Wow! What an amazing year! We have had a wonderful time learning math and learning about each other. I’m so proud of you all for your hard work and successes! Congratulations! I know your 6th grade year will be fantastic. Junior high is really fun, a brand new experience - one filled with exciting adventures!
I wish for each of you a great summer, one filled with rest and relaxation. You deserve it!
Today was our last field trip. We went to the DPISD Ag Barn and met the members of FFA (Future Farmers of America). We learned that when you get to high school, you can take classes at the barn! How cool is that?!
The FFA members showed us their animals and talked with us about animal care and use. After the tour, we were all treated to ice cold sno-cones! Yum!
You may think that there can’t be any more learning in late May… but that’s not true in our classroom! We’re working on building our brains and making them even smarter! We have a rotation set up and each day we make one to two rotations. Each rotation has a brain building activity. After each activity we respond with what we did and what we learned. Here are our activities:
dominoes…
These students are trying to make multiples of 5 with their seven dominoes. If they can’t play, they have to pull from the bone pile.
brick-by-brick…
Students have a design to make using bricks (see the cards?) Notice that the bricks have different combinations. They have to guess and check to try their luck building the designs.
Battleship…
The boys are using ordered pairs and strategies to locate their opponent’s ships. They sure are doing a great job keeping track of their “hits”!
puzzles…
There were several puzzles to choose from… this student is connecting bugs. The shapes that can be made are amazing!
…. trying to match the pieces with all the other pieces…
…finding the right wheel is really a challenge!
checkers…
A game of skill and strategy.
drawing…
Students had a choice of different drawing activities: drawing, tracing, or pencil rubbing. S-t-r-e-t-c-h that brain!
tangrams…
….very creative!
computers…
This rainforest website had really neat activities. We could even try out other grade level problems - 6th grade was fun!
Even though we’re officially in school until June 5, learning is still fun and continuing. What other games can you think of that would involve “brain building”? Let me know! Send a comment.
We’d like to wish our visiting friends from the Czech Republic a big TEXAS HELLO! How great to visit with them and learn about their schools. We found that schools are basically the same all around the world - filled with great students that are ready to learn. We wish them a safe trip back home.
Thanks for visiting!
Today we read the book Trouble by Jane Kurtz, illustrated by Durga Bernhard. It was an African story (from Ethiopia) about a little boy whose father helped him stay out of trouble - he thought. His father made him a game to bring along to play when he traveled. You’ll have to read the book for yourself to see if the game helped the little boy stay out of trouble!
Here’s a couple students playing the game. The African name is gebeta, we call it Mancala.
Wow! What a week it has been. We’re in May and I can hardly believe it! Where has the year gone? We’ve done so very much and learned even more. This week was a wonderful one because we teachers were really pampered. Our PTO and administrators had surprises each day and even the students did as well! Shelbi brought in these beautiful sunflowers and Chandler brought me this lovely purple mix bouquet (I LOVE flowers!!!), and the flamingo was from PTO (I LOVE flamingoes too!!!) Thanks everyone!
