What We're Learning this Week (February 27-March 2, 2012)

Monday started the second week we have been working on conversions. Last week we focused solely on the Metric System and this week our focus is the Customary System.

Tuesday we worked with partners solving Customary conversions. We practiced converting between inches, feet, yards and miles measuring distance; ounces, pounds and tons measuring weight; and ounces, cups, pints, quarts, and gallons measuring capacity. Ms. Goldy taught us a few tricks to help remember our conversions. 

"Walking my mile, I ate five tomatoes."

This saying helped us remember how many feet were in a mile: 5280. "Five tomatoes" sounds similar to the numbers 5-2-8-0. We already knew about "Gallon Man" but he's too complicated to draw when you're trying to hurry while working on a test. So, Ms Goldy showed us the "Big G" trick to remember our capacity conversions. 

This helped us visualize the 2 cups in a pint, 2 pints in a quart, and 4 quarts in a gallon. It also makes other conversions very simple, like cups in a gallon; all you have to do is count them up!

Wednesday and Thursday this week were spent reviewing for our Unit 5 Assessment. We used iPods as clickers and practiced working out and answering questions to help us prepare. Answers were reviewed and any problems or concerns were discussed and cleared up. We reviewed Metric conversions, Customary conversions, using line plots, and volume of rectangular prisms. We are ready to ace the test!

What We're Learning this Week (February 21-24, 2012)

Another 3 day weekend meant catching up in Math class this week and ensuring we didn't fall behind. Tuesday, we began conversions. We started with the metric system, since it's easier and basically follows our base-10 decimal system anyway. We learned and practiced using the "ladder method" of converting units and learned a few new sayings along the way to help us remember. 


"Kids have dropped over dead converting metrics," was the first. The beginning letter of every word reminds us of what the prefix in the metric system starts with from largest to smallest units: kilo-, hecto-, deka-, deci-, centi-, and milli-. 

The second was "Horse to fly, multiply. Fly to horse, divide of course!" This saying helped us to know whether to multiply or divide to convert, as well as let us check our answers to see if they made sense. 


Wednesday, we turned in our juice box projects we've been working on. We worked with partners to create a new juice box design for the Tooty Fruity juice company following specific criteria. They turned out AMAZING and Ms. Goldy has already updated her proficiency board showcasing some of the spectacular work! Who knew we could be such great advertisers? LOL

Our prompt

We're Partially Funded!

So far we're $30 closer to our goal of getting our two tablet computers for the classroom! Read about our project below and donate to help our cause if you're so inclined! We thank you and are keeping our finger crossed that we get our tablets soon!

View our proposal: http://www.donorschoose.org/jessica.goldy

Tips to help our project:

1. After entering a donation amount, on the review screen, click the link that says "optional 15% donation". Change the 15% to 0% and click "save", as this will allow 100% percent of what is donated to go directly to our project, as opposed to helping fund the site. 

2. On the payment screen, where it says "I have a gift or match code:" enter ZONKER This will allow whatever monetary value donated to be DOUBLED! For example, if you enter $5 along with the code, $10 will be applied towards our project, thereby helping it get funded in half the time.  

What We're Learning this Week (February 13-17, 2012)

On Monday, we began discussing how to find the volume of rectangular prisms. We discussed the two different formulas, V=lxwxh and V=Bh, where B is the area of the base, as well as what the correct units are when recording volume: units cubed. This allowed us to briefly review exponents (we take any opportunity to review that we can) which was a topic we covered earlier in the year.


Snow Day Tuesday meant busy day Wednesday! We had an action packed day Wednesday! In Math, we continued working on finding the volume of rectangular prisms. 

As practice for the concepts we learned Monday, we had Math Workshop Wednesday and rotated through our Math Stations. This year, we've been rotating through 4 stations, which coincidentally, spell "MATH"! 

"M" stands for "Math Facts". Here, we begin by getting our Math Automaticity Folders ready for the next day. Next, we either work on the XtraMath website or we use our handheld Math Shark games and rotate within our group when computers are free. 

"A" stands for "At Your Seat". At this station, we work on whatever skill we are focusing on for the lesson individually at our seat. Today, it was of course finding the volume of rectangular prisms. 

"T" stands for "Teacher's Choice". Here, we either work with our teacher in a small group at her chair with whiteboards, or we work on something of her choice. Today, some of us spent the time finishing our hands-on activity, while others used iPads and worked on our MobyMath lessons. 

