September+Weekly+Wiki

September 24-28, 2012

This week was Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

This week in Math, we learned about rounding decimals. Rounding decimals is similar to rounding regular numbers. If you are rounding to the nearest tenth, you look to the right of it. If that number is 5 or more, you add one more to the number in the tenths place. If the number is 4 or less, you let the number in the tenths place rest. This week we also learned to subtract decimals. Subtracting decimals is the same thing as subtracting regular numbers, only using decimals. You always have to line up the decimals. Sometimes you have to use a magic zero as a place holder. We also learned how to add decimals. You also have to line up the decimals and use a magic zero as a place holder when you add. We also learned how many groups of 10s, 100s and 1000s are in numbers. We are still taking timed tests. Mostly every day, half of the people in our class are getting all 50 on both sides. One side is multiplication and the other side is division.

In Language Arts, we continued working on Sentence Fluency. We learned about synonyms and antonyms. We also talked more about hyperbole. Hyperbole is another word for exaggeration. We learned about similes. A simile is where you compare two different things using the words like or as. An example of a simile is, This book is as good as a roller coaster ride at Cedar Point. We read the tall tale Davy Crockett. We started practicing reader’s theater scripts on tall tales. After we have practice for a while, we are going to record them. We also did a web on our personal hero.

In Science, we continued learning about the scientific method. We read about some different scientists. We read about Edwin Hubble, Isaac Newton, and James Maxwell. We did an experiment about gravity. We wanted to see which would hit the ground first—a book or a paper clip. They both hit the ground at the same time! That is because the gravitational pull is the same on them. We sing a song about the scientific method and Mrs. Tomlin takes the microphone around the room as we sing.

This week we got our laptops out for the first time. They were really awesome because they are minis. We had a few problems that Mrs. Tomlin had to fix, but everybody was very patient while she did that. We went to Study Island and took the pretest.

This week we took our first NWEA test. We took the Math test. On Monday we will be taking the Reading test.

This week was definitely Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

September 17-21, 2012

We had the best week ever!

This week in Language Arts, we learned about alliteration. Alliteration is saying a sentence with every word beginning with the same sound. An example of an alliteration sentence is, My monkeys make me make monkey bread. We talked more about tall tales. We read Strormalong and John Henry. We also talked about setting this week. The setting is the place and the time where the story takes place. In Math this week, we continued working on our timed tests. We also learned more about decimals. We learned place value patterns with multiples of 10. For place value patterns, you can use the zero trick. You multiply the regular numbers and then add however many zeros there are in the numbers you are multiplying. When you are dividing, you take away the zeros. We also expanded decimals this week. For example, 23.456 = 20 + 3 + .4 + .05 + .006. We learned about rounding numbers. When you are rounding, you look to the right of the number you want to round to. If the number is five or higher, you add one more. If it is four or less, you let it rest.

In Science, we learned about the Scientific Method. You take steps in the Scientific Method. The first step is to ask a question. Then you make a hypothesis. A hypothesis is an educated guess. After you make a hypothesis, you come up with an experiment. You need to gather your supplies. When you are experimenting you need to record data. When you are done experimenting, you have to analyze your data. Then you come up with a conclusion. The last step is to publish your findings. We learned a song about the Scientific Method. This week we finished listening to __James and the Giant Peach__. It was a very interesting book. There were a lot of exaggerations in it.

Today we went to the assembly for TLC Credit Union. They told us about their banking program. We can deposit money, but we can’t take it out here only at a branch office. The 5th graders get to be the workers at the bank. Lots of us are going to apply for a job.

This week was just as good as last week.

September 10-14, 2012

This week was awesome!

This week in Math, we continued working on place value. We moved into the billions place this week. Our class also did expanded and standard form. Expanded form is where you pull apart a number and stretch it out. For example, 25, 786 = 20, 000 + 5,000 + 700 + 80 + 6. Standard form is where you take an expanded number and you squish it together. For example, 30,000 + 7,000 + 500 + 90 + 1 = 37, 591. We also learned about decimals. Decimals are parts of a whole. Decimals are all multiples of 10. The three places we learned about were tenths, hundredths, and thousandths. We continued taking timed tests. We are getting better and better at our timed tests. Now we are recording our time.

This week we finally got our new Smartboard. Mrs. Tomlin used it a lot the first day. She caught on quickly how to use it, but still has a lot to learn. We are very proud of her! We can project a lot of things on to it. We can project slideshows and videos on it. Also, we can project games on the Smartboard and we can touch the board to play the game. If you think about it, it is just like a big iPod Touch. We have also been using the timer on the Smartboard to help us with our timed test.

In Language Arts this week we learned about characters. Characters have different feelings. If there weren’t any characters in a story, there wouldn’t be a story. We also learned in Language Arts how tall tales exaggerate. We learned how to use conjunctions to connect two short sentences into a compound sentence. The three most popular conjunctions are and, but and or. When you use a conjunction you have to put a comma in front of the conjunction. We watched a video of a song called “Conjunction, Junction”. It was an awesome, cool song.

In Social Studies we learned about waterways. The waterways we learned about were the mouth of a river, tributaries, rivers, oceans, seas, lakes, deltas, gulfs, bays, and sources of rivers. We also learned about landforms. The landforms we learned were mountain ranges, plains, mountains, valleys, peninsulas, islands, and capes.

This week was the best week since starting 5th grade!

September 4-7, 2012

This week was fantastic!

This week in Language Arts we talked about sentence fluency. Sentence fluency is where you learn to write sentences correctly. You also learn to put the punctuation in the right place, and make sure you don’t have run-on sentences. We also wrote a letter to Mrs. Tomlin. We did that so that Mrs. Tomlin could get to know us better. We started to listen to James and the Giant Peach. In the book a little boy named James lives with his two mean aunts because his parents got eaten by a rhinoceros. We started talking about tall tales. We listened to McBroom Tells the Truth. A tall tale is a story that is make-believe and it exaggerates. An exaggeration is something that isn’t true because you stretch the truth. An example of an exaggeration is he ran a thousand miles uphill when it was really just one mile. We also did a puzzle this week. Mrs. Tomlin gave us a puzzle piece and we had to draw our favorite things on it. We glued our pieces together and it made a five for fifth grade. This made us learn that we will have to work together this year.

This week in Math we learned about place value. We also did a timed test so that Mrs. Tomlin knows where we are in multiplication and division. Most of us need to work on division. We also took a pretest on place value. None of us passed. We are going to practice on place value at school and at home. We are going to pay attention in class because Mrs. Tomlin is going to teach us the things we need to know.

In Social Studies this week, we learned about latitude and longitude. We learned about the oceans and the continents. We learned where the continents are. A lot of us thought that Antarctica is the biggest continent but we found out that it is really Asia. That is because on the map, Antarctica looks really; really big since it is lying flat, but it is really very small. We also learned that sometimes Europe and Asia are called together Eurasia. Some of us thought that there were two Pacific Oceans, but there is only one. It looks like there are two because the globe gets cut in half in the Pacific.

We had a great first week!