risk sculptures

Nature's Fury

We have been reading about the powerful effects of nature. Tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes and lightning are just a few examples of nature's fury. Here are some ways some students showed what they know about nature's fury.


Devon described what he what put in an emergency preparedness kit.


Jessica D. shows four examples of nature's fury and explains each one.


This poster by Jessica G. illustrates four examples of nature's fury.


Paul critiqued a book about tornadoes and designed a new book cover.


Max also illustrated four examples of nature's fury.



Cody shows what he would place in an emergency kit.


Jaylen illustrated four types of nature's fury.


Way to go everyone!

Welcome to 5th Grade!!

Our fifth grade has had a great start so far. I am very excited about our class--what an amazing group of students!

We're now really getting into a set schedule. Our class will have math, social studies/science/health and fluency in the morning along with P.E., Music and Art. Then we will have reading, spelling and writing in the afternoon.

We have been talking about factors in math. Here is a great game about factors to play online: http://illuminations.nctm.org/ActivityDetail.aspx?ID=12



We've been reading about nature's fury: earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes and volcanoes. Here is a site about volcanoes with loads of information: http://library.thinkquest.org/17457/

Field Day

Awesome Kids!

These kids have done a wonderful job in the classroom! They have been very respectful and responsible. Way to go!


Super job, Kierra!


Fantastic, Connor!


Keep up the great work, Amiliana!

Field Trip

Our Field Trip on Earth Day was a great success. We learned about Project AWARE, an organization that takes canoes down Iowa rivers, pulls out junk and transforms it into sculptures. We loved seeing the size and details of the sculptures. It was a fantastic field trip!

Awesome Kid of the Week

Way to go, Chidy! Congratulations on being the Awesome Student of the Week! You've been very respectful and responsible. Keep up the great work!

Spelling and Vocabulary April 19-23, 2010

We will be having a spelling review this week. We have already had all these words in the last few weeks so everyone should do a fantastic job!

Spelling
grew
until
ought
balloon
dollar
window
flew
brought
tooth
pretty
sudden
spoon
happen
daughter
cook
forgot
caught
boot
taught
hello
Monday
chew
order
thought
bought

Challenge words:
brook
expect
loose
stubborn
granddaughter

Vocabulary Words:
harpoons -- spears used to hunt whales and large fish
seaworthy -- safe for sailing in
calabashes -- large, round bowls made from a gourd
awe -- a feeling of wonder and respect
hull -- the body of a boat
roiling -- moving roughly in many directions

Awesome Kid of the Week

Congratulations, Michael!! You've done an awesome job this week completing your work and helping other students. Way to go Michael!

Mix, Stir, Paint!!

Our new Artful Learning Unit is about courage. We learned that in order to invent something, it often takes a lot of courage. Today we made paint out of colored chalk and oil. We used a mortar and pestle. Then we painted on white paper!

We think Amiliana would say, "It was really hard stirring the chalk because it was hard."

Hailey A. exclaimed, "I think it was really fun and it was a little hard to mash up all the chalk."

"I was trying to beat up the chalk because it was really hard--it was very grueling," declared Hailey E.

Michael explained, "I think it was really like cooking."

"I really really liked grinding the chalk before I went to piano, " said Kennedy.

Cameron stated, "It was kind of easy because I had to crush it and mix it up a little. The best part about it was changing the color."

Karli exclaimed, "I thought the grinding part was really hard because the chalk was really hard to grind."

"I thought the hardest part was doing the grinding of the chalk because you had to push down really hard and the chalk wouldn't break," Madison shared.

Haden announced, "I never made paint out of chalk and oil and I've never seen chalk that gets mixed up with oil."

"I have never seen paint made with chalk and oil," Kierra mentioned.

Diamond explained, "I never heard of chalk mixed with oil or I never heard of a pestle."

"I've never mixed chalk before," told Jacob.
Connor mentioned, "I thought it was weird grinding the chalk because it looked weird when it was smashed up."

"I really liked grinding up the chalk," expressed Colton.

Chidy mentioned, "It was kind of hard to mix the chalk."

"The painting and the mixing were the most fun because you got to pour some oil in the broken chalk that we used from the pestle," uttered Dylan.

