First Week of School

Hello Grade 5 Families!

We are off to an amazing start this year in the Grade 5 STEAM class at the John F. Kennedy school!

A bit about me:
My name is Lindsey Tosches and this year will be my second year at the Kennedy! This year also marks my 6th year of teaching science at the elementary school level, and my 4th year at the 5th grade level. I absolutely LOVE teaching science and am thrilled to have a full block of science each day with the students!


Traveling is one of my favorite things to do and this summer I was fortunate enough to travel to Iceland! One of the best parts was that I got to experience first hand some of the amazing geological features that your children will be learning about over the course of the year! I can't wait to share my experiences and knowledge with them.
More than that, I am really looking forward to getting to know you and your children! I can already tell that they are all kind and motivated students and I know that this year is going to be GREAT!



Our First week Together: 
5th Grade STEAM is all about learning to work together as partners and eventually (starting next week) in small groups to complete our scientific / engineering tasks. To prep students for the year, we spent time this week talking about what a good partner(ship) sounds like and looks like. Students shared some great ideas and proved that they really understood the meaning behind their words! This was obvious to me as tasks were completed with smiles and learning objectives were met!

Students were presented with two partner tasks this week: building a "q-tip maze" and building a "Tooth-pic Bridge". The latter proved to me a bit more challenging but everyone persevered!

Q-Tip Mazes: A task used to build partnership skills

Tooth-Pic Bridges: A more complicated task used to reinforce partnership skills as well as to teach the Engineering and Design Process!

Use this link to view more photos from this week! 
Partner Tasks


Should you have any questions or concerns this year, please do not hesitate to contact me at
ltosches@k12.somerville.ma.us

I hope to see you all at Open House on Sept 21 6-7:30pm!