Marley's Summer Trip!

Six Flags Discovery Kingdom

        The week before school started, I was able to use the free Six Flags ticket I earned in 4th Grade. Thanks to Jaden and his dad for giving me a ride.

One early Friday morning, I stepped out of our home and walked to my neighbor Jaden’s house. And with just one loud knock, Jaden opened the door with a big smile :). After a few minutes of wait for his dad and his little sister Jolie, it was time to go to Discovery Kingdom. We got in and patiently sat in the car, sang and listened to some cool music. After one hour drive, we finally got there and took some selfies before getting down the car :). I couldn’t feel my legs, but I didn’t care because I was so excited. The last time I was there was when I was  3 years old and I barely rode any ride.

Jaden, Jolie, and I started the day by riding the Cobra ride like 8 times. This was really a crazy and fun ride. We rode a few more exciting rides after this and watched some shows. Then, we decided to go get some food...we got chicken, some french fries and also drinks. After eating, Jaden’s dad gave me and Jaden a chance to explore around by ourselves using a map. He told us about our meeting spot at the playground afterwards. Yay, we’re free! LOL. We enjoyed our time and tried to play games and won some. We also walked around the mini fair and got some yummy, cold Dippin Dots and cotton candy. After that, we rested a little bit and went on couple more exciting water rides. We got so tired, so we decided to go to the playground to meet Jaden’s dad. We told him how we enjoyed exploring on our own. He told us that him and Jolie are tired too, and that it’s time to go home. On the way home, we stopped at an Outlet store and went shopping for Jolie’s shoes and afterwards ate at Panda Express. We finally got back to Sacramento. I told my parents how I enjoyed my day out with Jaden, Jolie and their dad. I layed down on my bed and got knocked out fast :).   

Our Classroom!

I am so excited for the new school year starting Monday!

In case you were unable to attend meet the teacher yesterday, welcome to 5th grade! Here is a photo tour of our classroom:

Welcome!

Our classroom couch and wall of inspiration! We will be adding to this wall with quotes of our own later in the year. 

Another alternative seating spot (which doubles as storage space). 

Our classroom library. I love books, and can't wait to share these books with you! 

The view of our classroom from the door

Supply storage and student shelves

I hope you have all had a fantastic summer and I can't wait to see you on Monday! 

How important is self-image?

Recently, we talked about how we see ourselves, and how that impacts our confidence. As 5th graders get ready to transition into middle school, this is an incredibly important topic.

As part of this discussion, we watched two different videos, discussed the videos, and responded on padlets.

Here is the first video, a TED Talk by Lizzie Velasquez called "I Choose To Be Happy":

Here is our padlet response to Lizzie's video:

Created with Padlet

Here is the second video we watched, a Dove commercial entitled "Make a Choice": 

Here is our padlet responding to the second video: 

Created with Padlet

Both of these videos definitely gave us a lot to think about. I was so impressed with the students' insights! 

Research Presentations and Colonial Day!

I hope everyone has had a wonderful and relaxing spring break! We have lots of exciting things ahead of us - can you believe there are only 9 weeks of 5th grade left?? I can't believe how fast this year has flown by! 

I am so incredibly proud of every student in our class. The week before break, students shared their research reports and then gave presentations about their topic to small groups. Topics ranged from countries to sports to biographies of famous people to animals - it was an amazing day of teaching and learning! I definitely learned a lot from everyone's hard work! 

Reading each other's reports and leaving feedback:

Everyone left great positive feedback! 

Research presentations in action!

Then, the Friday before Spring break, we had Colonial Day! This day was a huge success thanks to awesome parent volunteers donating supplies and running the stations! The kids had a great time, and it was the perfect way to wrap up our 13 Colonies unit. 

We made and ate johnny cakes, a traditional food in the New England Colonies. Reactions ranged from, "This tastes like dog treats!" to, "These are delicious!" But no matter how they tasted, everyone tried them! We ate them with our homemade butter, real maple syrup, and apple sauce. 

We also got to try writing with quill pens and ink. This was a lot harder than many of us had originally anticipated! It was a fun challenge, though! 

We also got to try out some colonial games. We made whirligigs and played jacks, pick up sticks, dominoes, and cat's cradle. 

We also made cornhusk dolls and even sewed some clothes for them. 

All in all, the week before spring break was fantastic! I'm looking forward to all the learning and fun we still have coming up for the rest of the year! 

Fever 1793 Book Review by Maddy

Fever 1793

By:Maddy

Fever, written by Laurie Halse Anderson is a historical fiction book about a  Philadelphia server girl named Mattie Cook. A haunting sickness called “Yellow Fever” terrorizes through the streets, creeping up on people and getting them seriously ill.  

As everyone is fleeing and getting ill, Mattie learns to have courage and to stay strong in everything you do even if it is hard.Will she survive”Yellow Fever”?

I recommend this book for people who like intense and historical fiction books.

Thinking About Reading

Reading is a major focus in our classroom. Each day, we make time to read independently, talk about books in our book clubs, write about books, and join together for our read aloud. As of right now, we've read over 550 books! Also, we've experienced Wonder, The Julian Chapter, Out of My Mind, The Girl Who Could Fly, Chains, and now All the Answers together during our read aloud time.

Last week, to celebrate Read Across America and Dr. Seuss's birthday, we had a readathon. Here are some pictures from that day. Check out some of our favorite books! 

We also took some time to think about our reading and respond to padlets, which are like online bulletin boards. Here are links to the padlets:

I’m the kind of reader who…

I want to be the kind of reader who…

Reading Goals

Where do you like to read?

What do you like about reading?

We would LOVE to hear from YOU about your own reading! Please take a moment to respond to a padlet (or two or three!), or to leave a comment about your own experiences with reading! (Responding to a padlet is very easy - just double click where you would like to add a comment, type in your name at the top, and then type the comment underneath.)

I hope you're all having a wonderful weekend, and again, we would love to hear from you!  

January and February Updates

The last few weeks have been full of learning and fun! 

We've been focusing on informational text and researching. Using iPads, we went on a scavenger hunt finding informational text features. 

In math, we wrapped up our chapter on number expressions and patterns. We played Quiz, Quiz, Trade to identify ordinal pairs on a coordinate plane. 

Star Academy had a Pennies for Patients fundraising drive. Our class put together and distributed the boxes to the entire school! 

We've been having lots of fun together, too. Here's a picture from a recent girls lunch. (We have boys lunch and girls lunch every week!) 

For part of an art project, we needed to trace a design. The windows in the cafeteria worked great for this!

This Monday, we went to PFAA and Leading Edge for middle school orientation. We had a great day! Awesome middle school mentors showed the students around. The 5th graders even got to participate in some activities with 6th graders from Leading Edge.  

Yesterday was our Valentine's celebration. We decorated bags, passed out cards and candy, and made cards. We had a great time.

I hope everyone has a fantastic 4 day weekend! See you Tuesday!