Blake mentioned, "When we crushed the chalk it was really easy and I liked when it was all done and we mixed the oil with the chalk because it looked weird--like orange goo."

"I have never made paint," remarked Kathy.

"I never knew you could make paint using chalk and oil," declared Camryn.

Awesome Kid of the Week

Our Awesome Kid of the Week is Hailey A.!! She is always respectful and ready to listen. Hailey always gets her work completed and tries her best. Way to go, Hailey!! Keep up the awesome work!

Vocabulary & Spelling April 5-9, 2010

We have finished the ITBS test! Woo hoo! The students did a great job of trying their very best.

This week our story is about a journey. Yunmi and Holmoni's Trip is about a journey to Korea. Our vocabulary words this week are all about journeys.

Vocabulary
bustling -- full of activity; busy
custom -- a tradition; a way of doing something that many people follow
foreigners -- people who come from another country or place
passport -- a government document that allows a person to travel in foreign countries
sightseeing -- visiting interesting places; touring
skyscrapers -- very tall buildings
vendor -- someone who sells something


Spelling Words
caught
thought
bought
laugh
through
enough
fought
daughter
taught
brought
ought
cough
Challenge Words: sought, granddaughter

ITBS testing next week

We will have ITBS testing starting Monday, March 29th. The following is the schedule we will follow in our class. Each day of testing will begin shortly after the morning bell and conclude by 10:00.

Monday: Science
Tuesday: No Testing (field trip in the afternoon)
Wednesday: Reading Comprehension 1
Math Concepts and Estimation
Thursday: Reading Comprehension 2
Math Problem Solving and Data Interpretation

Remember that you may send a healthy snack with your child for each testing session. Please make sure that they are individually wrapped and nutritious. Some snack ideas are: granola bars, cheese and crackers, fruit snacks or bars, dried fruit, nuts, or other such items.

Thank you for helping your third grader arrive rested, on-time, and satisfied from a healthy breakfast!
Because we’re modifying our schedule and regular plans for this week, we will not have homework. I still encourage students to read a little each evening and practice math facts as well.
I'm positive that the third graders are going to do an amazing job on this test! :)

Spelling & Vocabulary March 22-26, 2010

We are reading the story Across the Wide Dark Sea this week which is a story about the Pilgrims journey to the new world.

Spelling

tooth
chew
grew
cook
shoe
blue
boot
flew
shook
balloon
drew
spoon
Challenge words: loose, brook

Vocabulary Words
anchor-- a heavy metal hook attached to a ship and dropped overboard to hold the ship in place.
cramped -- crowded; not enough room to move about
journey -- a trip from one place to another
seeping -- slowly leaking; oozing
settlement -- a small community in a new place
survive-- to stay alive; to hold up or withstand
weary -- tired; needing rest

Here is a spelling word search for you: http://www.eduplace.com/cgi-bin/schtemplate.cgi?template=/kids/hmsv/wordfind/wordfind.thtml&level=3&dataurl=/kids/hmsv/wordfind/03_31.txt

Recycled Transformations

The third graders completed their final transformation project! Items that could be recycled were used to create an original creature from their incredible imaginations. They had to do some difficult work as a group and many students learned that sometimes you have to compromise when you work in a group. I think many students transformed their group's thinking during this project!

Karli, Hailey E., Chidy and Camryn (not pictured) created a creature named Egor.

Dylan, Michael, Cameron and Hailey A. named their original creation Little Viking.

Connor, Kierra, Amiliana and Diamond's creature has an enormous mouth.

Jacob, Blake, Colton and Kennedy made a creature that had great night vision.

Haden, Cheyenne, Madison and Kathy made a creature similar to a lion named Tommy.

They did it.

Transformation....we see it all around us and sometimes even in the most unusual places. The third graders have been finding it everywhere.

We read a fantastic book about a group of people who rescue sea turtle eggs to release them back into the ocean after they've hatched. The students realized how many transformations the turtles and the rescuers go through and learned a huge amount of facts about the sea turtles. They took their new knowledge and presented it as a turtle collage. They described transformations and facts they learned in writing on the turtles' shells and then used recycled objects to design a collage. It took a lot of perseverance to complete it, but they did it! I am truly impressed with their masterpieces.

