Back to School After Holidays

Today we began a history unit on European Exploration during the Age of Exploration in the 15th & 16th centuries. This is where our story of how the United States became a country begins for us in 5th grade. This unit takes our students back to the Middle Ages, to the time of the Crusades and to the time of Marco Polo exploring China and writing about meeting the Ghengis Kan.  We are learning about how a desire for silk and spices from India and China set off a series of sea explorations which eventually led to Europeans “finding” the Americas. How did the Europeans learn about the luxurious silk fabric and the exotic spices that Asia cultivated? Ask your 5th grader and you will learn about a very exciting period in history. Students were given notebooks and are in the process of learning how to take notes. This is a stepping stone to learning how to study for a history test and how to organize information. We also discussed the role of technology in encouraging and enabling exploration. The development of the compass, the cross staff, the square rigged sails and the rudder, among others, were crucial in exploration.   Students are working on mini reports in our inventions unit. Each child has chosen to research an invention and write a brief report on the invention, the inventor and how the invention impacted the society in which it was made. Some of the inventions being researched are: the toaster, the car, the telephone, the pen, the sneaker, and more.  In writing, students are finishing up their first drafts of a short story about three wishes and are illustrating their story. We are also practicing daily proof reading/editing activities to develop self editing skills and improve awareness and knowledge of punctuatuation. In literature, we are continuing to read The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle and discussing the literary devices the author uses to enhance our pleasure and understanding of the book.  This week we are focusing on “allusions” and “cliffhangers”.  In math, we are working daily on solving word problems involving multi-step operations. The hardest part seems to be comprehending the question. We are breaking down the question, drawing pictorial symbols, and learning to focus on answering the question. This is an excellent technique for approaching word problems and I am already seeing the class make the neccessary mental connections. Tomorrow, we begin a short unit on “order of operations.”