5th Grade Learning

5th Grade Learning

We sure learn a bunch in 5th grade!  We just finished up learning about fossils and what fossils can tell us about the living organism a long time ago and about the environment. For example, the fossils tell us how many years old they are, looking at the fossils of plant life from different time periods.  They can tell us how long the dinosaurs lived in their environment.

In Reading, one whole class is reading a mystery novel, Chasing Vermeer, filled with exciting clues and red herrings.  This book reveals things you never expected or never thought would happen! It is an amazing novel! By reading this book, the reader feels like the characters come to life around you; it feels like you're in the positions these characters are in.  Chasing Vermeer is about a theft; a vermeer painting has been stolen!  The thief writes letters to 3 people to have them help notice things about Vermeer’s paintings.  We don’t know who these people are, but two kids, Petra and Calder, are on the case.  Will they find the thief, or will the painting become lost forever?  Read the book to find out!  I highly recommend this book!!!   

In History, a lot of students are learning about the 13 colonies.  The European settlers must have been brave to cross the Atlantic Ocean for over 2 months in a ship to a new world they knew nothing about.  Many colonists wanted to come to our country to have religious freedom, which is something that we still have to this day, while other colonists wanted a better life.  Roanoke didn’t last long and mysteriously disappeared, but Jamestown lasted and became the first permanent settlement.  Pretty soon, people were coming to the New World and created the 13 colonies on the east coast of our country.  It’s pretty interesting to think that our 50 states started out as 13 colonies, and our first flag only had 13 stars instead of the 50 we have today.