14th December

The students worked on the story board project today and we learnt prime factorization in math. We also did the IBT for science.

After lunch we had a Christmas assembly. The students participated in a Hindi play, a Spanish dance and a French song.

13th December

We continued with the story board project today. The three teams came up with problems that their 'family' would face when they would begin to live in a bare land, like: food and shelter, health and hygiene, entertainment, education, occupation, etc. This is an integrated activity for English (Story writing) and UOI (Civilizations).

In math, we began with highest common factors. The students were given work based on their performance in the pre unit assessment. We followed the listing method.

Apart from all this, we had the IBT (Acer) exams for English and Math. Science will be done tomorrow.

7th December

Today in math, we focused on finding factors and multiples. The students were asked to find the factors of the their birthdates (DD/YY) and then for their siblings and parents. They then also found the multiples for their birth date. It was an open ended actvity for which home assignment has been given.

We began with our new unit in English and UOI today. The students first watched a short video of Tom and Jerry and analyzed the components of a story: Characters, Setting, plot, problem and solution.

They were then divided into three groups of eight. They were asked to sketch a character for themselves in a setting. Each group was a family who had migrated to a river side and were to begin living there. They will be doing a story board project in which they will create a 'civilization' of their own. Picture and vidoes will be put up during the stages of the project.

6th December

Today we had the summative assessment for the second unit of inquiry on materials. The students were asked to solve a crossword puzzle on materials. They then had to draw a material and write it's properties, benefits, challenges and our responsibility towards the material.

We also touched on the divisibility rules today. They will be solving problems based on this for homework today.

We began with our new unit in English: Story. As a pre-unit assessment, the students were asked to wrtie a story based on Christmas. They were given a rubric to follow.  

3rd December

We went for a field trip today to a construction site in High tech city. We learnt about the different materials used for the construction of the buildings there and the amchinery involved.

When we came back, we had a pre unit assessment for our new unit in math: Factors and Multiples. Students answered questioned based on the objectives of the unit. The further activities will be differentiated based on their performance.

2nd December - Singing competition

1st December

The students did the final copy of their reports for English today. We also complete the conversions quiz in Math. We went to the lab and tested some materials for reversability. Some of them were butter, chocolate, egg, cheese, paper, plastic, etc.

30th November

The young scientists of Grade five had a very exciting day today!

We began the day by discussing further the drawbacks of using some materials. For example, use of plastic causes Global warming and use of too much sugar can cause Diabetes.


We then continued with the Math quiz. We focussed on the customary units today.


The concept of 'Chemical and physical change' was introduced today. The students were asked to close their eyes and imagine a dream in which they go to a place full of candies, chocolates, ice creams, etc. After listening to the story the students realized that their mouths were watering. They were told that it was because of the reaction between the saliva and carbohydrates.
We then went to the Chemistry lab. The students did five different experiments in groups.
* Find exactly how much salt can dissolve in 50 mL of water -They kept mixing different measurents of salt in 50 mL.


* Change the state of a salt solution from liquid to solid - They evapourated a salt solution to get crystals.


* Change the colour (3 different colours) of a piece of paper by using different chemicals - They tried with different chemicals provided by the Lab teacher. They also mixed different chemicals together.


* Separate sand from water in a sand solution - They did the process of sedimentation.


* Separate water from adulterated milk - They first tried to boil the milk and collect water droplets formed due to steam. They were then told to use the centrifugal propeller which eventually worked.

The purpose of the activity was make the students accustomed to writing Lab reports. They have written rough drafts in their notebooks and will be writing the fair copies tomorrow.
It was a very engaging activity in deed! Authentic inquiry was evident.

29th November

Today, the Grade five had a very long discussion on the benefits using different materials as well as the challenges. We discussed the benefits as a class and the challenges were discussed in groups. All the students took notes in their UOI notebooks. We spent a  lot of time analyzing why certain materials are used for certain purposes. For example rubber is used for making automobile tyres to reduce friction between the tyres and the roads. They also are strong, shock absorbers and produce very less sound. No other material has these properties. We discussed many scientific concepts that arised during the discussion.


