Hello fifth grade families,
The last two weeks of school are a whirlwind of activities and learning! Today students throughout the school participated in Career Day. Representatives from Burlington police and fire departments along with a banker, veterinarian, video game programmer, carpenter, scientist and many more professionals took time from their day to share their jobs with our students. A big thank you goes to Ms. Z for organizing this day and to all the volunteers, we appreciate you!
Gutter Boats - Engineering Challenge
Today Mr. Mussleman stopped by to introduce this special 5th grade project. Every year fifth grade students across Burlington are challenged with the task of designing and building a boat that will travel the length of a gutter in the shortest possible time. We gave students some guidelines to follow: they must use the piece of styrofoam given to them as part of the base and the width of the boat should not exceed 11 cm. (The gutter is 11 cm wide and 3 meters in length) Beyond that, their creativity and engineering thinking should takeover. We love when fifth grade learning is shared at home. We encourage parents to talk about the project with your student, the design process, what goes into an efficient design, what types of materials would work best etc. and of course parents should oversee the safety of the construction. The construction of the boat, however, is the responsibility of the student.
STEM Day
Next Monday, June 13th is an exciting day in fifth grade- the entire day is dedicated to scientific exploration, discovery, and the design process Three separate hands-on engineering activities will be set up in our classrooms for students to participate in. One of the activities will be the Gutter Boat trial run. Students will have the chance to test their boat design and be given time to redesign. As Mr. Mussleman said, engineers identify the problem, brainstorm a design and then test and retest that design making better each time. Please be sure the gutter boats are sent into school on Monday in a safe container - such as a shoe box. Many boats have not survived the bus ride tucked into a backpack. Students can also bring in their extra materials for their redesign. The final race will be Wednesday afternoon. Monday will be testing and redesigning.
Cedardale
This Thursday!! A reminder notice went home yesterday but here the highlights: We will be leaving Pine Glen at 9am and plan to back before 2:30. Students will take their regular mode of transportation home. Be sure to pack a bag with water, a towel, and a change of clothes as well as sunscreen. Students will be able to purchase lunch from 11-12. A big thank you to the PTO for helping to cover some of the costs of this trip and for our awesome t-shirts!
Moving up Ceremony
Please join us Friday, June 17th at 9:00 as we celebrate and acknowledge your child’s completion of 5th grade here at Pine Glen. At this ceremony students will receive a moving up certificate and perform for you. Later that day students will receive their fifth grade yearbook and will be given time to have classmates sign their books. Thank you to the Yearbook parents for their tireless work putting this book together.
Grade 6 Summer Reading
Incoming 6th graders are required to read a book over the summer and complete a note sheet that they can use to complete a multiple choice test in September. The list of books and other details can be found at https://marshallsimonds.com/
We have had a terrific year with your children and we hope you all have a wonderful summer!
Fifth grade team,
Mrs. Fitzpatrick
Ms. Lane
Mrs. Sheppard
