Friday, May 23, 2014

Field Day 2014

What a perfect Friday!  The weather was beautiful and the 5th graders embraced their roles as leaders.  Bowling, name that tune, duck duck splash - only a few of the exciting stations that kept up busy all morning.  We headed to the Center of Clayton in the afternoon for some fun in the pool.  All left with spirits high but ready for naps.  Click here for pictures from today!

Hopscotch with Learning Buddies

For our final time with our Kindergarten learning buddies, we went outside with our popsicles and chalk to play hopscotch.  This wasn't ordinary hopscotch, inside each box were the numbers written in numeric form along with number written in Spanish.  The 5th graders and the kindergarteners practiced counting in Spanish as they practiced their hopping and balancing skills!  We really enjoyed our time with our Kindergarten buddies this year and will miss them greatly.  Check out the 5M website to view pictures from our time together yesterday.  Hopscotch Pictures

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Poetry Poem

Poetry
poetry comes in different ways
ups and downs
sled were to,
think of something you will see a poem come though,
write a song, write a poem
write a bio too
write anything that comes through.

          NIVEAP.
   

Reading Like a Fan - Author Study

In Ms. McMillion's class we have chosen an author who's books we will read for the remainder of fifth grade. We call this "reading like a fan." Each student picks an author (maybe a favorite or maybe a new one) and then chooses either to reread a book or to read a new book that they have not read written by that author. We believe this is a good way to stay focused on reading a series and staying focused on reading in general. What author would you read?

By Jackson

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Curiosity Projects

 By: Sam
    All of 5th grade is doing a curiosity project. Everybody chooses a topic that they want to learn about. We all did a lot of research. Then, we all do any type of project, too tell all about the facts we learned about our curiosity project. On May 12th, you can seen all of 5M’s projects. 

Monday, May 5, 2014

39 Clues Book Review

          39 Clues book review                         by Anand
   
    You're walking in the Sahara desert, and you hear fast paced footsteps behind you and you turn around. Who do you see? You see Dan and Amy Cahill! The Cahills are the most powerful family in the world. In the 39 Clues Beyond the Grave by Jude Watson, Dan and Amy go to the Sahara desert in search of a golden cat that holds the 4th clue. The problem is that the whole Cahill family is fighting to get the 39 clue and they will do some nasty things to get their hands on it, (e.g killing, poisoning, spying and betraying.) but these are only some of the things they do. Watch out!, a family member might be around the corner.
    In these mysterys, Dan and Amy have to go all around the world in search of the clues. This book I particularly liked because it was set in Egypt and I have always liked Egypt because of the sand and the heat and the Pyramid of Giza defenetly! Also, I liked how it was just 2 kids and the are going around the world but they are only 11 and 14. My favorite part was when they found all three of the golden cats because they were a little clueless of what to do with the 3 cats. (CLUEless, get it, 39 CLUES) If you want to find out what happens when they get all of the clues, read the rest of they books and the surprise of the 39 clues put together will make you jump!

Band Performance

               Band performance
                    By:Ingrid
Today at Glenridge school we had the Wydown middle school jazz band come and perform for us. This took place in the Glenridge gym. The band played songs such as.......We Will Rock You, Champion, And Carry On My Wayward Son. We really enjoyed all the jazz songs. They were very happy and made people want to dance.


Archery

In P.E. third through fifth grade does archery. It is really fun. There are two kinds of targets: you should know what a regular target looks like and then there is a target that looks like a dice it has five dots the center dot is a bulls eye. I have gotten five bulls eyes but four of  them were on the first day so it didn't count. I think that archery is really fun and at my other school I didn't get to do archery. I think that this has been a great experience!!
                                By, 
                                   Lauren


A few weeks ago we are did archery in gym. Each student in grade 5 got a turn to try archery each year. A cool thing this year is we have a bulls eye club when a student hits a bully eye on the target they get rewarded by having there name on the board. I think this game is amazing because it teaches students to persevere and have fun. Lots of students look forward to this week because they know how much fun its going to be.

