Thursday, June 1st - The kids enjoyed the tour of their solar system. I truly believe that their eyes and minds have been opened and some great things will come from this work... in the years to come. We finished the unit with a very, very long Kahoot! - 41 questions. I find this unit fascinating and hopefully these students feel the same way.
Tuesday, May 30th - The kids showcased their creative sides by performing their solar system projects. Essays, poems, skits and even a song was on the bill. As a class, we went over a solar system questionnaire from the beginning of the unit. I felt pretty good when the kids could answer the questions now without looking at notes or me looking at blank faces. We will be wrapping up the solar system in the next couple of days and closing the year with the Civil War/Reconstruction/Industrial Revolution.
Friday, May 26th - The kids got to show off their knowledge of the solar system by writing about it. What does that mean? Great question. The students had to write about the object in the solar system that they researched and presented last week. What did they write? Another great question. Anything they wanted. They could write a poem, song, persuasive essay, play, first person (objects point of view), science fiction... any type of writing that used their information accurately.
Monday, May 22nd - We have traveled hundreds of millions of miles (or about 10 AU's) and still have a long way to go to get to the end of our solar system. Turns out, that what we were taught in school was missing a bit of the solar system. We now know that it is about 10 times larger!!! One more day of presentations.
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So the coolest thing about Saturn is not the rings... it is a hexagonal storm! |
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Friday, May 19th - The students began to present their solar system topic. They are getting better at presenting to the class and not reading off the SmartBoard. We made it to Mars today, so the presentations will probably take a couple of more days. Don't worry, we stop after each presentation and share the notes that the kids are taking... I also supplement with super fascinating facts and corrections (if needed).
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Why do the two faces of the moon look so different? |
Thursday, May 18th - The kids began their research on a an object in the solar system. Our solar system is much larger than you were taught. By the middle of next week, your child will be able to explain why it is so much larger (fingers crossed).
Here is Saturn and you are looking south toward Mt. Hebron. Can you see the Sun? It is the soccer ball. It is 238 meters on our model and 1,430,000,000 kilometers out there!
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Tuesday, May 16th - We have talked about models throughout the year and today we put it all to the test. We looked at models from Whoopee Cushions to the solar system. All the models were pretty good, except for the solar system models. We discussed solar system from the Ptolemy model to modern text books and posters of our solar system. What did we find out... they are all bad! Today was a once in a lifetime opportunity for the students to create a good model. First, we had to create the scale. 1 kilometer to 6,000,000,000 meters. Than we did the math. Because of time and age, we did a few together and I gave the rest of the answers (some kids took sheets home to try to "do the math"). In the end we had the scale diameters of the sun/planets and the distance of the bodies from the sun. We started with the sun at the end of College Ave (across from the school). We next walked out the planets. 9.7 meters to Mercury. Another 8.3 meters to Venus. A short walk to Earth of 7.0 meters. Onto Mars with another 13 meters from Earth. We finished up at the Montclair State, 750 meters from the sun (4,500,000,000 km). We would have to go much farther to account for the Kuiper Belt (that is where Pluto lives) and the Oort Cloud. We would have ended up in Patterson.
In the end, the students had a better understanding of how enormous size of the solar system. How empty it is. How the sun contains 99.8% of the all the mass and why they will probably never again see an accurate model. I thought it was awesome. |
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Thursday, April 13th - We wrapped up the week by watching videos of the students "Hum-Dingers". The kids had a lot of interesting ideas on changes that could have been made to the other teams projects.
I read the Dr. Seuss book, The Lorax, to get the kids thinking about Earth Day. Also, I love that book. We discussed how the book was a mirror for the times. What was happening with the environment and how change came about... and it has come a long way. We still have work to do, but anything is possible. April 22nd is Earth Day and some of the students said they were planning on performing some type of task to make a difference. They will report back on the Monday we return. They are thinking globally, but acting locally. |
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Tuesday and Wednesday, April 11th and 12th - The kids have been working on a new "black box"... Inside a taped shut brown shopping bag, there is a hum-dinger (pull the string and the bag "hums"... let go of the string and a bell "dings")... The students got boards and parts and did their best to create a physical model of what they could not see. They did great... take a look...
5D Humdingers
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5F Humdingers
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5L Humdingers
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Monday, April 10th - What did we do in class on today? We created another conceptual model of a Drought Stopper (black box). Although the box was brown that housed the mystery, it is still called a black box. I told the students that if any group could come up with a model that matched the black box, I would open it and let them see inside. Some got very close and with a little support, each class was able to figure it out. The best part... some groups came up with amazing models that would work. The basic idea inside the box was siphoning, but your kids can explain it better. Here are pictures of their models... no one believed that the black box was "magic".
