LaDuca's Fifth Grade Class

Explore-it-All Robotics

2012-02-02T11:43:00.000-05:00

Explore-It-All's Robotic Learning Lab is a robotics program designed to enhance their understanding of how much science and engineering are interrelated. After exploring how robotic devices help NASA attain some of their space exploration goals, students engaged in both the Scientific Inquiry and Engineering Design Processes. Using a motorized modular construction system called Robotix, students worked through the hands-on design/build challenge, constructing a rover capable of accomplishing a given mission.

Picture Perfect

2012-02-02T11:31:00.000-05:00

The tiny lens for my school camera just wasn't cutting it...so, I HAD to purchase a 18-200mm lens to accommodate my photography needs. :)

A Room with a View

2012-02-01T11:50:00.000-05:00

What a beautiful autumn sight...right outside of our classroom window!

Engineers At Work

2012-02-01T11:39:00.000-05:00

Our fifth grade engineers dove into designing their Mars rover for our upcoming robotics program.

Student Government Association

2011-12-15T10:52:00.000-05:00

Congratulations to Crystal, Harrison and Kevin for being elected to participate in the SGA Final Elections! Their courageous effort and creative campaigns were an inspiration to us all!!

Bingo Night!

2011-12-02T17:10:00.000-05:00

B - 12, N - 54...thanks PTA for a fabulous night of B-I-N-G-O!

Building up energy prior to game time.

Protesting his departure.

Static Electricity

2011-12-02T16:59:00.000-05:00

Static Electricity: Forces can act on an object without anything touching the object.

Students worked in collaborative groups to test various ways to produce static electricity. By the conclusion of the experiment, students noticed three important facts:

Static electricity requires the rubbing of two surfaces.
Static charges are produced by the friction between two surfaces.
Objects are moved by a charged object without needing to touch the object.

The room was, shall we say, electric. There was a buzz of activity as students zapped each other, made hair stand on end, and made water bend!

Historical Fiction Presentations

2011-11-15T12:25:00.000-05:00

Students were challenged to conduct research to collect five historical facts and turn them into a historical fiction story. I was blown away by their enthusiasm and creativity! These stories were powerful, captivating, and very well written. They now adorn our bulletin board in the hallway.

Now, much to their dismay, there was a presentation component. These amazing stories deserved to be read aloud! Despite nerves, everyone shared their written word with confidence. I could not be more impressed! :)

Poetry

2011-11-07T14:23:00.000-05:00

What Can Poems Do?

Look at something in a fresh, new way
Tell a story
Send a message
Ask questions
Convey deep/serious thoughts
Capture and image
Express feelings
Play with words
Capture a surprising thought or clever idea

Students worked together to brainstorm what poems can do. They explored a variety of poetry collections and generated an enormous list of what they think poetry does (above is only a small summation). As evidenced by their insightful input, we will have an exciting journey through our poetry unit.

Happy Halloween!

2011-11-07T11:38:00.000-05:00

Thanks to our awesome parent volunteers, we had a spooktacular celebration! Festive decor, ghostly attire, frightfully delicious cupcakes, and ghoulish games made this Halloween party an absolute success!!

What's for Dinner?

2011-11-07T11:00:00.000-05:00

A delicious math lesson inspired students in Mrs. LaDuca's math class to be VERY active participants! In small groups, students combined their multiplication and division of decimals skills with their culinary expertise to create a meal (appetizer, main course, and...of course...dessert) to serve 28. Students were extremely creative and developed delectable cuisine...too bad it was only a ficticious dining experience!

Bieber Fever!

2011-11-07T10:36:00.000-05:00

Jane Goodall

2011-11-07T10:34:00.000-05:00

Melissa and Samantha had an extrodinary opportunity to meet Jane Goodall! This increadible woman has devoted her life to chimpanzee research. Accourding to JDI's webpage, "today, Jane’s work revolves around inspiring action on behalf of endangered species, particularly chimpanzees, and encouraging people to do their part to make the world a better place for people, animals, and the environment we all share." Thank you Melissa and Samantha for sharing your amazing experience with us!!

2011-11-07T10:24:00.000-05:00

Investigation: Friction and Mass

Testable Question: How does mass affect the force of friction?

Students worked in small groups to design an experiment that test their testable question. They predicted that if the amount of mass increases, then the force required for motion also increases.

Strathmore

2011-10-25T15:15:00.000-04:00

The wheels on the field trip bus go round and round. We loaded the buses and headed off to Strathmore to hear the National Philharmonic perform. We had a sensational time...you could say we had a "blast!" :)

Preparing to hike up a huge flight of stairs.

What a way to compliment the 1812 Overture!

Powerful Presentations

2011-10-25T15:03:00.000-04:00

They shook off the jitters, took command of the room and captivated their audience!

Click on the links below to view student presentations.

The New England Colonies - Group 1

The New England Colonies - Group 2

The Middle Colonies - Group 1

The Middle Colonies - Group 2

The Southern Colonies - Group 1

The Southern Colonies - Group 2

Notes AND Presentations!?!?

2011-10-21T10:23:00.000-04:00

First, students worked in small groups to take notes on their assigned historical colony. They pulled out important information from a textbook and translated it into their own words. Students became experts on their colony and presented their findings to the rest of the class. During presentations, the audience members had to take notes. Effective note taking and presentations are difficult tasks for fifth graders, but they did a stellar job!

Open House

2011-10-21T10:11:00.000-04:00

It's always exciting to invite parents into the classroom to experience fifth grade. We had so many parent visitors at Open House - thank you!! We even put them to work in math...a little introduction to our unit on decimals, fractions and percents.