           By:Ingrid

Before and After School

  By Anand

    In school, there are before-school and after-school clubs. In these clubs, you do lots of different things. Some of the clubs are Rollerblading, (where you roller blade in the gym.) Green team, (where you help out with the school garden and make bird houses etc.) Chess club, (where you do chess matches against other players and do tournaments.) and Lego mindstorms (where you use legos to build a robot and once you build it, you program it to do amazing things!!!)
    The reason I like lego mindstorms (because I am in it) is that you get to build and program and I love building stuff and my curiosity project is about how minecraft is programmed and in lego mindstorms you learn how to program stuff.

Puberty unit

By:Joey


      The fifth grade just started something very deep and serious. The puberty unit. Puberty is something that everybody goes through, boys and girls. Today on the fifth of May my class started by watching a video on how the human body changes over time. Also how people act different. No one should be mean about anything that happens to someone else. Well that's all but you get the purpose of it. For the next couple days we will just be learning deeply about our own bodies.

King James Simulation

 Get back, you cannot pass this point!
For several days we have been simulating the proclamation of 1763, it's hard work you know, us kids are getting a chance to be adults in the 1760's. A few days ago King George III (Ms. Mcmillion) gave us boundaries on the computers and on the loft. Today we got our jobs most people are wealthy, normal, or poor colonists, A few kids are different, Sam is the tax collecter, Madeleine is the parliament member, and  JoJo is the loyal colonist. Those people have more important rolls in the colonies. In this colony we have many many choices, we could stay loyal to the royals, or be rebellious . When you are loyal you have a much better Easier life until THE REVOLUTION before that you will be taxed less, and if you work hard you have a choice of becoming knighted, a captain, a soldier or any other British job. If you are rebellious then you can start rebel groups, take military action, outlaw, spy, and have fun even breaking the law. We will be getting taxed soonly,¡I Sure Hope I survive!


By Sir Harvard Max


Sunday, May 4, 2014

Book Reviews

All of our class is doing a book review to put on Destiny Quest (our school library catalog). First we all chose a book that we like, then wrote with a few steps. After that, we sent it to Mrs. Hagene on our Google Doc. She will then send us back, and we will then post.  

            -Sam

    Book reviews
    In library all of us have had to write a book review on a book of their choice.  When we were done typing our book reviews we had to check with Mrs. Hagne to sea if our book review was good enough to go into destiny quest our library check out system.  Some books we wrote about are The Genius Files and Mr Tucket.  This will help us learn how to wriet a good book review for others about the book.
                    By Franklin

Poetry Month

Poetry Month at Glenridge
Jackson

This month at Glenridge elementary we celebrated National Poetry Month or NPM. NPM is a celebration of poetry for people of all ages and grades. In fifth grade on the 24th, we celebrated poem in your pocket day. Every student in fifth grade carried a poem around the school in their pocket and read it in front of our homeroom classes and to teachers and other students. We were also able to read poems for our CLAYMO groups during NPM and they were able to read their poems to us. Our experiences were great because we were able to hear all different types of stories and different types of poems from different age groups.T eachers and students were able to experience pieces of writing from kindregaten and first through fifth grade.

Singing at the Ball Game



The lights, the crowd, and all the excitement!! The 3 first things you notice when you are in the Glenridge chorus when you sing at Busch Stadium. This year we sang, The Star Spangled Banner. With most of the school there and everyone watching you stand there on the field and sing. The crowd goes wild! As you make your grand exit as you go to see your friends and family over at the top of the stadium.  
-madeleine

STEM Day

               S.T.E.M Day
S.T.E.M day was fun you get to learn how to make a arm and  you only have cardboard, straws, tape, scissors and paper clips and there was also a station where you had to match a line by walking backward and forward and try to match the line it was hard but fun. We also had a chance to make some new friends from Captain and Meramec it was an awesome learning experience for me I hop it was for everyone else to.
 By Samuel 

STEM day was awesome our groups went to differernt staitons and learned about differnt stuff for example if your heart rate is above or below [57-98] you have a better chance of having a heart problem. Also the energy light saving bulbs are even brighter than normal bulbs. Did you know that if you take a motion projector, you can figure out how to match your steps to a graph! Did you know that a cow has to parts to its heart a slim side and a thick side, the thick side is for more blood flow.

