3-5 Winter Concert

3-5 Winter Concert

5th Grade Wrapping Party

Our fifth-grade elves were hard at work today, preparing gift boxes of toiletries for the residents of an area women's shelter. The donations have been coming in steadily for a month, and today was the day the girls were able to assemble their gifts, write a note, and wrap their boxes. We were so proud of them for their teamwork and commitment to this important community service project. Thank you to our many parent volunteers, too!

Guest Writing Teachers!

We were lucky enough to have one of Ms. Stevei's sixth-grade writing classes join us today to teach us about the components of an analytical paragraph. Using slideshows that they created, writing assignments, games, puzzles, and Kahoot!, these students did a great job of showing our girls where they are headed with writing next year.

Game Star Mechanic

Fifth graders have been busy creating balanced games in Game Star Mechanic.  While creating games, students must consider each of the 5 gaming design elements:  Space, Components, Mechanics, Goals, and Rules.  The game must be beatable but also challenging.  Soon, we will be sharing our games with classmates to give feedback.

Art_The Value in Gift Exchange

The girls are working in lights and darks and "drawing" a wrapped present with paper a collage. They wrestled with the form and parallel and diagonal lines as well as value to make a box that appears three dimensional. They also played with the nuances of how the light hits the object, the ribbons, metallic paper, and shadows.

The girls listened to a wonderful story called "The Art of Ms. Chew" and named the "gift exchanges" between the adults and children in the book. The girls will write their own story of a gift exchange to go with their present.

Their gifts and stories will be on display in the Centennial Hall Lobby during the Winter Concert before break!

Science- Making Sense of Mass

Hello from the Science Center! Students just completed their first practice exam- a test of all that they learned about mass and matter. We made some test corrections to practice that important skill of checking what you know and don't know so you are ready for the next one.  As we close the loop on our physical science unit, we took a little time to consider some of our first questions. Knowing that all matter has mass and all mass is effect by gravity let us take a more informed look.  Anyhow, here are a few fun queries. We did a little more than consider that last one- we modeled it! If you fill a water bottle most of the way up, the air bubble behaves just like a helium ballon and the water in the bottle is a good model for the air around the helium balloon. 

How did Native American Tribes Adapt to the Natural Resources Available to Them?

Today we explored different artifacts from one region of North America - the Eastern Woodlands. The girls used these clues about the region to make predictions about how Native American tribes used the natural resources available to them to survive. Next week, we'll read informational texts about this region to see if their predictions were correct!

Winter Concerts - please read!

'Tis the season for music concerts! 

All Fifth Graders will share their performance with families on Tuesday, December 18. The concert begins at 9:30 am in Centennial Hall. 

Because we will have rehearsals in Centennial Hall, please avoid scheduling any appointments on Friday, Dec 14 and Monday, December 17. We need every student in this team effort!

C-SPAN for Election Day

The fifth-graders were given the opportunity to board the C-SPAN bus this morning, as a way to learn more about voting in our country. The tour bus is ending it's 50 Capitals Tour, and the girls were thrilled to learn that they were sitting in an actual television studio! They heard about the primary source documents that are available on C-SPAN's website, and they were able to explore some of these resources on interactive exhibits aboard the bus. They also talked about the importance of using these unbiased resources to become more informed in the weeks leading up to an election. Several of our girls were proud to show their "I Voted" stickers this morning, and this was the perfect way to celebrate Election Day.

We also learned about C-SPAN's annual national video documentary competition, for kids in 6th to 12th grade. Read about it here, and keep it in mind for your girls next year!