What We're Learning this Week! (September 22-26, 2014)

On Monday in Math, we took our pre-test for standard 5.NBT.2. The same rules applied as our previous pre-test: any student scoring an 80% or better doesn't have to take the post-test. Unfortunately, no one got an 80% or better, but we're definitely motivated to improve our scores!

In Science, we continued with our iLearn Science PowerPoint, focusing on "Experiments". We discussed how each experiment begins with a testable question, then research is done, and finally a hypothesis created. We also set up our Skittles Experiment. Our question was "Do Skittles dissolve faster in hot water or cold water?"

In Social Studies, we continued researching and working on our Native American Tribes research projects. After researching last Friday, we began putting our information together and organizing our projects. 

On Tuesday in Math, we practiced solving problems using exponents and powers of ten. We discussed how there is a pattern that is created and how you're really only moving a decimal point and adding zeroes. 

In Science, we completed our Experiment notes, which discussed collecting, analyzing and communicating data. We also completed our Skittles Experiment. 

We discovered that Skittles dissolve faster in warm water!

In Social Studies, we continued working on our projects. They're coming along and looking better day by day!

On Wednesday, it was more of the same! In Math, we continued working with powers of 10 by completing a Powers of 10 Match Up activity with partners. This helped clear up some of the issues a few of us were still having.

In Science, we completed our iLearn Science PowerPoint, which has taught us SO much about Science Process Skills. Today's wrap-up discussed "Communication", both informally and formally, which was perfect timing since we finished up our Native American Tribe projects and are ready to present those as well!

What We're Learning this Week! (September 15-19, 2014)

The school days sure are flyin' by! Today in Math we continued our study of place value and standard 5.NBT.1. We worked with partners to complete a "Base Ten Blast" activity, requiring us again to apply the concepts we have been discussing to the place value chart. 

In Science, we discussed how our "I Can..." Statements, with an engineering focus, relate to the activities and skills we have been learning and practicing in class. 

In Social Studies, we wrapped up our chapter 3 readings, which focused on Native American cultural regions. We have now discussed all 7 regions, located them on a map, discussed the tribes that live in each region, and matched home, clothing, and miscellaneous artifacts to tribes that live in each region.  We also "Read Further" and compared and contrasted the lives of Native Americans of 4 different tribes, discussing how the men's work, women's work, food, homes, artwork and crafts all differed. 

On Tuesday, we practiced the skills we have been working on as part of our 5.NBT.1 standard one last time before our post-test on Thursday. Working in groups of 3 with one person being the official "checker", we played a game that had us using comparative sentences to compare the place value of two different numbers. We loved this activity!

In Social Studies, we began our Processing activity requiring us to write a letter to a movie director telling them how the script to their latest movie needed changed to correctly portray Native Americans of the Northwest Coast. We didn't get finished with these, but it did spark some interesting conversation about stereotypes and how we should avoid this type of thinking. In preparation for our Kentucky Living Archaeology field trip to Gladie in Red River Gorge, we also listened to our Walking Classroom podcast over Tecumseh. Unfortunately, due to nasty weather outside and the gym already having two classes because of M.A.P. testing, we weren't able to actually take a walk. So, we improvised and listened to the podcast inside. Some of us sat and chilled out while we listened, using it as time to de-stress, while others of us walked laps around the room as we listened to get our blood pumping and flowing. It was a bit crazy, as everyone was doing their own thing, but it worked! Organized chaos at its finest!

Wednesday we M.A.P. tested for Math, which took almost the entire time we were with Mrs. Elliott. Before we tested, we discussed how the goal for Fall, to be considered "on-level" as a 5th grader, was a score of 213. If we were above that already, we were to try to increase our scores as much as possible and if we were below that, it was what we were shooting for. We also talked about how important it was we try our hardest, as Mrs. Elliott uses the information to group us and to base her lessons upon. Of course there was also some friendly competition involved! Mrs. Elliott pitted her homeroom against Mrs. Dennis' homeroom to see which homeroom, as a whole, could reach a proficiency of 70% or better first by the end of the year! Between the two homerooms, there were 3 people absent who haven't tested yet, but so far, the highest score to beat is Shane Davis with a score of 239! He did an AWESOME job!

On Thursday in Math, we took our 5.NBT.1 post-assessment and analyzed our results in our Student Data Notebooks. We also updated our "Status of the Class" poster with information from our scores. MANY of us improved our scores greatly and got to move our post-it notes from the "red" to the "green" columns, showing we had fully mastered the required skills. 

In Social Studies, to wrap up our unit over Native American Cultural Regions, we began working on our Native American Research projects. In groups of 4, we picked a tribe we were interested in researching that we had already discussed. These included the Inuit, Seminole, Lakota Sioux, Iriquois, and Hopi. Next, we began researching information using a variety of resources. We used our classroom computers, KindleFires, trade books, notes, and text books. Specifically, for our presentation, we were looking for information regarding their homes, food, natural resources, culture, location, and other interesting facts that might not necessarily fall into of the other categories. We will continue researching into next week before working on our presentations. 

 

 

On Friday, we took our first field trip of the year to the Kentucky Living Archaeology event at Gladie, located in Red River Gorge. We LOVED this trip, as we got to experience so many hands-on activities. We got to use old time machinery to prep corn to be turned into meal, we watched a blacksmith manipulate pieces of random metal into useful items, we turned pieces of wool into thread, we felt furs and pelts and saw a variety of different tools and weapons used in the past, we created necklaces using arrowheads as drills, as many Native Americans did, we made pots out of clay native to Kentucky, we watched flint-makers create arrowheads out of random pieces of rock, we watched how to create long-bows out of trees and thin pieces of wood, we got to watch and even participate in a Native American ceremony, and MUCH, MUCH more! The weather was amazing, we were the best-behaved group there, and it was an all around wonderful day in 5th grade land!

