May+Weekly+Wiki

May 20-24, 2013

This week in Language Arts we continued our monster story! We also continued reading __The Whipping Boy__. We also did WWW. Do you know what that stands for? It means Working With Words. It was also Lesson 90. Oh, and did I mention that we do a paper once a day on __The__

__Whipping Boy__? We read two chapters a day and then do a paper about the chapters we read. The worksheet has vocabulary from the book and true or false questions from the two chapters. Language Arts was a breeze this week!

Social Studies wasn’t too busy this week, but it sure was fun! We did some work in our workbooks, and in case you didn’t know, workbooks are just paper books full of activities from each lesson we read in our Social Studies books. We read about three patriots and three loyalists. A loyalist was someone who thought that the King was right to tax the colonies, and a Patriot was someone against that. Thomas Hutchinson, Jonathan Boucher, and John Murray/Lord Dunmore were Loyalists. Thomas Hutchinson was a Loyalists Governor who lived in Massachusetts. Jonathan Boucher was a Loyalist Religious Leader who used his powerful sermons to spread his thoughts as a Loyalist. John Murray/Lord Dunmore was the Governor of Virginia, and he was also a Loyalist. He thought Great Britain made the colonies, so they had the right to make them pay taxes. Benjamin Franklin was a thoughtful Patriot who lived in Philadelphia and was a writer, printer, scientist, and inventor. He helped get Great Britain to repeal the Stamp Act. Mercy Otis Warren, also a Patriot, was a writer from Massachusetts, who wrote poems and plays. She wrote two plays that indeed had an effect on Colonists to become Patriots. Lastly, we learned about Samuel Adams, who lived in Massachusetts and was a politician. He was a true Patriot. He led the Boston Tea Party and helped to organize the Sons of Liberty. He worked especially hard as a Patriot and did a good job of it. Social Studies was fun this week, as you can see!

This week was a jaw-dropping week! This week in Math, we learned about comparing and ordering fractions. Here, I’ll show you, it’s as easy as 1-2-3. Say you have 5/6 and 9/10. To compare them, you take the 10 and the 5 and multiply them and you get 50. You put the 50 next to the 5/6 and then you multiply the 6 and the 9. You get 54 and you put it next to 9/10. Compare the 50 and the 54 and you see that 54 is bigger, so 9/10 is greater than 5/6. Got the hang of it now? Next, we did converting standard measurements. It’s also pretty easy. Here’s a pop quiz: 3 feet = ____ inches? Yep, you got it, 36 inches. Now, here’s another question. 7 miles = ______ feet? Wow, that’s a big number! Seven miles is equal to 36, 960 feet. I’ll give you one more question. 80 pints + __________ gallons? The answer is 20 gallons! On Thursday, it was our last day of the year for doing timed test. For some of us, it was our best score all year! This week some of us had to retake the fraction test because we didn’t get such a good score the first time we took it. I hope everybody did well this time! All in all, we learned a lot of fun stuff this week. I hope we learn more fun stuff next week!

This week in Special Events was spectacular!! First, our class did NWEA! NWEA is a test on the computer to see how good you are doing in Math and Reading. All of us have goals that we’re supposed to reach by the end of the year, and guess what? Mrs. Tomlin told our class that whoever reaches both of their goals will get a prize! A lot of people made both of their goals!! Now, are you ready for the best, most wonderful thing ever? I hope so because (drum roll, please) we went to MIS for a field trip! Yes, MIS! Michigan International Speedway! Is that awesome or what? Let’s talk about what we did there. First, we went into a building where two girls from Adrian College showed us some really cool animals. The two girls showed us: a tarantula, 4 turtles, 2 snakes, a few rats, and a baby mouse. Almost everyone’s favorite was the rats! Those rats got to run around on the table we were sitting at and we got to play with them! It was super fun! Next, our class rode around on the race track on a tram! It’s a lot steeper than you think! That was my favorite part! The third thing we did was test water qualities. That was really fun, but hard to explain. We tested different water samples to see if they were an acid or a base. Lastly, we went on a forest walk and learned about trees and plants. That’s all we did for Special Events this week!

