This week in fifth grade we have learned about our enery unit in science. We have made three different kinds of boats. They are the magic potionn boat, the balloon boat, and the rubberband boat. We also learned about the transfer of heat energy.

We completed our Personalized Learning projects this week and gave our final presentations.

In 5th grade this week we also have been preparing for the fifth grade play on May 21, 2015. This play is in honor of Mrs.Ruckstaetter and her successful years at Patton.

We are starting literature circles next week in reading. Our four books are Holes, Al Capone Does My Shirts, The Cay, and also Among the Hidden.

5th grade only has about 5 week left, and we are doing lots of fun activities to finish the year off.

We are starting our new science unit, all about the forms of energy.

We have skyped another school, and had poets come in to celebrate Poem in Your Pocket Day, (April 30th) and have had tons of fun writing and sharing our poems.

We recently finished our reading book, Tuck Everlasting, By Natalie Babbit. We did lots of fun activities this week about it.

We are starting this year's second round of PARCC tests, which will be during math for one week. By Michael and Tyler :)

We completed our Pioneer simulation unit and it was intense!

Only 2 wagon trains made it to Oregon fast, and alive. It was a tight race and it was fun, and very nerve-racking.

Also, this week in reading we continued reading "Tuck Everlasting." This is a book about a family who makes a mistake, making them live forever and getting them into tough situations.

We are just about to kick off our next science unit "Energy!" In Personalized Learning, we're finishing up our research and starting our final projects. Lots of exciting things are going on in Mrs. Anderle's room and we're having lots of fun!

This week we started reading a new book called Tuck Everlasting,by Natalie Babitt, which so far is a great book.

We are also working hard on our Personalized Learning projects. Everyone is doing a great job on their notes and presentations and we can't wait to show them to the class!

This week we decided to do some reading outside since the weather has been a little warmer recently.

We are still having a lot of fun in our wagon train simulation, finding out what it's like to be on the Oregon trail.

We are excited to finally announce that we will be doing "Return To Patton" for our 5th grade play! It is about kids from the year 3015 going back in time to Patton during the 21st century. Our play will be preformed on May 21st. We are looking forward to all of the fun things in 5th grade this year! Have a great week! :)

This week we continued learning about the Oregon Trail heading West in social studies. We are even pretending to be the pioneers on this long, hard, journey! We have written diary entries, faced frontier fates, and made trail decisions.

We are also are moving on the Hacker Trail. This picture is right above this caption.

We started a new project a few weeks ago called Personalized Learning. Each day, we research our question and update our site. We write the date and "link" the website to the note page, we put the notes that we find in the page that we linked in the document. One picture is right below this with a student putting a suggestion on the "Help & Wanted" board. This is when you write a question that you have about your project, and stick it on the Help Wanted board. Then, when somebody gets the chance, they can go up and put a suggestion for that question.

PERSONALIZED LEARNING

This week we started a new project based on our interests and what you want to reaserch. This new program is called Personalized Learning. We are developing "yard" questions and researching them. Students have picked topics from constellations to keeping healthy. We have enjoyed the new program that inspires us to learn more about the things we are interested in and to increase our knowledge in the future.

WEX WRITING

We just finished our response to fiction essay based on the book The Liberation of Gabriel King. Students picked a character and a trait that the character had. Then they wrote about two moments when the characters were showing their trait. Then, we typed them on the computers.

SOCIAL STUDIES

This week we selected wagon train leaders and were sorted into wagon trains. We also packed our wagons and got ready to start the journey heading west. Next week we will be acting out a pioneer simulation and moving across the Hacker Trail. We will have a competition to see who reaches Oregon first! Good luck wagon trains!

One of our biggest achievements was raising $615.60 for Pasta for Pennies. We came in 3rd place.

On Tuesday we reenacted The Battle of Bunker Hill. We had so much fun acting out our parts in the battle.

In our tarvern groups, we got to rewrite the Declaration of Independence in fifth grade language. After we finished writing, we got to sign it with a quill feather and ink.

And most recently, Anna's grandpa came in and told us more about the American Revolution, and what life was like for the Patriot soldiers.

This week we created tavern groups and made flags that we hung up around the classroom. We had fun using our imagination! We look forward to doing many activities in these groups.

Here are our Tavern Group Leaders:

Ila, Octavio, Liam, Dani, and Cullen!

On Thursday we went to a reenactment of life in the 1700s. We got to see different types of jobs and ways of life during that time. We learned a lot and had a great time!