5B Classroom News: Week of Sept. 23rd

A note from Mrs. Burke:

It's hard to believe another week has flown by! Students have been enjoying our Spanish classes with Mrs. Bristow. Along with learning new Spanish words and phrases, they are also connecting the Spanish culture to the book Esperanza Rising that we are reading in language arts. Science class has been very exciting! Students have been learning about catapults and built their first prototype this week after doing lots of research. Referring to their labeled diagram, they went to work constructing their catapult. I have seen so many creative designs and I can't wait to see them in action next week!

Here are pictures of students sharing their catapult research during one of our science meetings:

Keep reading to see what our student reporters posted this week:

Science:  Engineering & Design Process

Reflecting on your catapult prototype, what has worked well with your design so far? 
What have you had to change?

Does your prototype look like your labeled sketch? Why or why not?

I had to change it 10 times and i figured it out at the end.

-Liam

Barely anything worked because I had a hard time getting the catapult on to the base.

-Tony

What worked well was the “arm” that swings the marshmallow.  I had to change
the base because it did not stand. It kind of looks like it because I had to change
the base of the catapult.

-Alisha

The one thing that has worked well in my design is that I have been able to
connect three of the popsicle sticks with the rubber bands.  Although I had
to change that from there I could not get the 4th and 5th bordering popsicle
sticks on without wrecking my previous creation.  My prototype does not look
like my sketch because I have edited so many times that I now have nothing
but pieces, I hope that later this week I can get a successful something out of it.

-Colin 

My catapult design has worked okay so far, but I have had to change my design multiple times. I had to change the entire design specifically the base so that it now looks like the opposite of my design. My prototype doesn't look anything like the original design because of all the changes I have made.

-Cody

Nothing has really worked in my plan so far. I have had to change the bass of my catapult and the arm. Not at all I did think it would be easy to make sketch and it was not. It doesn't look like my sketch because the bass is thick and not so wide.

-Charleigh

What went well was my prototype was successful and interesting. I had to change my whole idea because I could not slip 7 popsicle sticks in a rubber band. No because I had to change my whole idea. 

-Riley 

Students building their catapult prototype:

Students testing their catapults:

Language Arts:  Esperanza Rising

Which human rights have been threatened in the chapter “Los Higos” in Esperanza Rising?

How does it make you feel when a character in the book has had their human rights threatened? Why?

Makes me sad that Esperanza had her papa die and have to live with her mom only.

-Liam

One of the human rights that was threatened was the right to live because the
uncles burned down their house and if Mama didn’t marry Tio Luis he would
probably burn down the servants house, too, or kill them.   I feel sorry for them
that they might get killed.

-Alisha

Spanish Class:  

What is your favorite part of Spanish class?  Why?

How has Mrs. Bristow connected the book Esperanza Rising to Spanish class?

My favorite part of spanish is the songs because they are catchy and fun. Mrs. Bristow connected the book Esperanza Rising to Spanish class by showing us a song and translating some of the words/phrases from the book.   

-Andre

My favorite part of Spanish class is that we get to say “Hello” in Spanish.
“Hello” means “Hola”, “Adios” is “Good-bye”, and “Buenas noches” means “
Good night."

-Aaron

She is teaching us Spanish and the book has Spanish she is talking about words that we find in Esperanza Rising.

-Liam

My favorite part of Spanish is the songs because they're the only part of Spanish that does not include any work.

-Tony

My favorite part of Spanish is the songs because I can sing along and see the cool video.  Mrs. Bristow connected with Esperanza Rising with the Spanish and one of the things is the birthday songs.

-Alisha

My favorite part of Spanish class is singing. Mrs.Bristow sings the happy
birthday in Spanish and that’s how it is connected to Esperanza Rising.

-Triv-Ann

My favorite part of Spanish class is listening to the different songs. Also saying our names in Spanish. It related to Esperanza Rising  because they are both are in Spanish.
-Peyton

I love spanish class because we can get a trophy. It is very shiny and golden the art teacher made it. Spanish is so fun to do and we learning a lot from Spanish. It is the best time of day and the Spanish teacher is very nice.  
-Ben

Learning Spanish so I can talk in Spanish. By teaching us the birthday song in Spanish.

-Max

My favorite part of Spanish class is singing the Spanish songs because I love
listening, learning, and singing the songs.

-Emmariah

When she teaches us new words to use and say, also the songs because they're
fun.

