5th grade spelling bee

Fifteen fifth graders participated in WLE's annual school-wide spelling bee. Five students from my room, Mrs. Athan's room, and Mrs. Rohde's room battled over difficult words. Ethan, Olivia, Isabella, Jack, and Marko made their classmates proud as they spelled so many words in front of a huge audience of their peers and parents. It was a great experience that brought out the best in these five students. Great job, you made us proud!!!

Giant number lines

In math, students were using numbers lines to understand how to add and subtract positive and negative numbers. I.e. -6 - (-3) = -3
Some students were wishing that negative numbers didn't exist. As we worked through more problems, students were feeling more confident as math time continued.

Creative thinking and design

5th graders are learning about grammar and creating posters with these terms. They are working together to create a poster that gives examples and definitions to some of these terms. Once students have a working idea of these, we will incorporate the language and examples more authentically in their writing.

The Tower Challenge

In science, students were using toothpicks and clay to build towers. They improved their design from yesterday by adding a more sturdy base. By talking and working together, students built their designs and created larger then ever structures. Take a look at some of the designs.

Mrs. Rohde's Tower Challenge

Student from Mrs. Rohde's class work on creating a tower with toothpicks. Many students came to class with a new idea on how to build the structure as tall as possible. The record group had a tower 50 cm in length.

Science and problem solving

Today 5th graders worked on creating structures with toothpicks and modeling clay. The goal was to think and talk about ways to make the structure sturdy and tall. Making structures and designing them were more difficult then the students realized. Using only 24 toothpicks and a small bit of clay and only 15 minutes, some groups made towers over 40 cm tall.