  By: Matthew


On STEM day the 3 elementary schools all met up and went to the Clayton high school. We had 10 different groups with people from the other elementary schools and we went to 7 stations. The first station I went to was Boeing airplanes and we made paper airplanes and tried to land them on a aircraft carrier.  They had us do each station for about 45 minutes.  The next station we went to was a light station and it showed us what kind of lights were used for what and next we went to a biomedical station where they showed us a cow heart and a human heart with disease and other things like that. Next we were at a motion station and we would have a trend graph on a projector and we would stand a certain distance and someone would stand in front of it and stand a certain distance away to match the graph. Next we went to a robotics station and made cardboard robot arms and that was what I did on STEM day
by Ian 

On STEM day we learned lots of new things!We learned about enginiring,art and hearts.We had to engineer things and created new things. It was lots of fun!I bet the 4th graders will have fun there next year!
By Riley







           
                                    

Poem in Your Pocket Day

     On April 24th Glenridge had a day to celebrate poetry all around the school. We all had a poem and we would keep it in our pocket or in our desk. It was called “Poem in Your Pocket Day”. When we went to our kindergarten “learning buddies” that day we all shared our poems with each other. We also wrote poems about an object or place in the school and we hung them in the school so people could read them if they walked by it. If we had our poem in our pocket and we stopped by someone we would share it them. It was very fun to celebrate “Poem in Your Pocket Day”!

By Regan

Orchestra

Playing in the Orchestra

Playing in the orchestra is really fun because you get to socialize with other people from Wydown, Captain, and Meramec. And you learn music! My top 3 favorite are: 3rd is Fantasia! It’s hard the first few times, but then it has a mysterious melody that I love. Also, it has all these flats, sharps, and extensions. 2nd is Dance of the Tumblers! This song has a frollicking ad joyous melody, and I LOVE the top part of the song. (Even though I’m supposed to play bottom part, which is really boring) And First is ….. WARRIOR LEGACY!!!!!!!!!!!!! I absolutely nominate this Masterpiece as the best song EVER! The first part has low sounds only a CELLO could make. The middle part is fast and furious, like an intruder being chased by Warriors. Then the ending is like the warriors that are closing in… the music gets louder and more fierce…. and then… BAM! the last note is when the warriors pounce!  

Spring

Spring
By Kennedy
Spring is fun,spring is cool.
But what i love most about spring is the color, the laughter, the spring breeze, and the weather.
Because it’s more fun to play outside, especially if you’ve
had a long winter and its coming back..
but spring is not the time to sit around this is not winter.
uh.........................................................ATTENTION EVERYONE THIS IS NOT WINTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so, yeah you get the point but really we need to enjoy the season
spring because if we don’t appreciate the seasons except winter.
ENJOY SPRING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Monday, April 14, 2014

Poetry month

 By: Joey

              April is the month of poetry and soon there will be a day were all people walk around and share poems that they have personally made. The special poetry day is called poetry in your pocket day and that's when you literally walk around with a poem in your very own pocket. Now the way it works is whoever you walk by you can ask them if they want to here your poem or not. It is not really big deal but it is something to think about.

