Team Activities
If you are curious about what we do in our TAP (Teacher Advisory Period) classes, we follow this weekly schedule: Monday—the teacher reads aloud from selected novels that enhance our curriculum, Tuesday and Wednesday—TAP lessons are covered in various areas from goal setting to preventing bullying, Thursday—we offer a time for accelerated reading and a study hall, and on Friday we do a TAP activity. The TAP activities at the beginning of the year focus on learning everyone’s name and then we concentrate on working together as a team.

In January and February we do a unit of board games in TAP which emphasized appropriate sportsmanship, provided practice in cooperation, offered opportunities for another type of leisure-time activity, as well as learning to follow rules.

Have you noticed the white trailer parked in front of Ingersoll? Each week a fifth or sixth grade team will be trying to fill the trailer with aluminum cans to be recycled. We ask that cans be brought in on the Friday of our designated week in plastic sacks with the student’s name and TAP room number written on the sack. Remember if you have a chance pop those tabs off the top and bring those in separately for the Student Council competition to raise funds for Ronald McDonald Houses. Our designated weeks now are February 25, March 24, and April 29. Thanks for all of your help.

In the past we have had various community service projects, and this year’s project focuses on raising money for the St. Jude Children’s Hospital by participating in Laps for Life. Each TAP class will be collecting pennies and loose change for several weeks. After the money has been collected, all Patriot students will be walking laps around the track for the children of St. Jude. The TAP class that collects the most loose change will receive a party, and the top contributor will win one of many prizes being donated. During this time, the students will be discussing cancer and meeting cancer survivors. This project allows students the opportunity to help St. Jude help children fighting this life threatening disease. You'll hear more about this project in the spring.

Hands-On Science
This year 5th grade students will have four major science units dealing with Food Chemistry, Experimenting with Plants, Motion and Design, and Microworlds.
* In Food chemistry, students test five liquids and eight foods for starch, glucose, fat and protein. They discover through their tests the importance of eating balanced meals.
* In Motion and Design students explore Newton’s laws of motion by creating vehicles. They create and manipulate their cars in various ways to meet several design challenges.
* In Experiments with Plants students grow Wisconsin Fast Plants. These plants are designed to grow in a very short time and help the children learn about plant processes.
* In Microworlds, the students learn more about the world with magnifying glasses and microscopes.

Whenever students are absent, please urge them to see their science teacher about coming in and making up missed work. Our hands-on science lessons and equipment cannot be sent home.

Social Studies
In fifth grade we cover map skills, early explorers, and early settlements. Then we follow the development of our country from the Revolutionary War to the Civil War. Time is spent introducing our country’s roots of democracy with a special emphasis on our Constitution. In February all fifth graders had the opportunity to attend a play at the Peoria Civic Center about Harriet Tubman.