Social Studies
In this subject the kids will be focusing on 3 different countries over the school year, They are divided as follows:
- Trimester 1 – Feudal Japan
- Trimester 2 – Age of Exploration
- Trimester 3 – Ancient Korea
At present we are learning about Japan and have started with its physical geography. The kids now understand how its location affects its culture. They know about its four main islands, can compare its numerous typhoons and earthquakes and are beginning to understand the Japanese way of life.
Grade 5 have also made their own book, ‘All About Japan‘. Every Monday they are given 15 minutes to write any new information that they had learned from the previous week. This strategy helps them to work as one and it builds strong communication and learning skills.
KP
We learned about the political system of the early Filipinos. The kids created a Venn diagram to see the difference between the past and the present political systems. We also learned about the economic system and the customs and beliefs of early Filipinos. They were surprised when they discovered the simple life of many native Filipinos.
ICT
The kids made their own advertisements of the product they are selling. They were asked to use Microsoft Word to make a slogan to convince people to buy their products. They also used some of tools to create a better advertisement.
Science
In Science class we have already completed Unit 1 which covers interesting topics like how scientists learn about the natural world, and the types of tools that the scientists are using for observations. The students made weather prediction models, had a talk show entitled ‘Ask a Biologist‘ wherein the students were free to ask any scientific questions and also performed experiments at home. We also used some of the science tools to practice their observation skills and accuracy in measurements. We are enjoying each lass because we believe that learning science should be fun!
Mathematics
The Fifth Graders and I are currently working on multistep word problems involving addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
We have studied about place value, estimating products, the different properties of multiplication, patterns in the multiplication table and the different ways of multiplication (partial product ands using place values).
We are also working on practicing our Mental Sums and writing numbers as factors multiplied to ten raised to a certain power.
Langauge Arts
We are surrounded by nouns. This month Nouns ruled our Grammar lessons. We played Noun games and categorised the different kinds of Nouns that surround us. We familiarised ourselves with Ji Lee’s work “Word as Image‘ and made our own ‘Noun as Image‘ art.
We had the opportunity to reinforce our knowledge by writing a Noun Poem. We developed our reading and discussion skills by doing reading comprehension activities and reading our Literature Book ‘The Tale of Despereaux‘. This little mouse taught us valuable lessons such as; the importance of being different and how to be brave.
We also explored writing with out five senses and how to properly form an essay. Every week we focused on different language skills by doing 5 main exercises before class starts to practice different skills; brainstorming, free writing, unprepared speaking and listening.
Art
The students are learning different techniques by apply them to different objects, We did Zentagle using hatching, cross hatching, curve lines, dots and other lines.