It's Rainy, It's Snowing...

Well it was raining in Tallahassee today, but in our classroom another form of percepitation filled the skies...snow! We had a snow day, a rare treat for us Floridians. We made Borax snowflakes, used our math skills to construct a snowman, felt Insta-Snow, made original snowflakes, and snowman pancakes. We had a great day, and it made us wish for a white Christmas!

SEC Champs!

Due to all of my loyal fifth grade students (minus a few die hard Seminole fans, and I'm proud of them for not being fair weather fans!) the Gators won the SEC Championship last night! Being the daughter of a coach, I fully believe that the necklace I wear or doing the Gator chomp each Friday, allows our team to win! My husband assures me that I have nothing to do with the victory (can you tell his is a UGA graduate!). So we will continue to cheer on the Gators! Go Gators!

Artwork done by Jack Taylor and Will Rasmussen (who calls himself a Nole!)

The Race Is On!

Thank you to the families that were able to support our Fun Station Share Night on Thursday. We had a great time and I even competed in a go cart race! Michael had to say a few prays that I wasn't going to kill him, but we were a great team! Gilchrist Share Nights allow students and their families to enjoy some leisure time together, as well as generate valuable dollars for our school to use in a multitude of ways. I have said it before, and I will say it again, I believe Gilchrist is a dynamic school due to the generosity of our families' time and contributions!

Young Engineers!

With the help of our third grade science buddies, my fifth grade students recreated the Mars Pathfinder. They didn't have all the advancements of technology on their side. They did have a cereal box, a couple balloons, an egg, some string, and a parachute made of newspaper. They did a great job constructing the Pathfinder and getting the egg (i.e. the Mars rover) to the ground safely!

And the Winner Is...

Right before the Thanksgiving holiday we held our classroom Tropicana Speech Contest. My students did an excellent job writing and presenting their work. The first place prize went to E.J. Haben and her speech on being a junk food junkie. Maggie Harbin took home the second place prize on ways to embarrass your parents, and Mia Pesta snatched the third place prize with a speech about how kids can deceivingly clean their rooms. Congrats girls!!

Our Very Own Vocabulary Parade!

In honor of the clever children's book Miss Alaineus by Debra Frasier, our class had our very own Vocabulary Parade on Friday. Students chose one of our fall vocabulary word to make a creative costume out of. We had a great time with it! Students chose words like nucleus, photosynthesis, ecosystem, juggle, spirit, energy, and much more! Check out the book and you will always remember the difference between Miss Alaineus and miscellaneous!

Squanto's Suggestions

On Thursday we followed Squanto's suggestions to the pilgrims to use the fish that they caught from the nearby rivers and oceans as fertilzers for their crops. Squanto and other Native Americans played a pivitol role in the survival of the pilgrims. We tried this tip out in our own classroom. Each student planted corn with fish, and some without. We will be charting the growth of the two over the next week or so. We are crossing our fingers that the Gilchrist cat doesn't make another visit to our "crops" over the Thanksgiving holidays.