Well, Hello Again!
It has been such a long time since I have posted and I apologize for that. Since 2013 is starting, I thought it might be a good idea to make my blog one of my new resolutions. I will be posting once a week for the new year to keep everyone posted on my first year of teaching.
So far, this class has been terrific! They are a joy to have in class and I feel blessed to have each and every one of them! We have done some very interesting projects throughout the year, but I wanted to touch on two recent ones that could be implemented in any fifth grade class for all of my fifth grade blogger friends!
First and foremost, we are working on polygons in math right now. We did a quick review of polygons and charted the different sided shapes. Then, I had them put their thinking caps on and figure out a way to make their name with each of the polygons. They had to use
at least one triangle, one quadrilateral, one pentagon, one hexagon, and one octagon. The students could repeat shapes but they
had to use each of the polygons once. I had them each do their first name, make it neat, and color it! I am grading them this week and then I will post pictures of their work. For right now, I will post my scoring rubric.
My second creative project that my students are working on is called a Civil War WebQuest. I worked on this during my Masters classes at Truman State University with a few friends. The link to this site is
Civil War WebQuest. On the site, it includes the introduction to get the students focused on the time period. Then, it lists the tasks the students will complete. The details for those tasks and resources are included on the process page. The website we created also included the evaluation procedures and how students are to be graded. We have been doing this activity in class and the kids are really in to it. I let them choose which type of person they wanted to be from the Civil War and do their research for about a week. After they had found fifteen relevant facts, they started to work on their journals. In these journals, they had to use those facts to create five journals from the perspective of their person. It was so interesting to see how they linked their facts. This week they will be working on the Dinner Party script, in which students from four different perpectives will have a conversation about what and how they think the Civil War is going and how they think the war will end from each of their sides. I can't wait to see how this goes! :)
Next week, look for some organization tips that I have created! Until next time, farewell!
