Classroom Update August 10th, 2018

Happy Friday Everyone!

This is just a short update on our Grade Five experience here at Lincoln School:

In math, we have dusted off our multiplication skills and jumped into our first unit on area and volume. It even includes finding the area of rectangles with fractional sides (EEK!) Later in the day we logged into Scootpad for the first time this year and began a knowledge check-in. The use of Scootpad is highly encouraged at home and is geared towards the current unit or customized to fill in gaps in a student’s knowledge.

In science, we had our first look at the scientific process as well as how to use crosscutting concepts to ask better questions and drive our investigations. Our first challenge was to build the tallest structures we could using only tape and paper. Next, we engineered boats made only out of tin foil and tested their ability to hold a load. Check out the videos on our classroom news page.

Writing has already become a big part of our day in grade five. We started the year with a personal narrative free write where students shared their stories about horrible boat rides, amazing water parks, and of course, Fortnite. We have spent time generating idea lists for our next personal narrative and will begin exploring techniques for raising the level of our writing.

We visited the library for the first time today! Students are allowed to check out five books at a time and learned from our librarian, Mrs. Rinker, about taking care of our books. In class, we are reading “Home of the Brave” by Katherine Applegate. The story of an immigrant to America plays well because it is written as a personal narrative and ties into our first social studies unit on migration, which will start several weeks from now.

What a great first week! Be sure to check out all our posts on the website to stay up-to-date on the happenings here in grade five!

Mr. Curtis