February 19, 2020
We have finally finished the Jamestown DBQ and are studying the British colonies. This week your student was assigned a Colonial Tri-fold project which is due in 2 weeks. The assignment along with the grading rubric are being sent home today and tomorrow. There will be time in class to work on it, but it will also require some time outside of class. Please help your child stay on track. Closely following the rubric will insure a good grade. Tehre will also be a test on the thirteen colonies at the end of the unit.
After camp, we will begin our study of the Revolution and will have our final DBQ.
January 13, 2020
This week we are starting the Jamestown DBQ. Each document will have a short quiz and completion of the packet will be a grade. The final grade will be for the essay.
December 2, 2019
The test for Week 6 and 7 of Studies Weekly will be Monday for my homeroom and Tuesday for Mrs. Hobson's homeroom. Students will be able to use the newspapers and notes for the test. After that we will be finishing up Unit 4 and talking about the Columbian Exchange leading up to the break.
November 19, 2019
We have begun to learn about the Age of Exploration. Students have been researching several explorers through a Google Classroom assignment. There will be a test 12/ 9 and 12/10 on the Week 6 & 7 Studies Weekly newspapers. There will be an additional assessment covering the Columbian Exchange before winter break. Students should be bringing home their notebooks a couple times per week to review notes.
October 31st, 2019
Students have been working on their Native American projects. The assignment is in Google Classroom. Students were given the rubric when it was assigned. Each student should have his or her research in the Social Studies notebook (sources should be listed in the notebook, as well), as this will be part of the grade. Project presentations will begin on Nov. 5th for Mrs. Hobson's homeroom and Nov. 6th for Mrs. Coffin's homeroom. The final assessment for this Unit will be a written piece comparing and contrasting the tribes from two different geographic regions.
October 16th, 2019
We are writing our DBQ essays this week. Students were given a Planning Sheet on Tuesday. The planning should be in an outline format, as opposed to complete sentences. Students will then use the outline to write the essay in the classroom. The essay must be completed at school and cannot be worked on at home. The planning sheet also has a score breakdown for each paragraph. IT will be worth a total of 30 points and will count as a Language Arts/writing grade and a Social Studies grade. On Friday the 18th, I will be collecting the DBQ packets to grade, as well.
September 27th, 2019
This week we started the Mayan DBQ. This will account for 7 grades. Here is the breakdown:
Each of the 4 documents will have a short quiz, typically given as soon as we finish going over it in class. Completion of the DBQ packet (including answering the questions in complete sentences) will be a grade, the essay will be a Social Studies grade and an ELA writing grade. It is important that your child be in class for the discussion of each document. Prior to writing the essay we will analyze sample essays and I will provide students with a detailed planning sheet. The essay will be written and typed in class. This process can be very challenging for students as it involves deeply analyzing the documents and constructing evidence based reasons to support their thinking. We will work through it together and I encourage students who are having difficulty to come in for extra help before or after school.
September 16, 2019
We are wrapping up our Unit on Geography. Students will get a Study Guide this week for the test which will be Monday 9/23 for Coffin homeroom and Tuesday 9/24 for Hobson homeroom. Students who turn in a completed Study Guide will get 5 points added to their test grade. All questions must be thoroughly answered, there will be no partial credit. REMINDER: Students will not be able to use notes or notebooks on the test. They should break the study guide into small chunks and do a little bit each day. If they find that their notes are incomplete, they can come in any morning at 7:30 to copy my notes.
August 19, 2019
The Snapshot Autobiography project is being assigned this week and is due on Tuesday, September 3rd for both classes. The purpose of the assignment is to help students understand how we learn about history. They are to create a 6 panel pamphlet:
The first panel is the cover which should include a title and illustration.
The back panel should be an "About the Author" page including the student's name, place of birth and anything else you want people to know about you.
This leaves 4 panels. On the first one, students will write about their birth.
In the other three panels, students are going to write about important events that have shaped them as a person. This means that they will select a total of three important events (besides their birth) from their lives. These will be written in narrative form describing the event from start to finish and should include specific details. Students should illustrate each event with a small hand-drawn picture.
Finally, students will conduct an Interview of another person who has knowledge about one of the 3 events. They will be given a form to fill out as they conduct the interview. Interviewees should be asked open ended questions, like "Mom do you remember my first day of Kindergarten? Can you tell me what you remember from that day?" It is important to take careful notes of the interview and that they pay close attention to any parts of the story that are different. I can't wait to read our autobiographies!
Welcome to the 2019-20 School year! The focus of 5th grade Social Studies is American History, from Early Civilizations through Westward Expansion. We will be doing 3 Document Based Queries this year: The Maya, Jamestown and Valley Forge). These DBQ's are fun and engaging and will culminate with an essay. There is not an End of Course Exam or and State test for Social Studies in 5th grade, however, having a deep understanding of the concepts will be important as your child moves forward in his or her education. We will have projects, quizzes and Unit tests.
One of the important skills we work on in 5th grade is notetaking. This is new to 5th graders and takes some training and modeling. Please encourage your child to bring home his notebook at least once each week so that you can review the notes and have your child explain the key concepts. We will go over this more at our Curriculum Night in September.
Again, I am looking forward to another great year in 5th grade and look forward to meeting you all!
