Thursday, October 18, 2012

Quotes from the Class


“Just looking at the stars, I saw this branch, but you couldn’t see the branch- it just looked like floating leaves.” – Daniel

“We walked to the top of the mountain blindfolded and earned a ‘togetherness’ bead.” – Elie

 “We played this game where we stood really still 
across from each other, and our partners’ faces disappeared.  
And it was really crazy.” – Noam

“I liked the campfire because we got to see songs and stuff, 
and it was really fun.” – Minna

“I really liked the overlook of the hillside because we were blindfolded until then, and when they took the blindfold off 
it was amazing.” – Matan

“I’m so glad I stayed because we played a lot of things.  One of them is ‘Predator Prey.’ You had to be a vol, a snake, or a hawk 
and try to survive.  It was really fun!” – Asheley

“It was exciting to be with all the animals.  
One of the goats ate a lot of food, 
like he was just eating the whole time.  They were cute.”
– Jonah

“One of my favorite moments was when we did the night hike because we didn’t get to bring flashlights, and I could barely see.  
I have good night vision.” – Nina

“In ‘spa chug’ we made our own lip balm, with no petroleum, and I thought it was really fun and creative.” – Ruth

“We did a play about Noah, and how he sent the raven before the dove.  It was fun.  I thought it was really interesting 
that I hadn’t heard about it before.” – Noa

“At Teva we really learned about nature, and we really got into nature.  It really changed my thoughts about nature… 
I’m not going to buy plastic bottles again.” – Annette

“I was surprised that I was a frog.  The play was about a little girl who wanted to make a difference by helping frogs… I was a frog… It was fun… I just like acting.” – Joey

“Being with the kids this week was awesome and amazing.  
They learned so much and had a ton of fun; me too!  
Thank you for sending us your kids!” – Ms. Kwitkin-Close

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Whole Class Photos

 At our cabin
At the lake

Worth the Wait

Early risers are treated to hot chocolate.
Our class was waiting in line at 7:05AM!

Waking like a Lion


Lion postures before beginning tfillah.

Shacharit (Morning Prayer)






Yasher Koach to Asheley, Minna, and Annette for leading part of this morning's service.

Amidah Outside





Everyone found his or her own place outside to pray silently.
Hearing the morning geese on the lake is a lovely way to pray!

Dancing and Drumming


In Tfillah

At Breakfast




Weighing the Psolet (Food Waste)


After Breakfast Plates were Cleared

How Much Food Waste?

Charting our psolet (food waste)

We're Grateful for our Food


Post-breakfast Song

To the tune of Bob Marley's "You Can't Blame the Youth," we sang about being responsible for our own choices, after breakfast.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Football

Some chose to play football during today's chofesh (free time).

Minna was on a role!


Chofesh (Free time)

A group chose to play Bananagrams in Mrs. Woods's room during chofesh (free time) this afternoon.

Our Cabin, Pine

Two to three students per room.  Each room has its own bathroom.  Everyone is pleased with the accommodations.

Pine

Our cabin

Tfillah

Fifth graders rising like lions to greet the day in this morning's tfillah (prayer).

Evening Chuggim (activities)


Gathering to hear chug (activity) choices.  Last night some of our fifth graders: made lip balm, did drama, learned about medicinal plants, or went for a night hike.

Kamah Psolet? How much food did we waste?



Ruth helped weigh psolet (waste) from last night's dinner.

