All About Galileo

We finished reading Galileo's Journal 1609-1610 today.  Here are some of the things we learned.

Galileo was a very smart guy and he figured out that the planets did not revolve around the Earth. All of the planets revolve around the sun.  ~Jordan

Galileo was not the first one to discover the spyglass.   Galileo discovered that there are four moons that revolve around Jupiter. ~ Konner

Galileo used sketches to draft what he was going to make (the telescope) and what he saw in the sky.  ~Desirae

For a long time Galileo was observing the night sky.  ~Rielynn

Galileo made the spyglass to look at Jupiter.  He noticed how many moons there were.  There were four.  ~Dalton


We ask questions while we are reading and later we may use them for an inquiry project.  These are some of the questions we came up with today:

1. When was the Milky Way discovered?  Galileo mentioned it in his journal and we want to know if he would have known about the Milky Way in 1609.
2. Do people live on moons?
3. How do the planets, the sun, and the moons revolve around things?
4. Why do other planets have more than one moon and some do not have any?
5. How do they make feather pens and when were the kind of pens that we use today invented?
6. Did they celebrate New Year's in Italy in 1610 with firecrackers?

Galileo, So Much More than a Lute Player and Circle Graphs

Reading
Today we read half of a story about Galileo.  Actually, we are reading pretend journal entries.  The author of the journal entries said that this is what Galileo may have written based on what historians know about him.  We found out that though he was not the first person to make a telescope, he discovered how to make one more powerful.  We also discovered that he played a lute.  That brought about questions on what kind of instrument is a lute.  We talked about how good readers ask questions while they are reading like, "What is a lute?"  I told students I would post a picture of a lute on the blog.

Tomorrow, the students will write more about Galileo, but I promised them I would put a picture of a lute on the blog.


Writing
In writing we read a book about Similes. The whole fifth grade is writing similes about their family members.  Students are to choose four family members and think about traits that describe those family members.  We will then write similes for each of those traits and draw a picture of each person.  I think we are very excited about this project!  One could even say that we will be as busy as a beavers when we work on these.

Math
Today we learned about circle graphs, and we used a percent circle on our math templates to measure the percentages of areas on a circle graph.  Under the fraction tab at the top of the blog site I have a link to a circle graph maker.  You can make up data and then have it graph the data for you.

Our Literacy Inquiry Projects

Great readers ask questions while they are reading. We write our questions down and then choose one to research and share the answer in one form or another. For this project, we chose to share our findings using Animoto. We've created these videos, which was frustrating, because you are only allowed 52 characters per slide. (Kind of like a tweet or a text---you're limited in what you can say.)

Below you will find the answers to several of our questions.

The first Animoto video answers Jordan and Desirae's question, which was "How Much Would I Weigh on Another Planet?"

The second Animoto video tells us all about the advantages of using robots, and it is by Dalton.

The third Animoto video shares the temperatures of the planets and why the temperatures vary. It is by Konner and Rielynn.

Fractions Are Harder than Decimals or Decimals Are Harder than Fractions?

The title of today's entry reflects our study of comparatives and superlatives in Literacy class. Comparatives and superlative adjectives are used to compare things.

Comparative adjectives compare two things. If the adjective is one syllable, then you add -er to the end of the word. If the adjective is more than one syllable you put the words more or less before the adjective.

Superlative adjectives compare three or more things. If the adjective is one syllable, then you add -est to the end of the word. If the adjective is more than one syllable you put the words most or least before the adjective.

Examples:
Adjective: tall (one syllable)
Mrs. Hartberg is taller than Mrs. Sorenson. (comparative)
Mrs. Hartberg is the tallest in the class. (superlative)

Mrs. Hartberg is tall.
(This sentence doesn't compare anything, so we don't add an ending or a word.)

Adjective: interesting (more than one syllable)
Some say science is more interesting than recess. (comparative)
Some say reading is the most interesting subject during the school day. (superlative)

Science is interesting. (This sentence doesn't compare anything, so we don't add an ending or a word.)

In other literacy news: We took our Unit 4 week 2 spelling test today. Ask your child how he/she did.

We read more about the moon. You may want to ask why footprints don't disappear from the moon's surface or what is the real shape of the moon. (Hint: It's not the shape you think it is!)

If you want to read what we've been reading, go to the Lead 21 link found on the left side of the page and have your child login. All of our readings can be accessed online.

Students can practice their vocabulary cards for Unit 4. This can be done nightly!

MATH
We reviewed equivalent fractions in math today by playing Fraction Bingo. We also worked on renaming "easy" fractions as decimals by using a chart. Students made flashcards of fractions and their decimal equivalents such as 1/4, 2/4, 3/4, 1/3, 2/3, 3/12, 4/12, 8/12, 9/12, 1/2, 2/4, 3/6, 4/8, and 5/10, so they can memorize them at home.

Please look under the fraction tab above to find games to play to reinforce the concepts we are learning at school.

Tonight's homework: practice fraction/decimal flashcards.

Patterns in the Sky

Our current reading unit is called Patterns in the Sky. The cover of this unit reads, "We will summarize what we know about what we find in the sky and make inferences about the past and the future based on what we know and discover.

We are two weeks into this unit, and we are learning a lot about outer space.  We're making great connections between our literature selections and asking questions that demand to be researched.  (Although some of the answers are so scientific that we struggle to figure out how to understand!)

One of the things we've listened to while reading and thinking are music selections from Gustav Holst's The Planets.  We talk about how he used the personality of the planets to write music that sounds like those planets.

Just in case you're interested, the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra is performing The Planets on February 4, 2012.  It is supposed to be a family friendly performance. 

Here are some youtube videos of The Planets by Gustav Holst.






Our readings this week are all about the Moon and myths that people have created to explain how the moon moves across the sky and changes shape.  We're also learning about what people have written about the moon and how people have learned about the moon through the years.  That's just what we've learned this week.  Last week's readings were about what inventions were created for space exploration and how we've benefited were amazing!  (Solar powered calculators, improved athletic shoes, ribbed swimsuits, fire-resistant materials, improved brakes, smaller computers, etc....)

We'll continue to update you on our space learning!