Bullying Poem

Bullying

     by Kennedy

*Bullying

*Bully

*Think of bullying in a whole different way

*The thing is you can’t because there’s no other way to think about it upsides, downways, sideways? there’s no other way

*Have you ever been bullied so much that you want to die inside

*I have

*but I don’t cause I deal with it, I stand up for myself

*some people are different you can’t change that and if you try then you should back off cause some people actually care if someone’s feelings get hurt

*bullying people is wrong and if you don’t see that I don’t know what to tell you

*life can be difficult with bullying and people just believing that you can’t do anything 

well you need to believe you can

                                                                                                                                        

Button Making

After reading the book of “Crash,” the 5th graders made buttons with the big idea of the story on the front. "What do you think the “Big Idea” of this story is?” We asked the students. "I think the big idea is that people can change," said Franklin Liu in Ms. McMillion’s class. "Why do they use buttons?” we ask a 5th grade teacher, Ms.McMillion, "because Penn’s mom in the story made buttons.” -Madeleine 

 Hello, Lexie speaking. Well, about to interview people. First, I’ve decided to interview myself. Q:Why did we make buttons? A:Because in “Crash,” PENN WEBB in the beggining had a button with encouraging words on it. So when we finished the book we decided to make them first: because it’s a fun way to reflect on the book, second: what we put on there could ACTUALLY  persuade someone or think what your button says is true. For example: "Lexie and Madeleine are awesome" or "STOP world hunger!" Some people would think that is true or might decide to help ‘stop world hunger.’

You could always make a button in your own creative way, or write what you think should be on a button on a NAME TAG.(Same thing.)

The fun part about this making of buttons was that I helped-my friends did too-plan the designs and make them! So,don’t forget! You can make a button TODAY and send out a positive message. -Lexie

By: Madeleine and Lexie 

Learning Buddies

      Learning Buddies is a time every week where one or two 5th graders pair up with a kindergartener and we either read with them or do an activity.  Last week we made snowflakes with them. I think it is great that we have learning buddies because it is a time where we can be the teacher and teach younger students. I like learning buddies because it is cool seeing how it is in kindergarten and we might remember some of the stories we read to them from when we were in kindergarten.

 By: CeCe

 

Explorer Timeline

    Explorer Timeline
        By Franklin
    In our classroom we have a timeline that shows us important dates for famous explorers throughout history like Marco Polo.  This week every student had to write a fact from the explorer that they had studied.  I was studying Ferdinand Magellan and I put 1519 when he set sail.  Some explorers that we studied about were Vasco Nunez de Balboa, Ponce De Leon, and Henry Hudson.  We continue to add to this timeline as we study further important dates within our American history.  For example, we added 1620 for when the Pilgrims first landed on Plymouth. 

Holiday Sing

The Glenridge holiday sing is coming soon so people better be nice because Santa's coming to town. The holiday sing takes months of preparation to make sure no one mess's up. The Glenridge chorus starts practicing in early November to make sure the songs have been memorized by December 20th. The holiday sing is always packed so the kids and teachers at Glenridge have to make sure they have lot's of entertainment for the audience.  People even come to Glenridge who don't have children here just to hear the songs!  We hope you can come and have a nice time.
            - Jackson

Pacer

         PACER PACER PACER
          by Ingrid and Max

    Pacer is a school challenge and requirement for health. Pacer is when kids run and try to make as many laps as they can. Someone stands at the starting point and every time you make a lap that persons says the number you are on.  Our teacher usually says, "This is the pacer test, each lap gets harder as you go. On the word start, run! Ready, set, start!" Then we start. This test is meant for kids grades 3-5.  Our whole grade has a shared goal of 92 laps - the highest score.

Bowling in P.E.

        Bowling
       By Regan Wade and Franklin Liu
    Bowling was one of our recent units on gym class.  When we are a single class we get to choose partners and when we are double class the teachers choose for us.  We don't keep score but we have a lot of fun.  Sometimes the teachers even let us set the pins up in a weird order. 
    "Bowling gets really fun," says Regan Wade, "because we get to set up our pins in different ways not like in a real Bowling ally where you can't set up your pins in different ways"  I agree with her but what I like most is that we like to pick our partners sometimes.  We will bowled until Thanksgiving break.