By Ashleigh, Ashlyn, Melisa, and Brooke

May 13-17, 2013

In Social Studies we learned about a lot of things this week. A lot of it was about Great Britain and King George III. We also learned about the Quartering Act. The Quartering Act said that the colonists had to house the soldiers. The colonists had to give them food and a place to sleep. Colonists did not like it and because of that, some of the colonists treated the soldiers badly. We also learned about the Stamp Act. The Stamp Act was where if you bought something like cards or newspapers, you would have to get the item stamped and you would also have to pay a tax on them. We also learned about the Boston Massacre. Some colonists threw stuff at the Red Coats, which are the British soldiers, and other Red Coats came with guns. One Red Coat though he heard the head guy say “Fire!” He shot a person. Then the rest of the colonists got closer and the Red Coats shot. After it was over, five people lay dead and 6 were wounded, and that’s the Boston Massacre. Plus, there was also the Boston Tea Party where people got mad about paying taxes for tea. They got on board one of the boats that held the tea bricks and dumped them out into the harbor. That’s what we learned this week.

Hahaha! What am I laughing at? That some people thought Math wouldn’t get any better than the amazing Math last week. Well, you are about to be blown away because Math was so good. We started with our normal timed test and morning work. We have been pretty good on Morning Work, but it seems like most people don’t raise their hands to answer. Timed test is very good! I think we only have one or two people not getting all 50 in 1:30 or less! Mrs. Tomlin is very impressed because tons of people get all 50 in 1:00 or less! Next, we did some more reviews for the re-take of the fraction test, which might be next Friday. The reviews were subtracting mixed numbers, multiplying fractions, multiplying mixed numbers, dividing fractions, and dividing mixed numbers. The one we got mixed up on were multiplying and dividing mixed numbers. Let’s review those. Multiplying—let’s do1 3/4 x 6 4/7. Let’s take the “ferris wheel” for the next part, which means to turn the mixed number into an improper fraction. So, that’s 7/4 x 46/7. Now, do any cross reducing. We can cross reduce the sevens. Now, we multiply, and we get 46/4, right? Ok, then divide to turn the improper fraction back into a mixed number. The final answer is 1 1/2! Now, with division, it’s the same except you flip the second fraction and multiply.

Wow! Our class had some pretty awesome events happen this week! On Monday, Mrs. Upp was supposed to come into our classroom and tell us really cool stuff. Sadly, she never ended up coming. That’s not too special though! Do you want to know what we did and where we did it? Well, (drum roll, please) our class and the rest of the fifth grade walked over to the Middle School! We learned all about the things we should and shouldn’t do when we get there next year. Also, our grade learned about the classes we’re going to be taking. There are four classes that we have to take all year and those are Math, Science, Social Studies, and Language Arts. We can also take two fun classes. Our choices are: Gym, Art, Tech Ed, and Spanish. People who will be in band only get one other fun class. Plus, we learned about 6th grade camp. It will be for three days and two nights. Some of the things we will do there are swim, hike, canoe, and so much more! We walked around a little to see what our new school will look like. Lastly, we got a piece of paper that says all this stuff except one of the pages we have to sign and bring back to school. That’s all the special things we did this week!

This week, Language Arts took the cake! We began by starting our monster stories (which we have been planning since last week) and I think they’re pretty cool. We have to talk directly to the monster and try to convince it not to eat us. To give us an idea what our stories should resemble, Mrs. Tomlin read us __My Brother Dan’s Delicious__. Also, we did some working in Study Island on structure of text. Then we continued on our stories, and started reading a book called __The Whipping Boy__, which is about a boy who was a rat catcher that lived on the streets. His name is Jemmy. Jemmy was taken off the streets and into the castle to be punished for all of the prince’s mischief. Finally, the prince decided to run away. You will have to read the book for yourself if you think it sounds interesting. Well, that was Language Arts for you this week. Language Arts was great this week!

