Important Dates

  • 10/31/23 – Halloween – We will not have a party. Students will not be allowed to pass out treats, and they should not wear costumes to school as it will be a distraction to the learning environment. This will be a regular day of learning. Please make sure your children do not bring candy to school on the day after Halloween. If it is part of their lunch, please tell them not to eat their candy in the classrooms.
  • 11/03/23
    • Topic 3 Test for 5th and 6th grades
    • Multiplication Drill (9 minutes)
  • 11/10/23 – No School – Thank you to all the veterans!

Announcements

  • Parent-Teacher Conferences – Thank you to all the parents who attended. We had a great turnout! I appreciate your partnership in educating your child. I need to limit the number of conferences I have for each student. Unless there is a dire need, please only schedule one conference per quarter.
  • After School Programs – After school programs are slated to begin the second week of November. There will be a 5-6th grade math club that meets on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. I have not been notified if I was selected to facilitate the club. However, if I am selected, I will be tutoring students to improve their performance and grades in math.
  • Skills Mastery – On 10/25/23, I emailed all parents a list of the skills their student mastered along with their first quarter Math average and number of missing assignments. These three data points tell a good story of students’ performance and achievement. We all want good grades, but the skill mastery is most important. Here are some scenarios that I want you to consider:
    • Student A mastered all the skills, but only has a C in the class. Why doesn’t the student have an A if they mastered every skill? Mastery begins at a C. So, if the student had a C on tests and assignments, the student would have a C average. The student could also have missing assignments, which will lower their average.
    • Student B has not mastered a skill but has an A in the class. This is a highly unlikely scenario unless the student has an IEP with a modified grading scale. In my opinion, the student is still not experiencing success. They just have a nice-looking report card. Please be careful about how you define success. Knowledge is power!
    • Student C mastered all of the skills and has an A in the class. In my opinion, this is the student that students should strive to be. They have the knowledge, they perform well in class and on test, and they have discipline because they are not missing assignments.
  • Topic 3 Test – Please use the learning objectives below to understand the content of the test. Students will have three questions per skill. In order to master the skill, students will need to get at least two out of the three questions per skill correct. These skills will be listed on the next skills mastery sheet at the end of the second quarter. Students will be given a practice test on Thursday; half of the problems from the practice test will be on the test. I have been doing this for years and students still fail because they don’t prepare. Students can earn 5 points extra credit if their parent write the following on the practice test and sign it. “I saw my child studying for the test.” Then, sign your name. Students must turn it in on Friday to receive the extra credit. No emails, no texts, no phone calls, no excuses.

Learning Objectives

5th Grade Skills

  • I can use mental math to multiply a whole number by a power of 10.
  • I can estimate products.
  • I can multiply multi-digit numbers by a 1-digit number.
    • 2 digits by 1 digit
    • 3 digits by 1 digit
    • 4 digits by 1 digit
  • I can multiply a 2-digit number by a 2-digit number.
  • I can multiply a 3-digit number by a 2-digit number.
  • I can solve real world problems with multi-digit multiplication.

6th Grade Skills

  • I can write and evaluate numbers with exponents.
  • I can write the prime factorization of a number.
  • I can find the greatest common factor (GCF) of two numbers.
  • I can find the least common multiple (LCM) of two numbers.
  • I can write and evaluate numerical expressions.
  • I can write algebraic expressions.
  • I can evaluate algebraic expressions.