learned the difference between an element and a molecule. We used the interactive periodic table of elements to learn more about each element. This week we will build a salt crystal using play-doh. Then on Wednesday, we will start learning about magnets. In the first lesson, students will observe three different rocks looking at their similarities and differences. In this lesson they will learn that there is a type of rock with magnetic qualities called lodestone. In the next lesson, students will learn how magnets got their name, and on Friday they will do an experiment to see if a one unit magnet or a two unit magnet will hold more paper clips.
Social Studies: We finished our social studies unit and will move on to science for the rest of the quarter.
Spelling Unit 12:
basketball seventy-five rock band everybody fireplace anything take-off skateboard
homework two-thirds high school railroad motorcycle vice president strawberry
freeway car pool comic strip fine arts forty-two breathtaking thunderstruck
runner-up half hour paper clip extracurricular cold-blooded headache
counterclockwise merry-go-round awestruck overexposure time-consuming nonetheless
spreadsheet treason boycott liberty militia assembly
HEALTHY SNACK LIST:
Due to life-threatening peanut/nuts/sesame allergies at every grade level and the fact that we change classes for math and flex groups, we are asking that no peanut/nut/sesame products be sent in for a nutritional snack. Also a list was sent home that stated the food items that will be allowed for snacks. The following items can be brought in: fruit, vegetable sticks, pretzels, cheese slices or cubes, raisins, cereal mix (i.e. Chex Mix), rice cakes, and crackers.
NEW READING INCENTIVE PROGRAM:
There is a new reading incentive program that Mrs. May is doing. To earn the prize, the fifth graders will need to read 400 minutes in a month. That is 20 minutes a night. Minutes will be checked on January 9.
Important Dates:
Spelling Test Wednesday, December 7
5th Grade Musical Wednesday, December 7 at 9:30 a.m. & 7:00 p.m.
Orchestra: Rehearsal at Hil 6:00 p.m. & Concert at 7:00 p.m.
