Essay work in class

As we have an essay due Friday, the kiddos asked me to post these pictures of charts we have made together in class to help them with their work at home.  I will add new pictures as we add on to our "Writing Like an Expert" list.

New School App

New School App
Gold Rush has a new mobile app!  This is a great tool for getting all things GRE at your finger tips.  Click on the following links to download this app.

Google Play

Apple App Store

Historical Research Essay

Our current unit in writing is Historical Research Essays.  Students are writing like experts to share their knowledge of Colonial America.  This is a two part unit where we will work closely together on this first essay and I will guide them though many steps, then they will write another one that is more focused on an event that intrigues them pertaining to the American Revolutionary War.  I always think it is so great to combine content so that writing feels more authentic when they are focused on what we are learning in class.

Along with that, we end the year learning about the American Revolution.  This is not only on of my favorite subjects to teach, but also one that students tend to love.  To bring in more content, book clubs will be historical fiction on books set in this time period.

Thanks for all your support at home!

End of the Year Activities

May can be a hectic time of year around here, especially for fifth graders.  Besides the extracurricular activities that your family has and the ones put on by the school, I wanted to have you write a few more on your calendar.

Our End of Year Celebration will take place at Tallman Park on June 2.  This is a super fun and casual way to celebrate the ending of elementary school.  We welcome families to come and share in community at at picnic for the day.  The kids will be playing games, hanging out, and having fun.  The school will provide sandwiches for all fifth graders and we ask kindly that you bring something for yourself and family to enjoy.  After the picnic we come back to school for final goodbye.  During this time we ask that families meet us in the gym to honor these great kiddos.  For this, I ask that you email me two pictures of your child: one from when they were a baby/toddler and a current picture.

On May 19th students will hear from our school nurse about Growing and Changing.  As this date approaches I will send out more information and a link to the video that we show during this time.  Keep in mind that in fifth grade our focus is on how their body will grow and change in the next few years.

Our annual trip to Stone Canyon Outdoor Education is scheduled for May 23.  This is a great experience for these kiddos where they complete challenging tasks such as zip-lining and a ropes course.  Please register for this trip here.  As this date approaches, I will also send you more information.  Please note that it is Outdoor Ed's policy that we do not bring parent chaperones on this field trip.

Mixtures and Solutions

We've been working hard and doing some great experiments in class this past week or so.  Students learned that a mixture is when two materials are put together and that scientifically any mixture can be separated.  After doing some small experiments students took what they learned, came up with a procedure, and successfully separated a mixture of gravel, salt, and powder (diatomaceous earth).


After than we discussed solutions: specialized mixtures in which one material (a solute) dissolves in another material (solvent).  They then realized that different materials have different solubilities to reach saturation.  They conducted and experiment where they mathematically found how much salt would dissolve in 50 mL of water to reach saturation.

Next we will learn about concentration.  Students will see that when you add more solute to a solvent it becomes more concentrated.  We will also connect this to the information we learned earlier in the year surrounding molecules in the air, creating wind patterns, and the atmosphere.

What amazing scientists I've seen this year!