I'm Back From My Hiatus

You haven't missed too much..

...

...bah, just kidding!  Actually, you've missed too much for me to share in one blog post (my fault), but here's my best summary of the last month.

     The past month we wrapped up multi-digit multiplication and division, and started adding, subtracting, and multiplying decimals, which will eventually lead us into fractions.  In the past month we also studied the American Revolution, and the students completed their biggest project yet.  They picked an area of interest from the American Revolution, researched, recorded/organized the most important details, wrote a rough draft, edited with me, wrote a final draft, created a poster, and presented to the class.  It was lengthy but worth while--and definitely impressive!  This project met both E.L.A. and social studies standards.  A sample of student work can be found at the bottom of this post.

     Second trimester ended last Friday, February 27.  Conferences were held and report cards were given this week.  A big THANK YOU to all of YOU who value education and encourage your children to believe the same.  I feel like I've typed this a million times, but EDUCATION OPENS DOORS TO OPPORTUNITIES! (I don't type in all caps that often; that's how passionate I am about this.)

Let's have a great third tri!

An example of the snacks that the students enjoy during classroom celebrations.  Yogurt, water, and vanilla cookies--food is for energy!

And a little just because photo.  A friend's new puppy: Link.

Fill-in-the-Blank Test

Hmm...what do you think all of these images have to do with our school week?

Image 1:  The Iowa Core standards that we are currently focusing on.  As the standards change I change our "I can" statements.  If you've ever worked with or visited the Iowa Core (if not, check it out, it's very user friendly), then you know the standards aren't always written in the most common language.  For that reason, I summarize the standard and put it in fifth grade friendly language.

Image 2:  In ELA we have been working on analyzing and comparing texts and multimedia.  This week we used the story "The Tortoise and the Hare;" we looked for similarities and differences between a short story, video (our favorite part was at minute:second 7:45), and book.  We also discussed the visual images each form of the story created in our minds and the emotions/ideas that they evoked from within us.

Image 3:  Right now we are actually studying long division, but our previous math standard was to master 3 digit by 2 digit multiplication.  In fifth grade students must know the process of the standard algorithm, but they are also taught other strategies, such as decomposing.

Image 4:  I'm sure many classes experience this same struggle...sometimes my students needed to be reminded of the cost of negative words and actions.  "Paper" is one of my favorite activities to act out to my students.  Basically, I put a paper person on the board and tear him down and crumple him up while I say not-so-nice things to him (you're a slow reader, no one wants to be on your team in P.E., your shoes are old and dirty, and etc.).  I then ask students to say kind things to paper as they put him back together.  We soon find out that once you've mistreated "Paper" he is never the same again.  It's meant to be an analogy for the idea that once you mistreat another person they are never the same again.

Also in this image is the picture book The 7 Habits of Happy Kids by Sean Covey.  I followed up the "Paper" activity with a story about teamwork.  If you've never heard of "the 7 habits" it's definitely worth a look!

Image 5 & 6:  Our coin jar was full!  So we spent about one hour on Friday celebrating with a game day.  As you can see most students brought electronic devices, but others played Risk (a game I extremely enjoy!).  Sometimes it is great to just kick back and relax...especially when you've earned it.

Stay warm and watch out for the immense amount of snow we are expecting!

Yours truly, 

Miss Grell

Here's Our Dream

     In honor of his birthday and MLK Day, my fifth grade class spent a week studying Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s life & life mission for racial justice.  The studying consisted of text and video research, recording information in an organizing table, and writing a short biography or essay responding to whether they believed MLK was a positive or negative influence.  I observed my students be sincerely engaged as they listened to MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech.  For that reason, we created our own (condensed) version of MLK's dream by singling out our favorite lines and adding a few lines of our own!  Please enjoy our work!

Cold Day Science Experiment

     SAFETY FIRST!  This experiment MUST be completed with an adult because it involves boiling water.

     I had a little bit of fun with my sister and nephew today; science and this freezing weather helped us turn boiling water into "snow!"  I asked my nephew and sister if it felt like snow when the wind pushed it into their faces, but they said it felt more like steam.  And that's because it is steam (water vapor)!  Although the result appears to be snow-like, the reaction between the hot water and cold air temperature creates vapor.  If you're interested in the science behind this experiment then visit this website http://www.livescience.com/32951-how-can-boiling-water-turn-snow.html; it should answer your questions.