Making of the MuralLife in Ms. Castin’s 5th Grade Class
By Jerus Belinga and Amber Carpenter
We do a lot of interesting activities in Ms. Castin’s class. This year, the math and science we have done is not only a learning experience but a great way to boost our imaginations and keep us paying attention. We have done fun projects in both. For example, in math we were taught about ratios and how they compare to each other, for example a part to a whole or a whole to a part. In this unit, we used Skittles and picked them out of a bag with a partner. Then we graphed our data and put it into ratios. When it was over, we ate our project! It was a fun way to learn.
In science, we learned about the chemical reactions of dry ice and other things. We dropped the dry ice in water and watched the carbon dioxide flow out of the container. Then, we put flowers in dry ice and rubbing alcohol and let them sit for a while. When we pulled the flowers out by their stems, we saw that they were frozen solid! They were freeze dried! We hit them on the table and watched them crack like crayons.
Now in science we are learning about Newton’s laws. We learned about inertia and Newton’s 1st law. Now, we are doing group experiments on Newton’s 2nd law which is about force and how fast something will move. We are testing this law by making our own experiments, each with seven trials. We are looking forward to this unit.
In fifth grade we did a language arts project on a peacemaker who help the world be a better place like Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, and Nelson Mandela. I did Martin Luther King, Jr. for my project. Each student needed to find 20 facts about your person and then your rough draft. Two other students had to check or edit your work. Then we did our final drafts with the corrections. Finally, we each presented it to the class telling why we did it and how we felt about it and how they must have felt as a peacemaker. Then you say how you can change the world to make a better place.
For Ms. Castin’s class we also did a social studies project on a World War II event, for example Pearl Harbor. We all read a book based on World War II. Then we each chose a topic to research, some people did Pearl Harbor or Hiroshima. What I learned was don’t always believe what people say and always be alert. For example, Pearl Harbor got bombed because one day on December 7, 1941 the US was attacked by the Japanese but they thought it was just a test of the airplanes or American planes were coming in to bring fuel or gas or other material. Then the Japanese started firing. People in Pearl Harbor thought it was vacation but they were wrong and learned their lesson to always be aware because anything can happen.