Mystery Seeds...Revealed!

Our mystery seeds are growing zinnia plants! Now that the science experiment has been completed, many students wanted to bring a plant or two home to watch it grow and flower. They carefully scooped the baby plants into a cup and added a lid for safe transport home. As they grow, they will need to be transplanted into a bigger pot.  I will be anxious to hear how the plants are growing at home!

Lunch Time

Lunch time at the middle school is fun! This year, students have to keep track of their own lunch cards, so everyone has lanyards to wear around their necks. 5th graders love all the food choices in the cafeteria. Most days we sit with our homerooms, but if behavior in the lunch room has been good all week, we have Free Seating Friday. That day students can sit wherever they want.

Sheltered Reality

When we walked into the gym for our school assembly Wednesday morning, the place was practically vibrating with drum beats and loud music! It was clear this wasn't going to be any ordinary assembly. A group called "Sheltered Reality" had come to perform for our school, and we all thought they were amazing!

This drum group had the whole school on their feet dancing to the music. They performed several songs and even got teachers and students participating in drum lessons. The speaker shared a simple but very engaging message about personal success and changing the world. They urged each of us to find something we love to do, then use it to help others in some way. Their stories and examples reminded us to take a chance, never give up, and believe in ourselves.

It was a perfect beginning to Club Day. Each student left the assembly to begin a new adventure in their first club and explore a new interest. Many of those new hobbies may become life-long and life-changing passions for the young people in our school!

Our Writer's Notebooks

In fifth grade, students are using writer's notebooks to build their skills in writing. These are spiral notebooks that they write thoughts, opinions, feelings, and experiences in. The notebooks are intended to be a source of ideas they can use for future published pieces of writing. Notebook entries are a way to build writing fluency- learning to think and write at the same time. Writing on demand and elaborating on a topic are also important skills that we will develop this year through our notebooks.

We have learned two strategies for finding topics for notebook entries. Pick a Noun is when students choose any person, place or thing, then jot it at the top of their page for a topic. First they write everything they know about that topic. Then they think about opinions and experiences they have with that thing. Our goal is to fill a whole page with writing!

The other strategy we learned is Reading Reflection. That starts with a connection students make while reading. While reading, anything that makes them think, "Hey that reminds me..." can turn into a great notebook entry. Our class has made connections in our reading and written about themes like: annoying younger siblings, racism, poker face, lost homework, and substitute teachers.

Our writer's notebooks do not contain polished revisions and editing. We re-read them, correct the obvious errors and circle any words we're not sure of the spelling. The big revisions will come when we draft our first essays for publishing!

When we have skill work to do, our notebooks come in very handy. Instead of using the English textbooks for example sentences to practice with, we often search through our writers notebooks for example sentences. Last week we filled our whole white board with examples of proper nouns found in our writing!

Planting Seeds

On Wednesday, the science classes planted seeds to begin our terrarium experiments. Mrs. Byriel brought some Mystery Seeds that we could plant for an experiment. Before we decided on an experiment, the students brainstormed questions a biologist might ask about seeds.  Then we noted which questions were testable and which would need to be researched. Finally we voted on which testable question we wanted to use for an experiment. Some classes chose "How much precipitation does a plant need to survive?" Another class chose "What kind of soil does this plant grow best in?"

It was a great day of cooperation in our classroom! Each group decided on jobs for its members. The students all worked well together as they scooped dirt, measured water, counted tiny seeds, planted and marked them with toothpick flags.

Next week we will observe any changes in our terrarium  and look for signs of plant growth.

Our Class Pets

Ginny and Peg, our guinea pigs, joined us for the second week of school. Although they were very noisy at my house this summer, they have promised to be on their best behavior. So far, they have stayed pretty quiet. A little box ripping and chewing is the extent of their disruption while we work.

Ginny is the black one, and Peg is orange and white. All the students love to pet them during passing time. The hard part is remembering to get to their seats before the chime at the end of passing time! We are working on that and helping each other remember.

On Friday, everyone worked so hard that the class earned a little free time at the end of the day. The students checked out the games & toys in our game cupboard, and even the guinea pigs got out of their cage for playtime! The guinea pigs have their regular food and hay they eat each day, but students are welcome to bring them carrots, apple cores, or dark lettuce greens for a special treat. (Iceberg lettuce doesn't agree with them. :)