Holiday Card Exchange

Holiday Card Exchange

We participated in a holiday card exchange with jenuinetech.com (organizer of the O.R.E.O. Project).  We were matched with 30 other classrooms from across the United States and Canada.  The theme was snowman.  We made cards to send the other classes. We have received nine cards from other classes so far.  Most of them have a snowman on them.

To make our cards, we used paint chip strips.  (Mrs. Hojnacki saw it on Pinterest.) We used sequins for the buttons. The rest was made from paper scraps. To make the card, we ripped blue paper to look like a snow pile. Then we glued it on a white card. Then the snowman went on the card.  Finally, we wrote a holiday message inside.  The back of the card has information to share with the class. We finished the cards today so they can go in the mail tonight.

--Jacob B. 

Geometric Tree

My name is Dathan.  I am going to tell you our math competition.  In math class last week all the fifth graders made a geometric tree.  It is a Christmas tree that uses different geometric shapes and terms to decorate it. Our math teacher, Mrs. Lewis gave us different colors of paper.  When we were finished we were going to vote for the neatest tree.  The trees were going to count as test grade, so we wanted to make sure we made and labeled them correctly. On Monday, we made last minute fixes on our trees. On Tuesday we voted for the winner of the trees. Kiley won the neatest tree. My tree wasn't the favorite, but I earned an A- on it. I think I did a good job on it. What do you think?

--Dathan



Native American Diorama

   Our Native American dioramas were due a few days ago. We had to choose between several Indian tribes, including the Plains Indians, the North West Coast Indians, the Desert Southwest Indians, and the Eastern Woodland Indians. I chose the Plains Indians because they are the kind of Indians we Americans think of today. I know that’s the kind I think of. A lot of other people did the Plains Indians, but there were a lot of other people who did the other kind of Indians. All the projects I saw were very creative.  One, Daniel’s Southwest Pueblo, I liked even better than mine.  I thought that was interesting because usually if you make something, yours is your favorite. I liked working on my diorama, and it was fun to see all the other projects on display.

--Max

Our Dioramas

Pottery

Last Monday and Tuesday we used Crayola Model Magic to make pottery.  They were supposed to be like what Native Americans might make.  We could do pinch pots or coil pots.  I chose to do a coil pot.  I made a long coil.  Then I made it into a pot.  On Wednesday we got to paint them. Well, the class painted, I went to an appointment.  I painted my pot Monday.  I made yellow stripes, like a tiger, and a sun. They were all very different.  I learned that you could do lots of things with the clay.  I wish I made a lid for mine.

--Samantha

Our Pottery Slideshow

Talk Show Book Talk

          On Friday, we got to see a new option for book talks.  It was a talk show format, like Oprah.  Autumn was a hostess interviewing Merissa.  In the second one Natyia was the hostess interviewing Melanie. Mrs. H. video taped their book talk. (The link will appear below when she finishes the editing and adding titles.)

I’m writing my thoughts and opinions about the book review that Merissa and Autumn did on The Healing Spell, along with the one that Natyia and Melanie did on Scary Stories. I thought that they did a really good job for standing up in front of class and telling us about a book. A lot of people get really nervous talking in front of people. I found it more interesting than just reading a book report. All of them told about the plot and who the main characters were.

       After listening to both of their reports, it made me want read the books more. The Healing Spell was sad even though the girl’s mom comes out of the coma. In Scary Stories, it’s about many different scary stories and those are the type of stories I like to read. Thanks for doing the reports Merissa, Autumn, Natyia and Melanie. Great job!

--Matt B., guest blogger                            The Healing Spell Video

Autumn Poetry

We went for a walk outside the other day. We took notes on signs of autumn to use in a poem.  When we were finished we wrote poems.  We also drew pictures using oil pastels. This is my poem.



Autumn

Colored leaves loat

To the ground

As the windy days

grow on and on.

The trees are as

bare as a sheep

without a coat,

as the combines

do their work

combining all

fields and fields,

The leaves falling,

Winter now its growing.

