Room 283 Winter News
Happy New Year!
Winter Wear
By Evelyn
Kindness
By Chris L and Jeevan
Math
By Lydia
Social Studies
By Christina and Shelley
In Social Studies, we are learning about the Age of Exploration and the native groups before them living in Central and South America. We’ll start with the native groups.
The native groups before the conquistadors were the Aztec, Maya, and Inca. They were all very advanced in astronomy, architecture, and mathematics. The earliest - the Maya - lasted from about 600 B.C.E to 900 C.E, the Aztecs came much later and were around from 1428 C.E to 1521 C.E, and the Inca lasted from 1438 C.E to 1532 C.E.
But eventually, all these empires ended up disappearing - but why? The answer is in one of history’s most important events: the great Age of Exploration.
It started when countries wanted to find faster routes to Asia so they could trade for silk, spices and other exotic goods that they could sell back in their home countries and get rich from. When a ‘smaller world’ theory became the new hot topic in the Old World, Columbus investigated this and decided to set sail, expecting to land in Japan - accidentally discovering the Americas. The rest of the Age of Exploration eventually evolved into the colonization of many New World countries by other countries like France, England and Spain. Fragments of their cultures - like New Orleans with its French history, and the Southwestern region with its Spanish influence- still remain today in several parts of the United States. But after this fascinating topic, there will be more to read in our next newsletter. Have a great holiday season!
Writing
By Katie and Lera
Word Study
By Stella and Tamar
Art
In art, we are now making portraits out of one color, but with different shades. Leading up to this, we have been preparing for this project for several weeks, doing many different projects that practice mixing white and black to a color to make different shades of black, grays, whites, as well as our portrait colors, such as a project made out of black, gray lines, and a strip with a color in 6 different shades. Additionally, to go along with our portraits, we have been making poems describing the color we chose for them. Finally, for the sketch-book, last month a close up item on the table, done in the style of cubism was due.
Spaghetti Supper
By Adi and Sally
Munching on the meatballs and scooping up spaghetti, you slurp can slurp it all up! Come to the Spaghetti Supper for a lot of fun! Spaghetti Supper is a exciting night where all the 5th graders serve food to their parents and other customers. This annual Fiske event is held at Fiske Elementary School, Lexington, MA. This year the Spaghetti Supper is going to be held on Thursday, January 25 2018, and
Mrs.McMahon’s class (our class) is going to be serving at 6:45. There is not only going to be a dinner, but there is also going to be raffle for an Alexa and Amazon Echo. We, all the 5th graders at Fiske Elementary School are excited and hope everyone can come to this spectacular event!
Chorus
By Chris Y
Library
By Andy
Student Council
By Marcus and Ramaiza
So far, we have had 3 student council meetings. Our first project was donating some of our leftover halloween to veterans who have served for our country. For the second project, the 5th grade students made coloring pages and we made two coloring books to send to nursing homes. For the ongoing project right now, all of the grades will be donating school supplies to kids in Puerto Rico. Student Council has been a great experience and I think that all twelve members are learning to be better leaders and make our school the best it can be.
Bookopolis
Bookopolis.com is a great and fun way to record and review books with your friends. Our class has had a lot of ideas about what books to read because we recommend books each other on Bookopolis. On Bookopolis, we can also write book reports or reviews, and we can keep track of the books we have read and are reading . Our class enjoys Bookopolis.