Academic Excellence

 Mr. S came in to congratulate...and to hand out the certificates for those students who earned an award of Academic Excellence!  Congratulations to all of them!  

Mikayla

 

David

 

Hannah

Sabrina

Cameron

 

Isabella

Ian

 

Austin

Another student from Room 5 to get Academic Excellence is...Sawyer!  Unfortunately, he was absent the day Mr. S came in to pass out the certificates.

How do you get Academic Excellence?  On the report card, under the section where Reading, Writing, Math, Social Studies, and Science are graded with letters...and the section on work habits...a student must get all 'E's... E for Excellent...in every single area.  It's not an easy task...it definitely takes hard work and dedication!

Congratulations again!

Calibrating

As you can see from Cameron's face, science is a blast!

We learned what 'calibrate' means...and then we calibrated a cup in 20 mL increments. 

After only calibrating 20 mL, each pair estimated how many centimeters 100 mL would be....

they also estimated the 'capacity' of the cup...

Once the estimations were complete, they continued to calibrate the cup until they had 100 mL.  Then measure the height of that amount in centimeters...

then continued to calibrate until they had the actual capacity. 

 After estimating and calibrating with our first cup...each pair was given a second cup...a different size...and they estimated how full it would be at 100 mL...

 After estimating, they continued to calibrate this 'mystery cup' to see the capacity...

 What was our goal? 
We were learning about calibrations....about 'capacity'.....and conservation of water!  100 mL of water can look different in differently shaped containers...but it's still 100 mL!  Sounds simple?  It can definitely be a hard concept to grasp.

We didn't all come up with the same capacities...or the same measurements for the 100 mL mark.  We discussed 'margin of error' once again...but the difference in 'capacity' measurements was more than 'margin of error'....so we had discussions on why some were so different.

Science...it's so much fun!

Doctor, Doctor

 One of Room 5s favorite PE games in the gym is 'Doctor, Doctor.'

 

It's simple.  You start with all these yarn balls in the center of the gym.  The class is divided into 2 teams...one of each end of the gym.  When the whistle is blown, they race toward the center, grab a ball, and throw at the opposing side.  If you get 'hit', you're down.  The 'doctor' for your team, who holds a flimsy ruler, has to touch you and then you can get back up and play.

 If you're the doctor and you get 'hit'...well, it's only a matter of time before  your team loses.

 

Here, Aliya was the doctor...Elaine was guarding her from approaching balls.  They were trying to touch Isabella since she was down.

You might notice the FIRE in Mikayla's eyes as she's getting ready to fire a ball at the opposition!

 On this day, the class had BEGGED to pit the boys against the girls.  They often ask this...and my answer is always no...but today, I let them.  They were very evenly matched!

 "Doctor, Doctor"... they just love it!

Coupon books, stocking hats, poetry and math

 We did a different round of centers this past week...

One center was making a coupon book...

 The students could make it for whoever they wanted...

 They wrote their ideas on lined paper...

had it checked (for spelling)....

Then started writing on their coupons...

 

Some Room 5ers...well, especially one...kept saying,

"This is HARD, Mrs. J!"

Trying to be helpful, I asked,

"Do you take the trash out?"

Yesss...with a HUGE sigh...

"OK, how about making a coupon to take out the trash without arguing?"

"NO!" was his answer.

 

He did come up with some...

The groups were divided between the two grade levels.  The 5th graders were using calculators to find decimal and percent equivalents to fractions such as 5/7.

 Another group was making stocking hat ornaments. 

 The fourth group was writing a poem about the 'Little Things of Christmas."  

'Tis the season!