We will now blog on Ning

We will use the blog on grade5iish.ning.com from now on..

March 4th, 2010

The students continued their research through books and the internet for UOI. They preparerd for the musical and technological presentations of the various civilizations in their groups. The Egyptian group created a website, the Roman civilization created a blog, the Aztec group scripted and enacted a play- which they recordede and converted into a movie, the chinese group created a wiki.

The students sketched characters for their story and explained in detasil about their appearance, background, personality and character traits.

2nd March

The children worked on the written presentation for Ancient Civilization. The Egyptians wrote and essay, the Aztecs made a booklet, the Chinese wrote a letter and the Chinese a chart.

Tomorrow they work will work on the technological and the Musical presentations for the ancient civilizations.

The children also designed the main character for the "My novel" project. They did an activity where they had to write a description of the main character and then ask a friend to draw the character as described. If the drawing and the writer's imagined character didn't match, he would add more details to the description.

27th Feb

We had a quiz on Fractions today. The children were divided into two teams. Questions were on the white board. One child from both the teams would simultaneously solve the problem given. The child who solves the problem first would earn points for his/her team. After a few rounds, we stopped the quiz (as some children had forgotten the topics taught earlier in fractions). Time was given to the teams to make sure all the team members are proficient with the concepts. The teams then broke themselves into pairs and gave some practice to each other. The children have also received some practice problems that can be solved at home.

In Language, the children continued with their 'My Novel' project. Today, they spent some time to select a genre and then describe the setting of the novel. They also re - iterated 'prepositions' through an interactive PowerPoint presentation.

The Inquiry groups in 'Ancient Civilizations' began the procedure of collecting facts for their presentations next week. The groups read books related to their own civilization and took notes in their UOI books. They have taken some books home to read over the week end and collect more facts.

HAPPY HOLI!!!

26th Feb

The day was well balanced for all the fifth graders. We looked into the influence that ancient civilizations have on us. We did this by doing a comparative study between the Indus Valley civilization and the Modern India. Each child made a Venn diagram individually and then all the ideas were put together as a single Venn diagram for the entire class. Picture included.

In math, along with discussing the previous day's work, the children got more practice for division of mixed fractions. Again, this was done in groups, according to the prior knowledge and understanding of the children.

We have begun a project in Language today: The children will create a novel of their own. They will go through the stages of this over the next couple of weeks. They began today by analyzing the different genres and identifying the ones that they would like to focus on.

Here is a video of the girls dancing to a Punjabi tune during the Dance class.

25th Feb

The highlight of the day was the children of grade 5 creating a Ning network : www.grade5iish@ning.com

All the children joined this network and learnt how to use it. We will be using this one to share any information, thoughts, ideas and opinions regarding the PYP Exhibition. I recommend all the parents also to join this one as their inputs are also very important!

The children did an activity on Etymology. They divided themselves into 6 groups. Many words were put in a jar. Each group was asked to pick a word and find the origin of that word. The group which solved the maximum words would win.

In math, the children learnt division of fractions. They watched a video and tried to solve it through pictures. They then learnt the mathematical way of solving it and solved some problems on the board.

The children were also divided into groups in UOI. Now that they have got a wholesome understanding of the Indus Valley Civilization, each group will research into the essential components of one other civilization. The other civilizations are: Egyptian, Roman, Aztec and Chinese Civilization. Next week each group will present their understanding through 3 media: Written, Musical and technological.

24th Feb

The Inquiry groups presented their knowledge about the Indus Valley Civilization through the different forms. The 'Culture' group did a role play, 'Systems' group a model, 'Inventions and Discoveries' a PowerPoint presentation and the 'Interesting facts' group did a Visual presentation (chart). The videos and pictures have been included.

The children also did some more practice with multiplying mixed fractions. Along with this, the children wrote a story of their choice. They did the planning by using a 'mountain story planner'. The children who needed help sat together to get their thoughts organized. The rest chose a spot inside or outside the classroom to do the writing. This was differentiation of the process through physical space.