--Krista


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Autumn leaves in oil pastel







Write Your Story Wiki

Yesterday our class did a very exciting online project called a progressive story. We got to add on to a paragraph which had already been written. It was very fun because some of the artists in the class got to even draw pictures with the story. Our writing paragraph was about three kids who go into space and one gets kidnapped by aliens and the other two try to find him and get back home! I was one of the artists, because one I love to draw, and two I thought it would be a really funny drawing to be apart of! Another thing was that if you weren’t drawing you could help Mrs. H. write the paragraph telling what the kids do. So everybody had a great time, and I think lots of classes should be able to have as much fun as we did during our progressive story!



--Jacob M

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Charlie, Ebonie, and Adela crash on Jupiter.

Write Your Story - Story 43  

Progressive Story

A progressive story is when you start a story and other people finish it. Today, Mrs. Hojnacki’s fifth grade class did progressive stories. We brainstormed a list of topics. Our topics were hunting, sports, kidnapped, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Halloween, spooky stories, and gator wrestling.

I chose gator wrestling. We wrote for 5 minutes.  Then we moved on to the next desk. The next student to sit at the seat read what was on the paper and then they wrote for another five minutes. We switched stories several times. The last writer was the first writer.  They finished the story and added a title.

Writing a progressive story is fun.  You don’t know what is going to happen in the story until you get back to your desk. We are going to do this again.  We are actually writing three of them online with other classes. Mrs. Hojnacki signed up for a Write Your Story.  We are working with three or four other classes on three of the stories.  We will draw progressive pictures to add to our stories.  We are the second or third writer for each story so we don’t get to finish or name any of them.  We like our stories better than the ones we are doing online.

Please check back to see our stories in this blog on Friday and after November 12.

--Gaven

Current Social Studies

         In social studies we are talking about Native Americans. We made drawings of all the Indian groups we studied. We have learned about the Indians of Northwest Coast, the Plains Indians, Eastern Woodlands Indians, the Southwest Indians, and the West Indians. We made a map of where all of them live. We had to color areas on a map to show the where they lived. We made a map key. Right now we are making a buffalo skin. First we got a big brown bag. Next we cut right down the seam where both pieces meet. Then we got it wet so it is easier to rip it. Then we crumbled it up and took it in to the bell lab. Mr. Koppelman drew a line where we are supposed to rip it. Last, we hang all of them to dry. We will use the “skin” to write a story about a buffalo hunt. I can’t wait to see what they look like.

-- Austin

Austin's Buffalo Hunt

Kylie's Buffalo (Find Michigan?)

Lunch Bunch

Yesterday I had a "lunch bunch" with Camille and Olivia. We read No Talking, by Andrew Clements.  A lunch bunch is where three or more people read the same book.  When we finish it, we talk to our teacher and schedule a lunch bunch.  That's when the kids eat lunch in the classroom instead of cafeteria.  The teacher asks us questions about the book such as; “What's your favorite character and why?”  It's a lot more fun than doing a book talk.  I love reading and talking.  If you're a kid and you like those things you should do a "Lunch Bunch."  You will need three or four students (make some friends) to join. This is part of our reading contract.  We need to do one each marking period, or we can do a book talk or written report.  Mrs. H. will have some other options for us next marking period. I can't wait!

- Kylie

Discussing Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Cabin Fever

Our Book Buddies

Our class reads to 2 kindergarten classes this year. When we read to them, it's called "Book Buddies." We visit Mrs. L. Mueller's class every Tuesday. We always bring a bucket of books to them so we have lots of choices of books. We each read to them for probably 20 minutes. Our other buddies are in Mrs. D. Mueller's class. We go to her class every Thursday. We read to them at the same time each week. We usually do a fun project with the buddies before we read.  First we stacked Oreos, then we made scarecrows.  This week we made spiders. We like to visit buddies because we spend time with them and we like to read with them.
                             We like Book Buddies!!

- Olivia

Welcome!

Welcome to our classroom blog.  We will be taking turns sharing our adventures in fifth grade with you. Hope you enjoy sharing in our learning.

Mrs. H and Class