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Thursday, April 6th - Rube Goldberg projects today. The kids learned about Rube and his conceptual models. The kids got their chance to create their own Rube Goldberg machine. The kids had to come up with the simple task and an overly complicated process to complete the task. Take a look at their work (under the cartoon). We also took a trip to the Science Fair, so the kids got to see all the projects. Don't forget... Science Fair tonight - 6:30-8:30PM.
Tuesday, April 4th - Don't worry... we have had classes the last couple of days. Today, the kids finished their Science Fair presentations and in case you were wondering... they were great. I will post pictures of their work tomorrow.
Wednesday, March 29th - The students were given the parts that created their black boxes. They took the conceptual models (drawn on the boards below) and made physical models. The kids did a super job, because they built their models based on their drawings, but began to make changes after testing. Since the Black Boxes will never be opened, each group is correct... until we get more information.
Monday and Tuesday, March 27th and 28th - PARCC is a fact of life and the kids are taking it in stride. Two days down and no problems. The kids get time and a half this year (90 minutes the last two days), but most are done in 30 - 40 minutes. We are going to wait until PARCC is over before we have our American Revolution assessment. We will have a review before the test and I am thinking just multiple choice (some time will have past since we finished the unit).
Black boxes! The kids were introduced to models and design. We started by learning about what a model is and what the students knew about models (or made). Black boxes are the unknown. The students have to create a model of a black box, but they cannot see inside. They have to use other senses and teamwork to solve the problem. After the groups drew their models on the board, they gathered together to come try and come up a with a single model. Since the box is sealed, they are all correct. It is driving them crazy that they cannot look inside. .Check out their work.
Black boxes! The kids were introduced to models and design. We started by learning about what a model is and what the students knew about models (or made). Black boxes are the unknown. The students have to create a model of a black box, but they cannot see inside. They have to use other senses and teamwork to solve the problem. After the groups drew their models on the board, they gathered together to come try and come up a with a single model. Since the box is sealed, they are all correct. It is driving them crazy that they cannot look inside. .Check out their work.
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Friday, February 24th - Earth's Systems came to a close today with our final assessment. The kids had to pick 2 of the 4 prompts to write about... it was a new experience. The kids also used Google Classroom for their work and the results will be returned through the same classroom assignment. We are now ready for a revolution... see you in social studies.
Thursday, March 23rd - Don't sweat the assessment tomorrow. The test will be essay and the kids can use their notebooks.
Wednesday, February 22nd - Why is the ocean salty? That is an answer that your child can give you... precipitation erodes rocks that contain trace amounts of salts. Runoff brings that salt to the oceans. The water evaporates and leaves behind the salt. Condensation leads to precipitation again and the cycle continues. The oceans get saltier and saltier. The ocean is about 3.5% salt. Writing assessment on Friday and the kids can use their notebooks.
Tuesday, February 21st - Water Cycle was the topic of the day. This was half refresher and half new information (going deeper). The kids than looked at the distribution of water on Earth. Spoiler alert... there is a lot of salt water. But why? That is for the students to think about tonight. All the water on Earth started out as fresh water (from space). Take a look at the model we made...
Thursday and Friday, February 16th and 17th - We made it!!! The kids finished their African empire projects and presented them to the class. Their skills are getting better ever time. Enjoy the long weekend and we will be back at work with the water cycle on Tuesday. There will be a test at the end of next week or the beginning of the following week. The kids can bring their notebooks home any night to review, they just need to make sure to bring them back the next day. The assessment will be something different. The kids will be given maybe 4 or 5 prompts and have to write about 2 or 3 or them. I want them to have the opportunity to show that they understand the big picture concepts. We will have a review in class before the assessment.
Wednesday, February 15th - Rock Cycle was the days topic. The kids had background knowledge, but it was three pieces... igneous, sedimentary and metaphoric rock. I expanded their minds and added 10 steps to make a total of 13 for the rock cycle. It was interesting and I think the kids liked the fact that it made connections that they thought about, filled in pieces they didn't know or know how/what to ask.
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Tuesday, February 14th - Tectonic Plates are now part of your child's background knowledge. After finishing our work on that topic, we read about the "sugar industry" and their "studies". It seemed appropriate for the day... by the way Happy Valentine's Day. You can check out that article and others at ScienceWorld online. Hover over the "Science" tab and click on "ScienceWorld". The link and password are on that page. The kids love this magazine... I do also. We closed out the second half of the class by creating a map of the water features of Africa. The kids did some very nice work.
