Week ending September 11, 2009

HUMANITIES:

This week, the students handed in their state brochures. I’m pleased to report that they looked great. Students worked really hard on the presentation and the content. This was their first taste of working independently on a fifth grade project, and they passed with flying colors. Brochures will be available for parents to see on Back to School Night.

Students also finished up looking at the geography of the United States this week. On Friday, we started to do the groundwork to introduce the first class book we’ll be reading, Sign of the Beaver. This is a great first book for us to read, and it will go hand-in-hand with our studies of Native Americans.

MATH
Estimating is an important skill. When applied to problems, it gives students a good idea of what their calculations should be and can help them self-correct. We began to reinforce this skill by first reviewing how to round numbers, then we moved on to estimating answers for addition and subtraction.

After a few days of multiplication warm-ups in class, it also became evident that students needed some good strategies to tackle multi-digit multiplication. While a few only needed a brush-up on their skills, others are learning alternative strategies, like the box method. Not sure what that looks like? Ask your fifth grader to show you.

SCIENCE
We’ve been looking at the fascinating (and somewhat yucky) process of digestion. Students looked at the different teeth in their mouth – the start of our digestion process – and then studied the various organ functions involved. The big idea was to learn how food gets broken down into nutrients the body can use, while the remainder gets passed out as waste. Next up, the respiratory system.

MUSIC
from Mrs. Forster
Grade 5 have been having fun in music lessons. We have now the space to move and dance and create music. We have been listening to music from around Asia and trying to define what makes a country’s style of music their own. They put together an aboriginal dance using music that was very primal, using just drums, didgeridoo and voices. I was very impressed with their creativity.


JEWISH STUDIES – ENGLISH SPEAKERS
from Mora Epstein

- began our study of Rosh Hashana

- Parashat Hashavua

- Vocabulary quiz

- Learned a song from the Machzor and performed it for the assembly


HEBREW FOR ENGLISH SPEAKERS
from Arie Epstein

- phonetic reading

- writing an essay to introduce themselves

- work on the reading booklet from last week

- spelling test

Next week: Tuesday – spelling test and returning their new booklet


JS FOR HS
from Morah Yoel

השבוע עסקנו בעיקר בהכנה לחגי תשרי.

סליחות. למדנו ושרנו את הפיוט אדון הסליחות. למדנו על מנהגים שונים.

י"ג מידות, המקור והמשמעות הכללית. למדנו לשיר את י"ג מידות.

נביא – תחילת פרק ראשון מספר יהושע. קריאה ועבודה בתוך חוברת העבודה (מי היה יהושע ומה ידוע עליו מהתורה).

כתבנו כרטיסי ברכה לחברים בשיתוף עם דוברי האנגלית.


Hebrew FOR HS
from Moreh Yoel

אשכולית –סיימנו את החוברת זה הזמן. למדנו להשתמש במילים כבר, עדיין, התחיל, סיים, הפסיק וסיים. התחלנו את החוברת פעיל וסביל.

הבנתי – המשכנו לעסוק בעיקר וטפל בפסקה וההבחנה בניהם. ראשי תיבות וסלנג כדרכי קיצור.

אוריינות – קריאה דמומה מספרי ספריה.