Bridges Blog Archive for Grade 5

Sir Cumference and the Viking's Map, the seventh book in the series by Cindy Neuschwander, will intrigue adventurers in grades 3-5.

Cathy Fernan, fifth grade teacher from Northside Intermediate School in Milton, Wisconsin, alerted me to an interesting web activity--starting soon!--that ties in with the 5th grade March Number Corner Calendar Collector, "Sunrise, Sunset." From the website, Mystery Class: Tracking Sunlight to Solve a Mystery:

In January, the Calendar Grid challenges 5th grade students to identify and build 3-dimensional objects from 2-dimensional representations. Students use front, top, and side views to create structures with centimeter cubes. If students build on cardboard sheets or lunchtrays, cube structures can be easily transported to the document camera.

Exploring fractions? Short on egg cartons? Although many students will need to experience egg cartons and tile in the third dimension, in a pinch these egg carton blacklines come in handy; students place tile and yarn on the blackline rather than in the egg carton.

one 12-compartment egg carton, pdf

two 12-compartment egg carton, pdf

Egg carton fractions are coming up in Unit 3 (Grade 4) and Unit 4 (Grade 5.)

During the month of November, fourth graders observe a "Tumbling Triangle." This Calendar Grid activity depicts a single triangle in a different location on a quadrant grid each day as it moves through a series of transformations: slides, turns, and flips. Through the pattern, students develop language and concepts of motion geometry.

Vonnie Oyer teaches fourth grade Bridges at 91 Elementary School in Canby, Oregon. After using the Word Resource Cards for commutative and associative property, she decided to make additional cards for zero, and identity and distributive properties of multiplication.

In Grade 5 Number Corner, "The Mystery Grid Game" (Computational Fluency, October) captures the attention of students as they search for arrays hidden on a 10 x 10 grid. If you'd like to extend the fun a bit, consider this online game, "Looking for the Top Quark!" From the site: