Sunday, September 30, 2018

5B Classroom: Week of September 24th

A note from Mrs. Burke:
Thank you to parents and extended family who could make it to our open house on Thursday. I enjoyed meeting you and watching the students show you around our classroom. If you couldn't make it to open house, I sent home a packet of information that I handed out so be sure to ask your child about it, and I look forward to meeting you another time.

Take a look at what the classroom reporters wrote about this week:


Flexible Seating: We are very fortunate to have lots of different types of seating available in our classroom. The students designed how they wanted to have the flexible seating set up at each table. They worked together to design plans as part of a project based learning unit. It involved teamwork and compromise. Each week they change their seat so everyone will eventually get to try all of the differenty types of seating that is available.













What do you like about the flexible seating options in our classroom?
Which is your favorite seat?  Why?

What I like about flexible seating is that we get to choose the seating around the classroom and we get to have a different seat every week. My favorite seat is the stools because they have no back and they are high.
-Madison

I like for flexible seating that we can try new things. My favorite seating option is the red swivel chairs because they are cushony and you can wiggle. They are so cool!
-Abigail

I like the flexible seating options in the classroom. My favorite is the red high top
stools, because I like that you can swivel in them a little and I like that you’re in the back of the room at a high table.
-Maximus   

I like the flexible seating because instead of a regular chair you can have the
wobbly stool, high top chairs, wooden stools, standing desk, bouncy band, and
seat cushions. To be honest I want to sit in all of them.
-Madylyn

I love flexible seating because we have so many different seating that you can get. You can get the same thing some weeks, but that’s okay because most time different people will get something different.
-Rebecca

Sometimes that other people want what you have and you can share and decide that you can have one day and the person has it the next day.
-Owen

The flexible seating is comfy! But in my opinion, I am not fond of the high stools.
But I am waiting to be able to sit at the green table, because it has these REALLY comfortable high top chairs! They are red with cushioned backs and bottoms.
-Braelyn

What I like about the flexible seating is we get to pick a bear and whatever
color table box it matches is what table we sit at for one week, and the tables
have really awesome flexible seating.
-Zachary

My favorite is the red chairs even though I did not have it yet, it's still my favorite
to sit in.
-Taylor

What I like about flexible seating is that we get to try something new every week! My two favorite seats are the wobbly stool and the high top red chair. The reason I like the wobbly stool is that it is comfortable and you can move a little, the wobbly stool also helps your posture. The reason I like the high top red chair is because it is high, comfortable and you can move a little.
-Aubree


Language Arts:  The American Revolution

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Students spent some time this past week doing a vocabulary sort with words they have been learning while studying The American Revolution.







What have you learned this week about African American slaves and their role in The American Revolution?

This week I learned that African Americans did not always get freed by fighting
for the Americans in the war. Sometimes their masters would take their pay or
make them fight in their place. I think African Americans were treated very poorly by the Americans.
-Abigail

I have learned that African Americans role was to serve as more soldiers and spies.
-Maximus

They didn’t want to pay the taxes.
-Randy

This week we learned about the role of the African American slaves. The African American slaves fought for freedom for the Patriots, but the African Americans fought for them and did not get freedom.
-Madylyn

That the African Americans almost never got their freedom, but then Abe Lincoln came along and changed that law and the slaves were free.
-Owen

We are learning about Loyalists, Patriots and slaves did not have freedom and Britain.
-Taylor

In Language Arts we are learning about African American slaves. They had to
help both sides in the war to win freedom, although some of them fought but
they still didn't win freedom. They didn't win freedom because their masters
had them replace them so they were still the masters “property” and they would
get their money back if their “property” were killed. Overall ELA ( English language arts) was very fun so far.
-Aubree


Science: Egineering and Design

Investigation:  The Gumdrop Pedestal


The Problem: Supporting Snow Load


A housing development company has hired you to propose a housing structure that will support a heavy snow load.  You are still getting started as an engineer, so you need to use materials you have around the house to test your ideas.  In your closet you have toothpicks and gumdrops.
Which shape structure will be the strongest?

What did you learn about during the Gumdrop Pedestal investigation a couple of weeks ago?











