Week 20

We started the week with a math lesson from our math coach, Mrs. James. She helped us with equivalent fractions and adding/subtracting fractions. The kids played a game making equivalent fractions. You can see that Timothy is having fun!





The kids have been enjoying the iPads were have had access to. Math Puppy was a popular app this week. They love to play Stack the States on my iPad. Every time we have free time they want to play.



These are the students that got the big word the other day! Each day we have a big word to figure out. I post the letters in abc order and they rearrange them to find the big word. I give a ticket for the Good Job Jar to the first 3 students who get the word correct. Congrats to Talia, Max, and Amerrit!

STUDENTS: I'm getting excited about starting chemistry soon! We just need to finish the digestive system and the light path. Then we start our big chemistry unit. What has been your favorite thing we have done in science so far this year?

Week 19

Welcome back! This was a busy week even though it was a short week. We started using the class set of iPad to practice math this week. Everyone had a chance to play math games on the iPads on Thursday during our new group rotations.



We also learned a new brain dump in math this week. We talked about converting measurement and the kids learned this graphic organizer. They can each write this down without looking and use it correctly! We will keep doing brain dumps to learn measurement before testing begins.



Today we did a fun activity to learn how the colonists felt before the Revolutionary War. They felt they were being taxes unfairly. King Nine declared taxes on things like tennis shoes, pencils, glasses, and blue jeans. The kids had to pay taxes using their Skittles and most were upset because they were having to give them all away. Claudia and several other students had to use all of their Skittles to pay taxes.



Max wasn't happy about having to give up his Skittles either. Now they understand how the colonists felt!



We are also finishing the pages for our class book. I can't wait to send this off and get the books in. Our book title is Fifth Grade Confessions. Once they come in I'll share some of the pages here.

STUDENTS: We started using the class set of iPads this week. There aren't a lot of apps there yet but I wanted to get feedback from you to see which apps you'd like to see on there. Only math games will be added to this iPads. Do you play any math games you'd like to see added? It can't be Angry Birds or Cut the Rope because those aren't math games. Don't know any apps? Share your favorite part of this week!

Week 18

Merry Christmas from my house to yours! I hope everyone is having a wonderful break.



The big thing this week was the sheep heart dissection. The kids were grossed out when I pulled out the bag and just stuck my hand in and started pulling out hearts. But once they had one in front of them they all dug in! We were able to find all the parts of the heart we have been learning about.







Justin brought me a toothbrush for Christmas! :) I must share the story here. Several weeks ago we were talking about commercials and I asked them if they had seen the Arm & Hammer spinbrush commercial. I told them that I had told my husband he better not get me a toothbrush for Christmas. We all laughed but it looks like Justin remembered. He brought me one for a gift. It was a joke, of course, but it was funny!

STUDENTS: Are you ready for school to start back? Why or why not.

Week 17

Wow, this was a week full of activities! The week started with Mrs. James, our new math coach, coming in to do a math lesson on LCM.



We played games and learned how to use the cake method to find LCM & GCF.





Mrs. Pierce came in and helped us make a candy cane wreath. It seemed like there were candy canes everywhere!





In science, we are learning about the circulatory system. So we made a model of the blood to learn about the different parts of the blood. We used water, rice, red hots, and marshmallows. Some of the kids had more white blood cells that others and that meant they were sick.



Mrs. McBrayer helped us make a gingerbread ornament. The kids added their picture to it.

The faculty had our annual get together for Christmas. We had snacks and had a fun spending time with friends!

Mrs. Warren helped us make candy cane ornaments this week as well. The kids had a lot of fun decorating their hearts and adding glitter to it!




Mrs. McNabb made ornaments with snow, ribbons, and paper inside.





Can you tell we are ready for the holiday break?

STUDENTS: It is almost time for our holiday break. I know we are all excited about having time to spend with family and friends (and no homework). So, what do you want for Christmas?

Week 16

This week all our pictures were taken with the classroom iPad! The kids are really enjoying being able to use the iPad to take pictures of what we are doing in the classroom. We made cells at the beginning of the week. Monday we made animal cells and Wednesday we made plant cells.



The photo booth app is also a hit!



I set up a Twitter account for us to tweet about things we are doing in the classroom. I  also created a twitter door so the kids can "tweet" something each day. Are you following us on Twitter? Search for us at @MWhiteMES to see all the tweets from the kids.



Can you tell the boys are ready for the weekend?

STUDENTS: What would you like to tweet about? A few of you have already had a chance to use the Twitter app to let everyone know what we're doing in the classroom. However, I'd love to know what you want to share!

Week 15

This week the kids were up dancing to the Study Jams Order of Operations song, Ron Clark's Order of Operation Song,  and the Cell Rap. We have a lot of fun learning songs that go along with our curriculum.



Dakota and Andrea cleaned up the cockroach habitat. They had their flour baths and now have a clean place to stay. Thanks Dakota and Andrea! Believe it or not, everyone wants a turn cleaning the cockroach habitat.



The kids also had a lot of fun playing games on the iPad! Stack the States is one of their favorite games right now. If you haven't seen it you should check it out.

STUDENTS: What is your favorite song so far this year? We learn lots of songs to help you remember information. So I want to know which is your favorite so far.

Week 14

You aren't going to believe everything we managed to do in a day and a half! We started Monday with a puppet show. We read our play from last week using the puppets. Max made everyone laugh because he wanted to be the queen and LeighAnna was the king.



Then we used crayons to model the rock cycle. We turned the crayon into sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous rocks.



Then during our half day Tuesday we made edible rocks! We used graham crackers and chocolate icing to make sedimentary rock. Starbursts were used to create metamorphic rocks and we melted chocolate chips to make igneous rocks. I think the kids liked this one and they loved the fact they could eat it!







Finally, to go along with our colonial unit we made butter. We put whipping cream in a jar and started shaking. You shake, shake, shake.... then shake some more. The final result is homemade butter. Everyone tried a little on crackers.







It was a whirlwind of a week. I can't believe we got everything accomplished in a day and a half. We are off the rest of the week for Thanksgiving. I hope everyone has a safe holiday and finds time to enjoy time with family.

STUDENTS: Which was your favorite, crayon rocks or edible rocks? Why did you like it?