In our Social Studies unit, we are discovering what motivated European Explorers to set sail for the New World. Today, we set up a "sunken ship" that contained artifacts and objects that would have been found on an explorer's ship and, as archaeologists, we explored! After the "diver" retrieved the item, the "research scientist" sketched the item and researched why this item was important to explorers. Finally, we classified the items into one of three areas: New products from the Americas, motives for exploration, and new technology that helped exploration. Ask your student about their deep sea experience!
We have been hard at work researching our inquiry topics. Our class is learning more about the following topics : hibernation, exploring the moon, lost cities, everyday inventions, dinosaur discoveries, and the deep ocean. We are now crossing over from finding information to putting it together in a presentation format to present to an audience. In the pictures below, you can see many groups discussing the finer details of layout. For this unit, they are imitating the front page of a newspaper. The kids have done a wonderful job so far working as collaborative teams that share a workload, and I can't wait to see their finished products! This week, we have begun doing literature circles. Students are keeping a double-entry journal and annotating text with post-its to help to gather and organize their thoughts. This allows all students to be a participant in their group discussions. While we're reading, we are utilizing many of the skills on which we have been working. Students are always keeping an eye out for idioms, metaphors, and similes*. Another skill that is being developed is synthesizing. This is when readers bring together information from other sources, combine it with what they are reading, and come to a deeper understanding of the text. Finally, we are continuing to practice summarizing using the "Somebody Wanted But So Then" framework. Ask your student to use this method to summarize a TV show or movie you've recently watched! All of our books this unit have a connection to survival and exploring the unknown -- these are high interest topics, and the kids are loving them! Ask your child about their book. *If you are a student reading this, I hope you recognized the idiom I just used! Today we had another assembly to recognize students in fifth grade who consistently display their best. These students can be counted on to always follow expectations and do what is right. Additionally, they are kind to their peers and great friends. Once again, it was very difficult to choose only two students -- which is a great problem to have! I am proud to recognize Alex and Lori for their great character! This afternoon we used spring scales to measure how force and mass are related to motion. The students timed how long it took to pull their science book one meter using 3 Newtons of force. They then changed only one variable, either the mass or the amount of force. We found that more mass slows the motion, while applying a greater force sped up the motion. We are nearing the end of our physical science unit and beginning to synthesize everything we have learned! |