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Archery

                             
     This week our unit in P.e. is archery. I really like archery because it's okay if you don't get a bull's eye, but we keep trying. My favorite part of archery is when you get a bull's eye and you get to put your name on the board. Also the feeling you get when you put your name on the board you feel so proud of your self, it's a great feeling to have.
      The week we always have archery I think everyone is excited to go to P.E. because we get to do fun stuff in archery. What I like about archery is learning all the steps to get ready to shoot the arrow. What's more exciting about archery is that our friends are there and when someone doesn't get a bull's eye they always cheer them up. Also whenever one of us student's get a bull's eye Mr. Hutson and Mrs. Miller always cheer us on.
       For a lot of students archery is the highlight of the year for them. A lot of students can't wait to start archery. I hope you try archery 
                  Will you try archery?

                                                            By, CeCe












Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Persuasive Essays

Our persuasive essays
By Regan
     The past few weeks we have been writing persuasive essays about different topics. We have had different parents come in and help us on our editing. We have spent time at school and at home writing first drafts, second drafts, and editing on what we want to say. We are almost all done with our final draft thanks to the help of everyone and the time we spent working on our persuasive essays.

Archery

      By: Sam
      In gym, the 3rd-5th graders are doing archery. There are 10 stations with different types of targets. High, low, and dice! To get ready, we use three commands so everybody is safe: Step to the line, knock your arrow, pull, aim, and release. A "Bulls-eye club" is used to see who got a bulls-eye and how many times. Also, we get to learn about the parts of a bow, and how to use it correctly.

Clay Monsters

   A few weeks ago in art we made monsters out of clay. Clay monsters are always unique, some have unibrows, some mustaches, some are purple, with no hair, some are green with hair down to their toes, some are tan with purple glossy toe nails, some are blue with orange and black eyes. The possibilities are endless. After about three days they were finished and all we had to do now was was get them glossified. To get them glossified (fired) was to make a chemical reaction and it would make the outer see through coat shiny or glossy. The clay monsters will be posted in the library and then sent home. Come to the Glenridge library to take a look!

By Max

Science Small Groups

     By Anand

    In school, once or twice a week, we have these science groups A, B, and C.
    In them, what we do is that we take what we are learning as a whole and kind of build on to it by taking it further.
    What we did in my group which was A, we took what we know about the Sun, moon, and the Earth and did extra thinking. For example, in the whole group science, we didn't learn much about the moon, but in the small groups, we learned that each year, 6 hours are lost and that is 1/4 of a whole day, and so when it has been 4 years it will have been twenty four hours, and that will make a day therefore, you get Leap Year.

Badminton

                    BADMINTON
This week we have been doing the infamous sport BADMINTON! "I have never played it, but boy! I enjoyed it!!” says 10 year old Lexie.This fantastic activity was arranged by the Glenridge gym teachers: Mr.Hutson and Mrs. Miller. They were the occasional scorekeepers when the classes played the sport. To play this sport you need a racket and a birdy. We would stand in line and get our own rackets so we could play. The games went on for a whole week, so we got to enjoy ourselves that week.

    First the server serves the birdy over the net and if it doesn't make it over, they get another try. But lets say, it goes over. The people on the other side try to hit it back over so that they get the point. ANYTHING could go wrong or right at this point...but for both sides it is all crossed fingers that they get the point and/or WIN. Probably the most skilled and cooperative team will win the game and the other, LOSE. The most important thing about trying to win, is that you got to try to cooperate with your teammates. You know, you have to call the birdy and be a good teammate by not letting them get down.
Also another important thing is to have FUN with the sport.




            A blog post from,
                    Lexie

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Ukraine

       Recently in Ukraine there have been some riots of protesters that are leading to a lot of deaths.  When the protesters got to out of hand the police would kill and shoot some of the protesters.  Recently, Russia has offered help to the Ukraine president.  The problem I think is that Russia is increasing in helping the person who killed these people.  Some more problems are if the protesters don’t stop the police might kill more people.  What I think the protesters is they should gather a lot of people and then they could protest all at one time so the president would think “Well there have been a lot of deaths of these people and the protesters have gotten more people to join them so I guess I should also give in”.  My conclusion is that even though the government has given you a lot of problems you can still win the fight.
By Franklin

Monday, March 31, 2014

Pi Day

    On the day befor pi day, 3/14 (because pi day was during spring break) we had a party! First, we had 3 minutes and 14 seconds to write as many digits of pi we knew. Then, we got in groups - 3, . (decimal), 1, and 4 - and had fun games to play! My favorite was Mono-pi-ly, because I learned and had fun playing the game! At the end of the day, we all got two Oreos. After spring break, we got a fun homework scavenger hunt involving Pi.


