Winter began with our class novel, "The Family Under the Bridge," written about a homeless family in Paris. Our students made cookies and took paper items to share with the William S. Davies Homeless Shelter during our Beat the Winter Blues Lock-In in January. This activity related to our school Character Word of the Month for December, “caring.” We had a blast visiting the shelter, cheering at the last Middle School basketball games of the season, eating at the Upper School's dining hall, swimming at the Huffman Athletic Center, studying spelling together, watching a movie until we fell asleep in the Ledbetter Commons, and getting up at 6 a.m. to eat breakfast. What a wonderful blessing it was to spend “after hours” with your precious children at our state-of-the-art facility. They will be in the history books as the first to spend the night in Thatcher Hall!
Our second semester book club kicked off with "The Single Shard" by Linda Sue Park, which was about a young homeless boy in the 16th Century. The story included factual information about the significance of the Korean celadon pottery. In our novel, the monkey was a strong symbol of friendship between the boy and his caretaker, so as a closing activity, our students sculpted and painted clay monkeys. This book really brought to life our character education words "responsibility," "loyalty" and "respect."
Our novel study in January, "Esperanza Rising" by Pam Munoz Ryan, began with a connection to our geography unit about the Latin American countries. This novel tied the study of Mexico and how The Great Depression influenced American history. During Spanish, we learned how to order from a menu in Spanish when we visited a Mexican restaurant for lunch. We also worked on percentages in math and were able to calculate our tax and tip for the bill. To complete this unit, each child presented a travel brochure on an assigned Latin American country. These presentations included information about the economy, the culture, the land and its people.
Winter concluded with the study of World War II. We read "Number the Stars" by Lois Lowry as we began our study of Europe in geography.
Our next book club novel was the winner of the National Book Award, "Listening for Lions" by Gloria Whelan. We concluded this study with a trip to watch the movie “African Cats,” which was first shown on Earth Day.
Our fifth-grade year ended with three very exciting novels, "The Giver" by Lois Lowry, "Belle Prator’s Boy" and/or "The Great Gilly Hopkins." Ending our study of Europe, our students researched and presented, in first person, famous Renaissance people.
During the fifth six-week period, the three homerooms were given a reading challenge to try to earn as many points as possible to claim the unknown wrapped package filled with fabulous prizes. After six weeks of reading, the box was unwrapped and my homeroom class enjoyed all that was inside, including a week of no spelling and vocabulary, a geography lesson conducted outside, two free periods in the warm spring sunshine, jolly ranchers and lunch at the table of their choice.
On May 26, the final tabulation of novels completed by the fifth-grade class of 2010-11 was 14! In Accelerated Reading, this class earned a total of 4,669.2 points for the year. Of the 39 students, 23 earned membership into the 100-Point Club and had the privilege of eating in The Grill at the Upper School. Way to go, fifth grade!
In math, students have been working diligently on Sunshine Math and Study Island as they prepared for the ERB’s in April. For the first time, the math class actually completed a novel study of their own. This novel, "Lawn Boy," by award-winning novelist Gary Paulsen, followed a 12-year-old boy who became a lawn entrepreneur not only by mowing lawns but also by investing in the stock market and sponsoring a boxer. At the end of the novel, the lawn boy had earned over half a million dollars through his investments. We concluded the year in math with a four-day Monopoly tournament.
In science, students actively prepared for the science fair in early April. They learned how to collect data, interpret results and write formal research on their experiment. They presented their projects to parents, students and judges. Investigations were performed by the students, who learned about variables by using pendulums and planes. Students conducted controlled experiments to find out what variables would affect the number of cycles a pendulum will complete. Straw airplanes were used to help identify a variable that might affect its flight. A unit on solar energy was completed in May. Students analyzed the relationship between the length of their shadows and the angle of the sun four different times during a given day. They also recorded the temperature in the sun and shade of various earth materials.
Our year-long fire prevention class, sponsored by Floyd County, ended with a hands-on field trip to the fire station. Returning to school, the class enjoyed lunch from Zaxby’s - yum! But that wasn't the only fun field trip this semester. Our traditional end-of-the-year field trip to Camp Laney was a great way to finish out the second semester. Students enjoyed a day of living the life of a camper. Activities included swimming in the river, ropes course, rock climbing, volleyball, ping pong, tennis and rope swinging into the river.
As you can see we have been very busy in the second half of the year! As much as we would love to keep this group forever, the time has come for us to clip their wings and watch them soar to sixth grade. We hope all of you have a wonderful summer and remember to read, read, read and keep stretching your math brains!
