Pencils Needed!

After a nice week off for Spring break, we came back to a snowy day at school!   The students were ready to work and learn - and there is so much to do with state testing still ahead of us!  We have new seats in our classroom, so many of the students are working with classmates they don't know as well. We have also found that we are very low on pencils in our classroom.  If anyone can send in a box of pencils, we would really appreciate it.  Thank you!

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.

Eyeball Dissection

On Thursday, the fifth graders will dissect cow eyeballs.  The eyeballs are fresh with no chemicals and the students will work in pairs or small groups.  Some of the students may be squeamish about this activity, a feeling I can relate to, but there is an academic purpose.  They will get to really see the parts of the cow eye, which are very similar to a human eye.  We have been learning about parts of the eye as we learn about light energy and how the eye detects light.  We expect this to be a great learning opportunity.  Be sure to ask your student about this after school on Thursday!

Energy Project

We have started our new science project and it is all about energy.  We will cover light, sound, heat, and electricity. Our project will be to write a non-fiction book about these types of energy.  There will be vocabulary words that need to be included and the book will need to have non-fiction test features like a table of contents, diagrams, captions, a glossary and an index. The students will create these books in pairs.  We will share these books with the second graders at the end of the quarter.  There may be supplies that we need to complete some of our investigations in the classroom.  Watch the blog for these requests.  Thank you!

Valentine's Party

In case you didn't see the note, we are having a Valentine's party on Thursday, Feb. 14.  We will do a small craft, exchange valentines and have a few snacks.  If any student wants to make a valentines mailbox at home for a box-decorating contest, there will be a small prize for that.  The box-decorating is totally optional, just for those who are interested.  A note went home last week to let you know what your child volunteered to bring in.  Email me if you need a reminder. Thanks for your support!

Parent Journals

The fifth graders are keeping parent journals.  They write a letter each Thursday to their parents, and take it home to get a response.  This is something that I hope will be a nice keepsake when the school year is over.  We do not send them home on holiday weekends, so they will not come home this Thursday, but please ask your child to see his or her parent journal.  There are kids who do not get responses who would like them.  There are some students who always get a parent response.  Thank you for that.  This is a great way to see your child's writing and hear about their week.  Thank you for participating!