In science this trimester, the fifth graders are studying the diversity of life on Earth.  We started by discussing why and how scientists organize and classify life.  We conducted an activity where the class had to work together to sort about a hundred animals by their similarities and differences. Our major conclusion from this activity was that classifying can be very complicated!

Students are now creating posters that compare and contrast plant and animal cells.  We are focused on how the cells are similar and how their differences contribute to the different tissues, organs, and organisms those cells make up.  Next up: learning about taxonomic ranks: kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species.