In Reading and Language Arts, we proceeded to read every day this past week. Our class would return to our current books of choice and then briefly offer our written thoughts either summarizing or connecting to the text. We engaged in a rather different writing exercise diving deep into a children’s film monologue; there were 5 different options to ranging from inspirational to reflective and even silly. Sally Brown, from “It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”, Dory from “Finding Nemo”,  and Dorothy from “The Wizard of Oz” were just a few examples. We completed a thorough and final report card. Each one of us rated ourselves, the class and Mr. Patrick. Our class is filled with thoughtful and reflective learners who believe in self-improvement. It is my hope that my students continue to read and reflect on various texts over the summer. Our class has grown as readers and writers. I will be posting book suggestions on our Google Classroom page.

Field Day: Warm Ups

 

Chalkboard Questions of the Week

–What was Your Highlight of the Weekend?

-Is it Better to have blonde/light hair OR dark hair?

–What are your Favorite Sports, Athletes and Teams?

-How did you improve this school year? 

 

In Social Studies, we viewed and analyzed (VTS) on the Top Dairy Producing Countries (1960-2019). Our class was fascinated at which countries made the list and who is #1, India! They nearly double the amount of US Production. Our class investigated an interesting and helpful video about how our intended message isn’t always what is received by our audience in, “How We Miscommunicate”. Our class studied every known Dog Breed, chose 1 breed to research on, and finally met our class mascot, Maggie. We were amazed how dogs’ noses are such sharply sensitive tools in not only smelling the trail of others, but also new studies linking them in detecting some diseases in the video, “The Science of Sniff”. We competed as groups in a friendly game of BrainQuest. Our class consistently chose the hardest questions and made sure to collaborate and discuss each dynamic puzzler before responding. We gave it our all during the entire Annual Field Day. Our class had a respectful and amazing attitude, despite the heat. Our class took part in the last Kahoot of this school year, “The 7 Wonders of the Ancient World”. We continued to master special places and their significance from the modern era to Ancient Greece. I am so very proud of their hard work and determination.

End of Year Classmate Compliments

 

(Last Day) Classroom Clean-Up: Amazing Team Effort!

 

Map Location Current Total: 80 (countries or cities)

Beach Day!

 

Class Soundtrack (Spotify Playlists): “Classical New Releases”, “Aesthetic Lo-Fi”, “Beach Boys”, “Jack Johnson”, “Israel Kamakawiwo’ole”, “Focus Flow”, various dance tracks on the last day while we cleaned and laughed!

Math Professors in Action

 

In Science and Math, our class revisited through our daily Math Challenges: SAT Algebra problems, alternate methods to breakdown and divide 3 and 4 digit numbers, pre-Algebra review, Multiplication (decimals, fractions, and varying degrees of difficulty). We finished off our Student Math Teacher sessions. Our class realized that not only is Math challenging, but more importantly leading their peers through various problems is daunting. We engaged in our last Science activity of the year by study weather in, “How Can We Predict the Weather When it is Going to Storm?”. After we acquired our new cloud identifying skills, we challenged ourselves with various weather scenarios.

Last Math Challenge: Our Class Can Tackle The SAT!

In Reading and Language Arts, we proceed to engage in daily quiet reading and then crafting a summary or interpretive, reflective  journal entry.  Our class began drafting questions for The Culminating Kahoot. This class effort is not only a review of our entire year, but also a celebration of all of our hard work and wonderful memories. Each one of us has to build an academic and social question for our entire class to enjoy. The Academic questions cover every subject (LA/Reading, Social Studies, Science, and Mathematics) and Social questions (fun memories, sayings, discussions, and special memories that only someone in our class would understand) from the entire year. We learned that not only is researching and thinking up which topics to build our question data bank difficult, but also how to write the question. Our class is beginning to understand what makes a good, challenging and fair question vs. easy, too difficult or vague questions.

Chalkboard Questions of the Week

–Which person, good or bad, do you think had the biggest impact on the World? USA?

-What 5 Words Do you think Most Describe You?

-What 3 Words would you use to describe our school year in this class?

-Does a person’s name determine anything about their personality?

5 Words Do You Think Most Describe You (I also asked this Question the 3rd week of School)

Patrick: Athletic, Confident, Humble, Tall, Rad

Chrissy: Creative, Athletic, Smart, Flexible, Weird

Leo: Athletic, Average Height, Weird, Very Cool, Skinny

Fotini: Athletic, Girl, Fun, Creative, Smart

Kosmas: Funny, Flexible, Smart, Creative, Athletic

Alex: Smart, Creative, Athletic, Funny, Flexible

Jessica: Funny, Strong, Smart, Athletic, Social

Niko: Smart, Funny, Athletic, Strong, Color Blind

Dino: Smart, Cool, Funny, Athletic, Goalie

In Social Studies, we cultivated another socio-emotional exercise with Mrs. Vash about writing specific compliments down about our fellow classmates that spanned the entire school year. Our class viewed a fascinating video about The 7 Wonders of the Ancient World as a kick-off for one of our final 2 Geographic Kahoots of the school year. We asked each other why the wonders, except The Giant Pyramid of Giza, were gone from existence. Another essential and Ancient Historical lesson that we explored was The 6 Cradles of Civilization; where they flourished and what they had in common. We performed and filmed our play, “Wanted: An Ethical Prince!”. The costumes, creativity, cleverness, voices, and acting was top notch.

Proud Day at Plato: Graduation 2021

Summer Send-off: Positive Peer Post-Its

 

Map Location Current Total: 81 (countries or cities)

Class Soundtrack (Spotify Playlists): “Atmospheric Calm”, “Cloud Gazing”, “Deep Focus”

In Science and Math, our class revisited through our daily Math Challenges: area and perimeter of rectangles, Algebra, Multiplication, and World Problems. We push forward in our student Math teaching moments. Our class is learning not only how to be better listeners, but also how to teach others. Our Science Activity, “Why Would a Hawk Move to NYC?” was around the complex world of Ecosystems and Food Chains. We put this refreshed knowledge to the test in an interactive game. Our groups taught one another about various animals and plants that constitute a Food Web, build their own food chains and had the potential to poach their fellow classmates valuable cards, so we could possibly build our own stronger and longer chain. SuperScience confronted us with a series of scientific and analytical “Always, Sometimes, and Never” statements about octopus functions, features and behavior. Mindset Math Multiplicity Lab Photo, entitled “Layers of Patterns and Relationships” posed a series of questions about repeating, equality, parts, and how these all relate. Our class ventured into the interpretive realm of playing cards, how perception and organization of shapes vs values of numbers offer learning opportunities.  Mindset Math has finally brought us to the end of the 5th grade book and we have had quite the creative math journey. The activity we engaged in was “ The 1492 Problem” which was linked to “Using Numbers and Symbols Flexibily”. We, once again, divided into pairs for the initial phase of this complex undertaking, where we deconstructed the numbers 1492 and created equations that covered numbers 1-100.

Mindset Math: Hard Way to Hundred