Heat Project

This week in Science we are learning about heat energy.  We have learned the three ways that heat is transferred, conduction, convection, and radiation.  The students have done experiments to see heat transferred in each of these ways.  They have used internet resources to review, they have drawn diagrams and even made hand actions that they have shared to help them remember.  They may have even asked if you have a convection oven at home and looked inside to see what makes it a convection oven.  We will finish this week of learning activities with ice cube races, where we use what we've learned about heat transfer to see how fast we can each make an ice cube melt.  We're hoping for a nice weather to do this outside!  We will have a week off before we write our book chapter on heat energy, so please talk to your child about this and keep it on their minds until we come back to school.

Explanatory Writing

In writing, we have been working on writing to explain.  The fifth graders are in the process of completing a five-paragraph essay explaining a subject of their choice.  They be writing to explain three qualities in a friend, three reasons that Fallon is a great place to live, or three reasons why something they have is valuable to them.  I love working with the students on their writing.  They have shown so much improvement in organizing their ideas.  This format of writing, the five paragraph essay, is the format they will use more of as the go into higher grades.  We have an introductory paragraph that introduces three ideas, one paragraph for each idea, and then a concluding paragraph.  The students have written a thesis statement with their main idea.  We have been writing and conferencing on these papers this week and we will finish them next week.  The students also wrote a paragraph about change that will be coming home soon.  Look for their writing to come home on Wednesdays in their graded work folder.