Chocolate Milk in Schools

Chocolate Milk in Schools                           

Healthy or diabetes in a bottle?

Q: How are your feelings about chocolate milk?

A: I am fine with it.

Q: If you were allowed to get rid of chocolate milk, would you?

A: I wouldn’t.

Q: Do you believe chocolate milk should be treated as a treat?

A: (Pause)No it’s healthy for you and it just has some chocolate in it.

Q: What do you believe could be a healthier alternative to chocolate milk?

A: We used to have water bottles and we sold a lot of water but the parents were scared about the plastic and not recycling.

We do sell a lot of chocolate milk but I would go to the white milk because it’s healthier.

Some kids don’t like white milk and chocolate milk was what they drank to get their milk.  I say keep the chocolate milk rather than take it all away.

We sell 50-75 white milk and 200-225 chocolate.
I think keep chocolate all week because some kids don’t like white milk and they might not drink any milk.

Q: How many times do you believe children should be allowed to have chocolate milk?

A: I would say 5 times a week.  I would say not to drink too much because if you drink a lot of chocolate milk you have a higher chance of becoming obese or getting diabetes.

        Interviewers: Franklin, Regan, and Jackson (not present but involved: Ian)

Interviewees: Ms. Janet

Free Choice in Art Class

This year in art class children are getting to experience free choice art. Students start art class this year with a small mini-lesson and then get to decide whether we want to do the fabric station, the print station, the paint station, the drawing station, the collage station, or the sculpture station. Each student gets to do a project of their choice and then gets to work on that for the whole art class! Students also are able to get ideas from others or from magazines.
                    - Jackson

"Symphony Slam"

        The Symphony
        By Franklin
    On November 20th we went to Powell Hall to see the "Symphony Slam"  We listened to music while looking at pictures from the St. Louis Art Museum.  We saw artwork like a painting of the Titanic and African masks.  My favorite part was when the conductor told us some information.  He talked to us about some of the decisions the composers and artists made while creating their pieces.  He also helped us listen for certain sounds and instruments within the music.

Day of Choirs

        Day of choirs
By: Joey and Franklin
Date: 11-22-13

    Today was a great day. We had an assembly called "The Day of Choirs." The day of choirs is when our chorus, the middle school chorus and the high school chorus meet together at Glenridge School and every chorus got to sing about 2 to 3 songs. We had a blast when we were there. Every chorus was awesome. The Glenridge solos were even cooler because all three of the singers were in our class. The people who had the solos were Jojo, Kennedy, and Riley. They did a did a great job. They sang parts of the song "Ordinary Miracle". The high school did a cool song from Pitch Perfect called the "Bella's Finals." It was great singing and dancing. We think that every school should have a day of choirs if they do not have one already.

High School Choir

Middle School Choir

Glenridge Choir

Grammar

       Grammar Book BY: Matthew

  We will be working on grammar throughout the year.  We just started with watching a School House Rock video about parts of speech. Then when we got our grammar books. In each section, we learn a specific rule and then would apply the meaning and along with examples on other pages of the section. Some parts of speech are nouns, verbs, adverbs, pronouns, etc. We sometimes have grammar for homework so it's important to listen to the lesson so your not clueless for homework because it can be confusing sometimes.

Music Video

Riley, Lexie, Max, Joey, and Anand created a music video to show how the Native American tribe they studied was civilized.  They studied the Native Americans who lived in the Pacific Northwest.  They wrote their own lyrics to the tune of some popular songs to tell facts about the tribe.  Enjoy their creation!

Middle School Play

We were part of the first audience to view a performance in the brand new theater at Wydown and it was an incredible experience.  The theater was beautiful but the acting was what really made our time there special.  Not only was it fun because teachers got to see past students in the spot light but it gave the 5th graders a glimpse into a part of middle school.  The play was titled, "Much Ado About Middle School," and gave us a look at some typical and not-so-typical middle school life. 

Before the performance, the 5th graders were introduced to the principal, their grade-level principal, and their counselor for next year.  This trip was the first of many to help students have a smooth transition up to middle school.  I think our students left feeling more excited than ever about the upcoming changes. 

