June 10, 2011
The Cell Rap – The Video!
Click below to see the Cell Rap Video…
http://web.me.com/nhs5sj/5SJ_Movies/Cell_Rap.html
*It may take some time to load (depending on computer and internet service)…
May 27, 2011
The Cell Rap – brought to you by 5SJ!
As part of our introduction to cells and the Immune System, the students participated in a “Cell Rap” on Wednesday of this week. We had reviewed the text initially and then students, in groups of 2 or 3, selected a particular stanza to memorize and perform. Students were encouraged to “hear the beat”, memorize their stanzas, and come in costume to put a little fun into learning different parts of a cell. On Wednesday we were treated to a visit by “Gum Rapper” and “Gift Rapper” and students performed the rap. Mr. Sweet made a quick drop by to see the kids in action! Check them out:
Looks like the goal of having fun was successful! We also made a video of the rap. Hope to have the techno wizard Mrs. Wyman show us how to get it on this blog so you can all see it. Look for this on Tuesday. Til then, have a grand Memorial Day Weekend. Here’s to the start of thinking summer!
Math – moving on from decimals, fractions and %!
This week we “finished” our unit covering these particular math skills. All parents should have received a copy of hte assessment check-in that was given on Tuesday. Students received performance scores but not yet progress grades. They will come next week, once there is time to review the work that was completed – such as the M& M pie graphs and the Menu Math. In the pictures above, students are playing one of two games – The In-Between Game or Smallest to Largest. This was part of the final activities to ensure students could move between the various formats.
Next step is to move onto Order of Operations. This work will include more of an introduction to negative numbers and then take us right into algebra with Hands On Equations. We are reaching the end of our fifth grade math year… yikes!
May 23, 2011
The Dispatches Have Begun!
This term our Social Studies focus is the Civil War. To help all students better understand how information was transferred during this time, we at NHS have begun having our own dispatches. Basically a dispatch is a sharing of current information. To that end, these come unannounced, and by some very different characters. Take a look:
As you can imagine, these can be somewhat distracting, but it keeps all the learning fun and spontaneous. Plus, we get help from other staff at NHS! Students are responsible for gathering the key information shared and then using it within a letter to a soldier on the other side as part of their Civil War Character work. Students will write back and forth a number of times and, at the end of the unit, all the characters will come together for a big breakfast and talk about their experiences in and around the war. Today we heard that the Confederates won the Second Battle at Bull Run. Ask your child to see his/her folder or read a letter. First letters went home today for signatures.
Life Skills Update
The fifth graders continue to do an outstanding job with the puberty topic. They are asking amazing questions. I apologize that the bags did not go out last Friday. They are coming home with the children this Friday 5/27. The boys have a booklet and the girls have a baggie with booklets and some samples. We have shared with the students what the materials look like. Please feel free to contact me with any questions. Ms. Vas 
May 17, 2011
And then there was a week of sewing…
For Earth Day this year, all classes were asked to celebrate in some way. Our class opted to combine our math and art skills to support our science by having each student sew their very own sandwich mat. We were fortunate to have lots of help and beautiful donated fabric (Thanks Ms. Kilroy!) and many offered sewing machines so we could turn our classroom into a mini-factory. All the students were able to make good use of their wraps when we traveled to the movies (Soul Searcher!) on Friday with our packed lunch.
To successfully complete the project, students needed to iron, measure, cut, pin, sew and sew some more.
What happened to April???
It has been far too long – seems we got way too busy in our classroom to keep up with the quirkiness of the blog allowing us to include all our cool pictures and videos. The comments from last time show that students are loving the inclusion of videos so we will try to add our next set, the presentation of final “Building Big” projects to our blog next week.
Oh wait, no one has seen any photos of Building Big. Let’s put some on:
We started our study with several mini-labs focused around determining the strongest shape and determining the benefits and challenges of each material. These provided students with an understanding of the basic vocabulary: tension, compression and torsion. Then we moved into the study of our specific structures, beginning with a dome:
Then we built bridges:
Then skyscrapers:
For the skyscraper lab, students were limited to newspaper and masking tape. Most choose to use some form of the skeleton structure.
Once we finished with these three main structures, students were ready to move on. Look for more details in the next post!
March 25, 2011
The Weather Project is now complete…..
During the entire third term, our science focused on the study of weather. Students reviewed the water cycle, revisited how to identify clouds and the types of weather they bring, read and created graphs, investigated how weather moves across the country by analyzing satellite image maps, and then were challenged to put all these components together to form an accurate 3- 5 day forecast. They wrote scripts, created slides and were filmed using the green screen. The last stage was putting all the footage together to create a 2-3 minute movie using I-movie. The results can be enjoyed by clicking on/going to the following link:
http://web.me.com/nhs5sj/5SJ_Movies/Weather_Forecasts.html
The page can also be reached via the link to the right–>
Please check them out and let us know what you think!
March 7, 2011
Upcoming dates….
Wanting to let any parent readers out there know that we are in the midst of planning our second term conferences. We will be sending home sign-up sheets with your children on Friday, March 11. This will outline the format and timing of the conference as well. We will need your requested information no later than Wednesday, March 16. We will send home confirmations for each parent/teacher conference no later than Friday, March 18 – when term 2 report cards are sent home. Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us via email.
February 18, 2011
Results are in! We are now ready for VACATION!!!!!!
The Rubber Band Shoot-Off took place today. We were blessed with warm temperatures and the kids were all super supportive of one another. It was a perfect competition for the day before vacation! Having the contest meant that students were successful in using the rubber bands as a learning tool all week as we used the geoboards during math time to explore finding the area of both right and acute triangles. We will be continuing our study of triangles after vacation but, at this time, students should be familiar with classifying triangles by both side (scalene, isosceles or equilateral) or angle (acute, right, obtuse or equiangular). This work has also allowed students to revisit their measuring skills, with both rulers and protractors. When we return the focus will be on practicing the methods discovered with the geoboards with just paper and pencil and learning how to construct triangles given specific measurements.
For science, students are now immersed in creating their weather forecasts. All have been assigned a scenario and are working to create tables of 5-Day forecasts, Excel graphs and importing satellite images to help develop their power points. The slides will become the backgrounds of their forecasts. Students will spend the beginning part of the week after vacation putting these all together and we will hopefully look to film on Friday! Stay tuned.
The end of this week also wrapped up the student work with their bill cartoons and their literacy essays. Hopefully no student left school today without at least one book to take with them on vacation. Remember – reading is not homework – it is a habit.
We hope everyone has a wonderful week off, filled with fun family time and outside adventures.
