Earth, Sun, and Moon

Explore this cool site http://www.windows2universe.org/windows.html&edu=elem

Pay special attention to the Sun and Earth sections and blog two facts you learned or found out while exploring!

Ocean Tides

We have had questions about how the moon affects tides in class lately. Here is a short video that explains it.







Comment your thoughts about the moon, sun, and tides.  :)

Fast Changes to Earth's Surface

After working on your science homework for tonight you should be familiar with volcanoes, earthquakes, and landslides as well as how they can change the Earth's surface.







Using evidence from the reading passage answer this question! Please answer using complete sentences.

*Which do you think would be scarier to get stuck in? (a volcanoe, earthquake, or landslide) How come??? (justify your answer)

STAAR Math Test

Today we took our first practice STAAR test in class. We will be going over the questions and answers tomorrow. Something I noticed about this particular test is that you really had to pay close attention to the details in the problem. this meant reading and rereading the problem multiple times and breaking it about into manageable pieces that you could solve. this was certainly one of the most difficult tests we've ever taken in 5th grade.

I want you to answer these three questions regarding the test.

1. What did you notice about the test? (differences or similarities from other tests we've taken)

2. What is your best test-taking strategy?

3. If we were to do this test again what would you have done differently?

Public Service Announcements!

We worked long and hard on preparing Public Service Announcements about Biofuels for our PYP unit Sharing the Planet. We had 5 groups in our class each make a video but ultimately only one could move on!

After some impressive persuasive techniques the one chosen for morning announcements is the 'Biofuels Rule!' group.

Congratulations! :)

Alright- on to blog homework for tonight!

1. First read the short story, SARAH.
2. Choose to write one question about the text. It can be an evaluative, interpretive, or literal question. Make sure to say what type of question it is in parenthesis. (Do not copy anyone else!)

Example: How are you similar to Sarah? (evaluative)   

SARAH by Bill Loguidice

Sarah was excited by the prospect of jumping back into the holographic synthesizer. Living long-term aboard a space station was not her idea of paradise, but the pay was irresistible, if not the atmosphere. Now her turn was again up to get away from it all, if only for a few hours. As usual, she wanted to simulate a nighttime float in the creaky row boat on the small lake by her old Earth-bound Florida home.

The last time she did it, she just laid back and, though the irony was palpable, simply looked up at the stars. While she loved the light breeze that gently rocked the boat, she did not appreciate the simulated insects, with their all too real bites and buzzing about; Sarah had been on that sterile space station a very long time now. Whoever determined that virtual reality would truly fool the senses only if there was genuine environmental interaction, Sarah thought, probably needed to actually get out more.

In any case, this time Sarah bent the rules more than a little by getting one of her programmer friends to hack the system for her and override life simulation on her program. Now she could really relax, just her, the boat and those very distant stars.

New!!

Welcome to our new class BLOG!!!

There is a reading phenomena happening in our class right now! We have about 13 kids all reading (or finished reading) the Hunger Games trilogy! This makes my heart happy because I love reading and I really really really enjoyed these books. I couldn't put them down when I was reading them. Just to add to the excitement the Hunger Games movie is coming out this March! I want to encourage parents to take their kids to see this movie and compare it with the book.  :)

Here is a trailer for the movie just to give you an idea.