Welcome to 5th Grade and the 2011-2012 School Year

Welcome back from another summer vacation.  I hope you enjoyed your time off and at the same time were able to expand your horizons through recent life experiences.  This year holds many exciting opportunities. Be ready for a firm handshake the first day of school as I welcome you to the beginning of your 5th grade year on August 29th.

End of the Year

We are quickly approaching the end of the school year. My how time flies.  In an effort to drive academic instruction to the final days, we will be incorporating multiple disciplines we have learned this year to carry out a variety of projects.

The week-long project we are currently working on involves collecting data involving automobiles.  Yesterday we discussed how companies do in-depth research before sinking funds into making products.  The challenge this week for math, science, art, and writing is to develop a new car or truck based upon the characteristics of the most commonly seen automobiles.  We collected a variety of data on vehicles that drove by the school yesterday on Plumb Lane.  Today students will calculate percents on the vehicle's characteristics (on the many, many cars we saw in 15 minutes).  Later this week students will transform these percents into accurate circle graphs to display the information.  They will then design their own car based upon the most commonly seen traits and create an advertisement which persuades others to purchase it, while at the same time backing up their claims with data they collected.

In social studies, students are narrowing down the top 15 events from U.S. history and designing an accurate time line to display the events they feel had the most impact on American history.

In science, a variety of small labs/lessons will be carried out. One lesson will focus on germs, using a special dust that glows under UV light.  Students will see how quickly germs can spread.  Another lab will challenge students to discover if the size of a ball effects its speed as it rolls down a ramp.  We will also be investaging some new materails I collected this year on wind energy and solar energy.  We have had the wind, we just need to have a little sun too for this lab.

Next Tuesday, June 6th, is our field day for the first two hours of school.  Students will rotate around to a variety of stations around the school.  This is also when we will have a little celebration during lunch time.  Thanks for all those who will help contribute food for this.

That afternoon students will fill out some information, which is exactly the same as the Time Capsule they filled out the first few days of school.  They will then get their original Time Capsule back that they filled out and compare their answers to see how they have changed (and stayed the same with certain likes/dislikes).  It is always a fun time. 

Our last day of school will be on June 8th.  Thank you so much for such a wonderful year.  This has been an amazing class!

To Infinity and Beyond!

We have recently been studying space science.  The last couple of weeks we explored how big (or small, depending on how you look at it) our solar system is by walking a 100 meter scaled model of it on the playground.  We then built our Milky Way Galaxy out of paper and visualized where our solar system fit inside that model and tried to visualize our galaxy as one of 30 galaxies in the Local Group, just a few galaxies in the universe.

We continued to dig into science standard E5B4 to understand the cyclical patterns of observable objects in the solar system by having a guest speaker visit to talk about meteors and asteroids.  Ask your child what he or she thought of the guest speaker, as he was quite different.  Students then created a model of the surface of a planet with flour and grape drink mix and explored impact crators.

Museum Day was a Success!

After a month of preparation, Museum Day was a huge success.  Students wrote the best three-minute speeches using research from three different sources.  Their memorization of the speech, along with their amazing costumes was outstanding.  They presented twice throughout the day, with the showing at 2:15 being the busiest.  Many students said they only had five or ten seconds of not talking between presentations during that showing.  I am very proud of all my students.

Museum Day, Art BBQ, and Book Report

This Friday, May 6th the school is holding its art and picnic BBQ.  Families are welcomed to attend.  Students' artwork will be displayed outside each classroom.  You are welcome to purchase the BBQ food from the school or bring your own picnic lunch.

Next Tuesday, May 10th is the 5th grade Museum Day.  We have been working hard researching historical figures, using internet, encyclopedias, and books to put together a three minute speech about the character.  We will begin dress rehearsals Friday.  Please help your child create a costume to fit their character.  Their homework this week is to begin practice memorizing their speech.  They will also have time Thursday, Friday, and Monday to work on memorizing it and practicing it.  You are welcome to attend the showing on Tuesday.  We will have one showing from 9:30-10:00 and one from 2:15-2:45.

Our next book report is due on May 20th.  Students can choose any genre they like.  There are two components to this book report. First, fill out the standard book report form.  The second component is to create a board game using the characters, setting, plot, etc. from the book.  Criteria is attached to the book report form.  These games will be played in class on May 20th, so they need to be designed so that anyone can play them, even if they haven't read the book.

Reading Week ROCKS!

The week before spring break celebrated Reading Week.  Our class participated in themed events each day.  The last day many students dressed up for a final finale to our "Reading Rocks" theme.

Other activities this week included Poem in a Pocket, guessing passages from books, and more.

It didn't stop us from learning though.  We have been working on a novel titled "Dreamsong".  We will finish the book after spring break.  In social studies, we are moving into understanding the reasons the nation became divided in the 1800's leading up to the Civil War.  In science, we are beginning to conclude our unit on mixtures and solutions.  Today students will compare solubility between a saturated solution of salt water and a saturated solution of powdered citric acid and water.  They are all becoming very good at the metric system and using graduated cylinders to measure liquids.  After the break, Monday will start out with Star Lab, followed by a big unit on space science.  Writing is focusing on research.  We have learned about bibliography pages and have begun researching our characters for the book report and Museum Day.

Students are now going to continue this research on their own for their book report book, using the notecard process learned in class.  At the completion of their book report, we will research in class using two other sources and take notes on those as well.  Museum Day will be a great success!

Museum Day

We will begin working on a large scale report on a person who is an American hero, either someone who was an American or greatly influenced America.  Starting this week, students will sign up for the person they want to research and eventually become.  Our book report for the next 3 weeks will be a biography on their person.  Later this week they will learn how to take notes on notecards on important information as they read their book.  These notes, along with the book report, will become the first source for their big report.  Following the book report, which is due April 29th, students will continue researching using one internet site and an encyclopedia.  Creating a well written bibliography page to go along with the report is part of the assignment, as well as citing sources if using quotations.

Finally, the end finale is Museum Day.  On May 10th (times to be determined later by the 5th grades), parents are invited to tour our "museum".  Students will be dressed up their costume representing their person in history.  Simply pushing a "button" on their arm will activate a 3 minute, memorized oral background of the person.  Over 75 fifth graders presenting America's influential people...what a great time that will be!

We began checking out biographies last week in library.  We will continue to do so Wednesday of this week.
The public library is also a great resource.