On Wednesday, January 11th, the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grade students gathered in the library for the annual school wide Geography Bee. The winner of the Bee was 7th grader Max. Max will take a test to see if he qualifies for the statewide Geography Bee, which will be held in May. 5th grader, Mary came in 2nd place and 6th grader, Delaney came in third. Other students who represented their class were Jonathan and Rachael in 8th grade, Paul in 7th grade, Maria in 6th grade and Gianna in 5th grade. These students all answered 5 or more questions correctly in the classroom round in which each student is asked 7 questions. Alternates included Ben , TJ , Alex M., Kailey , Ian, Colin and Danny.

43,252,003,274,489,856,000 is the number of possible arrangements of the Rubik’s Cube, so a solution requires an algorithm, or a sequence of procedures. The fifth graders in Mrs. Haseltine’s math class started this project as an entertaining way to practice reading and following written directions. The students were not expected to memorize the moves, but just to be able to follow the sequences carefully to produce the desired results. Mr. Mitchell prepared a video of one of the early practice sessions.

Invented in 1974 by Ernö Rubik, a Hungarian architect who wanted a working model to demonstrate three-dimensional geometry, the Rubik’s Cube became the world’s best selling toy. National and international ’speedcubing’ championships have been held regularly since 2003. The World Cube Association now runs competitions where players have to solve the Cube one-handed, as well as having to solve the Cube using only your feet. There is even a competition where players have to solve the Cube as quickly as possible blindfolded!

Scrambling the Rubik's Cubes

As demonstrated at assembly, it takes our fifth-graders between one and eight minutes to solve the cube. The current world record is 5.66 seconds! You can watch the video of this amazing feat here.

While the original purpose was to practice understanding and following sequential instructions, this activity proved valuable in other ways. In order to be successful, the students needed to be focused and attentive. They demonstrated persistence and determination, and strengthened their visual memory and pattern recognition skills. They are quite proud of their accomplishment and eager to demonstrate their skills.

Want to learn how to solve the cube? You can download the instructions here.

Fifth grade has been studying classroom object vocabulary.  Students went on a scavenger hunt using the labels in the Spanish classroom to find objects such as “el estante” (shelf), “la ventana” (window), and “el pupitre”(desk).  Afterwards, they created drawings of their ideal classroom — and several of them drew our Spanish room!  They labeled the common classroom objects and then applied numbers and expressions of quantity that we learned in our alien project to describe on the back how many of each object there were.  Have a wonderful vacation fifth grade and see you next year!

Using a book published by the current fourth and fifth graders in the spring of 2011, A Field Guide to Animals, fifth grade science students developed food webs of the campus ecosystem. Given only pre-made cards, each one labeled with an animal that  has been observed on our campus at one time, and some poster boards, the students were then asked to develop a food web. This was the only direction given before the investigation. The students immediately got down to business. Over the course of three days, and much discussion, the students finalized their webs. Very few, if any, suggestions were given by the teacher. The students’ background knowledge and research skills were the only tools they had. The purpose was for students to come to the conclusion that energy flows from one organism to another in a food web, and that within one food web there are many food chains. The students then presented their investigations. As the students worked, many of their statements were recorded and hang beside their finished webs outside 5A’s homeroom.

The fifth grade has been working on a project that will adorn the walls of the castle that decorates the gym for our Winter Festival. They are creating beautiful “stained glass” windows out of plastic and tissue paper. We looked at images of mythological creatures that were popular subjects during the Middle Ages. The students chose to either do a drawing based on that, or another Winter or holiday theme. Starting with a sketch, the students traced their image onto a piece of plastic sheeting and then painted the back with tempera. This reverse-painting method creates clean lines and shining colors to help give the illusion of glass. Then they glued tissue paper behind the painting to complete the effect of different colored panes of glass. The finished windows will be mounted in a black frame that has a signature pointed top, characteristic of the Medieval style. Be sure to check out the windows when they are on display during the Winter Festival, and check back to see the finished projects posted online.

The 5th grade class in  the spirit of the Thanksgiving holiday continued to remember our furry friends! Since many of them are very passionate about the care and well being of our animals, we once again did something for a local Humane Society.  With the help of Chef Dave, Chef Peter and the generosity of Mrs. Proto, we mixed, shaped and baked dozens of gator and bone biscuits. The treats were brought to the Westport Humane Society where they were accepted with much gratitude and the wagging of tails. What a great way for our students to show their concern for others and demonstrate their personal best! Bravo!

Students have been working on a great project in music class!  First students had to show their knowledge of basic music composition by writing 12 measures of music in 4/4 time.  After this, they then assigned each note value a dance move.  For example, a quarter note (a note which receives one beat) would be a one beat stomp.  Every time they would read a quarter note in their composition they would have to do the correlating step.  This was a fantastic way for students to understand different rhythmic values by “playing” the music with their dances!

November 2 saw the celebration of Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, in the Spanish world.  Students were fascinated to learn that this is a day of celebrating life and family rather than a day of mourning.  They  admired the (offerings) of fruit, pictures, and painting supplies that their Upper School peers gathered in keeping with the tradition of setting up “shrines” to welcome the souls of deceased loved ones.  By the end of class, students were embracing the idea of celebrating life even in death.  Some took the culture very much to heart and made plans to celebrate the lives of friends whom they missed.  It was wonderful to see them critically thinking about and embracing a tradition different from their own.

To begin the life science unit on ecosystems, fifth graders conducted an investigation of the local environment. Heading out to the area along the fence that leads into the woods beyond the playground, students were armed with aluminum pans, trowels, hand rakes, hand lenses and toothpicks to sift through piles of dirt.

What they found as we got closer to the area were square meter trisects scattered and placed on the ground. After predicting what living organisms and nonliving things they might find in the space of a square meter, they made three separate observations: one of the ground undisturbed, the second of leaves and twigs moved out of the way for observation of what was beneath and third of  they dirt scooped from the square and placed in the aluminum pan and sifted through to see what they would find. Students observed living organisms interacting with each other and the environment,  and they also found many nonliving things.  Students will use some of the data collected to make a food chain of species found in our local environment. Well done, 5th grade scientists!

It’s hard to imagine, but thousands of years ago man had the same inexplicable desire to create and express his view of the world that artists do today. The oldest known murals and carvings are found in the Lascaux caves in France and date back to 17,000 years ago. The artwork was nearly destroyed due to an invasion of algae and bacteria carried into the caves by the thousands of visitors who flocked to the site soon after its discovery in 1940. Prehistoric art is a fascinating glimpse into the lives of our early ancestors, who painted surprisingly detailed scenes of daily life including life-sized versions of the animals they hunted for survival. The fifth graders learned about Lascaux and viewed some of the rare and inaccessible images inside the cave. We then worked on a project replicating the painting and carving techniques. The students etched images telling a story of their imagined ancestors including where they lived, what they ate, and how they dressed. We learned about simple ways to express forms and shapes. Students then carved a rubber stamp and printed a repeating symbol around the outside of their “rock wall.” Chalk was used to dirty up the paper and give the impression of age. The finished etchings and prints were combined to complete the project. Check out the students’ work below, and see if you can imagine what life might have been like for our prehistoric ancestors.