                      By: Sam

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Book Review: The Underdogs


by Samuel

Do any of you boys/girls like football?  This book is about a middle school kid named Will Tyler who loves to play football. He is always down at their field "Shea." The book can be sad at times but the lesson is frendship and good sportsmanship. So back to the book, the next season is coming up and they don't have a sponsor and their field is horrible with all sorts of hug pot holes. How will Will Tyler save their football season. I will let you figure that out.  

So I will tell you more about the lessons fro the book.  The lessons are to not tell anyone they can't play because they are a boy or a girl. The other lesson is to not brag or make fun of a person or team because they are different. I hope you like it!       

Book Review: The Hunger Games


     Do you like action, thiller and adventure books? Then the Hunger Games is the book for you. It is the 1st book in the series of The Hunger Games. It is about a girl being taken into the Hunger Games. The Hunger Games are a battle to the death.  Everyone has to fight until one person is left. This is to keep the capitol in power.
I just read the first one and I really liked it. I think you should read it to!  

By Jake

The Wydown Play

The Wydown middle school play was amazing.  It was called Once on an Island.  It was about a little girl who was brought to her parents by gods.  The set was amazing.  It has steps and looked like it was on an island. All three 5th grades attended the play.

By Ingrid

The End of Discovery


By: Jackson and Franklin
Recently, in our classroom we finished a simulation about colonists and their lives. In the end, all the colonies had to calculate their total wealth. We all learned that all the land squares had different values and that these values affected your over all wealth in the end. The land squares with more value were typically located away from the coast and mountains and near a bay or lake.  This land was more valuable because they were protected from things like coastal storms but had access to water for fishing and trading.  We learned in our simulation that the lives of colonists were very hard and stressful. We also learned that colonists lives depended on the smallest things to survive and that everything that happened was up to fate. We learned that the lives of colonial children were also very hard. They faced death, disease, and strict parents and teachers. They also faced the wrath of the wilderness and mother nature. The lives of colonists and their survival was not in their control and this is why we think of our lives today as more welcoming and good.

Music Project


By: Joey

      In music class we are discovering the art in music by being split into groups of our own choice. From there we compose our own music that includes voices, instruments, and a lot of theme and planning. Today we split into groups and decided what music we were going to compose. I'm really excited about this project because I really enjoy playing instruments, making sounds with my mouth, you get to work with a group in control and you get to do whatever pieces of music that you wish to do. I really encourage people to take the music to a more fun and serious level because in this project, the choice is all on you.









By Ian


In music, 5th grade classes have to pick a group of 1-5 people to make a song out of beats. It can be any beat but it has to repeat itself over and over again and we can chose any instrument in the music room as long as we use it correctly.  At the end, Ms. Williams will grade our group on participation, rhythm, teamwork, and how good the rhythm is.







The Planetarium Field Trip


By Riley 
     On March 25th the class took a trip to the Planetarium! We got to learn about the sun, moon, stars, and planets. We looked at a lot of exhibits to help us learn.  In the exhibits we got to look at different things from space like, a rock from Mars and models of airplanes and space ships. We also got to watch a video about the sun, moon, and stars that showed us how the sky changes when the earth rotates.  The man leading the movie also pointed out the constellations we can see in our night sky tonight! We all had a good time. This was a really fun field trip! I hope you go outside tonight and see what constellations you can find!


