Mrs. DeLuca: Grade 5, Grade 6 ELA

This week for Community Time, students in early childhood, lower school, and the middle school culminated a month's worth of honoring Hispanic heritage with a celebration filled with music, crafts, and Quizzo. Middle school started off the celebration in the gym, where they learned various styles of hispanic dance and enjoyed music by Jennifer Lopez, Gloria Estefan, and other artists! Each student had the opportunity to answer a musical trivia question on hispanic culture. Those who guessed correctly could come up and lead the dance by playing bongos. Everyone got into the celebrations! Next it was off to the MPR to play a round of Quizzo where students tried to guess famous Hispanic personalities, national flags, and quotes. Lastly, it was off to the cafeteria to practice their Spanish speaking skills and celebrate with piñatas!                                                    

This week, fifth grade was busy at work! Mrs. DeLuca's Math class wrapped up the current chapter on Decimals and practiced shopping on a budget. They used a Target shopping flyer to go on a digital shopping trip and purchase a list of items of their choice. In Social Studies, the class had a lengthy discussion on the effects of globalization on consumers as they reviewed their home inventory charts in groups. In their Writing Workshop, fifth and sixth graders are hard at work on their Young Authors creative writing assignments. Fifth grade also recently finished writing their myths with a moral lesson. We hope you enjoy reading them!                                Finally, a sneak peak of our upcoming One Act plays! Rehearsals have been going well; hopefully you have seen your child practicing their lines or gathering props and costume pieces at home. We look forward to our performance for Grandparents' Day and Parent Visitation!

This week, fifth grade completed research presentations on four major world religions. They presented the background history of each religion, including it's founder, place of origin, and founding principles. The purpose was to teach their classmates more about the rich history and culture that surrounds other world religions while also continuing to develop their research and citation abilities. Please enjoy their presentations below!          

Welcome back and Happy New Year!  It was a busy first week back, but the fifth and sixth graders jumped right back into work! In fifth grade, we continued our discussion on globalization in Social Studies. You may have seen your child walking around the house this week, examining tags or labels on miscellaneous items to see where they were made -- they were completing their Home Inventory Chart, which we will discuss next week. This activity lends itself to a discussion on our individualized connection to globalization, as we take a closer look at where our possessions come from and how that can impact different socioeconomic and culture groups around the world. In Language Arts, fifth graders analyzed an informational text ("Quest for the Tree Kangaroo") and myth ("Why Koala Has No Tail") to study the tree kangaroo. As a culminating writing activity, they are in the process of developing their own myths on the origin story of an animal or element of nature. The