Happy Holidays!!!!

Happy Holidays from our family to yours!! Enjoy this time with your family! Be safe and see you in the New Year!!

Our Frames

Here are what the frames looked like when we finished. They turned out so cute!

RJ

Delali

Justin

Aaron

Holiday Frames!!

Kim, my wonderful teaching partner, wanted to have the kids make frames for the holidays for their parents. She came up with this wonderful idea. You get a lid to a box (one that has sides), 2 golf balls, red and green paint, glitter, glue, and a frame (think we got ours from Michael's). You put the frame down in the box with the 2 golf balls. Next, you put a glob of red paint on one golf ball and then a glob of green paint on the other one. Pick up the lid and tilt the golf balls back and forth. Take the glue and squeeze it in lines diagonally. Then shake glitter off and let dry. They are super cute!!!

Frame in box

With golf balls and paint.

Isabelle rolling the golf balls around her frame.

What it should look like after you roll the golf balls.

Add glue over the frame (I squeezed it out diagonally).

Finished product!

The back of their frames :)

Our Holiday Party

Yesterday we had our holiday party! It was such a great time. We have the sweetest bunch of kids ever! They are such a joy to be around :) We made our holiday frames, candy cane stirrers, and hot cocoa. To top the day off, we watched a holiday movie!! What a GREAT day!!

Our candy cane stirrers; candy canes dipped in chocolate and in sprinkles.

Kristina enjoying her hot cocoa.

Spencer taking a break to smile for the camera!

Hali, Madison, and Stephanie watching the holiday movie.

Emma-Lee drinking her hot cocoa!

Natalie watching the movie and drinking her yummy drink!

Spelling Bee

Our 5th graders competed in the school spelling bee. Our students did great! Unfortunately, while I wanted all of my students to win, we were only able to name 1 winner. Congrats David!!

Our students and their awards. So proud!!!!

Congrats David!!

Our Lemon Drink "Fizzled" Out

Tuesday, our plan was to make a lemon fizzy drink using lemon juice, baking soda, sugar, and water. Our drinks in the first class did not turn out that good! We determined that we used too much baking soda; some students did not make their drink yet and listened to the other students, so their drinks were delish! In the second class, we altered our plan and the lemon fizzy drinks turned out great!! The kids really enjoyed them :)

We used this as a learning experience in the first class. As scientists, our students need to understand that experiments need to be done more than one time. Today, we made modifications to our plans and will try again tomorrow!

Justin squeezing the lemon in the measuring cup to get an accurate amount of juice.

Brandon following his procedures.

Aspen and Delali making sure they have an accurate amount.

Sylvie measuring her juice.

Science is awesome!!

Monday we did an experiment where we made a mixture of lemon juice, water, and baking soda in a bottle. The students then put a balloon over the bottle trapping the gas they created with the mixture. Since the gas escaped into the balloons, the balloon inflated! It was great!

We also focused on writing down what materials we used, as well as writing a plan down. As scientists, we need to make sure we are writing our plans down so other scientists can replicate our experiment.

Emma-Lee writing down her procedures for the experiment. It's important as scientists to make sure we record our plan so other scientists can replicate it.

Hali and Natalie pouring their juice into the empty bottle.

Watching the balloon inflate from the gas that we created with the solution of baking soda, lemon juice, and water.

Adding and Subtracting Mixed Numbers Strategy Charts

Here are some strategy charts for adding and subtracting mixed numbers with unlike denominators:

Wonderings

This is for students who have a question about anything we do in Science and we didn't get a chance to answer it or for students who "wonder" about certain things in Science. They write a question down and I will answer it for them.

Fist to 5!

This is a great tool for me to get a quick look of who understands what we learned today and who needs help. The students like to do it to :) I just say, "Give me a Fist to Five on how you felt today" and they know what to do! They are so SMART!!!!

Water Cycle, Weather, and Climate!

These are the different factors that determine weather.

Different forms of precipitation are rain, snow, sleet, and hail.

The 3 different climate zones are temperate, tropical, and polar. We live in the temperate zone where we have cool winters, warm summers, and it rains year-round.

Different factors that affect climate are latitude, elevation, and closeness to bodies of water.

We just wrapped up our Science unit on the Water Cycle, Weather, and Climate. These are some of the concepts we worked on.

Make a Move!!

Here is our new chart! We call it "making a move." This is great new strategy that we have implemented in class for students to share their comments on other student's work. This causes our students to really think about their work and to explain their thinking. Students can make moves in Math and Science!

Welcome to our 5th grade blog!

Welcome parents! I have started this blog as a window for parents to see what is going on in Mrs. Thomas' Math and Science class! I will post strategy charts, pictures from what we do in class, and other important information. Look soon for more posts!