The students then practiced writing scientific reports by watching a video of a simple experiment and writing a report for the same. Yet again many scientific phenomenon were discussed. The students listened very carefully to absorb all the information!


We then had a quiz in math for unit conversions. Each group was given a question based on conversions. All the students were given 30 seconds to solve the problem individually in their Math notebooks. Th group then discussed the solution and the captain had to give out the answer. We will be completing this activity tomorrow. It is a formative assessment.

Measurements unit - Extra practice

Here are few links to worksheets/games/activities on metric and customary units and conversions. The name of the file says the topic for the content.


Metric:


http://www.teach-nology.com/test_parser/html_parser.php
http://www.teach-nology.com/worksheets/math/measure/compare/large/3/ 
http://www.math-drills.com/measurement/convert_all_grams_001.pdf
http://www.math-drills.com/measurement/convert_meters_centimeters_millimeters_010.pdf
http://www.math-drills.com/measurement/convert_all_meters_010.pdf
http://www.math-drills.com/measurement/convert_all_grams_010.pdf
http://www.math-drills.com/measurement/convert_all_volume_010.pdf
http://www.teach-nology.com/test_parser/html_parser.php
http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/maths/docs/converting_measurements_msP.doc
http://www.funbrain.com/measure/ (games- easy)
http://www.hbschool.com/activity/con_math/g05c14.html (game - medium)
http://www.ixl.com/math/practice/grade-5-compare-and-convert-metric-units (Game - hard)




Customary:


Easy:


http://worksheetplace.com/mf/inches-to-feet-2.pdf
http://worksheetplace.com/mf/inches-to-feet-1.pdf
http://worksheetplace.com/mf/cups-to-ounces-2.pdf
http://worksheetplace.com/mf/cups-to-ounces-1.pdf
http://worksheetplace.com/mf/gallons-to-quarts-7.pdf
http://worksheetplace.com/mf/gallons-to-quarts-8.pdf


Medium:


http://worksheetplace.com/mf/gallons-quarts-ounces-4.pdf
http://worksheetplace.com/mf/gallons-quarts-ounces-5.pdf 
http://worksheetplace.com/mf/feet-to-yards-1.pdf
http://worksheetplace.com/mf/feet-to-yards-2.pdf
http://www.hbschool.com/activity/con_math/g04c24.html (game)
http://www.ixl.com/math/practice/grade-6-customary-unit-conversions-involving-fractions-and-mixed-numbers (game)




Hard:


http://www.teach-nology.com/gold/measurement2.html
http://www.teach-nology.com/gold/measurement3.html 
http://www.ixl.com/math/practice/grade-6-convert-compare-add-and-subtract-mixed-customary-units (Game)
http://www.ixl.com/math/practice/grade-6-customary-unit-conversions-involving-fractions-and-mixed-numbers (Game)



Mixed:


http://www.middlesexcc.edu/academi/mat/dev_math/Instructor_Info_Mat-010/worksheet_9_measurement_conversions_fall07.pdf
http://www.teach-nology.com/platinum/measuremixed.html
http://www.ixl.com/math/practice/grade-5-compare-and-convert-metric-units (game)

26th November

We began the day by discussing yesterday's homework. The students shared their results of the experiment they conducted. They also seem to be getting clear with customary unit conversions.

The students then completed the crossword puzzles they have been working on. This activity has helped them to improve their scientific vocabulary.

The students formulated questions for further inquiry in the unit. They will be 'finding out' the answers next week.

After lunch, the Grade five students and teachers went to a government school as a part of the CAS program. They taught the grade five students in that school how to multiply with the use of manipulative. The students were so engaged that they did not wish to come back! They will be writing reflections on the visit over the weekend. Some of them will be put up on the blog.

Grade five is going for a field trip to a construction on 3rd December (Next Friday). We will be leaving at 9:30 am from school and will come back at 12:30 pm. Consent forms have been sent. Pleases send them back on Monday. Feel free to get in touch with me for any clarifications.