Your Average Grade 5 Student

As part of our measurement unit, students worked in small groups to measure parts of their bodies and find the average (mean) of the numbers.  They then reviewed rounding by rounding each number to the ones place.  Then the average numbers were used by each group to create a paper person.

Drinking Sugar

The students wanted to know why chocolate milk has been removed from our snack programme.  They researched the amounts of sugar in their favourite drinks.  Then they graphed their results, measured the amounts of sugar for each drink and displayed it all on a poster.
It was a math and health activity!

The recommended daily amounts of sugar for children is less than 25g.

As a bonus, they researched the health problems that result from eating too much sugar.

Students were surprised to see the amounts of sugar in sodas, chocolate milk, mango and orange juices.

Coding And Robotics

We visited the Apple Store to learn to use Ipads to write code and control a robotic sphere through a series of mazes.  The students learned to write a sequence of simple commands to make the sphere roll forward, stop and turn at the appropriate time.  They controlled the speed of the sphere, the angle it turned and the number of seconds that it travelled.  The students cooperated with each other in small groups to complete the mazes.

Several staff members from the Apple Store helped the students.

Lots of cooperation and discussions between group members.

Some mazes involved only one angle and some involved 3 or more!

Stopping precisely on the X was difficult but not impossible.

Thank you Apple Store for the USB bracelets and Apple pins.

Gingerbread Cookies

We combined math with baking today and made gingerbread cookies.  First we had to decide how to divide the dough evenly into 24 pieces and then we had to make irregular polygon-shaped cookies.  After we baked them we decorated them using icing sugar and candies.  Yum!

We shaped the dough on parchment paper which was then lifted onto the cookie sheets for baking.

After baking, each student had a small plastic bag with 20g of white icing.  We snipped the corner off the bag and piped it onto the cookies.  Then we added lots of yummy candies.

Each student's cookies were unique. They could eat them at once or take them home in a paper bag to share with family.

 I made the dough the day before and refrigerated it over-night.

This is the recipe and it makes 24 large cookies.
Bake 325 degrees F oven for 10 - 15 minutes until golden.

3/4 cup soft butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup molasses
Beat the butter and sugar together until creamy. Add the egg and molasses and mix well.

In a separate bowl, mix:
4 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

Add dry ingredients to the bowl of wet ingredients and mix.  Knead the dough until it makes a ball.  Wrap it in parchment paper and refrigerate it for at least 2 hours.

Searching For Data

In Math, we are focusing on interpreting data.  

We ask questions such as, 

"Who would use this information?"

"What would they use this information for?"

We searched for examples of data in the newspapers.

We found weather graphs, sports data and graphs about business.

Equivalent Fraction Pizzas

The students drew two pizzas and cut them into different numbers of slices but each pizza had to have the same amount of toppings. The students then recorded the amounts for each topping as equivalent fractions.