By the fourth week of school, our fifth graders have been on two (yes, TWO) field trips! Wow. The Ropes Course was scheduled in desperation...there were only a few slots available and the second week of school was the best fit for us! And it worked! :)
Cahokia Mounds was intentionally scheduled before we even dipped our toes into the curriculum. Why? Well, sometimes field trips can be boring if you go into it knowing all the information. Going before the unit allowed students to be more engaged and having the iPad Minis really helped, too!
Before going on the field trip, we have explored a really great Essential Question (EQ): What makes a community? This has been the question of our first quarter and it ties in really well with our first Social Studies unit of Native Americans. So to make the field trip experience a valuable one, we decided to have students take pictures of things that answered the EQ. Students truly were taking pictures and I'm sure that many people thought that we had brought 75 students studying to be the next generation paparazzi. When they returned to school, students were asked to make a collage with the pictures (using the Pic Collage app) they had taken that best answered the EQ.
Here is some of their work:
Do you notice a common string of pictures? :)
Now that we've seen what we are going to study, the students are able to draw from this valuable experience to help them navigate the information they will encounter about Cahokia.
Last week, students started learning about the history of Cahokia and were able to do so using the iPad Mini and the Google Drive app. Here is the Cahokia - History document that students saw and then responded to: Cahokia - History Google Doc
Students then picked an item that was important to the history of Cahokia and made a visual representation. Students, however, were not allowed to write anything down (no pens, pencils, markers, crayons, etc...), not allowed to use scissors, and had to use whatever was available to them in the classroom. Take a look at how creativity came into play!
Can you figure out what each display means and how it ties in with the history of Cahokia? (It might help to look at the Google doc and see what was mentioned by the students!)
I can't wait to see what students do create with the other disciplines of social studies!
What in the world are pluses and deltas? Is that what you were wondering? If you were, then read on! If not, well...you can still read on! :)
Once a week, our classroom partakes in a classroom meeting. On the board, students see a list of everything that happened that week in school. It's a great way to see what students enjoyed, what they learned from, and what they think needs to be problem-solved.
And here's how our very first classroom meeting went!
The blue plus signs were all the things that students enjoyed (they were allowed to provide two items that they enjoyed the most). As you can see, receiving the iPad Minis created quite the excitement in our class! The red checkmarks were the items that students learned the most from. In this picture, you can see that students learned a lot about themselves and how they are smart, whether that means they are body smart, logic/math smart, music smart, nature smart, people smart, picture/art smart, self smart, or word smart. (You aren't only one category of smart, but there tends to be one or two that really stands out! Ask your child for more information about it!) The yellow dots were the things that students felt needed to be improved. And although the iPad Minis caused quite a stir of excitement, it also caused the most problems for us in class! So we sat in a circle and talked about what the issue behind the iPad Minis might be and how we could solve the problems and make it a better tool for our learning community.
I have to admit, that is exactly what I wanted to talk about and I was really impressed when students were able to acknowledge that as well! We had to bring to light the fact that iPad Minis are not toys that we are playing with, but tools that will help support our learning in (and out) of our classroom. Of course that did not come out right away, but with the right steering and highlighting of the conversation from a special someone :), students were able to provide some suggestions for the following week.
It really was impressive to hear what students had to say and the amount of respect that was being shown around the circle. Great job, fifth graders! Way to problem solve!
In order to re-introduce (or introduce...) the scientific method to my students, I wanted to find a fun experiment that would get them thinking about all the steps. So I searched on Pinterest (yes, this is an addictive hobby...don't start unless you know what you're getting yourself into) and found the Great Egg Drop Experiment!
First, you have to ask a question. What do you want to know about? Why do you want to know it? The second step is to thenresearch your question. Has anyone asked your question before? What can you find out about your topic? Third step in the scientific method is to form a hypothesis. We understood the term hypothesis as not only a guess, but an educated guess based on what we researched and what we know. After forming the hypothesis, you need to test your hypothesis by designing an experiment and recording the data. Once you've performed your experiment, you need to analyze your data. Did your data match your hypothesis? And finally, you need to draw conclusionsabout the results. What did you learn? Was your hypothesis correct? What questions do you have now?
Students worked in groups to determine the answer to this question: Is it possible to drop an egg from the second story without it breaking? Some students went home and thought about it while others asked family members, friends, and/or neighbors. Students collaborated with their teams to come up with the best way to drop a raw egg from the top of the stairs and keep it from breaking! And boy, was there a lot of sketching, trials (without the egg), and so forth.
We concluded that it was possible to drop an egg without it breaking, but not every group was able to come up with a protective solution. Watch the video to see what happened!
Wow! It's been about a couple of weeks since my last update, but I have so much to catch up on! I can't believe that we are in the last full week of September. Life is moving way too fast!
About three weeks ago, we went on a field trip for Ropes Course.
Last year, we went at the end of the year so it was a surprise to me when we went at the end of the second week of school! Well, it was actually perfect timing because we have been learning about what it means to be a community and how we show respect to one another. All three classes were divided up into teams and had to work together on a number of courses set before them. As a teacher, it was really great to see most of the students working together and encouraging each other, before even really knowing each other. I think this may be something that we continue to do at the beginning of the year!
At my course, partners had to walk on two ropes diverging away from the base of the tree. They were face to face, hands clasped, and had to support each other as they walked on the ropes. Here, take a look!
