On November 3, 2011 a musician named Mr. Carriloquoiso came to my school. Mr. Carriloquoiso brought electronic instruments. He brought the theremin, a synthezizer and a moog, and some students got to play on them. You could have also played the drum set, drums, gongs or sit on the floor. He would pick how was going to play what instrument. You had to use your hands to be able to play the theremin, the synthezizer and the moog. The synthezizer and the moog looked like pianos except the synthezizer and the moog have buttons. Every one in my class wanted to play the electronic instruments. I had never seen electronic instruments before. It was amazing to hear what kind of sounds  they made. It would make sounds you never heard of. Who ever played the drum set Mr. Carriloquoiso would call you Drum Girl or Drum Boy. Now, everyone in my class wants a theremin,  synthezizer and a moog. I wish I could start that day over!

In writing workshop, we are studying all types of poetry like couplets, quatrains, cinquains and sonnets! We have read poetry that we chose from a book to read to class, and our teacher has read many different poems to us too! We also got to make our own poems. My favorite type of poem is a cinquain because it has many rules. The rules that a cinquain goes by is that the first line has 2 syllables,  the second line has four, the third line has six, the fifth line has eight and the last line has 2. Also the basic guidelines for the content of the poem is that the first line is the title, the second line is a description of the title, the third line is what the title can do, the fourth line is what you feel about the title and the last line is a synonym for the title.

This is a cinquain that I made, I hope you like it!

My dog,

Fluffy four legs,

Barking running playing,

He’s crazy playful strong and strange,

Canine.

~Kenneth

This is one that a friend  in my class made!

Leopards,

Black and yellow,

Run and jump and attack,

The fast and agile tree climber ,

Big Cat.

~Milan

We have a period called 20 percent time. We each get to choose a different topic that we’re interested in and research it. Before we start we make three questions to research, a plan on what we’re going to do each week, and choose how to present the project to the class when we’re finished.

Last week on Thursday the 20th we went to Black Rock Forest overnight. The whole 5th grade and ten teachers came.  As soon as we had settled down in our rooms of about 7 people we went on a hike. there were three options:  easy/moderate, challenge, and super-challenge. During the hike we had lunch which we brought from home. When we got back we had time to write in our journals. After that we found out that there would be five activities: Geo-caching, photography, science, sports, and water color. Everyone would get to do three of them. Then we did our first activity. After our activities we had pasta with tomato sauce, salad, and bread. We also found out that each room has a job during a mealtime: set up, cleaning tables, or cleaning dishes. Then we went on the night hike. We weren’t allowed to talk during that hike and it felt like hours until we got to our destination: the stone house. There some teachers had already set up the fire. We sang some songs, made smores and then headed back. Just before we left we got lifesavers that when you bite then they make sparks inside your mouth(they don’t hurt) but only other people can see them. When we got back everyone went straight to sleep. As soon as we woke up there wa an optional three mile run then one room set up breakfast. For breakfast we had waffles and bacon. We had our second activity after break fast. Before lunch we had journal time. As soon as lunch was set up we had it. It was a sandwich and chips(optional). Before leaving we had our third activity and made a group photo. By the time reached school(3:30) everyone was ready for sleep.

Today we went to the Met to study Chinese art because we are studying China in class and in art we are studying Chinese brush painting. First we went to Scholars Garden which is an inside garden. It was peaceful and quiet. We wrote down adjectives, nouns, adverbs and verbs that we thought of when we were in the garden. In the garden there was a mini pond with a cave on top. There were fish in the pond were the cave was.After the Garden we went to the scroll room, there were many scrolls some were just writing and some were just paintings. If they had writing there was a translation next to it. Our last room was a room with sculptures we had to pretend to be archaeologists and study 1 object to sketch and observe.

Today we went on our first field trip to the Museum of Natural History in New York. We went to the Hall of Human Origins. Some of the exhibits there were: A new type of human, Life during the Ice Age, Hyenas vs Hominids and Neanderthal Campsite. We were there because we are learning about history and the Stone Age and Bronze Age. Before we went there we read the book “Frozen Man”. It is about a Neanderthal man who dies and a glacier swallows him up. In September 19, 1991-when there was an unusually warm summer- the glacier melted and the man came up. When we went to the museum we saw Neanderthals and how they evolved from monkeys to humans. We saw a skeleton of a human, chimpanzee and Neanderthal. We also saw models, movies and a new interactive keyboard that monkeys use to communicate with their trainers. There was also a game that let’s you create music and listen to it with different instruments from different regions in the world. There were also interactive pads that you could watch videos on and learn about different plants and animals. At 12:00 we went outside to Central Park and ate lunch and played.

Until next blog post,                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Tal and 5A

We are a 5th grade class in New York City. We have 13 students and one teacher. In our class we like to learn, and we especially like technology! We are new to blogging and are looking forward to connecting with other classes around the world. On our blog you will be able to see some of our work, posts about special activities, field trips, and anything that interests us. We hope you will comment on some of our posts.