Yesterday we started reading The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger. Today we were reading a selection where characters talked about learning to dance the Twist by Chubby Checker. After asking the class, I was shocked to learn that no one had heard of the twist or realized what was going on in the book when they danced the Twist. So...I searched YouTube and found a recording of the Twist and had the students dance to it, just like the characters in the book were doing. While we danced, I took a picture of the screen and tweeted (yes, I utilize Twitter as a teaching resource!) the picture to the author, Tom Angleberger (@OrigamiYoda). Within a few minutes, he responded back and I was able to share, although it was short, with my students how easily we can connect with authors and experts. I think it is a great opportunity to show students how quickly and easily our voices can be shared in appropriate ways. Below is the short exchange between myself and the author of Origami Yoda! This week was a very exciting week for several reasons, but one of the great things our fifth graders experiences was our introduction to blogging. Next week our student created blogs will go live, but I'm getting a little ahead of myself. On Wednesday, we started talking about blogs in general and what our students knew about blogging. We identified the idea that people write blogs because they are passionate about something and want to share it with an audience that is likely passionate about similar things. We also identified a few real world blogs as examples and watched a short informational animation from Common Craft explaining blogs. We then identified our own passions and began our own writing about our passions. On Thursday, we examined the design of blogs and noticed that it often highlihgted the topic and title, with different elements to draw the reader's attention, such as images, videos, biographies, and more. However, we made a big deal out of remembering that the writing is what is most important. We then spent time adding our writing to a poster to design our paper blogs to connect to our passions. Friday was the big day! We talked about commenting on work, telling a story to initiate a response from the audience, and what good quality commenting was all about. We then spent time moving around the room reading and commenting on each others' paper blogs. Students were quietly moving through the room reading and writing without any prompting from me! A teacher's dream! It was an amazing day and we are fired up to start our real blogs next week. Stay tuned for more ways to connect with our learning!
Today was International Dot Day! Our fifth graders read The Dot and Ish by Peter Reynolds and had a discussion about what it means to have someone believe in you and what it means to make your mark on the world. We talked about how even if it seems like just a little mark, it can make a difference to the world. We connected with the day by creating our own dots and viewing them using the colAR app. Below is a short slideshow of some of our creations! This week we spent time learning and exploring the scientific method and how we use it often in everyday life. We also explained how games are a great example of the scientific method in action. We used the game Launchball to show how we use the scientific method as we solve puzzles and problems. Have your student show you launchball and how to explain each step using the scientific method!
This year, fifth graders will be active participants in the writing process by creating their own personal blogs to share and respond to writing throughout the year. It is something I am very passionate about and it has been an effective part of our writing curriculum as it gives students a huge sense of ownership and choice and gives a large audience to which their writing will be delivered and read. Last week our fifth graders went outside and made observations of the world around Explorer Elementary. We recorded observations and classified our observations in a variety of different ways. Then we created posters to show what we did. Below is a slideshow of our creations. We hope you enjoy! Check out the link to the Facebook post I made on our class Facebook page about our social contract! Post by The Braman Bunch. |
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