by Jennifer Jordan, History & Latin

After concluding our European Explorers unit, 5th grade dove straight into English settlements in North America. We have been trekking north on the Atlantic seaboard, first meeting the doomed Roanoke Island Colony, then the successful colony of Jamestown (thank you, John Smith, Pocahontas, and John Rolfe), and finally, the religious-freedom-seeking Pilgrims and Puritans of Massachusetts. Before we immerse ourselves next week in a close reading investigation of the new England colonies, we enjoyed a little virtual reality treat. Google Expeditions offers a well-designed tour of Jamestown, so we took advantage, popping in phones to the VR viewers. Before they knew it, fifth graders had transported themselves to the Jamestown settlement, viewing replicated ships and the fort built along the James River. It was almost as good as being there! Aren’t we lucky to have technological innovations at St. James that can offer us an experience close to the real thing?

Merriam-Webster defines a catapult as the following:

Noun

1:  an ancient military device for hurling missiles

2: a device for launching an airplane at flying speed (as from an aircraft carrier)

Fifth grade is currently learning about ENERGY. Our week concluded with working in the Science Lab creating our very own catapult to demonstrate both potential and kinetic energy. Our catapults were simple in design and construction but demonstrated great amounts of energy. The catapults were made from craft sticks, rubber bands, and plastic spoons. Marshmallows were placed in the spoon as the projectile and the distance was judged.

We followed construction plans, tested our designs, made modifications, and tested our designs again! The Scientific Method was followed and tested throughout the lesson and once our work was complete, a competition took place! Our class had a great deal of fun testing our designs.

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by Jennifer Jordan, Latin & History Teacher

The fifth grade class is completing a study of European Explorers. An essential component to the study of American history, the Age of Exploration demonstrates to students how North and South America was discovered and who embarked on these brave expeditions to unknown lands. After learning about the major countries and their most famous explorers, students embarked upon a mini-project. Each student chose one explorer to research in depth. Students used two websites to learn basic facts, and then they used these facts to write a one-page journal entry in their explorer’s point of view. Students honed both their writing skills and their imagination to put themselves in their explorer’s shoes. Many students learned that their explorers failed at their missions several times, and some never achieved their goal. This was a good lesson for students-- there is value in perseverance. The final aspect of the mini-project involved the creation of a help wanted poster, seeking crew members to join the explorers’ expeditions. Overall, fifth graders enjoyed applying a variety of skills--evaluative, interpretative, and artistic--to this project. 

It’s going to be hard, but hard is not impossible!

Our Fifth Graders are off to a great start in 2020! We are adjusting to lockers, schedules, multiple teachers, electives, and homework.

Our lockers look amazing!

We love having lunch outside!

We still love recess!

by Jennifer Jordan

We have entered our 4th week of distance learning. We’ve adjusted our classroom routine to a home routine, and 5th grade is managing their workload. As difficult as it is not to teach these sweet children face-to-face, visiting with our students in Zoom meetings helps all of us connect a bit.

Fifth grade began its state unit after spring break, seamlessly transitioning into individual state research to create a “great state plate.” At first, I wondered how this mini-project would fare being completed outside our classroom, but each student stepped up to the challenge! I used a random state selector to email two choices of states to each student. Students researched their state, listing state facts on a simple graphic organizer, and then selected facts to showcase on a paper “state plate”. These plates are akin to the ceramic state plates that used to be sold at gas stations. Here are our 12 masterpieces, placed as geographically correct as possible in our photo grid.