What a great way to kickstart the year! Students learned to work together, encourage one another, and more importantly, have fun!
One year in Chicago, I received a Boundless Readers grant and having received this grant, I was given the opportunity to learn from some of the most amazing teachers in the district. I was focused on how we can get students to become better readers in one of the professional development sessions. One of the many take-aways from this session was this ever-changing anchor chart:
It provides the whole class with a number of suggestions if they ever run of books to read and it also gives me a quick assessment of what students are reading and how long they've been reading the same book. I hope that this is not a stagnant chart, but one that will be used to its fullest capacity!
Speaking of being readers...we tracked our reading stamina the first eight days of school. Here is what we saw:
We started reading with 22 minutes the very first day of school, without any interruptions, talking, getting up, etc... We had a hiccup the second day, but was able to learn from our mistakes and ended up reading for a total of 62 minutes the last day (not shown on graph)! Whoa, we definitely are or going to be readers in 5th grade!
Not only did we talk about being able to read for a long period of time, but we also talked about having the right fit book. We did an activity where we hid one of our shoes and someone else found it and...tried it on! Guess what? We don't all have the same size feet! Some shoes were too small, some shoes were too big, and some shoes really smelled! This demonstration helped us understand that there are books that are not the right fit for us and we have to find the books that match our reading levels!
My wonderful fifth grade team and I were very purposeful in the way we started off the year. We wanted to make sure that we explored the essential questions, "What makes a community?" and "What does the way I show respect say about me?" These are really key questions that we want fifth graders to think deeply about. So, we began the year with some community building activities that would really showcase how students will work collaboratively in our classrooms. And on top of learning about each other and teamwork, Robinson has a theme this year: GRIT. And what is grit? Well, grit is persevering through difficult tasks for a longer period of time. (If you have six minutes, watch Angela Lee Duckworth express the key characteristic that leads to success in her TEDTalk.) And our students are going to be learning to be "gritty" this year as we may present challenging content and material that they may first fail at! But that's okay! Because we have grit and we are going to persevere in order to be successful in the future.
So, have you heard about the Saving Sam and the Marshmallow Challenge activities?
Saving Sam was an activity that involved a gummy worm, a gummy lifesaver, a plastic cup, and two paperclips. A worm named Sam (gummy worm) had flipped its boat (cup) over and was trapped on top of the boat while his or her (well, worms are hermaphrodites) life saver (gummy lifesaver) was stuck underneath the boat. The goal of the students, in pairs, was to save Sam only using the provided paperclips. No hands, Ma!
Wow, did I see GRRRRRIT! At my first walk-around, I wasn't sure if anyone would be able to save Sam. They weren't sure how to save him/her and I heard a lot of questions like, "Are you sure this is possible?" "Are you sure I can't use my hands?" And then, miraculous things began to happen: partnerships were working together! Take a look!
Now, I had planned on debriefing about the teamwork and collaboration, but this activity led me to talk about GRIT. Why? Well, because I had a couple groups finish within the first five minutes of the activity. Then some of the other groups began trickling past the finish line. BUT I had three pairs still working even while we were debriefing the activity. And guess what? They were seriously frustrated...but they didn't give up! They kept on working because they knew that other groups had completed the task and they knew that it was doable! Wow, what grit!
I first learned about the Marshmallow Challenge from my administration at my last school. They brought in this exercise from TED (talks on riveting ideas: technology, entertainment, and design) to begin the conversation of collaboration, communication, the different roles that different people have on a team amongst the adults. This was such an eye-opening activity that I thought this would be an awesome way for students to be involved in that same conversations, hopefully preparing them for the teamwork and collaboration that would come throughout the year.
The materials that each team of four received were: 20 spaghetti sticks, one yard of tape, one yard of string, and one marshmallow. Each team only had 18 minutes to build the tallest freestanding structure with a few simple rules: the entire marshmallow must be on top of the structure, the structure can be made up of as many or as few of the materials provided, the spaghetti sticks, string, and tape can be broken/cut, and the structure had to be freestanding at the end of the 18 minutes.
Some began by drawing out a plan on paper. Other groups just began to build. Some groups naturally divvied up the roles, which included cutting the tape, providing/breaking spaghetti sticks, and etc... I would like to tell you that all groups succeeded in building a freestanding structure, but...only one group had succeeded. But I would not ask them to build me a building in the near future: their structure collapsed within a minute after being measured and declared the sole winner! Yikes!
VIDEO UPDATE:
We had to debrief, of course! We talked about the positives, things that went well. And I would agree with them that they were all engaged, working together, and communicating... But this activity, I heard and saw more disagreements break out and/or miscommunication in the groups. AHA! Finally a moment of failure for my kiddos to learn from! So when we debriefed the activity, we all agreed that we need to learn not only to communicate, but to communicate WELL.
This year is going to be full of so many challenges that I know at first, they may fail at. But with the lessons of grit we're learning and the support of many, we will succeed. Even if it takes five minutes or five months or five years. We will be at the finish line!
It's been about two weeks since my last post...it sure has been busy in Room 201 lately! But I thought I'd post some pictures before I start blogging meatier posts! I hope you enjoy!
Open House Photo Booth:
And two of my favorite pictures are posted next because these parents were brave enough to take photo booth pictures without their kiddos!
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