March 1-5, 2010

We made it through February! I'm positive it will be a wonderful Spring! We went outside for recess today and it was great to feel the warm sun.

We will not be having any spelling or vocabulary tests until after Spring Break because we are still taking our reading test.

The third graders have been working on multiplication and division facts and are really doing a great job! Today we talked about the power of 10.

This is a busy week! We'll be having our hearing checked on Thursday and Friday we'll be doing even more reading--especially some Dr. Seuss books as we celebrate Dr. Seuss Day by dressing as a favorite character or wearing a favorite hat. It should be a blast!

Week of Feb. 22-26, 2010

We will not be having a spelling or vocabulary test this week because we will begin taking our reading unit test later in the week. This test will help us know how each student is progressing with reading comprehension.
We also plan on completing our sea turtle transformations this week. They are definitely transforming! We're excited to share them here on our blog and in the hallways.

Spelling and Vocabulary Feb. 16-19

Yikes! I have forgotten to post the spelling and the vocabulary words for this week and it's already Thursday. I think everyone will do great again this week on spelling and vocabulary words!

Spelling
helper
unfair
friendly
unhappy
remake
careful
hopeful
unlike
retell
sadly
farmer
unhurt
silently

Vocabulary Words
appreciate -- to enjoy and understand
grazing -- eating growing plants
population -- relating to the number of people or animals living in a certain place
starve-- to suffer or die from not having enough food
surrounding -- on all sides of
territory -- an area of land
wander -- to move from place to place without having a special destination

99th day of school

These third graders have done an excellent job with their number of the day. Friday was the 99th day of school and they had to create an equation that equaled 99 without using the number 9. What great equations! Way to go!

Valentine's Party

We will be having our Valentine's Party on Friday, Feb. 12. If you would like to bring cards, please be sure to bring one for everyone! :) Here is a list of everyone in our class:

Chidy
Hailey A.
Haden
Jacob
Blake
Connor
Hailey E.
Connor
Dylan
Kierra
Michael
Kennedy
Colton
Madison
Amiliana
Cheyenne
Kathy
Camryn
Cameron
Diamond

Spelling & Vocabulary Feb. 8-12, 2010

We are reading the story Seal Surfer this week. The story follows a boy named Ben and his observations about a seal. Has the seal transformed? Has Ben transformed? What do you think?

Spelling
cared
babies
chopped
saving
carried
fixing
hurried
joking
grinning
smiled
wrapped
parties
Challenge Words: moving, libraries

Vocabulary Words
basked--rested in pleasant warmth
buffeted--struck powerfully, blown about
horizon--the line where the sky seems to meet the sea or Earth
quay--a dock where ships are loaded and unloaded
surf--to ride on waves, often on a surfboard
swell--a long wave that moves without breaking
swooped--moved with a sudden, sweeping motion

Water Density Investigation

Today we learned about density and how some solids and liquids are denser than others. We predicted what liquids a penny would float in and then we tested our predictions on this website: http://player.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm?guidAssetId=A55DAC0F-542F-439F-91C7-920FCF8CB69B&blnFromSearch=1&productcode=DSCE



Colton stated, " Pennies sink in oil."



"Pennies float in mercury," said Karli.



Diamond said, "A pool ball can float in mercury."



"A brick can float in mercury because it's less dense than mercury," explained Hailey E.



Blake replied, "A copper penny can sink in honey."



"If you put a penny into oil it will sink," said Amiliana.



Chidy replied, "Mercury is dangerous for your skin and almost any hard thing can float in it."



"Mercury is poisonous," Camryn said.



Kierra explained, "A penny can float in mercury because it is less dense than mercury."



"A penny can sink in water and honey," stated Madison.



Dylan said,"If you put mercury on your body it will damage your brain."



"If you put a copper penny on oil or most fluids it will just sink to the bottom because it's denser than the fluids except it will float on mercury," replied Cameron.



"We learned a lot about density today by investigating whether objects will sink or float in certain liquids," said Mrs. Mason.

Surface Tension

We have been studying water in our class. Here are some things we have learned:

"Salt water sort of cleaned the penny," said Colton.

Michael said, "The drops of water bounce on surfaces of water."

"When I was observing the penny, when I dropped the salt water on top of it the salt water made the water drops look like it had bubbles in it, " Kennedy explained.

