Day Twelve

Today we started reading Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. Prior to reading this book, we read and discussed The Butterfly by Patricia Polacco because the themes and plots are similar. In chapter one we learn a bit about the setting and were introduced to a few characters. Right now the story takes place in Copenhagen, Denmark and our main characters appear to be Ellen Rosen and Annemarie Johansen. Copenhagen has been under Nazi occupation for the last three years. We are reading this book together to help tie into our Skype learning with Ms. Angst's brother who is in Berlin, Germany right now.

Day Eleven

Today we celebrated Constitution Day. On this day in 1787, the founding fathers finally signed the Constitution of the United States. To learn a bit about the Constitution we read Here's to You, America with the Peanuts crew, looked at a Scholastic News article about the first amendment, and began working on a choral reading of the preamble of the constitution. We will continue to work on this choral reading and hopefully video the final performance when when we're done!

Day Ten

As we continue to focus on respect, we shared the book Sister Anne's Hands on Friday. Everyone then got to decorate a hand, in any way they wanted. The hands will be put on a bulletin board in the near future with "The Hand of Friendship Has No Color" on the inside of the circle of hands. Today we took some time to think about what that quote meant. We discussed the meaning in small groups and then reported out, creating a web on the Promethean Board. Stay tuned for a picture of the bulletin board when it's up and complete, it should look really cool.

Day Nine

Today we had our 5th grade respect assembly, which is where the picture at the top of the blog came from. Each class was responsible for filling in a letter of the word respect with specific examples of what respect looks like and sounds like. After that assembly we had science and boy was it fun! We conducted 3 different experiments and were able to actually "stack" water. In our experiment we found out that:
salt water is denser than fresh water,

cold water is denser than hot water, and

salt water is denser than cold water.

It was pretty cool to actually see this in action when we pulled the divider from the middle of the density tanks!

Day Eight

As we near the end of our second week in school, we continue to build a classroom family. Part of this includes doing team building activities. Today's activity was to get a hula hoop all the way around the circle (created by everyone holding hands) without letting go. Our first attempt took 58 seconds, and then each attempt after that got quicker. After each attempt we discussed ways to improve our time. It paid off, as our last attempt took 42 seconds.

Day Seven

Every day we've been working on upping our "read to self" stamina. Before starting "read to self" we discussed the reasons for doing it: it's fun, you learn new things, and you become better writers and readers. It is our goal to get at least 30 minutes of "read to self" time every day. Then we set guidelines to follow, to help us make this reading time successful - sit in one spot, keep your eyes on your book, read the whole time, no talking, and get right to reading. During this time Ms. Angst is conferencing with students, meeting with small groups, or giving assessments. So far, we've done a great job!

Day Six

Right now in science we are learning about the oceans. On Friday, we examined two samples of water (A and B), then put a small amount of each sample into a small dish and placed the dishes in the window sill for the weekend. Students made various hypotheses about what they believed may happen. Today we got to check out what actually happened and discuss our findings. Students found nothing in the "A" dish, and salt crystals left in the "B" dish. It was now clear to everyone that sample B was salt water and sample A was fresh water. One group's results weren't as great as everyone else's. It appears that something happened to their sample B (maybe it spilled somehow or perhaps there was a small leak in the dish). We discussed that this happens to scientists often, and repeating the experiment would be necessary. It's amazing that you can even learn from the mistakes sometimes!