May Activities

Gum Relay

    This year we have started each day with a Morning Meeting.  This is a chance for us to greet, share, and play silly games together.  The students and I have really gotten to know each other through this fun routine.  

     Today we had a Gum Relay.  The students had to run across the room, put on extra large disposable gloves, unwrap a piece of gum, put the gum in their mouth, take off their gloves, and tag the next person in line.  It was quite entertaining to watch.  The students are welcome to have gum in our classroom for the remainder of the school year.  

STEM Challenge

     On Wednesday, May 23rd, the 5th graders worked collaboratively with the first graders at MP East.  The first graders were tasked with creating a shelter that would keep a paper family dry.  The students worked together to select materials using their budget and to build the weather-proof structure.  The fifth graders were excellent assistants!

 

Marr Park

 Marr Park

     On Tuesday, May 22nd, all of the Mid-Prairie fifth graders went to Marr Park.  There the students rotated to six different stations.  Stations included learning about the prairie, playing predator and prey games, creating nature sculptures, completing a scavenger hunt, map making while searching for a "hidden lake", and fishing.  The students did a great job representing Mid-Prairie.  Thank you to Pam Holz, the Washington County Naturalist and her assistant Randi, as well as all of the parents who joined us on the trip.  

Students learning about turtles

Iowa History Bus Tour

     On the morning of Tuesday, May 1st, we went on our Iowa History Bus Tour led by Mr. Mike Zahs.  Mike Zahs is a local historian and retired history teacher from Washington.  Students learned about the symbolism on grave markers and were shown how to determine if the ground has been altered.  The students learned fun facts about the history of Washington County, including how Kalona got its name and why most of our towns are seven miles apart.  Mr. Zahs then took the students on a hike on private property to a location where three different civilizations had lived.  He showed the students grave markers from early settlers, Native Americans, as well as 2,000 year old mounds. 

Mr. Zahs standing on top of the Indian mounds

Spring News

Project Lead the Way

     The fifth graders have been working to construct something to safely transport an egg down the length of a zip line.  Mrs. Huber, the PLTW teacher, has had students complete the design process and work on thinking critically.  Today the students got to test their creations with real eggs.  

Redworms

     Our composting worms arrived this week.  We are studying systems and learning about the importance of producers, consumers, and decomposers.  This week the students created a habitat for the redworms.  We will monitor the worms for the next month or two to see what they do with the organic waste we have provided.

Project Jack

Students displaying our purchases

     We were the lucky recipients of a Project Jack grant in the amount of $250.  This pay-it-forward grant is sponsored by the REALTOR Foundation of Iowa.  The students were randomly grouped and asked to select books, craft supplies, games, DVDs, and more for the families and patients of the Stead Family Children's Hospital in Iowa City.  These items will all be donated to the hospital this weekend.

The group was in charge of books.

This group was in charge of selecting toys.

This group selected craft supplies.

This group selected books for older patients.

This group was in charge of DVDs.

Another group selected some games.

Valentine's Day

     Today was our Valentine's Day party.  The students enjoyed opening their valentines and having snacks.  Thank you to Cobi, Jr., Kylee, Jason, Kyla, Lydia, and Hunter for providing our food, drinks, and paper products.

Our party committee

Winter Survival

      Winter Survival

     On Friday, January 26th, the fifth graders  tested their winter survival skills.  Pam Holz, the Washington county conservationist, led the field trip.  The students were divided into small teams and tasked with creating a shelter, starting and maintaining a  fire, and boiling water.  The students were graded based on their positive mental attitudes and the effectiveness of their fire and shelter.  Pam then informed the students about whether they survived or not.  This year we were quite successful.  Almost all groups successfully started fires and created sufficient shelters.  Pam fictionally "diagnosed" a few students with smoke inhalation due to their proximity to the fire and told a few others they had gotten frost bite.  Thank you to Nick Duvall, Adam Heitman, Jenny Gillam, Renee Sellers, Stephen Bender, Jenni Hershberger, Andrew Wiles, and Brandon Statler for helping supervise the students during this field trip.