Reading on Friday with Miss Weiss

Today students made text-to-life connections between Lyddie, the main character in a novel we are reading about the Industrial Revolution, and themselves. We have watched Lyddie's goals and priorities change throughout the course of her story: in the beginning she wants to "fix" her family and put it back together as it once was. But slowly, Lyddie accepts that change is inevitable. She turns her focus from the past to her own future. She dares to dream bigger.

Students wrote in their RRJs (Reader Response Journals) about how their goals and priorities have evolved over the school year.  As they anticipate graduating, many fifth graders are treasuring the time they have with one another more than ever. The excitement for next year is certainly palpable in the classroom, but it's bittersweet.

Making text-to-life connections and text-to-text connections are skills we have been working on all year - not just in reading, but in other areas (like Torah Project and Social Studies) as well. At this point, making these connections has become almost like a reflex for students. I'm not sure they're even aware when they do it. It's great to see how far this class has come!

Factory Project on Thursday with Miss Weiss

For weeks, students have been hard at work on their Factory Projects. One factory, "MISS G" (for Micah, Inbal, Sandy, Sonya, and Gabe) is producing "graphic tees" -- tees that feature all sorts of cool images of sites from around the world. The other factory, "WHAN" ( for Westrick, Hammarstrom, Alezker, and Nassau) is producing the incredible Pencil-Pen. Their slogan is: "Is it a pencil, or is it a pen? It's both!"

It's very cool to watch the students work. They're taking the assignment so seriously. They've had disagreements about what to pay workers, where to get materials from, product prices, etc. It's great.

Today Jacob showed me a piece of paper that had his factory's budget-related Math calculations on it. He pointed to a number that was somewhere in the $2 million range and said, "Miss Weiss, I'm glad we don't really have to come up with all this money! You know, you need a LOT of money to start a factory!"

Rough drafts are due tomorrow and then we'll start on revisions. The finished products should be stellar -- ask to see them!

Math on Wednesday with Miss Weiss

Fifth graders took a quiz on properties of triangles Tuesday. As a class, they did very well, so kol hakavod to fifth graders!

In yesterday's Math class, we did more work with triangles: we categorized triangles in terms of the length of their sides as well as in terms of the measurements of their angles. In doing this, we encountered six terms to represent the six "types of triangles." Students sounded like pros, talking about acute isosceles triangles and obtuse scalene triangles, etc. It was great to hear!

Poetry on Tuesday with Miss Weiss

Fifth graders received their poetry unit final assessment assignment today. This marks our last writing unit of the year - aside from writing graduation speeches! (Yes, GRADUATION speeches!)
From their Personal Narratives at the beginning of the year, to Biblical Narratives, to G-d Writing, to Creative Stories (and more), the students have come so far in their writing skills this year. Mrs. Woods and I are excited to see the students' final poems -- and even more excited for them to be able to showcase the poems for all of you at Blue State Coffee in June.
See you there!

Solar Energy on Monday with Miss Weiss

Today your children were real scientists! After having studied solar energy and solar ovens for the past 3 weeks, fifth graders entered uncharted territory. They used what they know to come up with new, innovative ideas about how to insulate solar ovens (which we will begin to build later this week). The kids brought in all kinds of materials --- things I hadn't even thought of -- flower petals, bubble wrap, the stuffing inside a stuffed animal, to name a few. The students made all the "executive decisions" themselves --- whether to shred materials or test them as is, whether to re-test materials, how much of each material to use, etc. It was pretty awesome to watch!

I can't wait to see where the kids take this project next! Stay tuned...

Factory Project

Fifth graders were introduced to their "Industrial Revolution Culminating Endeavor" today, in which they will create plans for a factory produced product in groups.  This is an integrated project, which will draw on skills and content knowledge from most subject areas (Science, Social Studies, Writing, Computers, and Judaic Studies).  Please ask your child about it!  They will work on this project during the month of May.  Their plans will be pitched in early June.

Swimming in a Sea of Poetry

We began our poetry unit today.  "Poetry is emotion" is one of our main big ideas for this unit.  We began by brainstorming poetic words and phrases.  Slowly, slowly the words came at first, then they flew from mouths onto two large pieces of chart paper, falling fast from lips until the paper had been taken over with their poetic words.  We talked about words that evoke feelings and imagery.  Each student chose several words to display artfully, and then added string to the top, to be hung from the ceiling.  As they worked, I read poetry.  We intend to transform our classroom into a sea of poetry, so that we feel as if we're swimming in poetry.  It is my hope that our young poets will sleep, eat, and breathe poetry in the coming weeks!  Every night each fifth grader will bring home a different book of poetry, to spend five minutes reading independently and five minutes aloud.  The more poetry we read and hear, the better poets we will become.  Fifth graders will begin writing original poetry next week.  At 6PM on June 13th the class will recite their poems at Blue State Coffee on Thayer Street.  Mark your calendars!