August 28, 2020

Welcome back!

Important Dates and Information:

Reminder: Each day starts at 8:00 a.m., when we look forward to seeing all students sitting scholarly and ready for our Homeroom Zoom meetings!

MAP Testing: Because of the Zoom snafu at the beginning of this week, the MAP Reading test for sections 5A and 5B has been rescheduled for the upcoming week. Keep an eye out for further details in emails from your classroom teachers.

English Language Arts:

Hello 5th Grade! 

This week in Literature, we learned about adventure and curiosity with Mary in The Secret Garden. Next week, we will practice finding main ideas and writing summaries about The Secret Garden. In Poetry, we have worked on translating "The Road Not Taken" into our own pictures and next week we will practice paraphrasing the poem into our own words. In Spalding, we worked on rule page 4 in our notebooks, and we will learn rule page 3 next week. This week, due to MAP testing, we did not have Writing and Grammar, but next week we will learn about summarizing, outlining, and parts of speech. 

-Ms. Harkness

Math:

Hello Fifth Grade Spartans!

Next week in math we have our first test! We have been working hard and I know students are going to do great. After our Unit 1 test, we will be working with order of operations as well as the distributive property, both of which will strengthen our number sense and mental math abilities.

-Mr. Dorazio

History:

Next week in History:

Monday: We will look back at the Mayan culture and Civilization in Central America. We will discuss Mayan Math (numbers), Astronomy, and Mayan Architecture, Writing, and City-States within the culture itself. 

Wednesday: We will discus the Aztec Empire in Mesoamerica which was developed after the collapse of the Mayan civilization. We will note the differences between the Mayan and the Aztecs as well as the greater advancements the Aztecs enjoyed. The Spanish came to Central America during the Aztec reign and symbolized the end of their dominance in the region. We will discuss, in brief, what made the Spanish more powerful than the Aztecs and how the Spanish captured their land for Spain.    

Science:

This week we talked about particles and created a model to show that air is made of matter too small to see. Next week we start to shift toward learning about chemical changes.

-Mr. Chisholm 

Specials link: https://ghwhspecials.blogspot.com/

5^th Grade Contact Info:

5A Lead – Mr. Craig Swanson; craig.swanson@greatheartswesternhills.org

              AT – Ms. Kate Wall; katharine.wall@greatheartswesternhills.org

5B Lead – Mr. Vinny Dorazio; vincent.dorazio@greatheartswesternhills.org

              AT – Ms. Kate Wall; katharine.wall@greatheartswesternhills.org

5C Lead – Ms. Hannah Harkness; hannah.harkness@greatheartswesternhills.org

              AT – Mr. Daniel Coronel; daniel.coronel@greatheartswesternhills.org

5D Lead – Mr. Travis Chisholm; travis.chisholm@greatheartswesternhills.org

              AT – Mr. Daniel Coronel; daniel.coronel@greatheartswesternhills.org

 

If you need us, we’re here! Please do not hesitate to reach out with questions, comments, or concerns.

August 21, 2020

Welcome back!

Important Dates and Information:

Reminder: Each day starts at 8:00 a.m., when we look forward to seeing all students sitting scholarly and ready for our Homeroom Zoom meetings!

Parents, please see the left side of the 'Stream' tab of your scholar's Google Classroom daily for an updated agenda for the day. This will help guide your scholar while doing their work to ensure everything is being done and turned in. It will also help you when you are checking your scholar's work to make sure that nothing was forgotten about or missed.

Feedback: We are working very hard to provide your scholar with feedback on all of the work being turned in. In order to see how your student is doing on assignments turned in, follow the steps provided below based on the electronic device that is being used:

• In Google Classroom on the web, available classes display after you sign in. Click on or tap a class, then Classwork (from the top menu), then View My Work. When you see a small speech bubble next to an assignment, that means a teacher has left a comment for your scholar.
• In the Google Classroom app on iOS or Android, tap a class, tap Classwork, then tap the student work icon in the upper-right hand corner of the screen.

**Please note: Each assignment is listed with its status (e.g., Assigned, Turned In, or Missing) and due date, if added. If available, grades also display on this screen, although not every assignment will have a score associated with it.

English Language Arts:

Hello Spartans! 

This week in Literature, we met Mary Lennox in The Secret Garden and started learning about her move from India to England. Next week, we will learn about her new adventures and the secret garden that she is especially curious about. In Poetry, we have been asking questions about the stanzas in "The Road Not Taken", and next week we will begin translating the poem into our own words and pictures. In Spalding, we started filling out the rule pages in our notebooks, and we will continue with learning page 4 of our notebooks next week. This week we had an introduction to grammar and writing, but due to MAP Testing this coming week, we will be scaling back this week, and pick up with a full schedule the following week. 

-Ms. Harkness

Math:

Hello fifth grade!

What a great week we had in Math. For next week, we will be working again with our multiples of ten and how we divide large numbers by them. We will conclude our first unit and will be reviewing key concepts needed for our first test, or as I like to call it, a "celebration of knowledge". Due to MAP Testing taking place next week, we will have our test on the following Monday (8/31), which means we will have the whole weekend to study!

