It was a busy week in fifth grade. Today, students continued to read from Facing the Lion. The story of Joseph Lemasolai Lekuton's experience as a Maasai child and as a student at a missionary school is extraordinary. In class, we read and discussed Lekuton's initiation into the warrior status of his culture. I was impressed by how fifth graders respectfully considered this aspect of Maasai culture. Please let me know if your child was confused by any aspect of the reading. Students also worked on drawing maps of Africa.
Today, we started the design component of a wooden bridge building project. Again, I was impressed by how students participated in the Q and A component of this project. I emphasized that the purpose of the project can be summarized in four points.
- To exercise planning and math skills
- To challenge artistic vision and construction skills
- To practice working with an expense budget
- To understand how the forces of tension and compression affect a bridge structure
Students will begin building bridges by the latter part of next week and complete the project before the Thanksgiving break. On a separate note, take a look at the newspaper bridge testing video clip posted below.
During today's PSD, the fifth and sixth grade hiked to one of Putney's archaeological mysteries. Located about three miles from TGS is a stone chamber built into the earth and capped with an enormous stone roof. Entry to the chamber is possible through a small opening in the cap stones. Scholars have attributed the construction of the structure to Celtic explorers, Native Americans, and New England Farmers. The jury is out on what theory is correct.
Next Monday in Halloween. Fifth graders have asked about wearing costumes to school. We discussed this at faculty meeting and decided not to have grade students wear costumes. That said, after school on Monday, there is a seventh and eighth grade home soccer game. The students traditionally wear costumes during the game. If fifth graders want to change into costumes at the end of the day and then stay in costume to cheer on their schoolmates, I'll make a very short dress-up time available.
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