Winter Things

The girls had a wonderful day of packaging and wrapping boxes of toiletries for the women's shelter.  They were excited to be doing something for others and kept asking, "What other community service can we do?  What other charities can we help?  How can we get more involved in doing things like this for other people?"  It was heartwarming, but not surprising.  The girls are always mindful and compassionate--this is one special group! Have a wonderful winter break!  We will see you in 2016!

Dioramas!

The girls did a fantastic job creating a diorama representation of their assigned Native American cultural region. Not only was this an opportunity to display and present the information they learned over the course of the unit, but also a fantastic opportunity to practice twenty-first century collaboration skills.  Ask your daughter to identify her diorama and talk about why she and her partner chose to create certain houses and surroundings. 

Science: Exploring our Ecosystem

The girls' study of the Bryn Mawr ecosystem this fall began as each student chose a tree to observe, draw, and describe in her nature journal. The students went on to learn the parts of a plant and to observe wildflowers on the campus. Then they focused on the animals around us, as they continued to record their observations in their nature journals.

A trip to explore Irvine Nature Center and a  presentation on the Chesapeake Bay by the staff of the National Aquarium in Baltimore added to the pool of information that the girls collected themselves.

The girls put together what they had learned about the various organisms, food chains, and food webs in the ecosystem. They read about the changes in Yellowstone Park when the wolves were removed from the area in the 1920's and then the changes in the park due to the re-introduction of the wolves in the late 20th century. They listened to different viewpoints on the deer population in Maryland and pretended to be state legislators as they contemplated and debated possible solutions to the current situation.

Graphing and Vocabulary

In Math, the girls have been reviewing mean, median, mode, and range.  They are also becoming experts at choosing the appropriate type of graph to use based upon the type of numerical data provided to them.  Ask your girls what type of graph should be used to display data that shows a change over time...I bet they have an answer for you!  If you want to stretch their brains even more, present the problem of having multiple sets of data and variables for one graph...I'm certain they will meet the challenge!

It was vocabulary day today in Language Arts.  The girls quizzed each other on their respective vocabulary lists within their reading groups.  Some groups used charades to give clues, others took a more artistic approach, and I also saw a heavy duty binder wall constructed between quizzer and quizee.  This vocabulary stuff is serious business!  After the quiz session, the girls had to create and type sentences that proved their understanding of each word's definition.  

New Floor in Music Room!

Ask your daughter about our brand new marley floor!
This vinyl floor covering makes the floor safer for all
of the dancing and moving that the girls do during music class.

Diorama Drama!

The girls are continuing their work on dioramas, creating three dimensional representations of the seven Native American cultural regions.  

As you can see, the girls are totally bored and sooooo not into this project....just kidding :) 

Academic Update!

Images copied from www.Amazon.com

Our reading groups have begun!  In the early chapters of each book, both groups have focused on identifying figurative language in literature.  Figurative language uses words or phases that carry a different a meaning from the literal definition of the words.  The girls learned how figurative language can be used to compare two things, make text come alive, and add interesting details to written work.  The girls have studied similes, metaphors, alliteration, onomatopoeia, personification, and hyperbole. 

Image copied from www.ask-math.com

In math, the girls have be working with bar graphs.  The girls have collected, analyzed, and graphed various samples of data.  Next up is plotting points when given coordinate pairs, which will lead them into making and analyzing line graphs.

Image copied from www.history.com

History class has lead us to the conclusion of Chapter 3: Native American Cultural Regions.  The girls' next task will be to create a three dimensional representation of an assigned cultural region (shhhh...they don't know this yet!) and the Native American unit's culminating event will be an open book test on Chapters 2 and 3. 

Music

Working hard to learn a challenging melody with sixteenth note derivations!

Happy Halloween!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM THE CLASS OF 2023 :)

Tech

During the month of October the girls in fifth grade have been working on making a catapult.  First, the girls used a teacher-created LiveBinder to research.  Next, the girls began taking notes, drawing examples, brainstorming ideas, and making prototypes.  Finally, it was time to BUILD!  They used a variety of tools like hammers, screw drivers, hot glue guns and materials like cardboard, wood, rubber bands, spoons, cups, PVC pipe and much more!  The catapults will be finished in the next two weeks.  We will then vote on one catapult that we want to scale up.

Music: The View From Here at the Meyerhoff

Can't wait for this multimedia show to begin!  Bryn Mawr at the BSO!!

Art: Making Masks

The fifth graders, partnered with someone they don't know that well, made plaster masks as the base for a 3D artwork. They are working outside their comfort zones to become more comfortable with themselves and their classmates. 

Some comments from their experience include: 

"The water was cold and the towels kept falling off. "

"I was the mold and I felt like I was drowning in fresh cotton candy or maybe a pond if duck feathers."

"It was kind of unusual because I had to feel My partner's face and that's not something you would do everyday but it was relaxing because I was focused on one thing and it was really quiet and I was talking to my partner."

Overdue Blog Post: A 5th Grade Teacher's Quest to Find the Camera Cord

Many apologies for the lack of posts lately,  my desk ate my camera cord.  I have been searching days and days for the 6 inches of wire that allows me to connect you to our classroom.  At last, I finally found the cord at the bottom of my teacher tote bag (a bottomless abyss of graded papers, highlighters, paper clips, and post its).  I am sorry for the dated nature of this post, but as my mother used to say when I would come home to do my laundry in college: better late than never.

After a language arts lesson on using details from the text to make predictions, the girls created crystal balls depicting their predictions for the remaining chapters of Our Only May Amelia.
                                      
 

In math, the girls concluded the long division unit by solving division problems with two digit divisors and multi-digit dividends.

History class has taken the girls back in time to the migration of Native American tribes to North and South America.  The girls discovered the migration routes that the Native Americans navigated and are currently learning about the various regions where they settled.

Last but not least, the birthday surprise.  I had to hold back the tears today! The girls planned an extremely well thought out and organized surprise to help celebrate my birthday.  After their spelling test, I gave them 5 minutes to "set up" and then walked into what could only be described as my "world of favorite things." We had a nice 5 minute brain break before values class and then got back down to serious business!  I cannot put into blog words what this class means to me and how honored I am to be their teacher!   

From the Library

Fifth graders started off the year by reading together a few chapters of Rita Williams-Garcia's P.S. Be 11, the sequel to their summer reading book One Crazy Summer.  They were amused to meet these characters again. We then jumped right in to our research project, on which we are still working. First we read Carlyn Beccia's I Feel Better with a Frog in my Throat, History's Strangest Cures. Ask your daughter about earthworm necklaces and mustard plasters. We then read an interactive history book about the Middle Ages. ("If you want to accompany the ladies in waiting, turn to page 4, if you want to stay at the castle, turn to page 7". Sometimes we died of the plague, other times we survived.) From there, girls chose a topic to research. They found a book that addressed as closely as possible, the topic they'd chosen. Some could get very close ( treatment with leeches), others had to stretch out the topic (worms). They noted three facts or interesting bits of information. Next we will do some online research. We expect to be able to get more specific information. Girls will compare their sources and present one minute reports on their findings.

Music: Incorporating 16th notes

The girls have now identified sixteenth notes as 4 sounds on one beat.  Here they are participating in a little listening quiz!