Washington 4-5 Center

The fifth-grade students in Mrs. Eichstadt’s, Mrs. Gill’s, Ms. McWhorter’s, and Mrs. Azar’s classes have been working hard this year to master several skills and concepts. The students have really settled into fifth grade life and are making great gains to be prepared for middle school.

With this being their last year of elementary school, we work hard to make it memorable and meaningful.

In mathematics, our students have been mastering operations with decimals and fractions. In reality, the majority of our year in math is centered around being able to fluently add, subtract, multiply, divide, compare, and order decimals and fractions because these are crucial steppingstones to future math classes.

In language arts, we have been reading a variety of fiction and non-fiction texts and practicing several skills that go along with reading such as identifying and explaining text structure, determining author’s purpose, analyzing a point of view’s effect on a text, using vocabulary in context, and answering questions with textual evidence.

Our focus in science has been working with Project Lead the Way and learning how to use our note-taking skills to support our investigations related to Physical, Life, and Earth Science.

Finally, in social studies, our students have been learning about the 13 original colonies and what brought the first colonists to this continent; we’ve also studied the American Revolution and the Patriots’ fight for independence from Great Britain as they were being taxed to pay for wars (and the cry for “No taxation without representation!”), had to house soldiers in times of peace, and were required to buy products imported from Britain alone; we learned about the daring move made to sign the Declaration of Independence, the important battles of the war, and that independence was finally achieved at the Battle of Yorktown in 1781 when General Cornwallis surrendered to George Washington.

Fifth grade is a fun place to be, as you can tell! We have a lot to accomplish in our short time together, but it is a joy to be a part of these students’ educational journey!

Submitted by fifth-grade Orange POD teachers Michelle Azar, Amber Eichstadt, McKenzie Gill, and Jimae McWhorter