Sunday, November 9, 2014

Day of the Dead Skeletons

       At the beginning of November, as close to Nov. 1 & 2, I have my students celebrate Dia de los Muertos or the Day of the Dead, a Mexican celebration.  The students bring in a shoe box filled with personal items of the person whose life they will celebrate.  The shoe box becomes a little altar.  The altar is covered with a small cloth such as a napkin, towel, handkerchief, etc.  A picture of the special person who has passed away has a prominent place on the altar.  Candles and flowers decorate the "altarcito" or little altar. 
       I have the children research the life of this special person.  Favorite foods, pets, hobbies, are among the researched topics.  We want to find out as many interesting things about the person.  The students ask their families about any funny or amusing stories involving this special person to tell the class.  They try to make a mental picture finding out if they wore glasses, had a beard or mustache, or wore earrings or necklace.
     The kids make little skeletons for the celebration.  These hopefully remind us of their happy life.




The skeletons are run off on card stock and stand up.  As you can see, each skeleton is the same shape and size but completely individualized.


Tuesday, October 28, 2014

5th Grade Tepee

        Several years ago I bought a pattern and several yards muslin from JoAnn Fabrics to make a tepee for my classroom. Needless to say, I ran out of time.  I went to a Parent Group meeting and asked for a volunteer to help out.  One of our wonderful parents came to my rescue. She cut out the pattern and sewed the tepee.  I purchased six PVC pipes to become the tepee.
       My students have worked in the tepee every year during the unit on Native Americans.




Thursday, October 23, 2014

Book Worms and Library Books

        Last year my students made bookmarks to give to new students coming to St. Michael School.
I had scrap felt left over from making puppets.  We decided to make bookworms.  The kids cut wiggly worms and glued on googly eyes.

 
       I tried to organize my classroom library to help my students find books.  Then they can return the books to the correct shelf for the next person who wants to read that book. 




          The children can check out any book.  They use the binder for this.






Wednesday, October 22, 2014

5th Grade Weavers

     As part of learning about the Pueblo Indians of the desert Southwest, we learned that these native people wove cloth on looms.  This was our inspiration!  I have an old Fisher Price loom that I found at a garage sale years ago.  I have students take turns on this loom. 






    Some of my students brought in to school a lid from a shoe box.  This was the basis for our loom.  I cut slits in the two ends of the lid with a mat knife.  Then the students
strung the warp strings of yarn.


     Each student chose a color yarn to weave with.  The weaving took off!    


    Lunch recess can be very educational and  creative!

Saturday, October 18, 2014

Interactive Notebook - Plains Indians

        To continue the unit of study on the Native American Indians we added to our interactive notebook pages.  I found an illustration of the inside of a buffalo hide tepee.  We used this as the base page for the Plains Indians.

      The students highlighted the information that is written around the outside of the tepee and drew a
highlighted line to the specific piece that could be found inside the tepee.

  The outside of the tepee was cut and glued as a flap onto the base page. Some students choose to color the outside of the tepee.
    We do have a tepee in our classroom.  Two students can sit and work in the tepee at a time.

      This section was added to our Climate Regions page in our notebooks. My students are really getting into drawing as part of  Social Studies class.  My hope is to use many different strategies to engage  many different  learners.

Saturday, October 11, 2014

IOWA Tests

     This week our students worked on IOWA tests.  We mixed in many brain breaks from, the Learning Station,  Gonoodle, and You tube videos.   On Friday we ended the week with a movie for each class.  My kids watched "The Muppet Movie".  They even sang along with many of the show tunes. I can always count on Kermit to save the day or week.

       Along with the IOWA tests, the Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Detroit give a test on Catholic Beliefs and Traditions.  After all these tests, they earned some down time.
       We will get back to our regular schedule on Monday with homework and everything back to normal.

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

POWTOONS

     I found an interesting website, powtoon.com.   The website makes enhanced powerpoint presentations and videos.  It is very user friendly and free.  You can  naturally upgrade to
obtain more graphics, transitions, etc. for your presentations. Many premade presentations
that can be edited easily.
    We were working on an exploration unit.  As a evaluation of the studens' knowledge I had groups of students make a PowToon presentation.  The kids were very pleased with their efforts.


     This is the final image of a short video that I put together. Sorry it is blurry, but I snapped the picture of my computer screen.   If I can do this, anybody can!

Have you used Powtoons?

Leave me a note. I'd love to hear your ideas.

Friday, September 19, 2014

Illustrations of Environment regions

        This week we talked about four different environments in North America and how the Native Americans adapted to them.  I always tell my kids that a picture is worth a thousand words.  Some students have difficulty expressing themselves in writing.  So we usually take notes with some form of illustration  to make the information more understandable.
     Here are some of their illustrations of grassland, mountain, desert, and Arctic regions that my students worked on this week.



      The paper was divided into four sections.  A sentence or two was written beneath each illustration to add information.
       We are on the same hall as the second grade.  The teachers have the 2nd graders come out and "Read the Hall".  My students were very excited to know that their work would be teaching younger students about Social Studies.  That is why we used our "best first grade printing to do this assignment.
    


5th Graders love rugs

       Last year I asked parents of my 5t graders to donate small bathroom rugs for use in the classroom.  The 2nd and 3rd graders used rugs in their rooms reading rugs in their Daily 5 program.
Why not 5th grade rugs?  In my class the students are able to choose a rug and use it as a chair cushion.  Wouldn't you rather sit on a nice soft rug than a hard plastic school chair?  Many students need the tactile experience of sitting on a rug.

      Our 5th graders also have time to read or work in groups in the hallway or on the stairs.
These small rugs are perfect instead of sitting on the cold hard floor.


    Many thanks to the parents of St. Michael School.  They are always there to support us in any way that they can.
 Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Teacher Hair Styles

     You know it is hot and humid in Michigan when a teacher puts her hair up in a binder clip.
What ever works!
     Yes, that's me!  Quite fashionable!  I always make a fashion statement. 



Saturday, September 6, 2014

Fold the Flock



    September 4, 2014 marks  the Centennial of the last passenger pigeon in the world.
Her name was Martha an she lived in the Cincinnati Zoo. The Green Team of St. Michael School
had their first meeting this morning. The Green Team members watched  a video. In her honor we made Origami birds. Some of the students took their Martha home.  Other students donated their
Martha to the school.  The birds will be hung in the cafeteria from our trees.

   You can read all about Martha and her flock and make a Martha at home.
    foldtheflock.org