Unit 2 Geography
Below are 2 links to songs that will help with memorizing the 50 States and their capitols.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_E2CNZIlVIg
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSvJ9SN8THE
We have finally finished the Jamestown DBQ and are studying the British colonies. This week your student was assigned a Colonial Tri-fold project which is due in 2 weeks. The assignment along with the grading rubric are being sent home today and tomorrow. There will be time in class to work on it, but it will also require some time outside of class. Please help your child stay on track. Closely following the rubric will insure a good grade. Tehre will also be a test on the thirteen colonies at the end of the unit.
After camp, we will begin our study of the Revolution and will have our final DBQ.
January 13, 2020
This week we are starting the Jamestown DBQ. Each document will have a short quiz and completion of the packet will be a grade. The final grade will be for the essay.
December 2, 2019
The test for Week 6 and 7 of Studies Weekly will be Monday for my homeroom and Tuesday for Mrs. Hobson's homeroom. Students will be able to use the newspapers and notes for the test. After that we will be finishing up Unit 4 and talking about the Columbian Exchange leading up to the break.
November 19, 2019
We have begun to learn about the Age of Exploration. Students have been researching several explorers through a Google Classroom assignment. There will be a test 12/ 9 and 12/10 on the Week 6 & 7 Studies Weekly newspapers. There will be an additional assessment covering the Columbian Exchange before winter break. Students should be bringing home their notebooks a couple times per week to review notes.
October 31st, 2019
Students have been working on their Native American projects. The assignment is in Google Classroom. Students were given the rubric when it was assigned. Each student should have his or her research in the Social Studies notebook (sources should be listed in the notebook, as well), as this will be part of the grade. Project presentations will begin on Nov. 5th for Mrs. Hobson's homeroom and Nov. 6th for Mrs. Coffin's homeroom. The final assessment for this Unit will be a written piece comparing and contrasting the tribes from two different geographic regions.
October 16th, 2019
We are writing our DBQ essays this week. Students were given a Planning Sheet on Tuesday. The planning should be in an outline format, as opposed to complete sentences. Students will then use the outline to write the essay in the classroom. The essay must be completed at school and cannot be worked on at home. The planning sheet also has a score breakdown for each paragraph. IT will be worth a total of 30 points and will count as a Language Arts/writing grade and a Social Studies grade. On Friday the 18th, I will be collecting the DBQ packets to grade, as well.
September 27th, 2019
This week we started the Mayan DBQ. This will account for 7 grades. Here is the breakdown:
Each of the 4 documents will have a short quiz, typically given as soon as we finish going over it in class. Completion of the DBQ packet (including answering the questions in complete sentences) will be a grade, the essay will be a Social Studies grade and an ELA writing grade. It is important that your child be in class for the discussion of each document. Prior to writing the essay we will analyze sample essays and I will provide students with a detailed planning sheet. The essay will be written and typed in class. This process can be very challenging for students as it involves deeply analyzing the documents and constructing evidence based reasons to support their thinking. We will work through it together and I encourage students who are having difficulty to come in for extra help before or after school.
September 16, 2019
We are wrapping up our Unit on Geography. Students will get a Study Guide this week for the test which will be Monday 9/23 for Coffin homeroom and Tuesday 9/24 for Hobson homeroom. Students who turn in a completed Study Guide will get 5 points added to their test grade. All questions must be thoroughly answered, there will be no partial credit. REMINDER: Students will not be able to use notes or notebooks on the test. They should break the study guide into small chunks and do a little bit each day. If they find that their notes are incomplete, they can come in any morning at 7:30 to copy my notes.
August 19, 2019
The Snapshot Autobiography project is being assigned this week and is due on Tuesday, September 3rd for both classes. The purpose of the assignment is to help students understand how we learn about history. They are to create a 6 panel pamphlet:
The first panel is the cover which should include a title and illustration.
The back panel should be an "About the Author" page including the student's name, place of birth and anything else you want people to know about you.
This leaves 4 panels. On the first one, students will write about their birth.
In the other three panels, students are going to write about important events that have shaped them as a person. This means that they will select a total of three important events (besides their birth) from their lives. These will be written in narrative form describing the event from start to finish and should include specific details. Students should illustrate each event with a small hand-drawn picture.
Finally, students will conduct an Interview of another person who has knowledge about one of the 3 events. They will be given a form to fill out as they conduct the interview. Interviewees should be asked open ended questions, like "Mom do you remember my first day of Kindergarten? Can you tell me what you remember from that day?" It is important to take careful notes of the interview and that they pay close attention to any parts of the story that are different. I can't wait to read our autobiographies!
Welcome to the 2019-20 School year! The focus of 5th grade Social Studies is American History, from Early Civilizations through Westward Expansion. We will be doing 3 Document Based Queries this year: The Maya, Jamestown and Valley Forge). These DBQ's are fun and engaging and will culminate with an essay. There is not an End of Course Exam or and State test for Social Studies in 5th grade, however, having a deep understanding of the concepts will be important as your child moves forward in his or her education. We will have projects, quizzes and Unit tests.
One of the important skills we work on in 5th grade is notetaking. This is new to 5th graders and takes some training and modeling. Please encourage your child to bring home his notebook at least once each week so that you can review the notes and have your child explain the key concepts. We will go over this more at our Curriculum Night in September.
Again, I am looking forward to another great year in 5th grade and look forward to meeting you all!
Unit 2 Geography
Below are 2 links to songs that will help with memorizing the 50 States and their capitols.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_E2CNZIlVIg
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSvJ9SN8THE