A big thank you to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and our Snowgoose teachers John and Molly! What a great learning experience for all of our students.
Over the past two days our students went on a fantastic field trip run by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. On their boat, the Snowgoose, students explored the Patapsco River. We learned about the problems affecting this ecosystem, and learned how this ecosystem directly impacts the Chesapeake Bay watershed and the surrounding ecosystems. Students explored the river for evidence of biodiversity and conducted many water quality tests. We tested the water for dissolved oxygen levels and salinity levels. We also got to use a secci disk to see how clear the water was. We dredged for oysters and learned why oysters are such an integral part to the ecosystem. Ask your child about the trip tonight...I'm sure they will be full of facts to share with you! A big thank you to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and our Snowgoose teachers John and Molly! What a great learning experience for all of our students.
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In social studies we have been learning about colonial America. We spent some time learning about the lost colony of Roanoke and now we have moved onto the Jamestown Colony. Students here are acting out a scene in the "Jamestown Colony". Students wrote their scripts and practiced their lines. They helped make the scene come alive as they were interviewed by a news reporter asking how life was like in the Jamestown Colony.
We had an excellent time visiting all the boats in the Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race today! Students got to explore 4-5 different schooner-rigged vessels and learned about the science of sailing. On some vessels, students learned how to raise a sail and on others students explored what it is like to live on one of these boats. A HUGE thank you goes out to the volunteers who organized this day and all of the participating boats! Our students got a lot out of their visit. We wish you all good luck in the race! In social studies class our students have been working in groups to research European Explorers. They have spent a lot of time creating explorer summaries, portraits, flags, and a map of their explorer's route. Today some of the groups presented their projects to the rest of the class. I am really proud of all of their hard work. Ask your child tonight which explorer they researched...you will be impressed with all that they have learned! Yesterday we had a great field trip exploring the beach and the bay on Assateague Island National Seashore. We arrived to the Assateague Island visitor center where we explored the touch tanks, looked at the aquariums, and saw a movie about the park's most famous resident--the wild horses. Then, the park rangers took us to the ocean side as well as the bay side to explore. Students learned how organisms adapt to these unique environments. On the beach, students practiced living the life of a ghost crab...they had to be careful to not get caught by the gulls. We learned how the organisms of these habitats depend on one another for survival. Over on the bay side, students were able to go micro-fishing with small nets to see what they could find. Students found many comb jellies, shrimp, and other forms of plankton! Our park ranger helped us understand how all of these forms of plankton sustain the other larger organisms in the bay food web. Hope your child shared with you all of the great experiences we had on our trip. Check out some of our pictures below: Tonight all students should be bringing home the "Accessing the Parent Portal" sheet. This form was handed out in all classrooms and it provides your child's specific login information for the parent portal. Here you can check your child's grades in each of their classes and see if they are missing any of their assignments. Thanks so much for supporting your child at home! Today 5th Grade had a great first field trip attending Young Defenders Day at Fort McHenry! Here we learned what life was like during the War of 1812 and discussed the involvement of Patterson Park in the Battle of Baltimore. Students traveled to different stations set up around the Fort. Here we saw War of 1812 reenacters, watched and heard a cannon being set off, listened to songs that were sung during this time period, and got to explore the inside and outside of the Fort! We also got to unfold and hold a replica of the American Flag that was flying over Ft. McHenry during the War of 1812. Students got to share their knowledge with the Park Rangers as they discussed who made the flag, and who was inspired by this flag to write the national anthem. Quiz your children tonight to see if they remember! I hope your child shared some of the exciting activities we did today, they sure seemed to have a great time.
Check out the pictures below from our trip: Today we analyzed the results from our experiment! In all classes we found that the celery with all of its leaves absorbed the most amount of water. There was little difference between the amount of absorbed water between the piece of celery with one leaf and the piece of celery with no leaves. After that, we cut the celery into pieces and got to observe and touch the xylem tissue that moves the water throughout the celery! Students added today's findings to their lab report where they drafted conclusions and analyzed what the results tell us about vascular plants in general.
Many students were asking if they could try this experiment again at home. All you need is 3 stalks of celery, some water, and food coloring. Your child should remember the procedure. Have fun investigating! In our life science unit, students have been learning about the structures of plants. Today we set up an experiment to look more closely at the vascular tissue in plants. We are trying to figure out if the amount of leaves on a particular plant changes the amount of water the plant absorbs. We set up our experiment using three pieces of celery: one with all of its leaves, one with one leaf, and one with no leaves. Today students created their hypothesis and helped set up the experiment. Tomorrow, we will analyze the results!
Karon swimming back to his table with a new artifact to analyze.
Today was our second day in our Social Studies unit on the “Age of Discovery.” Today students learned about several factors that led to the exploration of the Americas. We began by reading a story about Christopher Columbus. Then, we “excavated” a sunken explorer ship in our classroom to analyze a variety of artifacts. Students analyzed these artifacts to determine what they were, why they would be in a sunken ship, and drew conclusions about what these artifacts reveal about European motives for exploration. Students had a lot of fun diving and “swimming” to the bottom of our sunken ship to retrieve the artifacts. |
Welcome to the 5th Grade Blog!
This blog is dedicated to the fifth grade at Patterson Park Public Charter School in Baltimore, MD. Our hope is that this blog will keep students, parents, and anyone else interested up to date with all that we have going on during the school year. Let us know what you think! Archives
September 2015
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