Lately...

Here is what we have been up to lately in fifth grade... 

During Morning Meeting, we have been working on editing a message that I write to the students each morning. We are working on skills that will help us edit our writing during Writer's Workshop. 

We created our own bar model word problems to share our learning of how to solve word problems using the bar model method. Our word problems are now displayed in the classroom.

We are very excited to be buddies with Miss Blake's first and second grade class. We have met with Miss Blake's class twice and are having so much fun getting to know our little buddies. Using a puzzle piece, the student found their buddy match. We have spent time playing with our little buddies on the playground and filled out a getting to know you worksheet to see how many things (if any) that we have in common with our little friends. We are looking forward to building community and friendships with Miss Blake's class. We are already planning on meeting our buddies this week to read with them.

Last week Ms. Redman, an AmeriCorps fellow, came into our classroom to do an activity with our class. She read a book, Paulie Pastrami Acheives World Peace by James Proimos. We learned that you can make the world a better place by doing small things such as being kind to those around you and helping others. Ms. Redman posed the question to the students "Imagine a world where ...". The students were asked to share an idea of what their perfect world might look like.  

Here is our Imagine a World ideas that now reads like a poem. We will be revisiting our ideas using them as a springboard to engage in service-learning projects that will make our school and community a better place. 

Learning and working together takes cooperation and team work. To encourage the students to work together, we have a Smarty jar in our classroom. When the students are great listeners, work hard, and make positive, proactive choices we add a Smarty to the jar. Once there are 24 Smarties in the jar (1 for each student), the students earn a Cooperation Celebration. On Friday, the students voted to spent our first Cooperation Celebration in their pajamas. They also voted and chose to bring in a small, electronic device to use during the afternoon. The students have worked extremely hard during the first month of school and most definitely earned some free time! It was a wonderful, relaxing way to end a busy week! 

Newspaper Study

Miss Gibbons’ fifth grade class became interested in creating a classroom newspaper. This idea sparked as we wrote paragraphs about our first week of school for our parents to read during Parent Information Night. 

Before creating our own classroom newspaper, we decided to research some questions we had about newspapers. We spent some time looking at The Columbus Dispatch. We explored how it was organized, the photographs that were included, the different sections, and what we liked and did not like about the Dispatch. 

Next, we brainstormed a list of questions and chose one to research. We used the Internet as a resource to find information that answered our research question. 

We researched the following questions: 

What is news?

What is journalism?

What is the history of newspapers?

What are the sections of a newspaper? Why are they important?

How are newspapers printed?

What is the purpose of a newspaper?

Why is the layout of a newspaper important?

What are the jobs of people who work for a newspaper? Explain the jobs in detail.

What are the five W’s of a news story?

After spending a few days gathering information and recording our information sources, we decided to share our learning. We chose to create a Keynote presentation or poster to share with others. We planned out how our poster and Keynote would look. We also decided what information we would include onto our poster and Keynotes. Next, we spent a day in the computer lab creating our Keynote presentations and text for the posters using Microsoft Word. We talked about the importance of displaying the information in an interesting way.

Once our Keynote presentations and posters were finished, we shared them with our classmates. Finally, we spent some time discussing the information we learned and reflected on how we can utilize the information when creating our own classroom newspaper.

The fifth grade students did an absolutely amazing job working on their newspaper research. They were very thoughtful in their research and how they chose to display their information. They did an excellent job sharing their information and presenting their research in front of their classmates. I can't wait to work with the students on utilizing their new knowledge and applying it to our classroom newspaper.

Constitution Day

Today is recognized as Constitution Day in the United States. On September 17, 1787, the Constitution was ratified. We watched a short video about the Constitution and discussed the meaning of the Constitution and how it relates to our lives. This lead to a discussion about what is a right and the rights that we have as United States Citizens.

We described a right in a few different ways:

“The ability to do things that you want to do.” - Ethan R.

“To be yourself.” - Ad

“To be able to do something. To be free.” -Isabella 

“You are able to do something without being told no.” Rachel 

“You can make your own choices.” - Ariana 

Next, we made a list of the rights we have as citizens in our classroom: 

• Read any book that we want to. 
• Allowed to say what we think. 
• Right to speak our mind. 
• Think what you want to think. 
• Share our thoughts. 
• Go to the bathroom when we need to. 
• Help others. 
• Make a choice of where to sit. 
• Sit with who you would like to. 
• Get and receive respect. 
• Use classroom materials. 
• Right to use spaces in our school. 
• Right to be happy. 
• To get a drink of water. 
• To write what we want. 
• Respect each other. 
• To move freely. 
• Use computers when you need to. 
• Go to the computer lab or library if you need to. 
• Lay down during read aloud. 
• Ask questions. 
• Eat a snack. 
• Sit in chairs during group. 
• Have fun. 
• Right to go to recess. 
• Grow a school garden.
• To talk. 
• To be yourself. 
• To be different. 
• To be friends with who you want. 
• Choose to work in groups of by yourself. 
• Have your own style and attitude. 
• Everyone have the chance to share at morning meeting. 
• To wear what you want to school. 
• To be safe. 
• To learn. 

We will use the classroom rights that the students generated as we continue to work and learn together throughout the school year. 

We truly had a great discussion about our classroom rights. This experience was a great way for the students to connect the Constitutional rights to their personal lives.

Take a Peek

We successfully completed our first five day school week. We had a wonderful week full of awesome learning experiences.

Take a peek at what our week looked like:

We have had many conversations and read several stories about the importance of being you. During Writer's Workshop, we wrote I am poems. The I am poems were a great way for students to express their interests, hopes, wishes, and dreams. I was blown away at the beautiful language that was used in the poems. The students created a published copy of their poems. The poems now hang alongside self-portraits in our classroom.

During Writer's Workshop we discussed different types of writing. 

Students are encouraged to choose their own writing topic and type of writing during Writer's Workshop. I am excited to get to know my students as writers. While students are writing independently, I take the time to conference with students one-on-one in order to get to know them better as writers. Together, we have been coming up with writing goals to help strengthen our writing.

We created our word wall letters out of our bodies and hung them in the front of the classroom. We will be adding our weekly spelling words to the word wall. It is a great reference point for students to use while writing.

The fifth graders in our classroom have been introduced to the 30 Book Challenge. Their challenge is to read at least 30 books throughout the school year in a variety of genres. They will be keeping track of the books they have read by filling out a grid in their reading folder.

We created our class birthday graph and analyzed the data.

We are very excited to announce that we will be writing a classroom newspaper this year. We decided on a name, The Pickle Press. Our inspiration came from "Hairy Pickle" who is passed around during Morning Meeting while we share and engage in conversation.

We created our first edition by writing articles in small groups.

In the coming weeks, we will be looking closely at different newspapers, magazines, articles and investigating what makes articles interesting to read. We will take what we learn from other publications and integrate it into our classroom newspaper. We have already created a list of ideas for future Pickle Press publications. I am excited to see how The Pickle Press evolves throughout the school year. 

We spent some time in the computer lab creating individual digital 5th grade portfolios on Keynote. We  will use these portfolios to showcase our work throughout the school year.

I also shared a fun website, Draw a Stickman, with everyone. We loved watching our stickmen (and women) come to life!

And who can forget, we spent some time chatting with Suni Williams aboard the International Space Station.

Looking forward to another great week!