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Monday, February 13th - Another delayed opening... shorter classes today, but we made good progress with tectonic plates. We just need about 10 minutes tomorrow to discuss Transform Boundaries and moving on.
Friday, February 10th - Delayed opening gave us shortened classes today. Two classes finished presenting their biosphere biome. They we great. the other class moved on to Plate Tectonics. It seemed like this was new territory for most of the students. I think the topic is fascinating and the students seemed to be there with me. We covered the history of the topic and looked into 1 of the 3 movements of the plates... Divergent Boundary (thank you book by that name, because the students had an idea of what the word meant). Some times, the classes are a little off from each other, but they all get to the same place... it is because of extra gym.
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Thursday, February 9th -
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Wednesday, February 8th - Presentation Day! The groups did great with presenting to the class and not the SmartBoard. It was just the presenters great... the audience was super. The kids listened and responded appropriately. What more could I ask for?
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Tuesday, February 7th - February is African American History Month, so we will have appropriate lessons mixed in to our regular science and social studies classes. African American history is celebrated in February, but is taught throughout the year in my classes. Today, we spent some time going back to the beginning... Africa. The kids are getting a better understanding of the features or the continent of Africa (water and land), so that they understand that Africa is not just hot and dry deserts or the Serengeti. Africa is mountains, rainforests, rivers, lakes, waterfalls, deserts, savannas, deciduous forests, volcanoes...
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Monday, February 6th - Research... The students were given an assignment in Google Classroom. They were randomly paired and randomly given a biome. The students learned how to share a file in Google. This is pretty neat, because they give access to each other access to work on the same Google Slide, at the the same time. They can literally on the same slide, making real time changes (although that is not recommended). This research project was a little different, because they needed to have slides with pictures... but no words (maybe a title). They took notes and will present to the class later this week. If given the chance, the kids will type everything into their presentations (takes longer) and have a tendency to read from the SmartBoard (not great for the audience... unless they like to have people turn their backs on them). Hopefully, this will get them thinking about presentations in a different way.
Friday, February 3rd - We completed our Biome Model. This will be the theme for the next couple of weeks... models, not biomes. The students did a great job of coming up with the information to put on the model and will use this to finish their worksheets about "Spheres and Biomes".
Thursday, February 2nd - We began our focus on the Biosphere. We are looking at the different biomes on Earth and where they are located (making a map). The kids will finish up tomorrow and begin a research project. This time, they will create the presentation in Google Slides, but no words... well maybe just a title.
Wednesday, February 1st - We all the classes finished the first step in the Earth Systems unit and began our deeper investigation into the Biosphere... Biomes.
Tuesday, January 31st - Most of the classes finished the Earth's Spheres Model. Over the next couple of days, we will spend time going deeper into each of the spheres... should be fun! Here's our finished work...
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Monday, January 30th - The class started with a review of the 13 Colonies test. We than began our unit on the Earth Systems.. four main systems... hydrosphere (water), biosphere (life), geosphere (rock) and atmosphere (air). Today's goal: I can develop a model to describe Earth's four major systems. How did we do... not to bad. We got through the background and one system. We will finish the other three tomorrow. The students have the same picture in their notebooks that I have on the board and are adding notes and finding examples. I will include a picture of our model tomorrow. I guide the students, but the information we write down comes from them. We also watched a short, but good video to start the day (the video can be found on the video tab).
Bradford Car Build Challenge
Congratulations to all the Bradford Car Builders. All the students did a marvelous job of designing, building, making adjustments... all while working within a budget. All the cars were timed at different angles (10, 20, 30 and 40 degrees). Those times were used to rank the cars for the bracket racing. The cars had to win two out of three races to move on to the next round. Each class had a winner and all the winners came together at the end of the day to determine the 5th Grade Car Build Champion. The car in the center of each picture is the class champion. Brackets next to the pictures show the results for that class.
Our superstars were team The Mustache from 5D (AC and LP).
Our superstars were team The Mustache from 5D (AC and LP).
5D
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5F
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5L
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Matter and Energy in Ecosystems and Organisms - This is the topic that we started this week (11/30). The students already have a good background knowledge of the material, but that is expected. This is a refresher and than going for a deeper understanding.
We have our first Science test tomorrow... Friday (10/21). This is an open notebook test, so there is no need to study hard and memorize definitions. Your kid should be familiar with the experiments and vocabulary that is in their notebook.
We are starting our 5th grade science year off with the study of matter. We will be using chemistry to help understand the basics... matter is neither created nor destroyed. Lots of hands on experiments and opportunities for the students to think their way through the work.