BY: Matthew 
The trip was amazing! There was every thing from airplane simulations, to a scale that tells you how much it would cost for you go out to orbit. In the planetarium room we all learned about stars. Me, personally, I learned that about 168 earth's can cover the sun's diameter. Also, I learned that stars that are not born yet are called protostars. Another fact is that Jupiter has 67 moons.  You should take a trip to the Planetarium to discover things you never knew about outer space!

Click here to see pictures from our field trip to the Planetarium.

Words


                    WORDS
*Word
*words
*why are words....called, words
*words can be positive
*negative
*but really...
*it's the way you use those words
*think
*think of a word that could never be bad like
*its or it's
*words can be used in all different kinds of ways
*but just
*remember
*don't
*use
*them
*negatively
*!

By Kennedy

Book Review - "The Book Thief"


by Jojo
    Do you like challenging, interesting books?

If so, this is your book. The book thief is about a girl who finds her first book next to her brother's grave, called, "The Grave Diggers Handbook." Her foster father teaches her to read and write. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book burnings and libraries! When her foster family hides a Jewish  man in their basement, her world opens up and falls apart. And to her, her nice easy world soon turns into a fearful life, where everyone knows her as the book thief.
Will she still steal books, even against her foster father's will?

This book is by: Markus Zusak. There are some bad words in it just to let you know. If those words make you uncomfortable, try "The Diary of Anne Frank", this book is just as good.

Jojo wrote the blog post, not the book.

Healthy Snacks


By Max and Franklin
"Sometimes in math kids are bringing unhealthy snacks to eat.  Now we are here to remind you that kids need healthy asnacks to maintain a healthy lifestyle." -Franklin

     "I belive along with so many other people in america that kids obesity is one of the most dangerous diseases. If you are over-weight as a kid that can lead to major problems like diabetes. Kids should be eating carots and apples and sausage and patatoes and cheese for snack, not muffins or nachos for snack. ZERO NUTRION food is also okay, like lettuce or rice because technicley there not bad for your body." -MR.MAXXXMUHHMMM(not mom)  

Book Review for those of you who enjoy learning about Mountain Bike skills

Book Title: Mastering Mountain Bike Skills
Author: Brian Lopes, Lee Mccormack
Genre: Non-Fiction

About: `Mastering Mountain Bike Skills is a book written by Brian Lopes, a World Champion Mountain Bike racer, and Lee Mccormack, a outstanding bike coach. In this book, there are 13 chapters. No.1  Choose your weapon, which is about buying the right bike, and figuring out your riding style. No.2: Get one with your bike. This chapter is about learning how to do the necessary positions on your bike. No.3: Make Great Power. This chapter is about the right way to pedal, how to sprint and endure, and how to shift gears smoothly. No.4: Brake Better to go faster. This chapter is about braking smoothly and safely.No.5: Carve Any Corner. This chapter is about turning sharp turns, and the right leaning degree. No.6: Wheelie and hop over anything. This chapter is about hopping over obstacles. No.7: Pump Terrain for Free speed. This chapter is all about speed. No.8: Drop Like a Feather. This chapter is about landing smoothly and safely.No.9: Jump with the greatest of ease. This chapter is about jumping on your bike. No.10: Flow on any trail. This chapter is about learning different techniques for different trails. No.11: Handle Crazy Conditions. This chapter is about learning how to handle the toughest terrain. No.12: Avoid injuries. This chapter is about riding without getting hurt. No.13: Race Like a Champ. This chapter is about the right way to race. you can get this book at amazon.  

