5th Grade Smores!

The fifth graders have been working to understand and develop their personal philosophy throughout the year.  Their work has culminated in a multi-step project that includes This I Believe Statements, creating a Dream Team that inspires them, creating a mandala to represent their personal values and philosophy, and more.  Enjoy their awesome work below.  Click on OPEN IN EDCANVAS and hit PLAY you will be able to view all of their Smore Fliers and images of their mandalas.  Remember that there is a lot to their Smore fliers, so you will need to slide down.

Mandalas, Think-A-Thons, Projects and Smore!

I cannot believe that my time with my awesome 5th graders is coming to a close!  I have had the honor of working with many of these kids over that last year to 5 years!  5 YEARS!  It is hard to believe. Whether I have had 5 years or only 1 year with them, I have treasured every moment.  Well, enough about that, I still have another week…or more depending on when they finally finish their end of year projects. 🙂

A few weeks ago we had a wonderful guest speaker from the San Antonio Museum of Art come and speak about Mandalas.  She spoke specifically about the sand mandala that was created at SAMA by the Tibetan Monks several years ago, but the 5th graders researched and explored other mandalas created through out the world.  In learning about the mandalas they discovered that they are created with intention, that the colors and symbols used have meaning to the creators, that they represent their beliefs about the world.  This year we have explored philosophy and our responsibility to the world and how the two are interconnected.  The students are currently creating their own Mandala and will create a presentation explaining how their mandala represents who they are as a person and their beliefs about the world, their philosophy.  They will embed their completed mandala project into their Smore, a news bulletin flyer they are creating.

Here are some pictures of the kids visit with Mrs. Nunnely.

Exploring Mandalas on PhotoPeach

Thursday May 9,  the fifth graders were able to participate in the first annual Think-A-Thon with students in the surrounding area, many of who will be attending Tejeda with them next year.  This was an amazing event and I am so glad that the weather worked with us.

Think-A-Thon on PhotoPeach

Genius Hour

In 5th grade I have been encouraged the kids to commit a portion of their class time to a project that interests or fascinates them.  It is not something that needs to relate to anything we have been studying in class, but rather something they are passionate about.  I started this at the beginning of the year and it has been quite a challenge to get the kids to understand that this is really THEIR time to explore, think, try, problem solve, etc.  They finally had an epiphany a month or so ago and have been getting into the it.  I have kids working on fashion lines and thinking about the marketing and production involved, kids working on water-powered cars, kids working on prototypes to help create an app, kids learning how to program, kids studying historical features they want to understand, etc.  The ideas are quite diverse, as they should be.  I hope that I can learn from my 5th graders this year so that I can make Genius Hour a more productive and successful part of our GT classroom next year.

Here are some of the projects that the kids are working on.  Remember that none are completed.  This is just a glimpse into their world so far.

The above image is a design for one level of the app the kids are attempting to plan out.  It is a maze game, full of multiple levels, and chances to earn new levels, backgrounds, and balls.

These are some pictures of a few of the kids hard at work. The girls are working on the idea of a water-powered car and experimenting with water and batteries to understand more about water and its abilities. The boys are creating a physical version of their maze to test out as they work on the idea for the app they want to create.

A Look into our Tuesday by Madison P.

Today in Gt we corrected our very complicated HOE (hands on equations), Taught our classmates about different types of values, Started genius hour (so much fun!!!!!!!!!!!), and read a few chapters from our new novel The Boy In The Striped Pajamas, it is so cool.

Our HOE is complicated because we have started a new lesson where we add and subtract positive and negative numbers, for example: *star-6=3 so what I would do is break up the 6 into two positive 3’s so that the numbers are easier to work with. Now you know that one positive 3 equals another positive 3, but how do you get the other positive 3 to disappear you may ask? The *star that we have needs to be the opposite of the positive 3 and that would be a negative 3 so *star= negative 3. You may think that it isn’t that complicated that is only one of the easiest ones.

Values is something in Gt that we started last week and are really starting to focus on. So to kick off the learning Mrs. Germadnik had us look up definitions of different types of values and create a presentation to teach our classmates. We also had to explain what the value means to us and it was sorta hard when the definitions made no sense to you,but in the end we all learned something about all of the types of values.

Then we started Genius hour.A new tool that Mrs.Germadnik is using to get our class to start working on ideas that we came up with not her (it is like independent study but not independent). Some of us are working on apps, some of us were making books,and some of us are trying to make the world more efficient  And I think that it is better than independent study time because you can have the option of working with a partner or to work by yourself, and with a partner you can try different things with some feed back from them too.

Finally we read a few chapters of The Boy In The Striped Pajamas and we talked about the setting where the book takes place. Amazingly it takes place in WW2 at a concentration camp named Auschwitz and the main characters dad actually works for Hitler. So next week we are going to have to see what happens to our main character Bruno and camp Auschwitz.

 

See ya next time!!!!!

By Madison P.

 

Wow, I didn’t realize how busy we were until I read Madison’s blog entry.  We were moving and grooving today.  Please enjoy the kids presentations below.

Fabulous Tuesday by Sydney S.

