A couple weeks ago the teachers had a problem, they could not reach the utensils bin in the teacher's room.  So the fifth graders came up with a solution, we made contraptions. We made them out of KNEX, string, and construction paper. We paired up into groups of two, and started creating. After we finished making our contraptions, we presented to the class and the teacher.          
Then the teachers used our contraptions. They liked it a lot and most of them worked. If they didn't work, we dismantled them and made them better. I hope you make contraptions to help you at home and some other places.

  This week, our grade learned about coordinate points and line graphs.  To make learning more fun, our teacher gave each of her students a project.  To do this project, each student chose a partner and received a word problem and a rubric.  On the rubric was a list of requirements for the project.  Each partner needed to make a function table and line graph based on the word problem.  Also, we had to create coordinates for the line graph and make up two deep thinker questions. When we completed all of math parts, everyone was supposed to color their chart and make sure it was neat.  The last thing we did was present it in front of the class.  when we finished everything, Ms.Crowell graded our projects.      

This week it  was my turn to  help my classmate raise the flag for our Thomas Prince school. I am honored to be a part of it. It makes me happy to see our country's flag wave in the fall breeze. The flag is hard to put up. First you have to unfold it, and make sure it doesn't touch the ground. You also have to make sure the stars are at the top and that it doesn't get twisted. It looks nice when we are done and it's blowing in the wind.

This week the fifth grade students have been working on simple machines in science. There are six simple machines that we are focusing on. There is a wedge, a wheel & axel, a pulley, a lever, a screw,and an inclined plane. We used our brains to make a fun playground using all the simple machines in a different way. 5th grade students have learned how all the simple work together to make compound machines.We learned that we use simple machines every day in our lives like a butter knife.

This week, the fifth graders of T.P.S had a fun day.  The children played Battleship but we focused on the math part of it.  We focused on the coordinate graphing part of the game. All of the children had an amazing time with this game and they all wanted to play it again.  While some kids played Battleship, others did a coordinate graphing activity.  It was a puzzle.  Some children did four quadrants and some children did one quadrant.  Children had to make points for the correct ordered pair and connect each point to the next.  Kids enjoyed this project and thought it was even more fun when they got to color and decorate the objects they made.

On Wednesday, October 10, we performed a drumming activity with the music teacher about bullying being wrong.We also did it in front of the sixth, seventh, and eighth grade which was fun.There was a wall full of orange hands to represent everyone working together to stop bullying. Orange was the color we were supposed to wear to school so the bullying would stop now. Most people wore orange and it is working so far. I know that day helped us all.

Last week, the eighth graders of T.P.S came to our fifth grade classroom to play some educational, but fun board games.  They were mainly about parts of speech, and reviewing the basics of them.  Us fifth graders thought it was a fun and easy way to review.   This game in the picture to the left was a game involving adjectives, nouns, verbs and of course, squirrels and nuts.  Other games had to do with homophones and more adjectives, nouns, and verbs.  We had a lot of fun, and appreciate all the hard work the eighth graders put into making these awesome games!