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**New grades posted** 

Reading: Today lesson was about creating a double focus in a poem. One way to do this is to write about an object that tells about the object’s owner, such as grandpa’s shoes. The poem might be about the shoes, but the shoes tell us about grandpa.

The last piece of writing will be due June 2 and will be a collection of poems.

Spelling: Students corrected missed spelling words on a Words to Learn list.

The Level Four Core Word list is an option for continued practice.

Math: The class reviewed “fraction of” problems (3/5 of 20, or 1/3 of 12) and equivalent fractions (1/2 = 2/4, 3/4 = 6/8 = 15/20) Homework is to complete 10 equivalent fraction problems and 20 “fractions of” problems on worksheets handed out in class.

Science: We went out to the courtyard to see how water moves (pulled downhill by gravity or soaks in the ground).

Social Studies: We reviewed today that the French came to Michigan looking for a shortcut to China, but stayed for the fur trade.

Notes:

**New grades posted** 

Reading: The class attended the Grand Blanc Middle School Eighth Grade Band concent during reading time.

Technology: Students continued to work on their digital PowerPoint yearbooks today.

If you do not have Microsoft Office and PowerPoint at home, download the free OpenOffice. OpenOffice is an open-source (free) office software suite that is very similar to Microsoft Office. It will open MS Office documents, and looks similar. Students can use the program, Impress, to make PowerPoint presentations. Also included is a word processor, a drawing program, a spreadsheet and a database program.

Math: We continued to work on area and perimeter today. Students also participated in their last Math Skills session of the year.

Many students have shown great progress on their work with math skills and math facts this year. To keep your student moving forward over the summer, consider joining EdHelper for an annual cost of $20.

EdHelper is a website containing various grade levels of activities, ranging from math, to reading and writing. This would be a great resource for summer activities for your student, both for strengthening weak areas, and for stretching into new areas of learning. And you could continue to use the site throughout fifth grade as a way to supplement what your student will be doing in class.

Science: We had a “water race” to see how water moves as it flows downhill. This was to help us understand what happens to water after it rains. Students noticed that the water moves back and forth in unpredictable ways, and smaller trickles of water join larger trickles as the water moves downhill.

Health: We focused today on how inhalants can affect our bodies, and why to avoid them.

Notes:

Reading: We used reading time today to work on adding and subtracting fractions.

Language Arts: Today we had a mini-lesson on how poets use linebreaks to give their poems more meaning. We also looked at a poem that used a metaphor (fog compared to a cat) and a poem that made a nonliving object appear to be alive (a snow angel had breath and floated across a meadow).

The last piece of writing will be due June 2 and will be a collection of poems.

Spelling: None due to math. We will likely use spelling time for the rest of the year to complete activities in other subject areas. However, there will be one more spelling test next week.

The Level Four Core Word list is an option for continued practice.

Math: We worked on adding and subracting fractions, and then looked at equivalent fractions (1/2 = 2/4 = 3/6 = 4/8). Homework is to complete puzzle page 92, which is about equivalent fractions.

Science: We completed an experiment that was essentially making a cloud. Students learned that a cloud is made of tiny droplets of liquid water floating in the air. Homework is to complete the experiment worksheet called “Water Ups and Downs”. 

Social Studies: We learned that many French explorers came to Michigan looking for a shortcut to China, called the Northwest Passage. The French eventually started building towns in Michigan when they realized that there was no shortcut to Asia. Sault Ste. Marie and St. Ignace were the two first settlements in Michigan.

Notes:

Reading: Today was a reading day in Literature Circles. We also had WEB silent reading time.

Language Arts: Today we wrote together a metaphor poem:

Attack of the Weeds

My garden is a war zone,
The weeds have waged war.
I try to patrol the zone,
But they have too many soldiers.
I attack on Saturday,
They get reinforcements on Monday.
Paratroppers floating down-sneak attack!
Spiky soldiers, attacking my flowers, surrounding my shrubs.
They’ve won the battle, but not the war.

The last piece of writing will be due June 2 and will be a collection of poems.

Spelling: None due to math.

The Level Four Core Word list is an option for continued practice.

Math: We continued to practice dividing polygons into sections and then naming fractional parts of the polygons. We also learned how to add and subtract fractions. Homework is to complete a worksheet of 40 fraction addition and subtraction problems.

Science: We learned that about 3/4 of the earth is covered with water, but that only 1% of all water on earth is liquid fresh water than we can drink. We read pp. 9-11 in the science book. Homework is to complete Investigation Review p. 84. 

Social Studies: None due to Essential Skills testing.

Notes: