Mrs. Ewing’s 5th Grade

Well, we made it!  Here are some pictures of the last days from 5th grade!  I’m really going to miss you guys!

Addison:  The first student to make it through the end of the Multiplication Facts Club Program!

Tabby:  Celebrating her win in our NCAA Bracket Challenge!

Last Day of School

Biltmore Trip

Science Fair

It’s that time of the year again!  You know the time I’m talking about: when Mrs. Ewing clearly loses her last shred of sanity! 

Science Fair! 

I’m concerned/excited because this is the first year that I have taught all the Science classes for 5th grade!  (No pressure.)  I feel very blessed to have the laptops this year!  That has helped so much!!!! 

We are also attempting to incorporate Web 2.0 technologies into our Science Fair again.  Check out our Science Fair wiki to see how it’s going. 

We’ve got lots of great projects in the works:

• The effects of texting while driving
• Are energy drinks bad for you?
• Do less expensive brands of performance gear work as well as Under Armour?

Lots more (35 more, to be exact.  Again, I say, no pressure.)  Those were just a couple that came to mind!

At this point we’re finishing up research and formulating our hypotheses. 

More later!!!

Delaney…..and everyone else….read the note to Blake just below to view the Mount St. Helens video.

People who have been absent click here.

Blake, go to the absent link just above, and the video you want is #25.  Use the Brainpop password to log in.

Spring Break is here!  We definitely need it!  Now, I know you all will be relaxing the first few days, but if boredom should set in……why not spend some time on our TCAP review site?  Click on the TCAP Review link and you’ll have long list of online activities to help you get ready for TCAP.  I have websites for nearly every TCAP objective, and the majority of these are fun, interactive sites that hardly feel like learning at all!  Revisit some of our old favorites like Alien Juice Bar and EdHeads.  Explore some of the ones we haven’t been to this year like EdHeads Weather and the optics activities from iknowthat.com! The Language and Math sections are loaded, too.

Tournament Update: 

Statistics and the NCAA Bracket

March Madness Math

After the Elite Eight:

1. Tabby

2. Mrs. Moncier

3. Noah

4. Gabe

5. Mrs. Ewing

6. Kolby

7. Zack R.

8. Jack

9. Evan

Questions this week:

• How long does it take a spacecraft to travel to Pluto?  NASA launched the New Horizons Spacecraft in January, 2006 and is expected to reach Pluto in 2015….so 9 and 1/2 years!  Learn more here.
• What happened to Passenger Pigeons?  This one’s a long one, so here’s a link and here’s another link.  Did you know Pigeon Forge and the Little Pigeon River get their names because of the abundance of Passenger Pigeons? Don’t confuse them with the Carrier Pigeon or Homing Pigeon which is a domestic pigeon that was trained to carry messages in WWII.
• How often are solar and lunar eclipses? Depending on where you live on the planet, the maximum solar eclipses per year is 4 and lunar is 3. Read these FAQ here.

Want to “one up” Mrs. Ewing?  Research some of these questions on your own and educate our class!

More later this week!  Enjoy your break!

Love,

Mrs. Ewing

It could be the title for a great book, but that’s exactly how this school year has become!  This is the longest I’ve ever gone without posting to our blog, and I apologize.  I do most of my updating at home, and I’ve had quite a few Internet troubles at home this year!  Anyway….let’s get updated!

We’ve finally finished the Writing Assessment!  Yay!!!!  However, this doesn’t mean we won’t continue writing.  We’ll be working more with our blogs and doing some digital storytelling!  Learning how to write effectively is our ultimate goal!

Also, our student teacher, Miss Greer, is gradually taking over the reins.  She is currently teaching Green, Red, and Yellow Science classes and will be taking over English this week!   Poor thing!  What a hectic time to be in 5th grade!

Friday, we’ll be having our Valentine’s/Chinese New Year combo party!  Normally, these are two separate events, but our snow break has changed that this year!  Your child should have a note about this party today.

Speaking of no school, we will be out this Monday for President’s Day!

