Back in Session!

It has been great having my fantastic 5s back again! I have been so proud of how well they have done with all the changes these past two days!...  LOTS to catch you up on! :)

On our first day back we went over all the "Fun Stuff" (rules and procedures)
*** WHAT'S THE RULE??

***BOYS VS. GIRLS CHALLENGE!!!
          A little friendly competition never hurt anyone!

*** Tickets, Tickets, TICKETS!!!
         The fantastic fives are now all about the tickets. Think of it like money. They can earn it, they can lose it, and they can spend it. I am trying to use this to teach them how to be responsible for their actions, think about the choices they make, and hopefully instill in them a little bit of money management skills.
                               ***Still under construction but we shall see how it works... So far so good!

                      (More about this to come)

***WRITING ASSESSMENT FEBRUARY  1ST!!
           Beginning yesterday the entire 5th grade has been working extra hard on "Beefing-UP" their writing. Students will break up into heterogeneously organized small groups to help target specific areas where the students need help in their writing. Thanks to many willing staff for taking time out of their day to help encourage and push our 5th graders to be the best writers they can be!


*** INVESTIGATION STATIONS!!
            I couldn't be more excited with how well my Fantastic 5s have been doing in their new Investigation Stations...

**** DO YOU KNOW THE FACTS??
           We are at it again! The fantastic 5s will continue to do their math drills....
                                             STUDY! STUDY! STUDY!

**** FRACTIONS, FRACTIONS, FRACTIONS!!!
            Yesterday we started with a review of fractions and then the Fantastic 5s were given an opportunity to use Fraction Tiles to help them solve a problem. It was a little harder than they thought but they did a great job.... steam was rising from their brains with the determination to solve the problem!

            Today we worked on Simplifying fractions. The students were given a problem and asked to find as many equivalent fractions as they could get. Some of them caught on rather quickly and soon became teachers themselves!




****THE MACHINE AGE (Late 1800s)
           The Fantastic 5s have been investigating the changes during the late 1800s. Today they were able to look at different inventions and ideas that were developed in the 1800s.

Here are four posters they made in their groups...


They then took a closer look at a few other inventions and how they changed the way people lived and worked.

In case you missed any of these lessons, take a look at the "Catcher-uppers" :)

*** Lots of Pics will be uploaded just as soon as I can get my camera to give them to me... It is being a little stingy today! :)

Talkin' Turkey!

My class has been working on figurative language. You might remember from another blog, that my class had a wonderful time writing about doughnuts.

My students had the best time with this, and they went on a small sugar high.

A co-worker of mine did a figurative language tree and with Thanksgiving right around the corner, I decided to take her wonderful idea and create a Thanksgiving turkey.

I have done this turkey with other classes before but this is the first time I have allowed the students to help with the entire thing. After talking about the different types of figurative language, the students were asked to write their own sentences on colorful feathers.

Once the feathers were complete, it was turkey stuffing time! The students cleaned out some of their desks and started stuffing!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!