By, Joseph

Thursday, February 27, 2014

The 5th Grade Play



      The annual fifth grade play is a yearly event provided for the parents and students at Glenridge. This year the play was The Princess and the Pea. This mix of humor and traditional literature puts the classic play into a new form. The lead of the Prince, played by Sam Ilivicky, is looking in all the distant kingdoms for a bide. While all he wants is to be married, his mother, Queen Minerva, played by Regan Wade, thinks that she must use an unbeatable test to assure the princess is of proper royalty for the Prince. To help the prince find a bride the unfortunately unfunny jester played by Max Muhm, goes looking for a bride in their own kingdom. When the Jester returns he brings a bride for the Prince who wants to marry the Prince. The girl Gillian, played by Lexie Smith Gomes, is unfortunately not very bright. So,the King and Queen devise a simpler test to give to the Princess. The test consists of putting the smallest pea under the girl's matress to see if she arouses. Unfortunately, the girl, Gillian, missed the test because she was preparing for the test all night. So,who is the real princess? Well,it turns out that the real princess is a simple chamber maid named Hannah. So, in the end, the Prince gets married to Hannah and the Jester gets married to Gillian.  Click here to view more pictures from the play.

    - Jackson


Learning Buddies

     By Anand
           We have a time during our week (on every Thursday) called Learning Buddies and what we do is we go to a kindergarten classroom where we read a book from the kindergarten buddies book bag.
Recently, we got counting sheets and the 5th graders count along with their buddies like this:

5th grader:5
kindergartener:10
And so on.

Also something that recently happened we were reading Mo Willams’ books. When I was reading with my kindergarten buddy, the books that we were reading were mostly the pigeon books and a couple of the elephant and the pig books.

Monday, February 24, 2014

Historical Fiction Book Groups

     In class we do a lot of historical fiction reading so in favor of that we started book groups. Book groups are when the class splits into four groups and we each read different books and talk about them.      Each week you are assigned a task to read a certain amount of pages so that when you have a meeting you can talk about it with your group. We do enjoy book groups because you can read great stories that really get you thinking. 
     Also book groups are exciting because when you are with friends you can make connections about the book and it is very funny to see what everyone has to say. We love book groups and we think you will too. 
     By Joey and Ian

Preparation for 6th Grade

By Regan
    A few weeks ago Mr. Bolassi, the 6th grade principal and Ms. Mcgraw, the 6th grade counselor came and visited the three 5th grade classes and talked to us about our transition to 6th grade. They talked to us about different topics and we were able to ask any clarifying questions if we wanted to. We talked about after school activities, homework, lunch, lockers, and more. We were all glad that they came because it was great preparation and now we all know some about 6th grade. We are all very excited for 6th grade!

Rollerblading

            Rollerblading
               By:Jojo

    For a while at PE time, the kids in 3rd-5th grade roller bladed in the gym for a fun 30 minutes.
    The roller blades are made so that they don't ruin the gym floor. This does not happen in other schools so we are lucky to do it. Rollerblading is like ice skating but you are on solid ground so it is easier to stop. We improved our skills in stopping, jumping, falling, and so much more! This exercise can increase control, balance, speed and awareness of other people's space, and we like to do it.
    Rollerblading is fun and if it is possible, you should try it!

Creativity

Students are getting to show their creativity this year in social studies by creating extra credit projects to earn points for their team. Many students have created models demonstrating and showing all different things throughout history. Students have also created power points to represent or show things too. The models people have made have been made of all different things including lego's, clay, paper and lot's of other different materials. The end of the extra credit race is almost over.
                - Jackson

Getting Ipads in 5M

BY: Joey
       
          There have been other posts about getting ipads in 5M but today I will be talking to you about using them in a way so that there is no arguing and grabbing. So for starters if the teacher catches you grabbing and being rude she has the power to take it away from you. Also we are all so excited to do the games and apps that are on the ipads but if we don't use them the right way then the teacher will take the ipad. I am very excited for the ipads in 5M and I am extremely positive that you are to so lets just take good care of the tool then we can use them more and the teacher won't have to take it.