-Kady

5B Classroom News: Week of Sept. 16th

A note from Mrs. Burke:

The students earned another classroom celebration for filling the alphabit chart in our classroom. They earn alphabits for following expected behaviors in the classroom, as well as in other areas of the school. I am very proud of them! They voted to have a stuffy day celebration. Stuffy day pictures are posted below. On Monday we started our engineering unit. They have been learning what it means to be an engineer and were given their first engineering task: to create a boat made of a 1 foot by 1 foot piece of aluminum foil to hold as many pennies as possible. They had to work in teams and collaborate on their design. Students have reflected on this experience later in the blog. We are also reading Esperanza Rising during our language arts class. Students have been identifying human rights that have been threatened in this book.

I have sent home book orders with students. If you would like to order books, please return your order by Thursday, September 26th.

Keep reading to see what our classroom reporters posted this week.

Science:  Engineering & Design

What does an engineer do?
An engineer does math and does work to make things work. Create new things and tests them.
-Liam

Engineering helps people who need help or helps all the people to get from one place to other like the Golden Gate Bridge.

-Alisha

An engineer is someone who build something or somebody who fixes things.
-Peyton

An engineer does crafting and hard thinking to create something.
-Riley  

Reflecting on the foil boat investigation, what worked well with your design? 
What didn’t work well? What would you do differently if we did the
investigation again?

I enjoyed working the the foil boat investigation with Maxwell and Cody. We folded our tinfoil square in half and folded up the sides. My group was able to put 92 pennies in the boat before it sank into the water.

-Aaron

The walls work on the first one then the walls did not work on the second one but we could of had work if the walls were a bit bigger and the bottom was completely flat the boat would survive so would the pennies.

-Tony

On round one we did a clam shell boat which could hold a lot of pennies but on the second  round we did a bowl shape but there was a hole so water came in and started sinking so that did not work well. 

-Alisha

In science we made tin foil boats, then we put in pennies until our boats let in water.  One thing that went well in my 1st design is that it held 60 pennies. I made it in the shape of a canoe so it would be a source of buoyancy. The only problem with my design is that I did not close of the corners enough, which caused it to start leaking. One thing I would do next time is worry more about the corners being sealed shut, and less about the looks.

- Colin

What did not work well was having the bottom too thin.

-Peyton

What went well was we were able to get forty two pennies in our boat until it sank. What went bad was we didn't balance the boat. 

-Riley

Our group design was in a bowl and did not work. We put one more penny in and it sunk so the first one did kind of work well.

-Kady

Language Arts:  Esperanza Rising



Which human rights have been threatened in Esperanza Rising ?

How does it make you feel when a character in the book has had their human
rights are threatened? Why?
It make me feel bad for them because they got their rights taken away.
-Liam

One of the human rights that got threatened was number 1 and 3. One is we are all born free and equal and three is the right to life. They are threatened because Esperanza's papa was killed and he was killed because he was rich, not because he was he was a bad man, but because he was rich. One got threatened because some people were not equal and had slaves and the slaves was not free. 
-Alisha

I feel like human right number 3 was threatened because they killed her father and human right 3 is the right to live and live free.
-Peyton

I loved reading Esperanza Rising because it is a really good book and it is fun to read. My favorite part is the grape chapter because we all got to have four grapes each. They were really good but the book is great!!!!   
-Ben

Morning Choice:  
What are your favorite morning choice activities?  Why?
My favorite morning choice activity is the little blocks that snap together because you can make a lot of different cool shapes with them, and they're super fun!
-Andre

Legos because you can create lots of stuff.
-Liam

My favorite morning choice was the white boards because I could draw on them and I can’t draw on the class ones in the bucket because there only for school use.

-Alisha

My favorite morning choice activities are the light bright, magnets, and cards because with the magnets and light bright I can create whatever I want and imagine. I like the cards because I can play games, build towers,and do magic tricks.

-Cody

My favorite morning choice activities are the art kit and the light bright because the light bright is new to me and is fun to be creative and the art kit is also fun and can also make you feel creative and I  like to draw so that is fun for me.

-Triv-Ann

My favorite morning choice activities are LEGOs and stamps because at LEGOs I can build what I want and just be creative. At stamps it's fun to pick up a stamp and do something like make a picture.

-Charleigh

My favorite choice station is Legos because you can build whatever you want.

-Peyton

My favorite choice activity is magnets. Magnets are the best because the go together to make different designs.  

-Max

I liked the building cubes. I liked them because it's fun to build stuff with them. 

-Emmariah

My favorite choice was  cards because I got to do magic tricks on classmates. And my second favorite choice was Legos. 

-Riley

Legos because you get to make cool things.

-Kady