Monday, March 9, 2020

Congratulations to Alexander Scammell and Cole Rutberg our February Students of the Month

European explorer head band game

Um, this isn't working out. :)

Yes, you have toothpaste in your hair!

Acadian boys working hard! (25,000,000 Million Stitches

Question -"Am I water?" ( No...)

Yikes!

Toothpaste Activity

Mrs. Beckett, our 5th grade guidance counselor, had the students participate in a fun and gooey activity. The students were asked to squeeze all of the toothpaste out of a container onto a paper plate. Then they were asked to try and put all of the toothpaste  back in.  We talked about how we couldn't get it all back in without making a sticky mess. Rumors, once they are spread, are very difficult to straighten out.  Rumors create 'sticky' and messy situations. Mrs. Conley read Mr. Peabody's Apples, by Madonna. This story shares the same lesson, we must choose our words carefully to avoid causing harm to others.

Greek Myths

It looks like Demeter is happy that Persephone is returning from the underworld because spring-like weather is here! The students are really enjoying listening to and learning about Greek myths. Myth are stories created to each people about something important and meaningful. They were often used to teach people about events that they could not always understand, such as illness and death, or earthquakes and floods. This past week we read the nature myths: Phaethon, Demeter and Persephone, Narcissus and Echo, Eros and Psyche, and Orpheus.  We have had a lot of fun making connections to mythology. The kids immediately made the connection between Fluffy, in Harry Potter, to Cerberus, the three headed dog that guards the underworld. 

Explorer Head Band game and spelling quiz

On Friday, both classes played the Head Band game with European explorer vocabulary words.  The students asked questions to try and guess which vocabulary word they had on their heads. For example - " Am I a person?" If after three questions they couldn't guess their word, they were able to receive one word clues.  This game was a wonderful and fun review. 

Can you spell conquistador?  Yes, many of us were very successful with the spelling test. We took our European explorer spelling test Friday.  Students will be able to study the words they spelled incorrectly last week and retake the quiz this Wednesday.

Reading and Language Arts

We have been reading about our own European explorers. Both classes previewed nonfiction reading with Christopher Columbus. Students are taking dot jots (notes) on the personal life and voyages of their own European explorers.  We will present what we have learned in a Key Note or post card project.  Mr. Arsenault is coming in on Tuesday to show us how the Key Note works.

Decimals!

We have been exploring numbers behind the decimal point.  For many children it is a revelation that there is a decimal point, nevermind numbers behind it!  They really haven't had a lot of experience with this concept.  Now that most people use debit or credit cards to pay for purchases, there are a lot of children who aren't able to use money as a basis to understand decimals.  We have been focused on connecting the place value behind the decimals with fractions to extend our understanding of place value.  We continue to reinforce that each place value to the left is ten times bigger than the place value before and that each place value to the right is 1/10 as big.  This continues to be a difficult concept for a few students.  This understanding of decimal place value will lead to adding and subtracting decimals in the next few lessons. 

Social Studies
We have followed the nomads as they chased game across the ice bridge from Asia into North America and down through South America.  We have learned that as people abandoned the nomad lifestyle and began building shelters and planting crops that advances in language, technology, and culture were able to occur.  Then we learned about Marco Polo and his great adventures through China for Kublai Khan.  Polo's book fueled the imaginations and thirst for money and power of the Europeans.  We have learned about Prince Henry's school of navigation and the Portuguese and Spanish explorers who found their way around Africa and who conquered the Aztecs and the Incas.  Next we will learn about the French and English explorers which will lead us into North American colonization.