Free Rice

Have you ever wanted to help stop world hunger and help those who are in need. Well, now you can by going to FreeRice.com and you can play the trivia game or you can sign up and donate to people across the world who are in need. FreeRice is affiliated with the World Food Programme and is a not for profit organization. Every time a question is answered correctly ten grains of rice is donated to people in need. The World Food Programme says that 553 million people in Asia and the Pacific are hungry. They also say 227 million people in Africa, 47 million in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 16 million in developed countries are hungry. The WFP estimates 146 million children are under weight in developing countries and 17 million are born under weight annually because the mothers do to not get enough nutrition during pregnancy. The WFP also says 315,000 women die annually due to not enough nutrition and iron. One in eight people are hungry says a study the WFP performed. We can all help stop hunger by playing or donating to FreeRice.com
                    - Jackson

39 Clues

     What would you chose; a million dollars, or a clue, the first clue to the treasure that would make you become the most powerful human on the planet? Well, if you like mystery, the 39 Clues series in the one for you. Most people think that when you are 11 and 14 that your life is normal, well not for the Cahills.
    The Cahills are the biggest family organization on the planet.  Dan and Amy Cahill go on a death defying, dangerous, scary trip all around the globe in search of 39 clues, to lead them to the most powerful treasure ever.
   Go along with Dan and Amy on the wildest ride of your life, but be warned, there are bombs, murders, shootings, betrayals, and deathly people who will stop at nothing to get their hands on the 39 clues.
                            By Anand

Discovery

By Franklin
    In social studies we are doing a simulation called discovery.  During this simulation we need to act like colonist's from England trying to settle in America.  Some activities along the way were making a flag, working with maps, packing our boat, planning our cargo, settling, and trading with Native Americans.  This will teach us the challenges of colonists.

By: Samuel
The discovery unit is mainly about the first settlers in America so were practically pretending we are all in that time period.  Each of our groups are different colonies and we all have names for or colony that mean something.  My group the By-Byes, means that we are leaving our home land [Britainn] for religious freedom.

The New York Colony Sales Pitch

During social studies, groups were asked to chose one of the 13 colonies and create a billboard and sales pitch that would make someone want to move to that colony.  One group chose New York and this is the creative sales pitch they designed. Enjoy!


By: Franklin, Regan, Ian, and Jackson

Angry Birds in P.E.

From: Joey
   
        Last week in P.E. we played a fun game called angry birds. Now you might be familiar with angry birds on your phone or your i-pad but today we set up pins that were guarded by mats and you threw soft balls to try and knock over the pins. The teams were split evenly so the game was fair. When you play you try and hit all of your opponents' pins down before they hit all of your pins down. I really enjoy the game because it is fun to have balls flying in the air all at once and it is absolutely awesome when you hit the pin spot on and you win. The challenge is that the pins are not just in the open. The pins are actually hidden behind mats and on top of mats. The rule is that you have to have some area of the pin showing so you can see and hit it. If anyone has any other ideas for games in P.E. then just let me know and I can write about it.

Monday, February 10, 2014

Book Talks from Ms. Hagene and Mrs. Rapp

One of our favorite things our librarians offer is their knowledge of books.  Today we listened as Ms. Hagene and Mrs. Rapp gave books talks about 6 of their most loved books. 

The Princess Test by Hans Christian Andersen (traditional literature)
Better Nate Than Ever Tim Federie (realistic fiction)
Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25 by Richard Paul Evans (fantasy/science fiction)

Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis (historical fiction) 
Hold Fast by Blue Balliett (mystery)
Hero by Mike Lupica (fantasy)

We can't wait to give them a try!

Thursday, February 6, 2014

Jamestown Adventures

Jamestown Adventure Online Game
By Franklin and Jackson

        As some of you might know we can do extra credit projects to get extra points for our team in Social Studies.  One of these extra credit opportunities is a game called Jamestown Adventure Game Online.  The game is about you being a colonists and traveling to Virginia to establish a colony. To win the game and to get extra points you have to get all goods or excellents in certain categories: food, health, wealth, and morale. The decisions you make during the adventure determines how well your colony does in the end.

 



This is just one of many ways to earn extra credit points.