Settling into a routine as a young adolescent

The fifth grade students are settling into their daily and weekly routines. As they develop into young adolescents, they understand the importance of fulfilling their academic responsibilities and polishing their social behavioral skills. The workload can be demanding at times, but for many students their time management skills have enabled them to finish all of their homework in school. It is a goal we have for all the students.

In math the students are learning about decimal, percentage, and fraction conversions and refining their computational skills to solve everyday math problems. They use these skills in class every day to manage their in-class checking account. They are responsible for making deposits, writing checks for withdrawals, and maintaining an accurate balance in their general ledger. They enjoy converting test score ratios into percentages to help them set goals for their next test; they all want to be in the 80%-or-above category. They are also learning the standard and metric measurement systems to calculate distance, weight, and volume. They collected measurement data on their classmates' ability to perform a standing long-jump, using a measuring tape and a tally chart, and then transformed that information into a bar graph.

In science the students have completed the Planet Inquiry Project. It has been very interesting learning about the different classifications and features of all the planets, especially since Pluto is no longer classified as a planet. The students are putting together their visual aids and notecards for their upcoming oral presentations for their classmates and parents. We recently started our Earth Study inquiry with a jolt. The students shared their recent earthquake experiences, and then they investigated the cause of the quake. They learned about different types of faults in the earth's crust: the strike-slip fault, which was what we experienced, and the dip-slip fault, which can cause a tsunami. We are also studying the layers of Earth, Earth's plates, and the rock cycle. The students plot different locations on the earth's surface using latitude and longitude coordinates. The students enjoy discussing what they have learned and look forward to learning more about the fascinating planet they live on.

Posted on October 26, 2006 8:58 AM | Permalink