Books and Secret Friends

This week we did a secret friend activity where each student was paired with another (in secret) and did nice things for their friend all week. It worked really well except that there was some confusion with the two Emily's and one got lots of attention and the other got very little (sorry, Emily O!).  We will try again in a couple of weeks. I was very impressed by the way the class stepped up to give thoughtful gifts, compliments and clues, and how everyone treated each other.  Hooray!

After our Read-a-thon on Friday (in honor of the late, great Theodor Geisel's Birthday), we came up with a list of books that the Leverett Fifth Graders recommend to one another and other upper elementary aged students:

The list, in no particular order is....

Emma Jean Lazarus (two books by Lauren Tarshis, who visited our school last month)

Star Girl, Crash, and other Jerry Spinelli books

The Missing (two recommendations)

Lost Hero series

The Ranger's Apprentice books

The Hunger Games (x3 books and x3 recommendations)

Scat and other Carl Hiaasen books

Prince of Mist

Out of My Mind (several recommendations for this MCBA book)

Wonder (3 recommendations)

The Unwanteds, the Island of Silence

The Penderwicks (trilogy) (3 recommendations)

Holes

The Warriors

Wings of Fire series

Harry Potter series

The Whisperer/The Roar

Artemis Fowl series

Redwall series

Peanut

Kane Chronicles

Heroes of Olympus

Lions of Little Rock

False Prince

Paint the Wind

Tale of Despereaux (or any book by Kate DiCamillo)

Percy Jackson series

Heads or Tails

Mistmantle

Planet Tad

Bud Not Buddy or any book by Christopher Paul Curtis

Diary of Anne Frank

My Side of the Mountain

Summer of the Gypsy Moths (MCBA)

Jake and Lily (MCBA)

Three Times Lucky

Happy reading everyone!

Cycles

We are studying the Carbon/Oxygen cycle, the Nitrogen cycle, and the water cycle in science. We have been testing the water quality of our Brook Trouts for Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates, and pH too.  So far the fish are doing well. They have visible fins and are very actively eating.

 In the experiment, we added drops of Bromothymol blue solution to water, added CO2 with our breath, and watched the solution turn pale yellow as the Carbon Dioxide entered the water!

All that was missing was elodea, a water plant that is no longer sold in stores (for it is an invasive species). The original idea was to let the plants' photosynthesis turn the water blue again. It hasn't worked too well in the past, and it is about as exciting as watching paint dry, so we just stayed with the immediate reaction of  adding CO2 to the water and watching it change color.

Endangered Species Reports

Our newly published reports are now available to read on-line! Thanks to Karin Gravina for exporting the reports.  There was also a great article on the Fifth Grade TED Talks in this week's Montague Reporter.
Enjoy the link!
http://leverettschool.edublogs.org/2014/01/31/grade-5-endangered-species-ted-talks/

Photo from our Website Publication Celebration 

(Will and Emily C. not pictured)

Mickey Novak's visit!

Our endangered species books are on display in the school library and as part of our wrap-up of this unit we invited Mickey Novak from US Fish and Wildlife to share his expertise.  He brought with him some extremely valuable and deeply tragic items to share with us. With the help of the fifth graders he carted in two bags and one box containing over a quarter of a million dollars worth of confiscated items made from rare and endangered animals that people had attempted to smuggle into the  United States.  Although the items were worth about as much as a house, they would have been worth much more if they had stayed attached to or covering the animal from which they were taken.  Here are some photos of our visit:

A Question for Mickey about Endangered Species

 White Cobra Skin Boots

 Reticulated Python Skin... 5.3m, or 18 feet long!

 Hawksbill Tortoise, Stuffed

 Ocelot Pelt

 African Dwarf Crocodile Handbag

Zach About to Choose an Item from the Bag

Ocelot

Hawksbill Tortoise

 Bear Gall Bladder Medicine(?)

 Hartmann's Mountain Zebra Pelt

 Carved Tusk, Valued at $100,000... but what price for the life of an elephant?

 Close up of White Cobra Boot

 Walrus Tusk and Crocodile Handbag

Medicine Made of Ground Tiger Bone

Who knows...?

Dissecting Owl Pellets
As part of our unit on endangered species, we are dissecting owl pellets to get a sense of what sorts of animals live in the owls' ecosystem. By examining the teeth of the animals, we are able to make inferences about what the owls' prey ate too.
Monday, January 27 from 2-3:00 we will be displaying our books on endangered species and giving oral presentations inspired by TED Talks. The format will be somewhat of an Open House, with visitors able to view the books and listen to the talks.  Join us if you can!
Tuesday, January 28 from 1-2:00 we will have a guest speaker from US Fish and Wildlife, Mickey Novak, who will be bringing samples of confiscated items made from endangered species.  Buyer Beware!

Owl pellets dissection:

Endangered Species and Mad Science

We are deep in our research for our endangered species reports and presentations. We will be publishing books with photographs of the species we studied plus giving TED-style talks on the species. We will film the talks and publish them on-line, with a link to the reports. Look for a celebration and TED-talk invitation next week.
If you would like to check out a sample TED Talk, follow the link to TED Under 20. We watched and were inspired by #5, by Richard Turere: My invention that made peace with lions

http://www.ted.com/playlists/129/ted_under_20.html

And for some Mad Science pix....

We were investigating the insulating properties of blubber by plunging our hands into a very frigid mix of water, ice and snow. Mother Nature obliged by making the outside temperatures in the single digits and providing lots of fresh snow.  One hand got a layer of vegetable fat to insulate it and the other was uninsulated. We recorded the difference in the way the hands felt after thirty seconds and one minute.  Some lasted a minute and a half, and in the interest of frostbite prevention, we stopped there!

Our publication celebration:  Students read their narratives to an appreciative audience of the principal, teachers, parents, peers, and siblings.

We also learned today that our websites were accepted by Information Design Systems (IDS) as examples of high quality upper elementary school work. December 6 was quite a day for the LES Fifth Grade!

Then it was back to the Art/Science room for a celebration!  Thank you parents for bringing delicious food and drink!