Mrs. Ortega's Class
Welcome to our classroom webpage.
Here's what we're up to in the 3rd quarter of 5th grade! Where has
time gone? Check out some new features on my page...Documents,
Links, and Contact Me!
Reading: We just finished
reading "Tuck Everlasting" by Natalie Babbitt. After enjoying the
text, we spent time viewing the movie, making comparisons and
contrasts between the two. Next week we'll be moving back to our
Daybook text to work on a reading strategy called, Determining
Importance. This will help us to sift through all the pieces of
information we are hit with as we read and determine what's most
important to remember.
Math: During math we are
spread out all over the school, working on a variety of
mathematical concepts. MY math class just completed a very large
unit on decimals. We ventured off into the land of geometry this
week and will be looking at measurements of angles, triangles,
polygons, and much more!
Language Arts: This quarter we are focusing on
persuasive writing. What does it mean? What does it look like? What
tricks of the trade are out there? We've already practiced
defending our position on Dogs VS. Cats, why we should or shouldn't
drink hot chocolate, and naming the best breakfast cereal out
there. We've also been able to practice our persuasive writing
while writing book reviews for "Tuck Everlasting". Check out the
Documents Link on the left and read some of what the students had
to say about the book.
We have also had the opportunity to try to persuade others through
letter writing to "become" either a Patriot or a Loyalist in our
Social Studies unit. Be careful parents...they are getting pretty
convincing!
As usual, we have Spelling tests every Tuesday (Test on
Tuesday) and new words are assigned on Wednesday (Words on
Wednesday). Please help your student to study their words (and
definitions for some). Our scores are not reflecting that we are
getting much studying done at home. There's always a pattern,
trick, or rule to the words for the week. Help them learn them.
Science: We finished
our Social Studies unit on the "Struggle for Independence" just
before the semester break and we've moved on to Science. Mrs.
Pfister is teaching us the FOSS unit on Planetary Science. It
involves quite a bit of Lunar Science along with the planets. This
is a short unit, which will be the students' entire Science grade
for the quarter so please encourage them to do well and do their
homework!
On a side note, we've had
several Student of the Week students from our class this year.
Congratulations to John Moore and Ryan Lockman! You deserve it
kiddos!
GO BEAVERS!!!
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