Grade 5 Research Links

Hello Grade 5 students.
Today you are going to do some quick scientific research for me using the Internet.
I want you to find out as much as you can about:

1) The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus

or

2) The dangers of Di-Hydrogen Monoxide

I have given you one link for each topic. Please find other links to support your research on the topic.

Keep notes of your findings using Microsoft Word or SmartIdeas.
We will print off your research and share it at the end of class.

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Halloween Safety

As part of our grade 1 and 2 Health (
Safety) and Social Studies (Traditions and Celebrations) classes, today my class and I discussed Halloween Safety Rules. Here are some of the sites and games I used.

Halloween Safety Video:

Billy Brings His Buddies: Halloween Matching Game

Halloween Safety Game  This one has some great tips but there is alot of reading.  It is probably more suitable for grade 3 up.

Pumpkin Carving Game 

PBS Games

We Got an Email… From the International Space Station

 

Last month Mr. McGaughey wrote a song entitled: Countdown, The Ballad of Chris Hadfield. He teaches music and science to Ms. Graham’s grade 3 class and they asked to record it with him to send to Chris Hadfield.

Listen to the song on Soundcloud

or watch it on Youtube 

Lyrics:

Countdown: The Ballad of Chris Hadfield
Sean McGaughey © Feb 8, 2013
Key of G- 6/8 time moderate to brisk tempo

Growing up on the farm, Chris Hadfield would dream,
of soaring around in a flying machine.
As a boy Chris resolved that he would try
to go out and make his mark in the sky
As a scientist, pilot and astronaut
Chris still made music and never forgot
As he and his brothers would play their guitars,
His dream of bringing his songs to the stars,

He’s the first folksinger in space
Singing tunes far above the whole human race
He takes pictures and tweets as he orbits around
picking at 23 times speed of sound.

A Canadian proud who has travelled the world,
He takes time to tell all the young boys and girls,
To dream their own journeys beyond what we know
And make a bright future wherever they go.

He’s the first folksinger in space
Singing tunes far above the whole human race
He takes pictures and tweets he orbits around
picking at 23 times speed of sound.

When we finished the recording, the children also had a bunch of questions for Chris Hadfield. We emailed these questions to Chris.

April 5, 2013
Hello Commander Hadfield:
My name is Sean McGaughey. I’m an elementary school teacher at Bayview Public School in Midland Ontario and a singer songwriter. Last month I wrote a song entitled: Countdown, The Ballad of Chris Hadfield. I teach music and science to Ms. Graham’s grade 3 class and they asked to record it with me to send to you.
The students also had some questions for you.

  1. How do you deal with homesickness on the space station?
  2. Do you ever get annoyed being around the same people all the time?
  3. What is it like to wear a space suit?
  4. Have you recorded any kid’s songs in space?

 

Thank you for inspiring all of us. We hope you enjoy our song.

Sean McGaughey and Ms. Graham’s Grade 3 class

On April 9, we received this response from Commander Hadfield on the International Space station.

Chris Hadfield

Dear Sean and Bayview students:

Thanks for the song! I love it! That was really nice of you to write and sing it, and send it to me. And it turns out I CAN play G in zero G.

Answers for the questions:

  1. I talk with my family almost every day, and email too, so I don’t feel so far away.
  2. The only time I get annoyed is with myself. The other people are working hard and doing as well as they can, always.
  3. Space suits are very uncomfortable, stiff and bulky, like a snow suit combined with hockey gear and metal pieces. But really they’re a 1-person spaceship, so they have to be that way.
  4. Yes, I wrote and recorded a space lullaby for my daughter. It came out very pretty, and so did she.

Take care, make a point of learning and understanding things

Best from ISS!

Chris

Wednesday December 14

Tomorrow, the juniors and I will be going to Codrington school in Barrie for the Junior Math Road Rally. We will be leaving the school at 9 am and returning in time for the buses at 3:15.

The intermediates will be with Ms. Young all Day.

Work on:

1)  Read up to the end of Stave 3 in A Christmas Carol.

2) Work on your Christmas Carol Package.  –  Take some time to work on your Victorian Christmas Story.

3) Math:  Work on your Fractions worksheets.  (Chase- finish your algebra test and fractions pretest).

Have a good day.

A Christmas Carol

This December, my intermediate students and I are reading,  A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

Here are links to the Librivox audiobook of A Christmas Carol (dramatic reading)

The Gingerbread Man

Gingerbread Man As part of our Shrek unit, this week my grade 5-6 students read two different versions of the Gingerbread Man.
1) The Little Gingerbread Man, By George H. Putnham (1910)
Librivox has a free audio version.
2)The Gingerbread Man, from Sara Cone Bryant: Stories to Tell Children .
Librivox has a free audio version.

Your assignment due Monday November 7, is:

  1. Write a summary retelling of one of the two versions of the story.
  2. Write 1-3 paragraphs comparing the similarities and differences between the two versions of the story and explaining which one is your favorite.
  3. Use pencil crayons to draw a scene from the story.

We will have our literature circle discussion on Monday November 7.

You can read both of the stories after the break.
Continue reading

Wordles from RUN by Eric Walters

We have been reading Run by Eric Walters as a class novel. It is the story about a boy, Winston MacDonald Jr., who travels with his reporter father to meet with Terry Fox early during his cross Canada run. This week my students used Wordle to make word describing the main characters in the story.

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The Spyglass

At our school,we are having a play called The Spyglass. It takes place in the Medieval age. There are lots of parts in it such as the Jester, the King and the strange old man. I am in the play. I do not know what part I have, but I hope I am either the Jester, the servant or the Farmer. The play will be sometime in the spring. I hope it is very good!

What I did for Christmas

This Christmas I went to the Skyline Inn in Niagara Falls. We were in room 1702. The hotel had a a walkway to the Fallsview indoor water park. The water park had 8 slides, a wave pool and an outdoor heated pool. The outdoor pool had six basketball hoops. On one of the slides, you dropped six stories almost straight down. We stayed there from December 23 until Christmas. On Christmas we went to my Grandpa’s house to stay for the night.We also went to the Mandarin which is a huge buffet. On boxing day we went home and that is what I did for Christmas.