Explorer Project Gallery

Parents, Grandparents, Teachers, and 5th Graders joined together to learn about some of the famous European Explorers throughout history.  Each student chose an explorer to research and their projects highlighted these specifics details: country of origin, sponsor country, reasons for exploring, routes taken, and results of their explorations.  Students had a lot of freedom in how they wanted to present their findings so we had quite a variety of projects: glogsters, prezis, posters, stories, powerpoints, and even a game to show-off the spices an explorer might have found in his discoveries.  It was a wonderful learning experience.

 For more pictures, click here.

Halloween

Halloween was a blast despite the weather.  We couldn't have our traditional parade around the school grounds so we marched our way through the library, into the gym and around so parents could catch a glimpse at the wild and creative costumes.  Then we headed back upstairs for some spooky games spread throughout the 5th grade wing.  It was a very haunting afternoon. 

Here is a small sample of pictures from the day.  Click here to view the photo gallery on the 5M website.

"What is civilization?"

“What is civilization?” Well this year fifth grade is figuring that out. Fifth graders are learning how people become considered civilized. Each group or team for our fifth grade class was given a specific group of people. All of the groups have different traits about them. Each group was given about two weeks to study and put their information into a video, powerpoint, or a skit. Each group then presented their findings and stated why or why not their group of people were civilized. The audience to that group then took notes on the traits of that group. The audience then decided for themselves whether that group that presented was civilized. The groups that were studied were the Town Builders, The Sea People, The Desert Dwellers, the People of the Forest and the Farmers of the Plains. Each group was considered civilized which led us to ask the questions, “Where did the European arrogance come from and why think they had the right to destroy these Native American civilizations?”
By Jackson

Alien Math

Alien Math
This year in fifth grade math skills will be tested in Ms. McMillion’s math class and her class has taken a turn into outer space. Mrs. Slodounik has introduced Alien Math to Ms. McMillions class. Alien Math is a mathematical adventure taking place in the far reaches of galaxies. The main point of Alien Math is to teach students to use more than base 10. The main character of Alien Math is an astronaut who is traveling to different planets trying to save Earth from becoming a hyperspace traffic lane. Each new planet the astronaut travels to has a different base. Some of the aliens in this story are the Binarians using base 2, the Hexadecimites using base sixteen and many other alien species. Each new alien species has a different body and way of counting. The Binarians have two heads on one body (but to them they have ten heads)! The Binarians count like this 0,1,10,11,100,101..., the hexadecimites use numbers and letters to count and they have sixteen arms (10 to them)! Another alien species uses the base six system and they count like this 0,1,2,3,4,5,10,11,12.....! This experience has opened the mind of children to do more challenging math. 
By Jackson


Alien Math Celebration
     In 5M math, we do a fun alien math. When we finish the Alien math unit, we decided to celebrate. On November 5th, we had our party. We all wore light neon colors like aliens. First, we listened to a news broadcast that talked about the thought that there might be aliens on 22% of the planets. Next, we did a bingo game that we called ALIEN (instead of BINGO). Mrs. Slodounik said a number in base 2 and we converted to base 10 to see if we can put a spaceship on a space, for example, N 10110. It then got too hard so we thought to just say the number. Then once someone got "ALIEN" we all got plow pops. As we did this we had glow sticks to represent the glowing nature of aliens and outer space. We finished with Suduko and some people shared strategies to help up get started. When we had to leave, everyone was upset because we LOVE Alien Math!    
By Sam 

CLAYMO Lessons

Once a month the fifth graders get to teach a Claymo lesson.

Just like late start the claymo lessons are on Wednesdays.  The day of or day before the lesson, the fifth graders get a script saying what their lesson will be.  Every month there is a new script and the fifth graders get to teach that lesson.

- Madeleine

During our last lesson we read the book One by Kathryn Otoshi.  The characters in this book were colors and numbers.  Blue is a quiet character while Red is a hothead and a bully.  Throughout the book, students hear the message of accepting differences and how it just takes one voice to speak out to make everyone count.

