Greek Mythology

We have finished up our Greek Mythology and our reader's theatre of self-created plays with our final performances this Thursday and Friday.  It was great to see the unique styles in which the class merged the classic Greek myths with today's social experiences (Facebook, KFC, etc.).

Fly Fishing and Star Lab

Although we have been working very hard to review all we have learned for the CRT tests next week, we have still been able to create high quality, inspiring instruction.  In PE, we have been learning the sport of fly fishing.  Last week we learned the basic knots associated with fly fishing and this week we learned the 11 basic steps to a casting.

In science today we blew up the Star Lab in our classroom and had private star shows. The focus was on some basic astronomy, but we also learned about our galaxy and universe and basic identification of some major constellations.  The Greek and Roman mythology always seems to entertain as well.

Chemical Reactions in Science

We are well into our chemical reaction labs in science.  Last week an introductory lab allowed students to test a variety of unknown liquids with unknown white powders.  After recording observations of reactions or lack of reactions, they used their data to determine an unknown sample.  The purpose of the lab was to not only introduce reactions, but also focus on physical properties.

Yesterday we became "tardy" leprechauns (as St. Patrick's Day was a week ago) and turned pennies into "gold".  In reality, we learned about alloys. We first cleaned the pennies in Taco Bell sauce and through this inquiry learned that vinegar is an  ingredient in the sauce.  Relating this to the prior lab where we learned that acetic acid is vinegar, students quickly put it together that the acetic acid cleaned the penny.  When Lane asked why we didn't just clean them in vinegar I responded that this was more fun.  He replied, "Yes, and I now know taco sauce can clean pennies."  Next, we plated the pennies in zinc. Students really enjoyed seeing a silver looking penny.  Finally, we applied heat and allowed the copper and zinc to bond at the molecular level, creating brass.  This brass gave the pennies a "gold" appearance.

We have two more labs, a heat lab and a light stick lab coming up later this week, which will conclude our chemical reaction labs.  Astronomy will begin after the break.

UNR Fieldtrip

The weather for our excursion to the University of Nevada, Reno couldn't have been better.  Our learning began with an hour and forty minute tour around campus.  We had eight students from our class who had not ever even been on campus before. Even those who had learned something new.  I heard lots of discussions from students regarding how neat college will be to attend.  A few students were 110% energized about attending college, as the energy level regarding what they were taking away from this tour really showed me how important it was.  After our tour we sat outside the Joe Crowley Student Union and ate lunch.  Following this, a challenge was set for the 85 students to calculate the height of the J.C. Student Union.  After some practice using clinometers on trees and lamp posts, and after a quick lesson on the geometry of a 45-45-90 degree triangle, students put their new knowledge to use.  Measurements came in from 80 to 91 feet tall from the groups.  Not too bad for using a straw, a string, a washer, and a paper copy of a protractor!

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!