Marshmallow Challenge

Another way we have fostered community and risk taking was through the marshmallow challenge. Students were put into groups with 20 pieces of spaghetti, a yard of tape, a yard of string and a marshmallow. The challenge was to build the tallest, free standing structure that would support a marshmallow. Below are students working working together to come up with a design.

This challenged proved very difficult for the students! Marshmallows are much heavier than you would think. Out of 12 groups, only 6 groups were able to make a structure to support the marshmallow. Here are a few of the groups who had success.

Making Squares

This week my math classes have been collaborating and solving different problems. On this day, students were put into groups and given 5 envelopes. Each envelope contained some of the pieces needed to make 5 squares, all the same size. 

For the first 5 minutes, they were not allowed to talk each other or ask in any way for a puzzle piece. Students had to offer pieces when they thought their piece might help another student. After the 5 minutes were up, the students were able to talk freely.

When we debriefed, students found that making the squares went more quickly when they all worked together, could talk out their ideas, and continually revised their ideas. These are all practices we will be working on this year during math.

Specials Schedule

The 5th grade has been divided into two groups for specials; the green group and the white group. Your child knows which group they are in and here is a look at their specials for trimester 1.

     Green                                                                  White

French and PE                                                     Art and Art

Orch/Study Hall and Health                                Orch/Study Hall and Art

Band/Study Hall and French                               Band/Study Hall and Art

PE and Guidance                                                 French and PE

Health and Health                                               PE and French

New this year, 5th grade students are required to change for PE class, so remember extra clothes on those days!

Great First Day!

Our homeroom class spent the first day of school reconnecting with old friends and meeting new students.

A New Year and A New Grade!

Hello all!

I have been busy this summer thinking and planning for 5th grade. I sent out my letters on August 12th, but thought I would post the list of school supplies here as well.

School Supply List:

__  Trapper Keeper (cloth covered 3 ring binder with zipper or 

velcro closure works best)

__  Zippered pencil pouch (if the trapper keeper doesn’t come with one)

__  Pencils and Erasers

__  6 plastic 3-hole punched pocket folders (1 per content class, homework, and specials)

__  Loose leaf lined paper 

__  Highlighter

__  Handheld pencil sharpener

__  Set of 4 expo markers to share in math class (primary colors only)

__  Earbuds to use with iPads

Optional, but helpful materials to have at home:

__  Glue sticks

__  Colored Pencils

__  Markers

__  Ruler with both metric and inch scales

__  Scissors

I am looking forward to seeing you all again....  :)

Volunteering Opportunities

I think using volunteerspot will work well for us this year! I have added another sign up for the next two weeks. Here is the link and directions from the site:

Here's how it works in 3 easy steps:

1) Click this link to see our Sign-Up on VolunteerSpot: http://vols.pt/ZEC7xd

2) Review the options listed and choose the spot(s) you like.

3) Sign up! It's Easy - you will NOT need to register an account or keep a password on VolunteerSpot.

Note: VolunteerSpot does not share your email address with anyone. If you prefer not to use your email address, please contact me and I can sign you up manually.

Thanks very much in advance for supporting my classroom!

Volunteering in the classroom

Last week I tried Volunteerspot to organize volunteers for the first time. I think it worked pretty well, so I will be posting here and sending an email to folks with volunteering opportunities in the future.

Be sure to take a look and see if any of the times will work with your schedule. We love having you see and experience our class! Thanks in advance for any volunteering you may be able to fit in this year.

I wouldn't call it a book ban....

We have been together for about a month now. For the first month, I was letting anything go for reading (within reason of course!). However, it is time for us to get serious and so some deep thinking about our reading. Therefore, I have asked students to no longer read Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Big Nate, and other graphic novels without a continuous plot throughout the book. After we talked about it during reading class, the students understood and jumped onboard.

I am also asking students to finish a book a week (or week and a half). Therefore, it would be helpful if students read the same book at school and at home. This will also help them for 5th grade, bring home work and returning it to school the next day. Please be sure to contact me with any questions/comments regarding our new class reading policy.

Dragonfly nymphs...Where oh where are you?!?

We had a wet day for collecting dragonfly nymphs at Jordon Pond.  And, because of a very rocky bottom of the pond, we were not that successful at collecting the nymphs. :(  I think we all had fun anyway (and a story when we returned back to school).

Add caption

different nymphs (sorry it is upside down!)

Need some food before the collection begins.

And the collection begins!!

Be careful!! 

Learning proper collecting procedure

Starting to look a little cold...and they aren't even in the water yet!

Do you see any?

We were lucky to have the scientist from UMO, Sarah Nelson, who began this project with us today! She will be presenting the findings from last year at a conference next month.

And they are off!

We got one!

Classifying

Heading home!!!