 

 

What We're Learning this Week! (September 8-12, 2014)

Our fourth full week began with us taking our first pre-assessment in Math over 5.NBT.1 and working in our individual data notebooks. As we begin each new standard, we take a pre-test and those of us who score an 80% or higher don't have to take the post-test. We had 1 student who  will get to "relax" as the rest of us take our post-test one day next week. We also discussed our "I Can..." Statements and how they guide our learning as we practice new skills. We made it our goal to get out of the red "I need help" categories and into the "expert" green in our notebooks.

In Science, picking up where we left off last week, we did a Tools Sort Activity, requiring us to sort various scientific tools into three categories: Tools used for Safety, Tools used for Measurement/Observing, and Tools used for Recording.

In Social Studies, we began the week by listening to a Native American folk tale titled "The Gift of the Sacred Dog" (view it here). From here, we incorporated the Winter Counts we discussed on Friday and began creating our own Winter Counts that told a story, instead of representing years. We reviewed how winter counts were made on hides, the symbols began at the top left, and went in a spiral pattern around the entire hide. We used paper bags to make our hides and traced a tiny buffalo outline to make them look more realistic.  

On Tuesday we practiced and took notes over 5.NBT.1 in our ISN (Interactive Student Notebooks), which discussed how on a place value chart each time we move left one spot the value of the number gets 10 times larger and each time we move right, we get 1/10 the value. 

In Science, we continued our iLearn Science PowerPoint and took notes over "Measurement". 

In Social Studies, we finished our Winter Count activity. We did such a good job! 

Also, we took our second walk of the year with The Walking Classroom, an AMAZING program that we use in our classroom that allows us to get outside and get fresh air, while integrating technology and still learning critical Social Studies content. Tying in with our study of Native Americans, today we listened to Podcast #37 - "Sequoyah". After we walk, we always begin by summarizing the podcast, being sure to tell the important events. Next, we record 3 things that we learned after listening and draw a picture of what we visualized while we walked. Obviously, Sequoyah's cabin being burned down by members of his own tribe had quite an impact on us. 

On Wednesday in Math we practiced the skills that we learned from Tuesday. We worked in small groups and matched place value puzzles. Things became a lot clearer with this standard after we completed this activity!

In Science, we continued working on our iLearn Science PowerPoint and discussed scientific models and their benefits and limitations. 

In Social Studies, we completed our Chapter 2 test, which 80% of us got an A or B on! We kicked butt!

What We're Learning this Week! (September 1-5, 2014)

After a great 3-day weekend to say goodbye to summer, we were back at it in 5th grade this week!

We started setting up our O.R.E.O. Project by working through the scientific method and setting up our experiment. We created the question we were going to try to answer, listed our materials, went through our procedures, identified variables, and made a hypothesis before beginning. At this point, we were ready to test.

We started by stacking Oreos one at a time, with only one hand, counting the number of cookies as we went. When one or more cookies fell, we considered it a "tumble" and recorded our trial. We tried twice, and kept our best attempt. 

The self-proclaimed "Oreo Whisperer"!

Joseph was our Oreo stacker MASTER! He stacked a tower 40 Oreos tall!

From here, we calculated our small group's mean, median, mode, and range of our best attempts, before finding the entire class' mean, median, mode, and range.

In Social Studies, we wrapped up our study of Geography by doing a fun compass-reading activity. John, our local Boy Scouts troop leader, came in a did a quick lesson over reading compasses before we went outside to use what we had just learned. We used the compasses to solve riddles written by other classmates. Unfortunately, the first classes got soaked with a random rain shower while we were outside, but the second class got to complete the activity nice and dry!

Thursday had us starting something new in Math; using a coordinate grid. We began by creating a foldable for our ISN's (Interactive Student Notebooks) which identified the x- and y-axis, the origin and its ordered pair (0,0), and all four quadrants, and then we practiced graphing. We noticed that this tied into what we had just gotten done studying in Social Studies with Geography skills. The x-axis was like the equator and the y-axis was like the prime meridian. After taking notes, we practiced as a class. We got to throw sticky darts on a large coordinate grid Mrs. Elliott pulled up on the SmartBoard and our classmates had to answer its correct location in order to get a chance to throw. It was actually quite fun!

We also began Karate Math, our class' version of fact fluency tests! Since it was our first test, we all started out with the easiest facts to get our white belt, the 0's and 1's. Karate Math is no ordinary fact test though. First, it's 100 questions that we have to answer so that we REALLY have to know our multiplication tables. We also don't just sit in silence, we rock out to "Kung Fu Fighting" of course! We were all focused on those multiplication facts! Almost everybody received their white belt and began trying for their yellow belts, the 2's and 3's on Friday. We LOVE Karate Math!

In Social Studies Mrs. Elliott hung some of our Imagination Nation Projects on the Proficiency Board and we took our test over Chapter 1. Check out what amazing artists we are!

We also started our study of Chapter 2, which focused on Native Americans and Their Land. We started by discussing various migration routes the first Natives took to North and South America from Siberia, where scientists believed they originated. We related back to what we learned from our study of Geography and found some of the land and water features that may have influenced their routes. We also discussed "origin stories", stories about how certain groups of people thought they came to be on Earth. We read and discussed one origin story about the Hopi tribe. Finally, we partner read and summarized using specific vocabulary. We ROCKED at summarizing! 

On another note, we got additional textbooks, which we desperately needed! A huge shout-out to our Principal, Mr. Slone, for making that happen! All in all, it was another amazing, fun, and busy week in 5th grade! We wouldn't have it any other way!