Welcome to our Blog! Read on to find out about many of the wonderful things going on in our classroom!

-Alites

Blue Ribbon School Store

By Chris and Logan

"Can I buy that Frisbee?" 

The fifth graders heard this phrase many times on Wednesday.  It was the grand opening of the Blue Ribbon School Store.  We raised a lot of money from selling cool things such as erasers, key chains, and slingshot planes.  The kids enjoyed selling and buying cool things. The school store will come back again at the end of November.        

Fish Dissection

By Stephanie and Kyra

In science lab, we dissected a fish. First, Ms. O’Neil cut open the fish. She told us where its lungs, gills, heart, stomach, intestines, and mouth were. The mouth looked like a cave. Next, we made fish prints with a choice of two different colors of paint. First we used paint brushes to paint the fish, then we put the paper on top of the fish and then we pressed down the paper onto the fish. There was our lovely fish print!  The fish we examined were about the size of a ruler which is about 30 cm. We had a great time in the science lab!

Making Meaning

By Brian, Steven & PJ

In Making Meaning, we are learning about text features by reading passages about sharks. We saw a trailer for Jaws, and then spoke about what we know about sharks. Did you know that the shortfin mako shark is the fastest fish? Then we read about how they survive in the ocean. We filled in a KWL chart about what we knew, what we wondered, and what we learned.

Tuck Everlasting

By Rachel and Becca

Last week we started a new book called Tuck Everlasting. It is about a bunch of families all connected by a forest that the Foster family own. So far we have met the Tucks, the Fosters and the Man in the Yellow Suit. Mae Tuck and her two sons Jesse and Miles have just "kidnapped" Winnie Foster.   Mae Tuck has this music box that Winnie’s mother and grandmother think belongs to elves but it is really just a music box. We really want to find out what the secret in the forest is.   We will be sure to let you know what happens!

Math

By Jared, Sanjyot & Michael

In math this week we wrapped up our chapter on multiplication and started division. In order to finish our chapter on multiplication we had to take a test on multiplication. The test included: word problems, estimation, exponents, and two digit multiplication. We have also done division fast facts. We are looking forward to an educational chapter on division.  

CNN News

By Caitlin and Emilie

  

Every day we watch CNN Student News for about 10 mins. The most covered topic has been the election. The reporters have covered the debates.   Most Americans seem to be worrying about jobs and the economy. CNN always has an interesting human interest story.  Today it was about this 14 year old girl that rebuilds cars.  Some of our favorites features of CNN News are the Shout Outs and Is this Legit?  The host ends the news show with boring jokes that he thinks are funny.  We don’t think they are all that funny.

Fun Friday

By Austin and Daniel

Every Friday at the end of the day our class gets a break from school work. Instead of regular work, we get to have fun!  The helper of the week picks an activity out of a mystery box. So far we have had extra recess, a Halloween craft, food craft and meeting with first grade buddies!            

This week we are making scarecrows! We are really exited!  The amazing part of Fun Friday is that everyone enjoys and loves it.  If you do not bring in your homework, you are not allowed to participate in the fun event.  Tomorrow’s fun Friday its getting closer by the minute.  We can’t wait!

Text Savvy

By Adam and Trevor

Text Savvy is part of our reading program.  First we preview and prepare. That means we scan the page and we determine a genre. We also examine text features and we set expectations for the text.   We also monitor for meaning by rereading the parts of the text. We determine important information and summarize each paragraph in our own words. We ask questions and make connections. Next we infer and interpret by thinking about the big idea and identifying the author’s purpose. We also envision and create a picture or movie in our mind. The last thing we do is… synethisize. We identify what we know about the topic, what the text is mostly about and how our thinking has changed.  

Ready, Set Write!

By Madeline, Sakina & Yunseo

  

 This week we worked on revising and editing our narratives. Each one of us had a totally different, terrific story. We each wrote a personal narrative that was special to us. The steps of writing that we are following are…. 1. collecting 2. choosing 3. drafting 4. revising  5. editing. We are almost up to the most exciting step…. 6. publishing!

One of the things we did to revise was break our stories into paragraphs. We also learned to switch paragraphs when we move to a different topic.

Example:

“ We only have two more minutes,” Joey said.

“ We should hurry up,” Alyssa replied.

As you can see, writing is very exciting!

                Kyra altered our class picture. 

            Look at how awesome  we all look!