-Mr. Dorazio

History:

This week we wrapped up our Spatial Sense unit and had our first History quiz using Cornell notes. Monday of next week will begin our unit on “Lakes of The World”. Our concentration will be on the general usefulness of those lakes, as far as the resources they provide to populations that are near them. We will begin with lakes on the continent of Africa including lakes Tanganika, Chad, and Victoria, followed by lakes on the continent of South America, including Lake Titicaca and Lake Maracaibo. We'll spend the rest of the week on Part 2 of “Lakes of the World”. Our concentration will be on the lakes of North America and their general usefulness. Those lakes include the Great Lakes in the northern part of the country including Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Ontario, Lake Huron and Lake Erie.

Be well, 

Mr. Swanson

Science:

This week we observed more matter and wrote down properties. Next week, we will slow it down and are going to read a chapter together as a class. We will make a model to show that air is made of tiny bits of matter too small to see.

-Mr Chisholm

Highlights:

You've all made it through the first full week of school; congratulations! We'll be back next week, same time, same place, with more updates, events, and general 5th grade-goings-on. Enjoy your weekend!

Specials link: https://ghwhspecials.blogspot.com/

5^th Grade Contact Info:

5A Lead – Mr. Craig Swanson; craig.swanson@greatheartswesternhills.org

              AT – Ms. Kate Wall; katharine.wall@greatheartswesternhills.org

5B Lead – Mr. Vinny Dorazio; vincent.dorazio@greatheartswesternhills.org

              AT – Ms. Kate Wall; katharine.wall@greatheartswesternhills.org

5C Lead – Ms. Hannah Harkness; hannah.harkness@greatheartswesternhills.org

              AT – Mr. Daniel Coronel; daniel.coronel@greatheartswesternhills.org

5D Lead – Mr. Travis Chisholm; travis.chisholm@greatheartswesternhills.org

              AT – Mr. Daniel Coronel; daniel.coronel@greatheartswesternhills.org

 

If you need us, we’re here! Please do not hesitate to reach out with questions, comments, or concerns.

August 14, 2020

Welcome back to Great Hearts and welcome to the Fifth Grade Blog! We are looking forward to a fantastic school year! Our first week back has been successful, and as we all become more familiar with technology things will go even more smoothly moving forward. We will be updating every Friday to keep you informed! 

Important Dates and Information:

Reminder: Each day starts at 8:00 a.m., when we look forward to seeing all of you sitting scholarly and ready for our Homeroom Zoom meetings!

Google Classroom Clarification: In all of your google classrooms your scholar should be enrolled in TWO classes. One is your student’s homeroom, the other should be their grade level specials class. If you do not see both classes please reach out to one of your specials teachers via email to let them know so that they can add you to their class. 

Grimm’s Fairy Tales Clarification: There has been some confusion about the correct IBN number for this book. For now we will provide PDFs when we pull a story for students. We apologize for the confusion, and when we figure out the misconception we will let you know as soon as possible.

English Language Arts:

This week we began to review Spalding and began reading Grimm's Fairy Tales, as well as practiced annotation. Next week we will begin reading The Secret Garden by Frances Burnett.

- Ms. Harkness

Math:

Hello 5th grade Spartans!

This week in math we reviewed very large numbers and how to work with them. We started with place value, going from the ones place all the way to the billions place. We also learned how to work with very large numbers using the four operations with our number sense, instead of using the standard algorithm. This will be a great benefit to when start dealing very large multiples of ten next week!

-Mr. Dorazio

History:

Aug. 12-14

This first week of History was about getting up to speed academically. Students watched videos about class expectations and having a scholarly mind-set at home, accompanied by a short lesson on Cornell notes. Print outs of the Cornell notes template might be helpful for some students to see and feel, beyond the representation of those notes in the video. Students also reviewed “The Pledge of Allegiance” using a fill-in-the-blank version of Cornell notes. Now they’re set to recite it each morning during their Homeroom Zoom meetings!

Aug. 17-21

In the coming week, we will discuss Spatial Sense in two parts. First, understanding maps, globes, and other geographic tools. Then, later in the week, discussing Climate Zones, Time Zones, The Arctic and Antarctic Circles, The Mercator Projection, Conic Projection, and other projection techniques.

Be well,

Mr. Swanson 

Science: 

This week in science we started to wonder about the natural world (and mysterious powders) and how the scientific method works. This coming week we will dive into more observations and see that, though some types of matter share similar visible properties, they react differently when they are combined.

-Mr. Chisholm

Highlights:

What a unique start to the school year! Now that the first week of school and Distance Learning are successfully under our belts, we look forward to the lessons to come, both in and out of the classroom.

Specials link: https://ghwhspecials.blogspot.com/

5^th Grade Contact Info:

5A Lead – Mr. Craig Swanson; craig.swanson@greatheartswesternhills.org

              AT – Ms. Kate Wall; katharine.wall@greatheartswesternhills.org

5B Lead – Mr. Vinny Dorazio; vincent.dorazio@greatheartswesternhills.org

              AT – Ms. Kate Wall; katharine.wall@greatheartswesternhills.org

5C Lead – Ms. Hannah Harkness; hannah.harkness@greatheartswesternhills.org

              AT – Mr. Daniel Coronel; daniel.coronel@greatheartswesternhills.org

5D Lead – Mr. Travis Chisholm; travis.chisholm@greatheartswesternhills.org

              AT – Mr. Daniel Coronel; daniel.coronel@greatheartswesternhills.org

 

If you need us, we’re here! Please do not hesitate to reach out with questions, comments, or concerns.