In 5th grade G.T. we are studying genetic diversity, to do this we played a genetic game, separating into two teams we were able to find out how wonderful differences can be. For instance if everyone with brown eyes died off there would still be people with green, hazel ,and blue eyes left to repopulate. In the giver there is almost no differences between their people! And they like their world that way!

“For the first time, he heard something that he knew to be music. He heard people singing. Behind him, across vast distances of space and time, from the place he had left, he thought he heard music too. But perhaps it was only an echo.” (page 179 of The Giver by Lois Lowry)

We also did some art pieces on our thoughts of elsewhere (the place where Jonas (the main character of the giver) is trying to go because, based on the Givers memories that he has given to Jonas, Jonas decides to go try to find elsewhere.) Some of the thoughts of the class were that Jonas and Gabe had died or that he had really made it to elsewhere. What do you think happened to Jonas?

 Today we started reading The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by:  John Boyne. It is about a boy named Bruno who unexpectedly has to move away from Berlin with his family for his father’s job.

By Sydney Swail

Sydney created the Powtoon on Cells below.  I hope that you enjoy a piece of her work.  She did this as an independent study.  Way to go Sydney!

 

Genetic Engineering

In 5th grade we went to a great site called Ology to explore the world of genetics.  The kids are just starting to skim the surface of a complex science.  After their exploration the students thought a bit about the idea of genetic engineering. Below you will see some of their thoughts on the subject with only a small bit of information.  It will be interesting to see how their perspectives change as they dig deeper into the subject.

The 5th graders were able to choose between 3 assignment to reflect on their new learning.

Analytical:  They had to argue for or against Genetic Engineering.

Practical: Discuss whether Genetic Engineering is helpful or harmful to the environment.

Creative: Choose a plant or animal and think about how you would change it genetically.

Totally Tremendous Tuesday by Madison P. and Arianna M.

Our student bloggers for Tuesday decided to test out a new app (PowToon) in their Edmodo account to share the events of our day.  Tuesday was the first day they heard of, saw, and played with this app, so I think they did a great job.  I look forward to seeing all of the ways that these creative 5th graders use PowToon throughout the rest of the year.

Enjoy!

Created by Madison P. and Arianna M.

 

 

 

 

Cells, Cells, Cells!

Today, the fifth graders took a pre-test on cells to help prepare for our dive in to the world of genetics.  After completing the pre-test, the kids were divided into 5 groups.  Each group was responsible for finding the correct answer to 4 of the questions on the pre-test, using Kids Discover Cells.  They used Google Docs to collaborate on their presentation.  Google Docs allowed them to create the slides together, share comments and suggestions for ways to improve the presentation, and push their partners to do their best work. Each group presented their finished presentation to the class and helped us correct our pre-test.  We all learned something new today. 🙂  Some of the kids are working to create a Powtoon on something new they have learned about cells, so be on the look out soon!

Terrific Tuesday! by Mia B. and Madelyn S.

Terrific Tuesday in GT!
By: Mia B.

Today we are beginning a unit on genetics! That’s the science of lineage and family trees, etc. We are also working on our Color Poems, which Mrs. Germadnik is going to post soon! They are all very excellent, and their creativity and insight is sure to amaze you! We are also doing an abstract art piece for whatever color you choose. They are all very interesting and they really make you think.
Right now, we are reading The Giver  by Lois Lowry. In the book so far, Jonas has been selected to be the next Seer in Jonas’s community. The Giver is training Jonas and giving him all the memories of the world. Jonas has discovered war, pain, fire, happiness, snow, family and a bunch of other stuff too. But most important, Jonas discovered color! Can you imagine living in a colorless world? I know I couldn’t! It’s a great book and all the fifth graders love to read it.
Today, we learned the Pythagorean Theorem. Pythagoras may have been a weirdo who was scared of beans and worshipped numbers, but he sure was smart!
We are also starting Level 3 HOE! It sounds pretty big and scary right? But it is really fun after you learn it. I’m pretty glad to be taking HOE, because it is going to help us with algebra when we’re in 8th grade.
Last but not least, we are working on a powerpoint for our worst memories, our best memories, and if we would give up our best memory so you don’t remember the worst one. It’s very interesting to see everyone’s best and worst memories.
We had a lot of fun today in GT!!!

Pythagorean Theorem:

 

Thank You, Mr. Horch

On Tuesday I was able to surprise my 5th graders with a wonderful gift, hand crafted stained glass angels created by my wonderful grandfather in law.  He is an incredibly talented man.  I am in awe of his many talents.  At the age of 91 (92 in February) he has the most incredible yard you have ever seen.  One that he maintains on his own.  He also has also surprised so many people, friends, family and strangers alike, with his stained glass works of art.  He is someone we could all learn from.  I am blessed to have him in my life.

It was thrilling to be able to share his talents with my fifth graders.  It was a gift to see the excitement on their faces, as well as the awe when they found that a person created each one of the angels.

I have had the pleasure of working with many of these kids for 5 years.  Whether I have had them for 1 or 5 years, they all mean so much to me.  I am lucky to have had the opportunity to work with them, as I am with all my precious students.

Have a happy holidays!  Enjoy the break and the gift of time with family.  I look forward to seeing the kids in January 2013!

Love,

Mrs. Germadnik