What's been happening in 5th Grade Science and Math?

Dear Families,
It was wonderful to meet with all of you during the week of October 16th!  I felt like together we created some attainable goals for your children and for me in teaching them!  Please do not hesitate to still reach out if their is something that I need to know about your child and their social, emotional and academic needs.   

8:30 AM Shadow

10:30 AM Shadow

In Science class we have been looking for the answer to these two  question-Why do our shadows change throughout the day? and Why is the sun so bright?  With question one we have collected data about shadows on our campus.  We marked and measured the shadow of a lamp post and graphed the data.  This data proved to us that shadows start out long when the sun is just rising, they begin to shrink as the day goes on, the shortest shadows can be found at noon and then shadows begin to lengthen as the sun has hit its highest point on the horizon and is heading towards setting.  Students are also using a model to explain this real world situation and using their data, photos, books and activities to strengthen their models and how it explains the relationship between  the Earth and the Sun and the patterns this relationship creates in the way we see shadows.  To explore the relative brightness of our sun we have been reading books and taking notes.  Some of the numbers are just so large, we cant seem to grasp them!  The sun is 93 million miles away (our closest star) and if we could get close enough to it, it would take us 4 years to get there!  The next closest star is about 25, 000, 000, 000, 000 miles away!  Ask your cild what interesting facts they have learned about stars!

12:30 PM Shadow

In Math class we are finishing up unit one and our practice of important multiplication strategies.  We have made posters for our notebooks on varying strategies, listed, defined and explained important math vocabulary and used our number sense to practice decomposing numbers. By decomposing numbers, we can use strategies like partial products and the ratio table to be efficient, accurate and precise mathematicians.  We have explored volume and area.  We will end the unit thinking about division and how we can use ratio tables, and the area model as strategies.  Next, we head into FRACTIONS!  

Lastly, Allan Miller, our former principal, has been supporting us through an EARTHKAM mission with the International Space Station.  Along with a partner, students are locating places on the Earth that are of interest to them.  These places are than found along the ISS's orbits around EARTH, we then request a photo of these places on a certain day at a certain time.  AS these photos are ordered and received (24 hours in between) we will begin to find answers to our questions.  We are asking questions such as:

• Does every place along the Equator look the same?  
• What similarities and differences do places in the Arctic Circle ?  
• Do all major cities look the same?  
• What similarities and differences can we see among tropical islands? 

As we explored maps and globes are questions grew! Today we will send our first photo requests to the ISS!  We can't wait!  Thank you Mr. Miller! This has been a great connection to our Earth Systems Unit.  These photos will show the Earth from 250 miles away! 

Thanks for all your Shelburne Food Shelf Donations- we will be collecting until Thursday morning!  So please send more if your'd like!