Let's Get Physical

2011-10-21T09:54:00.000-04:00

Swish, dunk, goal! Talk about a sweaty group of fifth graders!! They were jumping, shooting, kicking and even doing push-ups in PE this week.

Whoa! Look at that hight!

Look at that form!

This is one skillful soccer star!

...and 100!

She's taking off!

Book Fair

2011-10-21T08:58:00.000-04:00

On our preview day of the Scholastic Book Fair, students were excited to fill up their wish lists...so was Mrs. LaDuca! :)

Oh, Bieber Fever!

Literature Circles

2011-10-07T16:27:00.006-04:00

Here's a virtual look at our literature circle groups. The students were attentive and engaged. They are genuinely excited about the books they are reading and effortlessly delve into deep discussion!

Click on the above links to view video clips from literature circle.

Sweet Treat

2011-10-07T15:55:00.001-04:00

To celebrate her birthday, Caroline brought in delicious Krispy Kreme doughnuts!

Happy Birthday! Thanks for sharing such a sweet treat!

Nothin' But Hog Music

2011-10-07T15:55:00.000-04:00

We used a series of picture books to discuss elements of a story, plot and theme. Students enjoyed reminiscing with old favorites like The Little Engine that Could.

Hi Kevin!

Force & Motion

2011-09-30T16:23:00.000-04:00

How does a force affect the motion of an object? Well, through experimentation we learned that if the force increases, then the distance a mass moves will also increase. We took this investigation to the hallway so that everyone could have a view of how far the container of sand traveled. Students measured the distance for three trials and then calculated mean. We also measured the amount of force that was applied to the rubber band using a spring scale. After data was collected students created a bar graph and wrote a conclusion that described the trend and correctly used the terms motion, force, mass, speed, and distance.

Note Taking

2011-09-30T15:49:00.000-04:00

In preparation for middle school, we tried our hand at note taking. We engaged in comparing the characteristics of fiction and nonfiction text. Students were not particularly keen on the preview to their future of taking notes, but valued the opportunity practice.

Putting on a show to express the pain of writting so much!

Lots of writing requires a sharpen pencil.

Slam Dunk

2011-09-30T14:53:00.000-04:00

A slam dunk contest ensued during dismissal. Um, we need practice...

Number the Stars

2011-09-30T14:45:00.002-04:00

We read the book Number the Stars by Lois Lowry as a whole group. Then we broke into smaller teams to carry out the various roles of a well run Literature Circle. Students took on the roles of Facilitator, Word Wizard, Questioner, Scene Setter, and Summarizer. The discourse between students was impressive! Though the story was heart wrenching, students remained engaged and were extremely active participants.

3 Mississippi, Drop

2011-09-30T14:23:00.001-04:00

We took science outdoors and conducted an experiment that compared Uniform vs. Variable motion. On our count, Ms. Pollinger dropped beanbags which provided us with a visual perspective of the two types of motion. Students put their math skills to work when they measured the distance between each beanbag...and were required to add...void a calculator! Once the numbers were calculated, students created a bar graph to display their data and wrote detailed conclusion that explained the difference between these two types of motion.

Taken moments after Kevin declared that "no one takes [his] picture." ;)

Snack Vice

2011-09-30T13:41:00.001-04:00

A stubbor snack cup called Harrison to action. He saw a friend in need and jumped to the rescue...with Mrs. LaDuca's help. ;) With some muscle (and a screwdriver) we freed the Ritz!

A thanksful Natalia enjoys her snack at last.

Writer's Notebook

2011-09-23T16:36:00.002-04:00

Our pencils are moving and our pages are turning because we've been putting Ralph Fletcher's ideas to use! Students have been using their writer's notebooks to live like a writer and to breathe in the world around them. They are writing about what amazes, surprises or angers them. They jot down the ideas that they wonder and notice. They plant "seeds" that eventually grow into stories and poems. They make lists and sketch. And, they reminisce through written word. Their writer's notebooks are a place for inspiration to create writing pieces that move their readers.

Rain, Rain

2011-09-23T16:24:00.000-04:00

...it's an indoor recess kind of day...

Mean Bean

2011-09-23T16:20:00.001-04:00

Courtesy of the pinto bean, students calculated mean, median and mode from their handfuls of beans.

We Like to Move it!

2011-09-23T15:54:00.000-04:00

Students used various objects to answer the testable question: How can I cause different types of motion? They got very creative in their pushing and pulling of objects. Students compared their moving object to a frame of reference, measured distance and calculated relative speed. They collected data and wrote a conclusion on how to create the three different types of motion - uniform, variable and periodic motion.

Netbooks

2011-09-22T16:25:00.002-04:00

Our technology bug didn't stop at using the LCD projector and ELMO, no way! Students wrote for personal expression to create a Biopoem that depicted themselves. They applied their understanding of poetry, organization, voice, word choice and conventions to generate a writing piece that accurately described them both personally and academically. We utilized both the computer lab as well as our new Netbooks to complete this writing activity.

Graphic

2011-09-22T16:12:00.001-04:00

We were sure to put our new technology to use right away! Students in math worked as teams to analyze data and create bar graphs to feature their research findings. They used the ELMO to aid in teaching their peers. And despite some initial jitters and stage fright, everyone remained poised and confident during their presentation.

Welcome Fifth Graders!

2011-09-21T14:51:00.004-04:00

Our vacations are over, our bags are unpacked from camp, we've purchased our school supplies, and we're getting used to the notion of becoming a fifth grader. We have now entered our final year of elementary school!

Even though I hate to see summer go, I am THRILLED to start a new school year. Welcome 2011-2012 LaDuca students and families! I am so grateful to have such a dynamic group of students who are thoughtful, caring and eager to learn. Get ready for an incredible journey!