"H" stands for "Hands-On". At this station, we work on our focus skill for the lesson, but use manipulatives of some sort, whether it be cards, dominoes, sticks, or dice, like today, to help us better understand and practice the concept we are working on. Today, we used the outcome of rolling three dice as the dimensions of the prisms we needed to find the volume for, giving us practice using both formulas we discussed Monday. We practiced drawing diagrams of the prisms, solving the volume and making sure we included correct units, which for volume is units cubed. 

After a hard day of Math, it was PARTY time! We enjoyed pizza, Ale-8's, lots of candy, chocolate and sweets, and of course Valentines!

To celebrate Math, we each created a Math Valentine to trade with someone in our class who had to solve the problem we created.  Check out some of our Math Valentines.

To top off our action-packed day, a class picture! First, serious faces, then silly poses!

Thursday, we practiced creating rectangular prisms from nets. 

After we created the prisms, we found their volumes by using both of the formulas we've learned, as well as counted the actual cubes that each prism would hold. We also talked about surface area and how it is very similar to finding the area of polygons. After finding the volume of our prisms, we found their surface areas. We finished the day by working with partners on an inquiry activity, which we will continue working on Friday. 

Help Fund Our Class!

Our class has recently submitted a proposal to DonorsChoose.org, a nonprofit organization that connects public school teachers with people who want to support classroom learning. (Read more about DonorsChoose.org) Last year, Ms. Goldy submitted numerous different proposals for various Science kits, tools, activities, and experiments that were funded for use in her class. This year, we hope to receive the same type of generosity for materials to use in our Math class. Our proposal is for 2 tablet computers to update our classroom technology center.


View our proposal: http://www.donorschoose.org/jessica.goldy

Tips to help our project:

1. After entering a donation amount, on the review screen, click the link that says "optional 15% donation". Change the 15% to 0% and click "save", as this will allow 100% percent of what is donated to go directly to our project, as opposed to helping fund the site. 

2. On the payment screen, where it says "I have a gift or match code:" enter ZONKER This will allow whatever monetary value donated to be DOUBLED! For example, if you enter $5 along with the code, $10 will be applied towards our project, thereby helping it get funded in half the time.  

What We're Learning this Week (February 6-10, 2012)

In an effort to get our class books done as part of the OE.S. Book Club, we rearranged our schedule a little this week and took a break from our normal Math routine. After much thought, each class decided to create an "insider's guide" to 5th grade Math, including explanations in student-friendly terms on how to solve problems with examples. We began by brainstorming a list of topics we have learned in 5th grade. It was actually very hard, seeing as how we have covered a huge variety of topics, but we tried to stick to only topics we've learned in 5th grade, as opposed to reviewed in 5th grade, but learned last year. Here's the giant list we came up with.

From there, each student picked a topic of their choice and began writing their rough drafts.

Tuesday we began the day by participating in The Great Central U.S. ShakeOut Earthquake drill, one of the largest drills in the region. In class, we continued working on our books. We are at various stages of writing, from working on our rough drafts, to editing, to typing our final drafts, to illustrating. They are turning out nicely and we are getting excited about our book.


Wednesday we continued working on our books. More of us are typing our final drafts and finishing up our illustrations. We can't wait until they are done!


Thursday was book work as usual for the first part of the day. In the afternoon, the maintenance crew came and fixed our coat hooks! We were so excited we celebrated! These have been a pain the last two weeks because they kept pulling out of the wall, spilling our belongings all over the floor. Look how nice! It's the simple things in life that make us happy! Now, if only the projector bulb fairies would come! :)

A downfall, however, was that due to all of the drilling and hammering, we couldn't concentrate on our writings. So, we took the day off and played games. MATH games of course! We chose the game 24, so we played it with a partner. 

If  you haven't played the game 24, you should! It's so much fun! You pick a card that has 4 numbers on it. The object is to use any operation: addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division in any order with the numbers you have on the card to reach an answer of 24. It requires lots of mental math, along with higher order thinking and problem solving so it's exercising your brain while you're playing! A win-win!


Friday was business as usual. We took our Weekly Math quiz and analyzed our class data by finding the range, median, mode and mean of our class scores.  Today was also the Karate Off! We had lost of repeat winners, along with some new ones. We also had an awards ceremony for the 4-H competition that we've worked so hard on the last few weeks. The overall school winners were announced who will go on to compete against other schools in the district. 

Happy Groundhog Day!

Unfortunately for us, our furry friend Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this morning, which according to legend means 6 more weeks of Winter. I don't know about Phil, but it sure doesn't feel like winter outside with the temperatures we've been having the past few weeks. We say bring on Spring!

Here's a little background information on Phil and Groundhog Day if you're interested. 

Groundhog Day