- Ms. McMillion

Our Social Studies Explorers

At the time, all 5th grade classes are doing a project on early explorers as a grade for our report card. We have to take imformation from three or more resourses. One: A book. Two: Encylopida. Three: A website that the school can trust. Our project is due 11\11\13. The students have a choice of a Prezi, an I Movie, a Powerpoint or Keynote, we can make a Report, an Everybody book, a Glogster, a Poster, a Story, or come up with there own idea (but they then have to ask there teacher if thats ok) to present their research.  We have to find out where are why each of our explorers went out to explore.  We also have to research what the result of their explorations were and how they affected the people who they encountered.  We had time to do our research at school but the project needs to be finished at home.

Our Social Studies unit on "Who Discovered America?"is off to a great start!

By Matthew and Ms. McMillion

The High School Pep Band

The pep rally is a performance that the Clayton highschool or [CHS] preforms for us every year before the Homecoming football game. All of the band members and cheerleaders come and play and dance to about four songs. All the Glenridge students sit in a circle and watch the master pieces and how wonderfull they are. Everyone has a good time and lots of fun.

By Matthew

Class Dojo

     Class Dojo is a website that we use to manage how we behave by using a positive scale. Who ever has the most positives at the end of the week will have a choice of what they want to do in there free time with or without a friend. Class Dojo can be sent home by email and by paper so that parents can see how there child behaved for the week. Doint worry it's not a very compeitve thing it's just who has been able to work the hardest to earn a celebration or who has just been a great example for whole fifth grade.

By Matthew

Reading Groups

A few weeks ago we started reading groups.  Some of the groups are reading books such as Kira-Kira, Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key, and As Small as a Elephant.  These books are all great books. These groups become our own little book clubs and each week meet to see how many pages we will read and each week we will write about the story in our reading notebooks to we come to our group with things to discuss.  The focus of these groups is to identify why the characters are making certain decisions and what social issues can we identify.

-Ingrid

Boggle

        Our class plays Boggle about every day.  It gets us ready for the rest of the day and it lets us study new words for our writing.  We try to find a 9 letter word using the letters provided.  The student who has found the most 9 letter words is Regan Wade with 3.  After a student gets a nine letter word they write their name on the tape that makes up the boggle board.  Some nine letter words we’ve had so far are: character, listening, and cautious.  Some people think that boggle is a time to relax and I think that is true.

- Franklin

Volleyball Unit in Gym

      The volleyball unit in gym was very fun to us students. When we started serving the ball and bumping and setting we learned a lot. We learned to never give up when we are serving and if we can’t bump it over the net we never ever should give up on it. That is why I love the volleyball unit in gym and we have always enjoyed this unit. I also love that when anyone couldn't get the ball over the net that person didn’t get upset they just forgot about it and had a great time with it. So that is why I love this unit in gym.

                                                                                         

                                         -By CeCe

Edmodo

By Ryan

Edmodo is a site that kids can go to in order to share their thinking and stay in touch. We just recently started an Edmodo group. We are mostly talking about a book called Crash. It is a great place to share thinking and learning. Many of us did Edmodo in 4^th grade. Some of us are also new to Edmodo. Last year we used it for other subjects like Science. Teachers can give us badges too. And we can put our favorite career on there and how we like to learn. It’s a way of sharing ideas even out of school. And that’s all about Edmodo!

  

Reading Crash

By: Madeleine

Crash, by Jerry Spinelli is our class’ read aloud.

Crash is about a boy named Jon (Crash), a boy named Mike, and a boy named Penn. The main character, Crash, is your everyday bully, while Penn is your everyday new kid.  It starts out with Crash telling how he met Penn.

They met on the summer before first grade.  Crash tells the story as his seventh grade self. Crash is saying hatred at first site.

But the question is will the boys ever settle their differences?

"Binta and the Great Idea"

We watched a short film today in class.  The film is titled "Binta and the Great Idea" and was nominated for an academy award in 2007.  It is a story of a young African girl named Binta who is allowed to attend school and the story of Binta's cousin, Soda, who is not allowed by her father to attend school.  Binta develops an idea to try to persuade Soda's father to send Soda to school. 

