Let the fun begin!!

Today the PIONEER PROJECT began!  This is going to be a month long unit that simulates the westward expansion of the US via the wagon train experience. Today students found out about the project, saw their wagon train members, and chose their pioneer identities.  Ask your child who he/she is, how many children they have and more information they discovered about their character today.  This week will also include learning more about Manifest Destiny (the 19th-century doctrine or belief that the expansion of the US throughout the American continents was both justified and inevitable), travel by wagon, and pioneer life. Next week they will begin to apply this new knowledge by making supply lists, writing diary entries and making trail decisions. This project will include much writing, much luck and chance (just like on the trail), and other projects students will complete both at school and at home. The points they earn doing this work will allow their wagon train to move along the trail, hopefully arriving safely in Hacker's Valley in the end. Keep an eye out here on the blog for more information. 

Reading

We have recently been doing some shorter shared reads around informational and persuasive texts. We usually spend 4 days on the shared reads. On day one, we read and discuss the text together. On days two and three we answer text based questions using an interactive notebook page, and on day four we reread the text with a partner to focus on fluency. Some of the standards we are addressing through these shared reads are

• R.I.5.7 Drawing information from multiple sources and demonstrating the ability to locate an answer to a question or solve a problem efficiently.
• R.I.5.8 Explain how an author uses reasons and evidence to support particular points in a text, identifying which reasons and evidence support which point(s).

Here are a few examples of those notebook pages: 

Math- Multiplying Decimals UPDATE

We are working on the 5th grade standard 5.7 Numbers in Base Ten: I can add, subtract, multiply and divide decimals to the hundredths.  I can use concrete models or drawings to explain the method used.

First we related decimals to money, and how the powers of ten help us to multiply and divide decimals.

We then "played" with our old friends the base ten blocks in class building numbers like 1.93, one whole, nine tenths, three hundredths.

We also used them to model adding and subtracting of decimals. 

Then we started on multiplying them. Here is a video I recently found that was really well done.  The teacher does a great job of explaining a brilliant way to model concretely how to multiply decimals. 

Here is the link to that video.  Watch it, it might blow your mind the way it does ours! 

Using area model to multiply decimals.

Thursday, March 23: More multiplication today

Here is some work students did together as a formative assessment of their learning. 

This week will be the beginning of dividing decimals!!

Book Bowl

Congrats to all participants in this year's Book Bowl competition. We had the top two scoring teams come from our class this year! Way to go #BossKeepUp, and New and Improved Smarties, plus Josie as part of the The Book Thieves.  All of the Sugar kids in book bowl read a combined total of around 128 books!! WOW!!!

Book Recommendation

I had quite a few parents ask me for book recommendations at conferences.  So I compiled a list of books that I've enjoyed that are available on the school's Overdrive library. This can be accessed by all students on the Randall Library Portal.  Have fun reading! 

Title	Author
Moon Over Manifest	Vanderpool
Anne of Green Gables	Montgomery
When You Reach Me	Stead (also other titles by this author)
Frindle	Clements (also other titles by this author)
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler	Koningsburg
Three Times Lucky	Turnage (has sequels)
Because of Mr. Terupt	Bugea (has sequels)
The Candymakers	Mass
Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry	Taylor (also other titles by this author) (has sequels)
Brown Girl Dreaming	Woodson (also other titles by this author)
Dead End at Norvelt	Gantos (has sequel)
Fever 1793	Anderson
The Mighty Miss Malone Bud, Not Buddy	Curtis (also other titles by this author)
Kira Kira	Kadohata
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz	Baum
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane Because of Winn-Dixie Tiger Rising	DiCamillo
Spy School	Gibbs (also other titles by this author)
Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library	Grabenstein
Liar, Liar Hatchet	Paulsen (also other titles by this author)
Fish in a Tree	Hunt
Who is or was…..	This is a series that has many authors b/ it is a set of biographies.
One Crazy Summer	Williams-Garcia (also other titles by this author) (has sequels)
Counting by 7s	Sloan
The Evolution of Culpernia Tate	Kelly
Bridge to Terabithia	Paterson
Tuck Everlasting	Babbitt
Lily’s Crossing	Giff (also other titles by this author)
Bloomability Ruby Holler	Creech (also other titles by this author)
Sarah, Plain and Tall	MacLachlan (has sequels)
Hoot	Hiaasen (also other titles by this author)
Where the Red Fern Grows	Rawls
Al Capone Does My Shirts	Choldenko (has sequels)
Becoming Naomi Leon	Ryan (also other titles by this author)
The City of Ember	DuPrau (has sequels)
On My Honor	Bauer
The Lemonade War	Davies (has sequels)
Alvin Ho, Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things	Look  (has sequels)
The Name of This Book is Secret	Bosch (has sequels)
Small Steps	Kehret
Inside Out & Back Again	Lai
A Single Shard A Long Walk to Water	Park
Fair Weather The River Between Us A Long Way from Chicago On the Wings of Heroes	Peck (also other titles by this author)
Belle Prater’s Boy	White
A Dog’s Life	Martin (also other titles by this author)
The Scavengers	Perry
So Far from the Bamboo Grove	Watkins
A Night Divided	Nielsen
The Giver	Lowry (has sequels)