Hopefully, I’ll be more diligent with our class updates.

Here’s the link to the page with the periodicals.  I also added Time for Kids.

Oh!  You thought I was talking to the students….I could be talking to myself.  Usually, by this time, I’ve written several posts on our class website.  As you can see…I’m a little behind schedule!  Hopefully, I’m getting back into the swing of things! 

These first few weeks can be best described as a whirlwind.  Poor little 5th graders!  :)   They are beginning to adjust to the responsibility of remembering supplies, new schedules, and the demands of 4 different teachers.  That’s a pretty tall order!

So…what in the world is going on in 5th grade these days?  I’d love to tell you!

• You need to know:  This week was midterm!  Each teacher sent home a midterm report this Friday that details class average so far.  If your grade isn’t what you would like, there’s still time to bring it up.  Be on the alert for extra credit opportunities.

• Friday, we had a special speaker, Bridget Baird, who gave our classes a great presentation about the Constitution. 

• In Science, we’ve been learning about properties of matter, particle arrangement of solids, liquids, and gases, and what determines density.

• Our English class is still reviewing punctuation, and this week we are particularly focusing on direct quotations.  Split quotations are giving us a fit!!!!  Here’s a BrainPop to help you.  As fate would have it, National Punctuation Day is on September 24th!  What better way to celebrate it than properly punctuating direct quotations?  Here’s a site that has rules and examples.

• Our DARE program gets underway this week.  Officer Joey Maddox will be teaching the DARE program on Thursdays for the next 10 weeks.

In my perfect world, we would have school 3 days a week and Summer Vacation the other 4 days!  I love summer, but at the same time, I can’t help but get excited about the start of school.  Nerdy, I know!  Well, school is almost here, and hopefully you new 5th graders have been checking out all the teacher’s websites. 

One item that all of you will need for 5th grade Science is a hardback composition book.  We use these for our scientist’s notebooks.  They run about $.50 at Wal-Mart.  Office Depot usually puts them on sale for $.25 around this time of year, also.  We use these nearly every day in class.  It doesn’t matter what the cover looks like, and the $.50 ones at Wal-Mart have several designs.

I will be contacting parents this week to schedule parent meetings!  I look forward to meeting with you all.

More to come!

Here is my experiment trying to make a digital scrapbook for our class.  Again,  I sound very, very, very, Southern.  Folks up north might need an interpreter.  lol….Enjoy!

But….that’s not all!  With VoiceThread, you can add your own comments to the scrapbook.  All you need is a microphone on your computer.  When it gets to a picture that brings back a memory, you can record an audio comment that people can click on to listen to your memory of that photo.  How cool is that!!!  Anyway, to leave a comment, you have to sign up with VoiceThread.  It’s free.  You just need an e-mail address.  Remember, if you use Gaggle, the e-mail they send you will be blocked.  Send me an e-mail if you do this, and I will set it up for you.  It even lets you use an image for your comments!  I think it would be awesome if the whole class could add their own comments to our scrapbook.  That would make it so much more special!

Well, enjoy your summer!  Don’t worry about me here, slaving away in Summer School.  I’ll manage!

Love,

Mrs. Ewing

5th grade is nearly over!  This school year felt incredibly quick to me.  Well, okay, those two weeks before TCAPs were kind of slow, but the rest flew by in a busy blur!  You’ll soon be on to 6th grade, and Mrs. Ewing will only be a distant memory.  Don’t worry about 6th grade.  I am very confident that you’ll be completely successful.  I will be here if you need me.  Just remember to be organized and disciplined.

You all have been a wonderful class, and I will never forget you.  You have been a pioneer class! 

• My first blogging class
• My first class to use a wiki
• My first class to incorporate technology into Science Fair projects
• My first class to have Webkinz!
• My first class to do a video news feature!  (That was pretty cool, wasn’t it?)

You all paved the way!  Be proud!  I sure am!  We have two more days left, and remember that I have resolved that I WILL NOT CRY THIS YEAR!!!!  No! No! No!  I’m going to be a brave soldier!!!!

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