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.