Figurative Language in Music Created by 5th Graders

5th Graders worked very hard 3rd Quarter creating some videos to show what they know about Figurative Language.  Go check out our 5th Grader's website to see what they created!
Also, I included the planning sheet they used as well as the grading rubric for the projects!

5th Grader Blog Post about Figurative Language Videos

ScribbleMaps in 5th Grade

ScribbleMaps

5th Grade Tech and Social Studies Project

The thing I like most about my job as a Technology teacher is doing cross-curricular projects.  I haven't gotten to much of these types of projects yet this year because we have spent a lot of time in both 5th and 6th grade talking about Digital Citizenship and for 5th grade especially, learning the ins and outs of their laptops.  This is the first year that 5th grade is 1:1 with their own MacBook Airs here at Postville and after we got the basics down we have been able to move into really using our computers to learn, as opposed to learning to use our computers.

For the first cross-curricular project in 5th grade this year, I connected with our 5th/6th grade Social Studies teacher to see what they were learning in 1st quarter and to figure out a way that I could take that topic and extend their learning in a techie/fun/creative project.  As it turns out, they were learning about Native American regions in the United States.  I thought this would be a great way to get some map and geography skills in as well as becoming experts on a particular Native American region from North America.

After doing some research online about different websites and apps we could use, I discovered ScribbleMaps.  It is a free tool (paid upgrade is available, but we didn't need it!).  I chose this because it allowed us to add text, pictures, and videos right to the map.  Here is the EXAMPLE that I created to show them.

Here are a few pictures of the kids working on their ScribbleMaps.

Before we started working on the maps, I created a folder in Google Classroom so they could all have access to the same documents to take collaborative notes.  In my classroom I have a range of student abilities from TAG students to Level 1 and 2 ESL students so the collaborative notes were very helpful to the students that needed some extra support. It really helped the ones that have a hard time finding information that is relevant in their online searches.

I am very excited to see their end results.  They will be turning them in tomorrow and I will have them each post it on their 5th Grade Blog.  Be sure to check back and see how they turned out.  They would love some comments and feedback as well.  I always comment on them, but it seems to mean so much more when it comes from someone else. 

Genius Hour with a Twist of Humanity

Today was the day my 5th and 6th graders have been IMpatiently waiting for since we came back to school the first week in January.  We started our second semester Genius Hour projects.  Well, we didn't actually start the projects yet, but we did start some brainstorming.  Some of them tried to start their projects already and I really had to rein them back in to remind them that first they needed to make a solid plan, give their Proposal Presentation, then they could get to work on the actual project.

For this being the first year that I have ever done Genius Hour, I really am impressed with how well my students did with it.  We had a few kinks to work out on their end as well as mine, but I feel like we are more ready than ever to get things rolling again.  Some of my students were already asking me about when we were starting Genius Hour again the SAME DAY we gave our Final Presentations back in December.  They already had ideas rolling around for what they thought they wanted to do before the ink had even dried on their rubrics from the first one!  Now, I didn't give them much to go off of except I told them we would indeed be doing a Genius Hour project for the 2nd semester and that it would be "slightly" different this time.  I loved that the suspense was killing them all over winter break!

So, what surprises did I spring on them today?  First, I said they had the option of working in a group of 2-3 students for the project.  That was almost enough to put them over the edge with excitement on its own.

After they took a minute or two to exchange glances around the classroom and give each other "the look" that meant they wanted to work together on this project, I hit them with change number two.  This was the big one!  I told them all I still wanted to make sure they picked a project they were passionate about, something they were interested in and cared about, BUT it had to be Service Learning based.  From there I got a bunch of blank stares....

I did anticipate having to explain what service learning is to most of them, and I think by the time I had explained it and given a few examples, they really did understand what I was asking of them.  I think. We work on Genius Hour one day each week.  It is always the day (usually Wednesday) that we get out early which makes our class periods just under an hour long.  That in itself doesn't sound like too much, but when I do this with two sections of 6th grade and two sections of 5th grade, it gets to be a longer "short" day than a regular day is.  

My biggest take-away from our day today was the fact that after they understood, my students really did get right down to business and started making plans.  Here are some of the project ideas we have floating around in our classes right now:

• Volunteer at the animal shelter.
• Make bracelets with charms to sell to raise money for Autism (student has a cousin who is autistic).
• Make blankets to donate to the children's hospital.
• Create a video game to help students learn multiplication facts.
• Have a bake sale to raise money for Ebola research.
• Spend one class period a week going to read books with the preschoolers.
• Help teach the first graders how to code. (We use code.org)
• Create our school's own "Play it Again Sports" type store to share sporting equipment or gear.
• Plant trees and other landscaping around our campus.
• Go to play cards and games with residents at the nursing home.
• Volunteer to play games with a small group of kindergarten students once a week at the after school program.
• Be a "Lunch Buddy" with a child from the Day Care.