By Cierra, Vivian, Brooke, and Ashlyn

May 6-10, 2013

Hi! I am going to be your tour guide of the School of Math! Let’s begin. Timed test is something we always look forward to. Lots of our students can get all 50 on both sides in less than 40 seconds! That’s a __huge__ improvement since September, when lots of us didn’t even get all 50 in 2 minutes. Next, our thing that helps get our day going and wakes us up: Morning Work! We have to review things that we don’t do so good on Morning Work, like the mean (you’ll learn about that soon). As we continue, look to your right and you’ll see what we did next: adding mixed numbers. That’s one of the things we didn’t do very good on on the test, so we reviewed it. Let’s do a little example. How about 1 3/4 + 6 5/7. First, you find the common denominator…28…then make equivalent fractions…12/28 and 20/28. Next, add them together…32/28…improper, so you divided the top by the bottom… 1 4/28…can be reduced, so 1/7. Finally, add the whole numbers (1 and 6) which equals 7. Now, add 7 to the 1 and 1/7. So, the final answer is 8 1/7. Next, let’s take a look at the biggest, the baddest, and the data-est group—Mode, Range, Median, and Mean! Let’s start with mode. Let’s say you have the numbers 6, 5, 8, 9, 8, 7, 6, 0. So, are there any numbers that appear more than once? Eight and six, right? Ok, now, which one shows up the most? Eight. So, the mode of these numbers is 8. Sometimes you have 2, or even 3 modes! There can even be no mode! Next, come the range. Let’s use those same numbers. What is the highest, or maximum, number? Nine. Now, what is the lowest, or minimum, number? Zero! So, subtract 0 from 9. The range of the data is 9! As you can see, we are now at median. Let’s get a new set of data (numbers)—3, 1, 6, 0, 5, 4, 6, 8. So, put them in order from least to greatest. So, that would be 0, 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 6, 8. Now, cross out one number from the front, and one from the back. Keep doing that until you get to 1 or 2 numbers. So, in this case, the median would be 4 and 5. But, you can’t have 2 numbers, so you add them together and divide by 2. You would end up with 4.5. Lastly, we learned how to find the mean, or the average. Start off by adding all of the numbers together. So, add 3, 1, 6, 0, 5, 4, 6, and 8. You get 33. Now, divide by however many numbers there are. So, 33 divided by 8. Let’s do that. So the mean of those numbers in 4.125! Last, but not least, this week we reviewed subtracting fractions with unlike denominators. Thank you for reading. See you next time!

This week in Language Arts we started a story. The story is about us trying to persuade a monster not to eat us! We have to give reasons, like meat is bad for you. It’s pretty fun. We are also working on Language Arts in Study Island NWEA. It helps us with what we need to work on so the next time we do NWEA we will hopefully get a better score in Reading. Also this week, we finished up talking about point of view. Point of view is what a story is written in, like 1st person, 3rd person limited, or 3rd person omniscient. First person is when you see I and my. Third person limited is when there is a narrator speaking, but the narrator only gets into one person’s head. Third person omniscient is when a narrator gets into more than one head in the story. We also talked about poetry this week and learned about rhyme scheme.

This week in Social Studied was brilliant! First, we learned about Colonial Churches. Let’s talk about it! In Virginia, religion and government were not separate from each other. England’s King was the head of the Church of England, also called the Anglican Church. The Royal Governor was the Head of Virginia’s official Anglican Church. Is this making sense so far? Good! Now, let’s get to the important stuff! At first, Anglican Church leaders tried to stop colonists from practicing other religions. Soon after that, the Anglican Church began to allow colonists to join other Protestant groups. Through the 1700’s, Virginia allowed more freedom of religion. On Sundays, people came to the church to meet and talk. The people discussed the latest news and read announcements. Also, people had to sit in different places. For example, rich people got to sit in the front and poor people got to sit in the back or listened in through the windows. That’s because so many people came to church. When the service ended, rich people left first, and sadly, poor people left last. So, that’s the church. Let’s move on. Our class did a worksheet about Colonial Williamsburg where we used a website to help us. Next, we did Chapter 9 Assessment and Chapter 8 and 9 vocabulary. That was really easy. Then we started learning about the reasons that lead up to the Revolutionary War. We talked about the French and Indian War, the Proclamation of 1736, the Stamp Act, the Quartering Act, and the Boston Massacre.

For Special Events this week, it was Teacher Appreciation Week and the PTO had a breakfast for the teachers. Also, Mrs. Tomlin had a dentist appointment, so we had a substitute for a half of a day. We also got our reward for getting 100 Paw Points in April. We voted to have a half of an hour recess. We did that on Friday afternoon. Most people either played baseball or tag. We had a great time!

By Vivian, Melisa, and Brooke