Something I learned  about during the gumdrop pedestal was that lower and wider the more weight it can hold.
-Lyndsey

We learned the lower the pedestal and the bigger it is the better of a chance
of the pedestal to not break.
-Owen

When building the gumdrop pedestal, I learned that it’s okay to flunk the first few
times. Also that you have to ignore the fact that you are working with people you
might not know that well. But we actually were a good group! And we managed to build a structure that can hold a dictionary.
-Braelyn


Investigation: Catapults

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Problem:  Two Lego men named Bob and Jack aren’t getting along.  They are about to go to battle. The town has decided that they may design a catapult to help them in battle.  The town council agreed that they may both only use the supplies provided by the town.

The supplies each man will receive are:
Rubber Bands
Two sizes of popsicle sticks
Mini Marshmallows
One bottle cap

If you were Bob or Jack how would you design your catapult so you would have the best chance of winning?

What have you learned this week from building and testing your prototype catapult for the Lego Battle?


















Something I learned during the catapult testing was that mine is very small and can have a lot of power.
-Lyndsey

I learned that to make a catapult you need to think of not just one idea but at least 2 ideas.
-Jayden

It won’t work so you need to take it apart and start over. The rubber bands were very difficult because if you put it around your base than it would break apart, and it is very frustrating when you do it.
-Madylyn

In science we are going to have a lego Battle. It has been so fun testing and
building. I hope we do more things like this battle. I love science and now I love
science even more.
-Rebecca

What I have learned about building and testing prototype catapults to get them
ready is that you need to make a prototype with a few things. It needs to be
strong. If it breaks, it’s really hard to get the same exact catapult back. It happened to me, and I ended up with a catapult NOTHING like the first one I made. It also needs to be sturdy. If your catapult tips to the side when you launch it, or when its standing on your own, build a base! And it also needs to launch the marshmallow the right way, otherwise it goes too far, not far enough, too high, too low, or doesn’t launch at all! Catapults are hard and fun.
-Flynn

You have to make it to stand up and fire so that means that you can’t hold it to fire.
-Owen

I have learned that it doesn’t come out working in the beginning, but you just
have to figure out what to fix and what to change. My build wasn’t launching far
enough, so I added some touches. When I was done fixing it up, I gave it a few
test shots on the target, and it went MUCH further than before! It also went higher. It was so much more powerful, even though it has a load of rubber bands. The rubber bands actually made it look cool and strong! Now, I am okay with my build, and I’d love to do this again!
-Braelyn

What I learned this week about the catapult challenge is to persevere while making our catapults because it was an independent activity and it was hard I had to restart a bunch of times or fix it when it was broken.
-Zachary

We are doing catapults for the Lego Battle today and it’s just for fun no winner
or loser to this challenge.
-Taylor

From building the catapult  I learned so so so so much. I got to test mine and mine worked. I also learned how catapults work and what they look like.
-Aubree










Math:  

What are you learning about in math?

This week in math we learned about the dimensions of cubes and rectangular
prisms.
-Abigail

We learned area in math like 23x30 double digit stuff.
-Jayden

I'm learning about volume. It’s really fun; you get to build cubes and see the volume of the boxes.
-Jack

We are learning about cubic units and how to get a box that has the least amount of empty space.
-Owen

In math, we are learning about volume and cubic units. We have to build a shape out of smaller cubic shapes. Then make a box for it. The challenge was to get the least amount of space open. You place your shape in the box, and there will be an amount of open space. The numbers I got were 3, and 7. A lot of people did the same shape. That’s because they wanted to have little space left. I didn’t want tocopy anyone, so I tried to build something different. I wasn’t that successful, so I decided to do something similar.
-Braelyn

We are learning cubic units and with cubes to make them into a weird shape and count the sids and add them up.
-Taylor

In math we are learning about volume and dimensions. We have to work with cubes and how we can make a box. Math has been very fun.
-Aubree


Alphbit Celebration: We had an all school alphabit celebration last week for filling the jar in the lobby... wow, that's a lot of good behavior for our students! I'm so proud of them. They got to draw with sidewalk chalk in the front of the school. Here are some pictures from the celebration.