Over the course of the day it seemed like their ideas just kept getting bigger and better.  I can't wait to see what they have come up with by the time their decision needs to be made next week on Wednesday.  I will for sure be coming back with more posts about where our Genius Hour with a twist of Humanity takes us over the course of the next couple of months.  It's sure to be a great one!

The Chicken Mummies (Yes, that is plural, we have 2 chicken Mummies) *Part 1*

Who doesn't love learning about Ancient Egypt?  It is one of those topics that is easy to get kids engaged in because they all know just enough about it to have some background, but there are so many unanswered questions that it is intriguing to everyone from age 9-99!  I will still stop channel surfing anytime I click by a documentary about something Egypt related.  Granted, I may have a little bit of a bias because I spent 6 months there back in 2006 doing my student teaching....it was a very safe place at that time, even though my grandma was very nervous the entire time I was there.

I feel lucky to be a part of the 5th/6th grade team of teachers that work together so well because when the Social Studies teacher said they were starting to learn about Ancient Cultures in class and one culture they would spend a significant amount of time on was Ancient Egypt, I shoved my way right into that unit of study as the writing and technology teacher.  I brought a TON of my photo albums and scrapbooks, I shared items that I brought back from my time in Egypt to share with the students, as well as lots of stories because they had even more questions about what it was like there.  Among other things, I had the students take a virtual field trip of a few main attractions of Egypt, like walking inside Khufu's pyramid at Giza (which I have actually done in real life, but sort of prefer the virtual way because it was a lot less dirty and there wasn't anyone hassling us for money "baksheesh" on the virtual trip) from NOVA's Explore Ancient Egypt website.  They are also in the process of writing a research paper about an Ancient Egyptian topic of their choice and making stop-motion movie depicting something relating to their research topic.  But, aside from all those other things, I think the thing they are most excited about is making their own mummy.  I have two sections of 6th grade that I see every day and both classes are in charge of making their own "Chicken Mummy".

Let me start this out by saying I am not totally crazy, however, I have had a raw chicken sitting in my classroom, not refrigerated...just sitting out on a cart,  for the better part of two weeks now.  And we take it out every couple of days to re-salt it.  No stinking so far, I know that was what you were thinking....I'm pretty sure that is the concern that my principal had too, but so far so good.   *I have done this one other time a few years ago with another teacher, but this is my first time going at it alone.

Here is how the process has gone so far:
Day 1:
Bring whole raw chicken to school.
Bring LOTS of containers of salt.
Bring 1/2 as many containers of baking soda as salt.
Bring 1 container of rubbing alcohol.
Also, we needed gallon sized ziplock bags, gloves, and lots of paper towels and Lysol Wipes.

Adding salt inside and under the skin.

More salting and kids taking pictures with their phones as we work.

1. Let chicken soak in rubbing alcohol for 1-3 hours.
2. Drain chicken juice and completely dry off chicken (inside and out).
3. Weigh chicken. (ours was 6lbs exactly)
4. Watch 1/2 the students gag while other 1/2 of students ask if they can touch it.
5. Cut a few slits into "meaty" parts of chicken.
6. Cover and fill with salt/baking soda mix.
7. Make sure to shove salt/baking soda mix inside slits and underneath skin. (more kids gagging)
8. Place chicken inside gallon size ziplock bag, then place that bag inside another bag.

Putting King Cluck into his baggie.

King Cluck is all bagged up and ready for his first night of a salt bath.

For the first week or so, we cleaned off all the wet, mushy salt/baking soda mix everyday and replaced it with more. (By we, I mean the students.  After the first day I have been pretty much "hands off" and it has become their mummy.)  Each class has voted and decided on a name for their mummy also.  My first period class named theirs "King Cluck" and my 2nd period class went with "Johnny McCluckerton".

Currently we are down to only re-salting the chicken 1-2 times per week.  It is a LOT less "juicy" now than it was the first week or two.  It is also starting to feel a lot lighter.  We haven't weighed it since the first day, so we will have to do that again soon too.  This is still very much a work in progress, but so far, so good.  aka: My classroom has yet to smell like you would expect 2 week old unrefrigerated raw chicken to smell.

We have plans in the works for the TAG kids to make a sarcophagus and some canoptic jars and we also have plans for where our mummy will be entombed once the ground thaws in the spring....