What We're Learning this Week! (October 13-17, 2014)

Standards of focus: Math: 5.NBT.4; Science 5-PS1-2

In Math on Monday, we began by taking our 5.NBT.4 Pre-test. As a whole, we did better on this pre-test than any so far, with 7 of us in each class (Elliott's and Dennis' homerooms) scoring an 80% or better and not being required to take the post-test. This standard has us focusing on rounding numbers to a specific place so we made sure to record notes in our Interactive Student Notebooks that would help us later.

In Science, we completed a graphic organizer in our Science notebooks that helped to further explain the Law of Conservation of Mass.

In Social Studies, we "Read Further" about Spain and France fighting over Florida during the age of exploration. We also matched the various routes to the explorer of which it belonged.

On Tuesday in Math, we completed a "Round and Round..." activity with our partners where we got the chance to practice rounding numbers to a given place value.

In Science, we further discussed the Law of Conservation of Mass and Mrs. Elliott did a demonstration with sugar and water for us. Last week, using ice, we discussed how matter can change states by cooling or heating and the mass remains constant as long as no matter is added nor taken away. Today, we discussed how matter can also be mixed and the sum of the parts seperate equals the sum of the parts when combined. We proved this by weighing a beaker with water and a sugar packet before mixed, and then with the sugar dissolved in the water. We found that both times, the mass was the same.

In Social Studies, we tried something new today: a European Explorer Dice Simulation. We rotated through 6 different scenarios, based upon what they rolled at the previous station. 

(Not pictured: "In Europe", where each student explorer began!)

We did this 20 times; rolling, reading what each role meant, and then going to that station to role again.

After 20 roles, we looked at our recording sheets and then began writing journal entries, pretending we were explorers and using what we rolled and our recording sheet as our guide to tell about our journeys. Some of us never made it our of Europe because we couldn't get funding. Some of us spent months lost at sea, while still others explored vast lands and uncharted territories. It was a BLAST!

On Wednesday in Math, we continued working with rounding decimals. With partners, we worked on football (of course!) themed task cards that also had real life connections, such as rounding money. 

In Social Studies, we began working on our European Explorer Timelines. In groups of 3, we began researching and finding 10 voyages, developments, discoveries, outcomes, etc. of European explorers that we felt were important during the Age of Discovery. We then worked on placing them on the correct spot on the timeline, along with a small blurb and an illustration. We will continue working on this project next week, but so far, they're coming along really nicely!