I cannot believe it is already almost October, which means that there is a little over a month for students to complete the community service hours requirement for Quarter 1.
If you need inspiration, there are many ideas listed in the packets you received via email after Family Orientation.
As students complete hours, they should fill out the required form. All hours are due by November 11.
If you have any questions, please contact Rabbi Schaller, tschaller@mjds.org
I never thought I would say this…but… I am SO sad we have come to the end of our dissection. The kids impressed me more than ever during this process. They were engaged, dealt with the icky smells, and discovered/observed/explained so many awesome findings about the perch and sea lamprey.
Below are some pictures from our sea lamprey dissection that we finished yesterday. We were lucky enough to have one female sea lamprey that was filled to the brim with eggs! The most important thing students were asked to notice and observe was the mouth of the sea lamprey. Make sure you ask your child about the sea lamprey over the weekend and how it differs from the perch!
Next week, we will begin to figure out why we did this dissection and how it aids us in answering our driving question: Where have all the living creatures gone?
WOW! We have been working so hard in 5th grade math and science now that we have started our first units!
In math, we have started our unit on fractions. Our big focus this week has been on understanding what equivalent fractions are, learning how to find equivalent fractions, and being able to explain the why behind it.
Along with this, the kids have been working so hard setting up their math notebooks so they are able to use it as a tool for their homework and for studying the material we are learning. Students should be bringing home their math workbooks every night so they have it to refer back to when completing their homework.
In science, we have officially put on our “scientist” hats and have started to figure out how and why dead things disappear over time. The kids have been asking incredible questions and figuring out great ways to investigate our questions so we can begin to answer the driving question of our unit: “Why do dead thing disappear over time?” So far we have figured out the following:
Dead animals “disintegrate” or “decompose” over time
Flies and maggots really like meat or the flesh of an animal
Maggots eat the meat
Maggots are created when a fly lays eggs. The eggs “hatch” and maggots are born
To figure out these ideas we have been watching many videos! Take a look at them below!
I am so excited to continue this process with your kids! They have such great ideas, thoughts, and questions.
Stay tuned for more as we begin to uncover more information to figure out our driving question!
This week we began our science unit with probably my most favorite phenomena: DISSECTING.
But why did we chose to start off our unit with dissecting…?
Well, what I absolutely love about science here at MJDS is that in science, we begin each unit with a different phenomena to drive our unit and keep the students working to “figure out” rather than “learning about.”
Throughout our entire unit we will reference this dissection to aid us in answering our driving question, “Where have all the living creatures gone?” Throughout this unit, the students will be investigating the perch and sea lamprey populations in the Great Lakes and the science behind it.
By the end of the unit, the kids will be able to answer this question and explain it in depth about all populations.
This week, we started off by examining the internal and external anatomy of the perch. The kids did an AMAZING job noticing, observing, wondering, and recording throughout this process.
We were even lucky enough to have two female perch that were filled with thousands of eggs.
Next week, we will continue our dissection process and investigate the second part of our phenomena: the sea lamprey.
Stay tuned for more pics next week!
Take a look at the pics below and over the weekend, ask your child about their noticings and wonderings from dissecting the perch.
Tomorrow, Thursday, September 19, is our annual 5th and 6th grade retreat! I AM SO EXCITED!! The purpose of this retreat it to welcome our fifth graders to the upper school and begin to build a team among our 5th and 6th grade classes. This year, our retreat will take place at LakeGeneva Canopy Tours in LakeGeneva, WI. At the retreat students, will participate in team building exercises with one another and their teachers. They will also have the opportunity to participate in a zip line course. The day will challenge them to work together, support one another, and promises to create long lasting memories. The students will leave school at 8:15am and return around 3:30pm.
Here is what you need to do for the retreat:
Students should dress in comfortable clothing and must wear sneakers. No sandals are permitted for this trip. Dress for the weather. Unless there are thunderstorms we will be going.
Please send a bag lunch and a water bottle for the day. Lunches should follow MJDS policy and should not include meat or shellfish.
Send bug spray and sun screen. Students should have it on when they leave and can re apply as needed.
In order to participate in the zip lining experience every student must have a waiver filled out prior to the trip. Please fill out the waiver by going to https://waiver.smartwaiver.com/w/5a57a90256eaa/web/ . No student will be allowed to zip line without this. It is a requirement of LakeGeneva Canopy Tours.
If you have any questions about next week’s trip, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
This week, in both 5th and 6th science, we have been working on different challenges to get our brains thinking, bodies moving, and to understand how to work respectfully and empathetically in a group so we are prepared when we dive into our first units next week.
I think both the students and I can agree that the best challenge we took part in this week was “Saving Fred”.
At the beginning of the challenge, students were given the back story of poor Fred. It goes as follows:
“Fred is a friendly worm who took his boat out on the lake one day. However, Fred wasn’t very smart because he forgot to wear his life preserver! Unfortunately for Fred, a strong wind caused his boat to capsize. Now his boat is upside down, Fred is stranded on top, and his life preserver is underneath!”
The kids needed to achieve 3 things in this challenge:
Turn Fred’s boat right side up
Get Fred back into his boat
Put on Fred’s life preserver.
However, there were some pretty specific rules that they COULD NOT break:
You may only touch the paperclips. You CANNOT touch Fred, the boat, or the life preserver directly with your hands.
You must not let Fred fall into the lake or he will drown (aka on the table)
You may not injure Fred (e.g., spearing him with the end of a paperclip).
Just by looking around the room, before they decided on a plan or got their supplies, I could see that many of the students thought this would be EASY. However, once they actually began the challenge, boy oh boy did they realize that it was a lot harder to do than they thought hehe 🙂
Students developed a well thought out plan before they were given their supplies. Throughout the “saving” process I was so impressed with each and every groups perseverance. Not a single group gave up, and every group member supported each other. In the end, although it took longer than they thought, each group was able to save Fred.
After they had finished the big save, each group looked back at their original plan to document what they did differently and what they changed throughout the challenge. We spent time discussing why this is so important to do, not only in science, but in life.
I seriously wish we could re-live this day over and over because it was one of those classes that I never wanted to end!
Make sure to ask your child(ren) about some of the other highlights from the week:
I just wanted to start off this blog post by saying how PROUD and IMPRESSED I am with both the 5th and 6th graders this week. They have worked so hard to create a classroom culture that feels safe and welcoming. We dedicated a lot of our time this week to discuss what we need from each other to have a successful year. I was amazed by all of the thoughtful comments students shared. I heard things like,
” We need to be understanding and include each other”
“We need to have a growth mindset and be positive so we don’t bring others down”
“We need to support everyone with what they chose”
“We need to be kind to each other”
I am SO excited for our year together and to continue to learn from your amazing kids!
Make sure to ask your children about some of our other highlights from the week:
Today, in 5th grade math, the kids did an AMAZING job working together to solve this riddle. Everybody tried their best, worked so well together, and had a positive attitude while solving it.
Can YOU solve the bridge riddle? The 5th graders did 🙂
