Weekly Blurb -- Week Ending Feb 26

HUMANITIES
There are always so many things that seem to go on at once in our Humanities class. On the Social Studies side, we are continuing to look at America’s march towards freedom. This week, we looked at the documents that stated the nation’s intention to be free – The Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Freedom.

As we did that, we weren’t ashamed to pick a fight. The class revisited the work we did on debates before the break to stage their own debate on the topic “Should America go to War.” Student groups needed to prepare an opening statement, rebuttal and closing argument.

As if that wasn’t enough, we are also writing an essay that will go into this academic term’s yearbook. The theme for the yearbook is “Dreams,” and grade five students needed to write an essay following the topic “Dreaming of the Day I’m …” Entries to date have been quite creative, but I want to know how some of these 22 year olds are managing to pull off being a millionaire. We’ve had to temper some dreams with a dose of reality about entry level positions and salaries in your twenties, but the exercise should be something fun for students to look back on when they crack open their yearbooks somewhere down the line.

MATH
Work continues in fractions. We’ve simplified them, compared them, found their equivalents and even turned them into decimals. Our quiz on this foundation work was this Friday. Next week we’ll start to add and subtract.

SCIENCE
We just wrapped up our latest unit, Matter and Energy. Students had their quiz on the material that we have studied all this block on Thursday. On Tuesday, we started to talk about our next unit, Populations and Ecosystems. We learned what an ecosystem is, and students even made some observations of the eco-system they live in.
EXTRA
On a personal note, I want to say that it has been a pleasure teaching grade five this year. I am sad to leave students in the middle of the great learning and progress that is happening. I think I have been fortunate to have a class full of motivated students who truly want to learn. I can easily say that this has been my best year yet in the teaching profession.

Officially, I will be teaching the class until Wednesday. I feel very positive about leaving the class to Ms. Fletcher’s care. The students are lucky that they will have a teacher who will have a seamless transition into the school and already knows the students.

I plan to keep in touch with the students during the year, and I encourage them and you to reach out and say hello, too. My personal email is ginamlnyc@gmail.com.

All the best,
Gina Larson-Stoller