Reading Week

Our class is jumping on board with Reading Week.  With a school district focus on "college and career ready", Reading Week took on the same theme.  Our class created a life-sized microbiologist drawing and researched what it takes to enter this career.  Our scientist is hanging the lunch room along with other career fields from other classes.  Today was "dress up as your future career" and many sure took the opportunity to do so.  We have lawyers, soccer players, scientists, actresses and more.

In social studies we have moved from Ancient Egypt into early Chinese culture.  With the fourth quarter starting this week we began our in-depth unit of geometry, which will take us most of the last quarter of school to complete. In reading we are analyzing poetry and even writing our own.  Science will be filled with "magic" as we explore chemical reactions over the next few weeks.  These experiments are surely to be remembered for years to come!

Next week we tour UNR to begin thinking about not only what it takes to be college and career ready, but also to get a visual of what college life entails and looks like. After we eat our sack lunch on campus we will explore how the geometry of a 45-45-90 degree triangle can help us form very close estimates of objects that are too tall to measure easily.  We will use clinometers to help measure tree and building heights.

Pi(e) Day

March 14th was a special day in our class, as we celebrated Pi (3.14).  The day began with reading where we read about the historical components of pi which led up to today's usage of the irrational number.  Next, we measured the circumference and diameter of many pies to calculate pi.  We quickly realized that it was difficult to measure the outside of a circle accurately, even with multiple hands holding a tape measure.  After lunch we reversed this process and used the diameter of a paper plate and pi to calculate the circumference of the plate.  After checking our math by actually measuring the plate we learned how to use pi to calculate the area of the plate.  The day ended with a voluntary  Pi Contest.  Students in our class and the other 5th grades demonstrated how many digits of pi they had memorized.  Skylee in our class won first prize by memorizing 93 digits of pi (Yes, NINETY-THREE!).  Second through fourth place went to students in Mrs. Espinosa's class with numbers in the sixties, fifties, and fourties.  Pretty impressive.

Mummified Oranges

Tuesday we applied what we have been learning about in social studies to mummify oranges.  Going through a similar process of the Ancient Egyptians, students scooped out the innards of the orange and replaced them with sodium bicarbonate, salt, and spices.  Next, they wrapped up the orange.  We simply have to wait a few months to see if this experiment works!

Using a Grid System in Drawing

In art we have been learning how to use a grid system to focus on small details instead of looking at an entire piece of work to draw.  In doing so, students were able to draw a very accurate bighorn sheep.  We will be using a similar technique as our class art project for the art auction this year. 

Looking at Cells

Our science is moving into the basic understanding of cells.  Yesterday, students made wet-mount slides of a slice of onion and observed the cells under the microscopes.  Most were able to identify the nucleus after we stained the cells with iodine, and ALL could certainly see the cell walls.  This week in class we move into understanding the basics of what is inside a cell.

As for social studies, we have moved into the Egyptian culture.  Students will design an Egyptian city for their "pharaoh"  Ramses II.  They must use what they've learned about the culture, and their leader to incorporate these into their design.  Next week we will combine science and social studies and have kids begin the multi-month task of mummifying oranges and comparing/contrasting this method to real Egyptian mummification.