Thoughts Of Moving To Sixth Grade

We wondered what the fifth graders thought about going to middle school. So we created a survey to learn their thoughts about leaving Chickering School and going to sixth grade.

We thought that it would be fascinating to see if people were excited about going to middle school. Below is the pie graph showing the results:

Pie Chart showing the percentages of students excited about moving to middle school. 66.7% said yes, 2.6% said no, and 30.7% said maybe.

We were interested in knowing why people answered “yes”. Their top  replies were: 1. excited about being independent and 2. not walking in lines. Three things tied for 3rd: having your own locker, new friends, and different teachers.  They also liked the ideas of better foods, new curriculum, no bus notes, etc.  

People who answered “no” shared: they did not like the ideas of more homework, and no more recess. They also did not like the ideas of, getting lost, new Sherborn kids, and new teachers.

People who answered “maybe” said they: thought homework might be a bit harder, and they also thought being independent might be harder. Missing Chickering and new people were also shared.

The biggest thing that they would miss about Chickering is recess at 78.1%. The next highest response at 76.7%  is missing no homework on weekends. Also  67.1% would miss not seeing friends all the time.

However, 89.3% are looking forward to a lot of free time at the end of the day. They also are ready to enjoy not walking in straight lines. They are pumped up for having the choice of doing what they want to do during lunch block.

Reported by Liam, Angus, and Freddie

Taiko Drumming

On May 23rd, 5th graders at Chickering pulled off a great performance on Taiko drums. Taiko drumming is a Japanese style of drumming. Ms Pappas, our music teacher had a meeting with the district music teachers and decided some of the curriculum for 5th grade would move to the middle school. So she had to think of a new project and someone suggested Japanese music; so that’s how she got the idea of Taiko drumming. Ms Pappas had to learn everything in order to teach the students. Ms Pappas would love to continue this unit but claimed that this assembly will determine if she will do this next year.

 Ms Pappas made 4 types of drums by herself, which are small white buckets, big blue barrels, white barrels and a humongous blue drum supported by a tall stand. Ms Pappas’ favorite drum is the blue barrels and an Indian drum.


Each class had its own signature color and Japanese name for their class group. Each class was split into 4 groups. We thought you would like to see a short movie showing the 5th graders playing a section they composed themselves.

 Taiko Drumming Video

 

Reported By Seika and Mariam