There isn't anything too flashy to share for 5th grade, but we've been doing a LOT of ground work in terms of research and idea building for our civilization projects. After our research of various number systems from civilizations throughout history, students have begun designing their own number systems. Will it be a base 10? Base 5? Base 20? How many digits/numerals will it use? Ten like the Hindu-Arabic system we use today? How will you represent large numbers? With a place value system? With a coded way of putting the numerals in a specific order? There are MANY questions and considerations!
Aside from number systems, we've also researched the overall makeup of civilizations, such as geography, economy, government, clothing, natural resources, diet, entertainment, education and so on. Our goal is to take the best and the interesting and the successful from these classic civilizations and adapt them to our own as we create them.
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| Building background with civilization research |
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| Studying the complexities of the Roman Numeral System |
In addition to our civilization project, we've been toning, reviewing and practicing some important thinking skills, including logical reasoning, analogies, and practice with the Six Thinking Hats.
If you are not familiar with Six Thinking Hats, here is an excellent article to give you some background.
These are all ways of getting our 5th graders ready for the intense and challenging leap into Middle School academics. Another key component I will be implementing right here on the blog is our Word of the Week challenge. Just look for posts with the title or tag "Word of the Week" and have students review the word and its definition. Then, they add a comment using that word in a sentence to earn "blog points." These blog points will be redeemed later. : )
Last, but not least, nearly every 5th grader has now finished his comic on "Encounters." They make for a colorful and entertaining wall. Visitors to the room are always immediately drawn to them, and often get "stuck" in that part of the room as they try to read them!
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