January Wrap up!

Dear Families,
January is coming to a close and what an amazing trip we have had all around the globe and in the town of Geometry!

We have been gaining a global perspective this month by hearing about interesting sites that cover the planet.  We have learned about Machu Picchu, lost city of Petra, the Great Barrier Reef, Eiffel Tower, Taj Mahal, Lake George, Leaning Tower of Pisa, Alcatraz and may other sites.  It has been remarkable to see the ease with which our 5th graders are manipulating digital presentation tools.  I have learned about Prezi and have loved the tricks of PowerPoint that I did not know about before!  This project not only expanded our knowledge of the globe, it gave us practice with our oral presentation skills of looking at the audience, using an appropriate tone and speaking knowledgeably about a subject!  Along side this project, students have also been sharing short poems that they have practiced and are reading with correct expression, fluency and tone!  Geography will be wrapping up this week as we look at the natural resources of continents, their sustainability and how this relates to the population of these continents! Soon we will be heading into our US Colonization Unit!

In Reader's and Writer's Workshop we continue to be busy with reading our TruFlix books about the continents, collecting notes about varying landscapes and reflecting on our new learning by writing in LEAF paragraph format.  I look forward to sharing these writing pieces with you next month!  The LEAF paragraph is used as a structure for creating cohesive paragraphs in middle school as well as at CVU high school.  The LEAF format gives us a place to respond to our reading by citing evidence from the text while also reflecting about our new learning.

During Math class we have been exploring angles by measuring them and even creating them using protractors.  We will be exploring symmetry, congruence, and the proper names of polygons this week. We continue to review multiplication and division through our computation homework and our continued push to complete fastt math!  Many students are finished with multiplication and many are completely finished with the program!  We continue to monitor fact fluency in the classroom with Quick 2  minute math tests!

Stay warm and thanks for reading!