G'Day, Cobbers!

This is a picture of Ayer's Rock, also known as Uluru, found in the Australian outback. It is one of the many important landmarks we learned about this week!

We had another full/fun week at school! The days are counting down quickly, and a lot of exciting events are coming up including:

* Science Olympiad on May 26

* Orff Concert on May 20th

* A long Memorial Day Weekend! No student attendance May 27-31

* Australian Barbecue luncheon June 2nd

* Field Day on June 3rd

It looks like this will be our last full week of school of the school year! Wow!

This week, we had fun watching our 5th graders' final Dryden performance during their musical! The children also had the opportunity to visit the "Earth Dome," in which they watched a 3D video entitled "Earth's Wild Ride!" Thank you to the PTA for sponsoring such a unique experience!

Spelling
The children worked on words that end with /ge/ or /dge/. Next week our words will follow the pattern of /ar/, /air,/ or /are/.

Reading
Our theme this week was Celebrations! We enhanced our oral vocabularies with the words annual, festive, cherish, emotion, and anticipate as we read about Native American Pow Wows. The class looked at words with inflected endings and adjectives. We noticed that adjectives often tell “what kind,” or “how many.” As we read our whole group story, “Mice and Beans,” we analyzed story structure and identified the difference between fantasy and reality. The children enjoyed reading this story about a woman preparing a fiesta for her granddaughter, Catalina. As she took the steps to prepare her party, the little mice who lived in her house took little pieces of her party decorations and food in order to have a party of their own! The story had a sweet ending when Rosa Maria forgot to add the dulces to her piñata, so the little mice added the candy themselves one by one to make the party a huge success. It was fun to read the Spanish words infused throughout the story (piñata, dulces, pasteleria, cielos!, no importa, casita, feliz cumpleanos, etc…) and infer their meanings based on the context of their use. Additional vocabulary words we focused on this week included: assembled, devoured, fetch, forgetting, menu, and simmered. We also read a recipe this week, “Rosa Maria’s Rice and Beans,” where the children looked at the measurement terms tablespoon, cup, and ounce. We also looked carefully at the story to classify elements that could be considered reality vs. fantasy!

Writing

The children are now working on a nonfiction writing piece! They brainstormed possible topics and narrowed it down to one they feel they know a lot about. Next they thought of sub-topics that would become their "chapters." They thought of an opening sentence or main idea for each chapter, and now they are working on developing each of their chapters! We will base these books mainly on facts we know, but we will also use the internet and classroom books and magazines to help us add interesting new information as well! The children are excited to become nonfiction authors!

Math
The children reviewed counting by 1s, 10s, and 100s, as well as their understanding of place value by reading, writing, and modeling numbers to the ten-thousands using place value tools. They also learned the order of operations through the use of parenthesis in a number model. swe learned to always solve what is in the parenthesis first! The students took their Unit 10 test this week, and we jumped right into Unit 11!

As we move through Unit 11, the childen will continue working with dollars-and-cents notation. They will complete story problems that involve money and review the concept of estimating. The children will work on subtraction story problems and strengthen their skill of making ball park estimates. We will be working with arrays as we slowly build the foundation for multiplication. We will also explore equal groups as the children deepen their understanding of division, too!

Social Studies

The children continue to learn about the land Down Under. They have added several new terms to their Australian Dictionaries, including: lollies, cobber, ice blocks, oldies, and sunnies. (Ask them to tell you what they mean!) We have learned about the states/territories that make up Australia: Western Australia, Northern Territory, South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania. We also learned about and labeled the various bodies of water that surround this island continent. We learned about the history of the country, as well as its ties to Great Britain. Did you know that aside from the native Aborigines, the convicts from Britain were the first people to live there? The children also discovered a bit about the rural/urban family life in Australia! We read a story called "Are We There Yet?" in which a family takes a 3 month holiday all around their country, visiting sites such as Uluru, The Pinnacles, the Great Barrier Reef, the Head of Bight, the 3 Sisters, and even a visit to Sydney! We learned that Uluru (a great rock in the center of the Outback) seems to change colors throughout the day with the setting of the sun! The children are eager to learn as much as they possibly can about Australia!

To celebrate our studies and add to the excitement of our learning, we are going to have an Australian themed barbecue/luncheon on Thursday, June 2nd. It will be in the courtyard during our regular lunch hour. The children can bring a towel to sit on if they'd like! Please return the permission slip by this upcoming Friday (5/20) so we can give our food services department a preliminary count. Thank you!

Have a wonderful weekend!