We used this film to practice noticing and identifying when social injustices are present.  As the students watched they had silent conversations with their partners through note passing.  Their conversations were guided by the following questions:
     What seems fair?  What seems unfair?  What pressures are put on the characters and how do they respond?  What does the filmmaker want us to feel while watching this film and why?

These questions led us to discuss the social issues of power, education, family, and gender. 

This was a powerful film and evoked such deep conversations.  I hope you have an opportunity to watch and talk with your child about it!

Binta and the Great Idea

African Dancing in P.E.

Mr. Diadie Bathily joined the 3rd and 5th grade this week during P.E. to teach our kids an African dance.  The students worked so hard to learn the intricate moves and memorize the routine.  What an incredible learning opportunity.  It is so important to experience cultures and traditions different from ours.  I have included some pictures below and will add a video soon!

Social Justice Issues in Literature

Today our class looked back at four books we shared together this year: The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson, Creativity by E.B. Lewis, Mr. Lincoln's Way by Patricia Polacco, and The Orange Splot by Daniel Manus Pinkwater.  As we reflected on these books, we asked ourselves if there were ever moments in the stories when something did not seem right or fair.  This began our discussion of how we can look at a book differently by noticing the social justice issues the author incorporated into the story.  We can use these issues to fuel our discussions of the characters, their decisions, and relate it back to our own world.  We brainstormed a list of social justice issues we have seen in literature and in our community.  I wanted to share this list with you.  Focusing your conversations at home about these issues your child sees in his/her book can be a great extension of what we are doing here at school.  It also can encourage your child to become more aware of the world around him/her.  

Social Justice Issues List Brainstormed by 5M:

 An issue is present when something doesn’t seem RIGHT or FAIR.

Judgment of looks              Not accepting differences

Not being allowed to be yourself              Family

Bullying                            Cyber-bullying 

Power                            Control

Money (poverty)                     Not allowing change

War & Violence                     Revenge

Lying                                   Jealousy

Death                            Fear/Protecting/Surviving

Blackmail                            Gender

CLAYMO Retreat

About CLAYMO

On the day we left for the CLAYMO retreat we were all so excited and happy. The purpose of this retreat was to prepare for the first meeting, to trust our partner, and to learn about our self as a leader. CLAYMO is about about friendship and responsibility. My friends had a great time at the retreat. We enjoyed all of the activities and had lots of fun at the retreat. Here are some of the activities:  we did a partner walk and talk and we did some preparation for being a leader. Then we played some games. We learned a lot about our partners. The experiences, were amazing. We did activities with many different people throughout the day.

  By Sam, Max, and Joey

Activities of our CLAYMO Retreat: 

The Partner Walk and Talk

    This activity was about getting to know our partners.  In this activity we were all walking on a path around the park with our partners.  We took turns asking each other questions that were on the cards we were given by different teachers.  The purpose of this activity was to learn about your partner's personality.  The teachers involved were: the principal, Mrs. Scott, the instructional coordinator, Mrs. Sample, the 5th grade teachers, Mrs. Barnes, Ms. McMillion, and Ms. Garcia, our specials teachers, Mr. Hutson, Mrs. Miller, and Mrs. Kennerly, our science teacher, Mr. Kearney, and our gifted teacher Ms. Slodounik.  We all learned something new about our partners. 
-Anand and Josh

 
Lesson Planning
     
      Lesson planning is an activity made for practicing teaching what CLAYMO is.  5th grade students will tell what CLAYMO is on Wednesday.  Everyone (with their partner) practiced teaching a class.  The 5th graders made posters that we would have the younger kids write on to tell how they could be helpful around the school (ex: classroom or bathroom).  These posters would be put around the school.  The teachers who were helping us were Mrs. Garcia, Ms. Hagene, and Mrs. Miller.  They helped the 5th graders complete the posters.  The 5th graders were prepared and ready to teach CLAYMO on Wednesday.
-Madeleine and JoJo

 







Making Lanyards

     At the Making Lanyards station we got to make lanyards with name-cards about yourself.  We all would wear these for every CLAYMO lesson.  Some people drew stages, shapes, and different colors on their name-cards and of course we all included our name.  While we were making lanyards, Mrs. Scott told us some things to do in different situations during a CLAYMO meeting.  The teachers involved were Senora Kenneryl, Mrs. Slodounik, and Mrs. Scott.  
-Franklin and Joseph

