Archive for March, 2008This week our focus was on building large bridges. Students applied what they had learned about different types of bridges (truss, suspension, post and beam, cable-stayed, arch) to their design and construction. Limited supplies of straws and straight pins were allowed for the main parts of the bridge. Tape was allowed for attaching the bridges to chairs or stools. Students then tested their structure with rolling a baseball across and to see how much weight it would hold. Check out these great final designs!
Today we would like you to check out some other blogs. As you explore these sites, think about what you like and what ideas you think we might be able to use while blogging in 5SW! So… 1st – Check out some of these NHS Blogs: 2nd Grade: http://class2ol.edublogs.org/ Music Blog: http://nhsband.edublogs.org/ Art Blog: http://nhsartblog.edublogs.org/ 7th Grade: http://seventhgradenews.blogspot.com/ Then… Post comment(s) on those sites to react in a positive way about what you are seeing. Finally… Post comment(s) here to let us know what you saw and what you think we could use on 5SW’s site or any other ideas you may have of what you would like to happen with our blog! The suspension bridge is one of the most popular bridges around. There is one connecting Brooklyn and Manhattan, and one connecting San Francisco and Marin County. And there are definitely more across the planet. Suspension bridges are made up of…well each bridge in a different place is made up of different things-Brooklyn bridge is made up of two stone piers, and steel wires. The stone piers were constructed with the help of something called a caisson. The cables of the Golden Gate Bridge are made up of thousands of pencil thin wires that are tied to two anchor blocks. When we tested small bridges in school, we made a suspension bridge out of straws for the poles, books for the posts, fishing line or string for the wires, and tape to hold it all together. To make these bridges we worked in pairs or in a group of three. The highest amount of pennies our suspension bridges held was 298. The lowest amount was 131. All of the different numbers in between were: 283, 200, 179, 176 and 150. The Arch Bridge has been around since the ancient Romans; well actual they came up with it. On Thursday, instead of building a massive, heavy, stone arch bridge, like the Aqueduct (which the Romans made) we used books and paper to recreate how tension, compression and torsion would affect a bridge. The Arch Bridge held 5 pennies for my group. The other groups got: 7, 7, 7, 11, 3 and 12. During the lab, we tested two other kinds of bridges and they were a suspension bridge and the post and beam bridge. The post and beam bridge worked the worst and the suspension bridge worked the best. On Friday afternoon we are doing another experiment with truss bridges with some kind of candy, or raw fish, but we are not quit sure exactly what we are doing. We can’t wait!!!
5SW has just started a new social studies unit about Lewis and Clark. There is so much to learn about Lewis and Clark and one of the ways that we are learning about it is by doing a scavenger hunt. We have been asked questions about certain things that are important about Lewis and Clark’s journey and we have to look in books and find the information for the specific questions. We also have a read aloud about Lewis and Clark, called The Captain’s Dog which is written from the perspective of a dog and while we listen to it, if any information comes up, we record it. In the book Going Along With Lewis & Clark, we learned about Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. Further into the book we discovered how they communicated and about the languages they learned. One of the facts in the book was about the ages of the members of the Corps and which men were related .For example, the youngest was George Shannon at the age of 19, and the oldest was John Shields age 35. Charles Floyd and Nathaniel were cousins while Ruben and Joseph were brothers. Lewis was 30 and Clark was 34. Along in the book there many side captions. There is an online game on the 5SW website about when Lewis and Clark go west (see links). It is very exciting for kids that know or like history. In this game you have to read the clues and also you have to answer the questions. The reason why Lewis and Clark went on this expedition is because Thomas Jefferson told Meriwether Lewis to get information of the Northwest Passage and of the west. You had to read several journal entries and facts about the journey. Then you have to take all of what you have just read about and make a decision on a question that the site gives you. In 5SW reading is very swell. By the end of the year every student must read and document at least one book in each genre. One way that they are documenting their books are storyboards. This is a creative way to share your thinking at really interesting parts. A lot of kids will do one every chapter. Sometimes kids will do journal entries on the book if they couldn’t tell the story with just the storyboard. You see, the storyboards are meant to tell what the part of the book made you think, not just telling what happened in the story. If you finish documenting all of the books that you have to read, you can read any book you want in any genre you want to. (MUSIC, ART, GYM, SPANISH, LIFE SKILLS) In Music, we have been very busy learning new songs like Star Wars and perfecting songs that we have already learned. We are also learning Linus and Lucy for fun. Lots of people have been switching instruments and switching from band to chorus. In Art this week we went on www.mrpicassohead.com and created our own Picasso artwork. We also created winter scenes for the Winter Fest art competition. The work is shown around the school and the winners are hung up in Centennial hall. During Life Skills we watched our Refusal Skills movies that we filmed. Our next unit will be on puberty. We have just finished our volleyball unit in gym. We learned to serve, do a “bump” (underhand hit), and we also learned to do an overhand hit. Our next unit will be on ping-pong, and we might also play some DDR (Dance Dance Revolution). In ping-pong some rivals are moving into place. In Spanish we are learning about famous buildings in España (Spain). Some of our buildings to learn about are the Roman Aqueduct, The Alhambra and the Casa Mila. The Alhambra is a fortress that is so big that only small parts were given to each kid, and about 4 kids have them. A student in 5SW is awaiting a surprise present. What will it be? The clues we have are: •It makes food. •It can be eaten, but only if need be. What could it be? Here are some guesses: cow, chicken, duck, POULTRY, goat, fish, caviar, deer, turkey We can’t wait to hear! |
|
Hosted by Edublogs.
Mandigo theme by tom.
Entries (RSS)
and Comments (RSS).