Friday, October 12, 2012

Billions

In Math today we worked on place value through the billions.  We talked about when we've heard numbers in the billions.  Ruth brought up "population."  We made predictions about which populations were in the billions.  A small team looked for data.
Here's what they found:
TOP TEN COUNTRIES WITH THE HIGHEST POPULATION
#Country2000
Population
2010
Population
2012
Population
2050
Expected Pop.
1
China
1,268,853,362
1,330,141,295
1,336,718,015
1,303,723,332
2
India
1,004,124,224
1,173,108,018
1,189,172,906
1,656,553,632
3
United States
282,338,631
310,232,863
313,232,044
439,010,253
4
Indonesia
213,829,469
242,968,342
245,613,043
313,020,847
5
Brazil
176,319,621
201,103,330
203,429,773
260,692,493
6
Pakistan
146,404,914
184,404,791
187,342,721
276,428,758
7
Bangladesh
130,406,594
156,118,464
158,570,535
233,587,279
8
Nigeria
123,178,818
152,217,341
155,215,573
264,262,405
9
Russia
146,709,971
139,390,205
138,739,892
109,187,353
10
Japan
126,729,223
126,804,433
126,475,664
93,673,826
TOP TEN Countries
3,618,894,827
4,016,489,082
4,054,510,166
4,950,140,178
Rest of the World
2,466,012,769
2,829,120,878
2,875,544,988
4,306,202,522
TOTAL World Population
6,084,907,596
6,845,609,960
6,930,055,154
9,256,342,700
Then a student wondered how it's possible for India's population to surpass China's.  After a lot of guesses, we got to, "Babies!"  Understanding the meaning behind digits and numbers is fascinating.  Understanding some of the factors that make up population is overwhelming (i.e. religious views or socioeconomic realities that would lead to having more than one baby).

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Scholastic Book Order

Scholastic book orders went home today.  Please place your book order online by Friday, & simply email me to tell me you did so.  You'll get a free book for doing so!  If you had trouble online before, I encourage you to try again.  The powers that be at Scholastic tell me they've gotten the kinks out.  If you want to send in a check, that works too.
Consider having your child pay for the books.
Thank you!

Necaps

Students took Math Sessions 2 and 3 today.  They are tired from all the testing.  Tomorrow they will take Writing Sessions 1 and 2.

Friday, October 5, 2012

Readers' Letters

Last Friday students handed in their first readers' letters of the year.  Today each student will bring home his or her letter in the red folder with comments, a graded rubric, and a letter from me.  The next letter is due on October 31st.

Overheard this week in fifth

A student to another student: I LOVE the Necaps!

Mrs. Woods: Really?  Why?

Student: Because I have time to read AND I get to chew gum!

Fifth graders completed three reading sessions this week and the first math session.
I was impressed by their ability to transition to a lesson after long testing blocks.

Next week they will take two tests on Wednesday and two more on Thursday.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Elie's Post

We had an amazing science class today. We started talking about natural resources. A natural resource is something that is part of the earth. Mrs. Woods put many things on the ground. We had to write in our journal what each thing is made of. For example, a ruler. A ruler is made out of wood that is made out of trunk of a tree.It showed that everything is in an ecosystem. Then, we read examples of natural resources. Next, we read  nonrenewable and renewable meanings. Finally, we talked and asked many questions about nature.  It was a very fascinating science class.

Today's class about natural resources


led to A LOT of fabulous questions and statements:

“I think the world would be better off if people were smarter about how they used resources.” -Noa

Personally, I sometimes think the world would be better off if these fifth graders were running it!

List of Valuable Natural Resources


Natural Resource: Product/Service
Trees:  Paper, furniture, fuel
Cotton plant:  Clothing
Oil/Petroleum:  Plastic, fuel
Gas:  Fuel
Coal:  Fuel
Iron ore:  Steel products (cans, bridges)
Bauxite: ore  Aluminum products (cans, car parts)
Gold:  Jewelry, dental material
Copper:  Wire, coins, electrical equipment
Manganese:  Steel, cast iron
Cobalt:  Steel, jet engine parts, cutting tools
Platinum:  Air pollution control and telecom­munications equipment, jewelry
Chromium:  Stainless steel, green glass, gems (rubies and emeralds), leather treatment
Diamonds:  Jewelry, mechanical equipment

(From EPA's "Quest for Less")

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

YouTube Video of Today's Math

Please click here: http://youtu.be/gteitkzt-uE

Fifth graders worked cooperatively to see how how close to one million they could reach with place value blocks.  Then they calculated how far away they were: 962,666, or about 960,000.  Then they had to figure out how many 40,000s would make 1,000,000.  Lastly they had to figure out if they had an equal number of ones, tens, hundreds, and thousands, how many they'd need to reach their goal.

"What we did today made me think that one million is way bigger than I thought it would be.  it is amazing that it can be that big."- Elie
"I think that 1,000,000 is much, much bigger than I previously thought." - Noam

Please know that while this is on Youtube, privacy settings were used, so only fifth grade parents of this class, and some JCDSRI faculty, can view this video.

Necap Testing

Fifth Graders took Reading Session 1 today.