Inside, Outside Circle

     In the start of this game we were split into two groups.  We each got slips of paper.  In the bigger group the slips of paper said, "yes," "no," or "yes" with conditions.  In the smaller circle they got slips of paper that said, "may I join your circle?"  The kids in the smaller group had to ask people to get into the larger group.  Once you were let into the bigger group, you joined the circle and got one of their slips of paper.  The reason we liked this activity was because since it was a game, everyone who was allowed to join the circle chose a slip that said "yes" with conditions only because it wasn't real. Josh had to ask every single person in the bigger circle before he was let in.  Everyone eventually made it in.  Mrs. Spann, Ms. Mary Ann, and Ms. McMillion helped with this activity.
-Ian and Ryan

Tile Activity

     Mr. Hutson, Mr. Kearney, and Mrs. Barnes were the helpers at the tiles station. The tiles were colored green,brown and blue. We covered the tiles in words that leaders should follow. Some words that we used on our tiles were respect, wisdom, courage, self-control, and caring. It was exciting because we got to work with partners and share ideas. When we put the tiles together it’s going to become a tree in the library. This tree will be important to 5th graders  because we all had a part in making this tree. Also it will remind the younger kids to always follow the claymo promise. The younger kids will learn to become leaders by reading the words on the tiles that make the tree.wac
-By CeCe and Ingrid

Blind-Fold Activity

     The blind-fold activity is a trust activity about a blindfolded walk through a cone maze. Many people weren't trustworthy at the beginning but, after they got through the cones they knew that they could trust their partner. Some partner's were joking around and led their partner into grass and cones. Some people had a smooth walk through the maze while others fell over cones or walked right into a cone. After awhile of bumping and tripping over cones some people could just walk right through. Eventually everyone had a turn to get guided through the maze. We found that we could really find trust in other people and trust in our partners. Some people liked blindfolding them self’s and trying to walk through, but they found it wasn't as easy by themselves. Sam liked guiding people in the wrong way.  I think in the end most people could trust their partner. 
-Jake and Samuel

Dancing

     One of the three recess activities was dancing. The music blared in everyone ears and even other people at other stations started dancing. Everyone had fun, (yes even the teachers!) Dancing got us all in a great mood. Some of us say that was our favorite activity! Mrs.Miller lead the activity, but Mrs.Spann, Sra.Kennerly, and a few others tagged along. That was one of the recess activities to let us have a quick break. We all had lots of fun dancing!
-Regan and Lexie

Rock, Paper, Scissors Tag!

     One of the best things at the CLAYMO retreat was 'rock paper scissors tag!’

The teachers that helped us where Sra.Kennerly and Ms.Hagene.  The whole point of the game was to help us work together and so we could get our energy out!   To play, you had to do movements with your legs to show rock, paper, or scissors.  The reason we liked this game was because if your team won the round you got to chase the other team and try and tag them! If you tag someone on the other team they have to come to your team! We both had to go to the other team! This was a very fun and great game for everyone! We want to play it again!

-Riley and NiVea

Lanyards and Parent Letters

     Towards the end of our retreat we had a ceremony that was like we were graduating from high school.  We got our name lanyards that we made earlier and a letter.  The letter was kind of a personal letter about you and your parents.  In the letters talked about you and things in your life.  After everyone got their lanyards and letters we got to go to a quiet place in the park to read privately.  

-Lauren and Kennedy

Encouraging Spider Web
 

     We ended our day with the Encouraging Spider Web Activity. In this activity, we sat in a circle and threw a yarn ball to each other and the person who caught the ball got a compliment from the person who threw the ball.  We liked this because in the end it made a compliment web.  After the web was complete we cut it into pieces and made bracelets out of the strings. These bracelets reminded us to always give each other compliments and of the nice things that were said about us. This activity was led by Mr. Hutson, Mrs. Miller, Mrs. Sample, Mrs. Spann, Ms. Hagene, and Mrs. Kennerly.
-Matthew and Jackson 

WE LOVE BEING LEADERS!

Check out more of our pictures on our class website.

5M Website