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.

This has been an active time in 5th grade!

The students did a play about the Trojan Horse at our Grandparents Day celebration. The whole class participated in making a four pot planter for the Grandparents day auction.

On February 27th two of our students, Abigail and Will, participated in a tennis tournament along with the rest of our middle school tennis team. The team performed very well, Abigail won 1st place in singles!

We had six 5th graders who participated in the regional Science Olympiad competition in Fort Worth on February 29th. We had a field trip to the Science and History Museum on the Friday before the competition. The kids had a blast doing hands-on activities including sitting on a bed of nails! On Saturday, all the students did well and we had some medal winners from our class. Daniel and Cooper received 2nd place medals for the Reach for the Stars competition, and Olivia and her partner Katherine received a 3rd place medal for Ornithology.

In music, the kids are in the last stages of preparation for the spring play. This year’s production is Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. The play will be presented at the Sullivan Center on Texarkana High School’s campus.

We are excited about this week’s Engineering and Science Festival. Our 5th-8th graders are doing different booths to demonstrate science and engineering to the rest of our school. Our class is doing a variety of activities including Herpetology, Ornithology, roller coaster design, and germ detection/ prevention. Our students have worked hard to find engaging ways to show science to younger students.

Spring break is next week, and we are looking forward to the break as well as all of the upcoming spring events.

by Jennifer Jordan

For the last 8 weeks, fifth graders have embodied the roles of colonists in 17th and 18th century America. Each student studied a colonial region and with our design chief, Ms. Denise, built a room to showcase his or her daily life. All of this work culminated in our Colonial Living History Project.  

Although our project is officially completed, fifth graders have not abandoned their roles. Our blacksmiths and farmers, our shop owners and wives are now fully immersed, for as colonial America has grown, so too have they. Each student has continued to live alongside the development of the colonies through the French and Indian War, and the debts its mother country, Britain, has to pay. Whether a student lives in Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, or Georgia, he or she has felt the effects of the Stamp Act. In fact, through our taxation game, our colonists learned how it felt to have to pay arbitrary taxes upon which they did not vote. Their candy was taxed and given to the King and Parliament just because they happened to wear a blue shirt, or…pants! A massacre occurred in Boston, and our colonists expressed their opinion of this event in a news article. Word now is that the Sons of Liberty are gathering to host a little tea party in Boston. A revolution is on the horizon. Our colonists will likely want to participate and declare themselves as Patriots of America. However, some may still be loyal to Britain. They will have to make a choice. Whatever they may decide, our fifth grade colonists are truly understanding the path to American independence by actively engaging in experiential learning.