Our museum is getting ready for the Open House Showcase on Thursday October 3 from 5:00-6:30 pm! The Museum Contract with all of the important museum dates can be found here. There are several opportunities to help us get ready, including signing up for build days!  Click the link here. You can also donate various needed supplies.  The list can be found here.

We are so excited to highlight some amazing aspects of Georgia to Hall County 5th graders who will be able to come through our museum on their field trips!

Enhanced Algebra Unit 1 began with learning how to solve equations with only 1 variable. While still looking at equations, we focused on how to manipulate equations with multiple variables in order to solve for a specific variable. After taking a quiz over equations, we moved into looking at inequalities to prepare for the Unit 1A Test. Once the students took the Unit 1A Test, we focused on the specifics of linear equations and what each variable meant within the context of the equation or graph, specifically the slope and the y-intercept. Before our next quiz, we are looking at the graphs of equations and determining their end behavior. To finish out this unit, the students will be introduced to explicit and recursive arithmetic equations before taking the CBA on September 18th. 

For our first unit, we covered the physiographic regions, physical features, and climate of Georgia! Georgia is a gorgeous state, with many different attributes, and as such we had a great time exploring some regions that were more familiar, and also learned a lot of new things too! (Feel free to ask your student about the flesh-eating bacteria of the Okefenokee Swamp)

Once we moved on from geography, we explored the culture and life of the pre-historic Mississippian people of Georgia. We learned about their ways of life, their culture, their shelters, food, weapons/tools, etc. Your students even created dioramas, digital media, drawings, Minecraft builds, and other artistic depictions of a Mississippian village!

Jumping into exploration and colonization, we will talk about and compare the Spanish and English explorers that are credited with discovering Georgia, and how it became the state it is today! I look forward to sharing all of this incredibly important information with the students as the weeks ahead approach!

We kicked off the year with Science Process Skills and our first lab - Density Lab!  Then we rolled right into Unit 1: Motion and Force with another lab and more activities to understand the relationship between displacement, velocity and acceleration. 

September will continue with learning the concepts of Force through Newton's Laws, Free Fall, and Work/Mechanical Advantage of Simple Machines. The test is scheduled for Sept 26. At the end of the month, we will begin Unit 2: Energy and Heat.

At home, students should be discussing these concepts of motion and force to enhance their understanding - adding the vocabulary terms learned in class to everyday activities like driving, sports, etc. Discussing their learning with friends and family and finding every day examples at home can really help solidify the concepts! They will be working on a portfolio year-round and writing a blog each unit of an example of how this concept applies to their lives.