"Soap water made the water dome pop," Kathy described.

Haden said," When you put water on the penny, the water stays up and it turns into an oval."

"The class studied that you can get 25 drops of water on one penny," replied Dylan.

"When I put salt water on the penny, you can see the salt," explained Chidy.

Hailey E. stated, "When you put 15 drops of water and as many drops of soap water and salt water, whatever number you got to it spilled."

"I learned that if you put salt water on your penny it will make the penny steady," explained Madison.

Blake said,"When you put the soapy water on the penny, it made all the water fall off the penny."

"I learned if you put on soapy water on top of 15 drops and too much of soapy water, it will just spill," stated Camryn.

Diamond explained, "The soapy water cleaned the penny."

"When you put the 15 drops and you added the soapy water, it ran over and when you put the salt water on the penny you could sort of see the salt," stated Connor.

Kierra says, "You put soapy water on the penny it just disappeared."


Surface tension is the ability of water to stick together.

We watched a video showing water drops in slow motion. Here is the link to the video: http://www.flixxy.com/water-drop.htm

Subtraction Strategies

We have really been working on subtraction for awhile. Our class is full of math marvels! They discovered quite a few different strategies to solve a subtraction problem. Here are some of their strategies:

The first problem is 300-170=___ . They all discovered the difference was 130, but in different ways.

Colton shows the Trading Strategy.

Camryn shows the Negative Number Strategy.

Alecia shows how she splits one number and then subtracts each one.

Kierra used the Number Line Strategy and counted up to find the difference.


The next problem was 348-139=___. The students found the answer to be 209.

Blake also used the Number Line Strategy.

Michael split one number into parts and subtracted.

Hailey used the Negative Number Strategy.

Connor shows the classic trading strategy.

Parents, ask your child about these strategies. Most of us only learned how to "borrow" in elementary school, but these third graders have found other strategies to solve subtraction problems. Ask about their favorite strategy and give them a subtraction problem to solve. You'll be amazed! :)

Spelling & Vocabulary Jan. 15-22, 2010

We will be reading the story The Garden of Abdul Gasazi by Chris Van Allsburg in the next week.

Vocabulary Words
awesome -- causing a feeling of wonder, fear and respect
convinced -- made to do, believe or feel certain about something
disappeared -- passed out of sight; vanished
discovered -- found; learned
incredible -- too unlikely to be believed; astonishing or amazing
impossible -- not able to happen or exist


Spelling Words -- this week's words are homophones (words that sound the same, but have different spellings and meanings)

1. hear -- I can hear a bird singing outside.
2. here -- Please put the book over here.
3. new -- We moved into a new house.
4. knew -- My brother knew how to get to school.
5. its -- The dog is in its house.
6. it's -- I think it's time for dinner.
7. our -- Do you like our city?
8. hour -- We played in the snow for an hour.
9. there -- She is sitting over there on the bench.
10. their -- They have their dog with them.
11. they're -- My parents know where they're going for vacation.

Bonus:
1. seen -- Have you seen that movie?
2. scene -- What was the best scene in the play?

Schedule

Since we missed two days of school last week, we will have the spelling and vocabulary tests on Wednesday, Jan. 13. Homework will also be due on that day and I will not be sending home new homework until Friday, Jan. 15. Phew! I hope we don't miss any more school days!

Spelling & Vocabulary Jan. 4-8, 2010

Happy New Year!! It's hard to believe it's 2010! I hope you all had a great holiday break. I think we should be about done with the snow already!! I used muscles I had forgotten all about with so much shoveling. :)

The story we're reading this week is Raising Dragons by Jerdine Nolan . It's about a girl who raises a dragon named Hank on her family's farm. Hank helps out, but he soon outgrows the farm. The girl takes Hank to Dragon Island, but returns to the farm with a new batch of dragon eggs.

Vocabulary Words
appetite--the desire for food; hunger

chores--small jobs usually done on a regular schedule

harvested--picked or gathered

hitched--tied on or fastened by a know, ring or hook

plow--to break up and turn over dirt so that seeds can be planted

sown--scattered or planted

tended--looked after; took care of


Spelling Words

large, park
gym, jeans
skin, crack
quick, orange
picnic, second
judge, squeeze
Bonus: courage, insect