Day of the Dead

Silly Skeletons          

for 

Day of the Dead

          Each year my 5th graders have a Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead celebration as close to Nov. 1 and Nov. 2 as possible.    The students pick a person whose life they would like to celebrate.     The families talk about the aspect of their life and what the person looked like.      I have the students complete a research sheet to have all the details in one place. 

        We make little paper stand up skeletons for each person's life that we celebrate.    The instructions were to give the person a silly hat to wear and something that they liked, such as a favorite food or candy, in their hand.    You can see that the students had talked to their parents and knew about each person.

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for the 
Five for Friday Linky Party -

www.doodlebugsteaching.blogspot.com 

     The students bring in a shoe box to make a small altar for the celebration.
A picture, candle, flower, and decorations are placed on a small piece of cloth used as an altar cloth. 

     Each child has a turn to speak about their person.     I encourage them to tell a funny story about this person.    This takes their minds off the fact that the person has passed on before us.

          This year I worked with the Art teacher to have the students make skeleton masks or sugar skulls.     In Mexico and Mexican neighborhoods in the United States, small and large skulls are made out of sugar for the Dia de los Muertos celebration.     It was a great lesson in symmetry.      Here are some examples of their sugar skulls.     The students used construction paper, crayons, and markers.

Please leave a message or comment if you get a chance.

Enjoy the beautiful day!

I have linked up with Teaching blog Addict for Freebie Friday.

Check out all the great ideas this week. 

www.teachingblogaddict.blogspot.com 

It's never too early to prepare for our Halloween activities.
Happy Halloween to all!

Beti 

Pueblo Project

  Southwest
Native American
Pueblo 

         All 88 of our 5th grade students participated in making our pueblo.  This project completed our unit of study of Early American Native Indian Tribes. My students didn't realize that this really was helping them study for their test. I didn't want to tell them or it would have spoiled the fun. The assignment for each child was to make a box, ladder, or kiva  for the desert southwest pueblo village.  I stressed that this was a child made project.

            
      
   

       This is only a small part of the items crafted by my 5th grade students this year.  Everyone had an opportunity to add something onto the pueblo because the Anasazi Indians  or the Pueblo People would have worked together to construct their pueblo to live in under rocky cliffs of the desert southwest region. 

        
      Here are close up pictures of the construction. Jello boxes, cardboard toilet paper rolls, and toothpicks were our building materials. Small pebbles and tiny twigs were added to the landscape after the building phase was completed.

          Many parents who come into the school commented on the pueblo project.  They were excited to see the results of the individual student work come together as a finished project.

       Finally,  I will have my students become TRAVELING HISTORIANS.  They will take the challenge, if they choose, to write about the pueblo and how the early Native Americans would have made it.  After reading over their information, students will be chosen to travel to other classrooms in the school, with the pueblo, to teach about the Indians of the Desert Southwest. By teaching others, my students don't realize that they are learning the information more in depth in order to to someone else. It is a win - win situation! My students get so much joy and and a sense of accomplishment by talking to the younger students about what they have learned.  The younger students learn that when they move into 5 th grade they will have these opportunities, too. 

      I have traveled to the southwestern United States and viewed some of the pueblos.    Exploring  the cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde was an experience of a lifetime.  Climbing a 30 foot ladder to get into the cliff dwellings was a real heart stopper.  My students are so intrigued that their pueblo looks so much like the real pueblos. 

       This project is so much fun for the kids to make in school. Every time it turns out to be different but yet the same. The great thing is that nothing has to be perfect.  Give it a try in your classroom. You won't be disappointed.

        
       Thank you parents for bringing your children to St. Michael Catholic School.  You are doing a great job raising incredible young ladies and gentlemen.  It is a real pleasure to teach our children each day.


 Please leave a comment if you have a moment, I'd love to hear from you.

Beti

Puppets

 Puppets, Puppets, Puppets!

            I have made puppets with my 5th graders for at least the last 15 years. It was a year long project starting with the collecting of the light bulbs and culminating with puppets shows for  parents and doing traveling puppet shows for other the students in our school. 
   
             I retired last June.  My friend, Cindy, switched grades and took over teaching my 5th grade classes. Cindy wanted to continue making puppets this year if I would come in and walk her through the  process of paper mache', painting the faces, gluing on the hair, beards, and mustaches, designing and making the clothing.   I had a great time working with the kiddos and being able to leave the mess (only kidding) behind. 

          When working with the paper mache', I found that most of the students had never used the paper mache' paste or art paste.  Many of the kids would be upset the first time they touched it. The paste feels quite slimy and some children didin't like that sensation on their hands.  So, I always try to make a joke of it and say it feels like slime or snot.  Of course, all the kids make a awful noise but are intrigued. I tell them to only put two fingers in the paste at first. It gets most of the kids over that first touch and things go smoothly after that.
  
        After we have completed the first two coats of paper mache', the kids want to wash their hands. I tell them to rinse off their hands with water only.  If you wash your hands with soap you will make an incredible amount of bubbles. One of the boys came back after cleaning his hands.  He stated that his hands felt like "Grandma Hands", meaning they were so very soft.  I had to laugh.

        Here are some of the finished products.  I just love them.  Every year the students manage to amaze me with their creations.

Doesn't she have the most precious face?

His necklace adds a sparkle to his face.

His eyes and eyebrows intrigue me!

The green dress brings out the color of her eyes.

                    I love the expressions on their little faces. Everyone is different with hair and eye color, beards, eyelashes, and smiles.


                Just in case you were wondering about the style of clothing , the puppets represent people from the Bible. The women are wearing a veil, crown, or some kind of head covering.   Some of the Bible stories presented as puppet shows were Noah's Ark, David's Giant Faith, Jonah and the Whale, Moses and Water from the Rock, Jacob and Esau, and  The Birth of Moses to name a few.

             Making these darlings is a long process, but very rewarding for the students in the end. I do hope Cindy will continue to have the kids make puppets in the future.

     
 I have  linked up with 4th Grade Frolics. Please stop by to see her new classroom for the fall.
www.4thgradefrolics.blogspot.com
    

 Please leave a comment if you have a spare minute. I'd love to read your thoughts.



Beti

Skype Field Trip- Boston Tea Party

 Boston Tea Party

           As part of the 5th grade curriculum we study the events that lead up to the American Revolution.  We wanted to take our classes to Boston for the day.  The Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum was the perfect place to go.  Of course living in Michigan, the cost would be prohibitive to take all 91 students to Boston for a field trip.  A skype field trip with Boston Tea Party and Ships Museum would be a perfect choice. 

        All of our 5th graders dressed in colonial outfits in order to feel like they were part of the Tea Party. Students got a chance to interact with the historians in Boston. Each student played the part of a historical person who took part in the town meeting at the Old South Meeting House in December.

  
     As you can see, the students could individually talk to the presenter in Boston while the rest of the class could watch on the large screen. The museum sent us scripts for the students. This young man is holding his script.  In this way, when the historical person is called on to speak at the "meeting in Boston" each student responds as the person in history would have responded.

           Some students dressed in a more casual style of the typical colonial man, while others chose a outfit to represent a wealthier Bostonian citizen. As you can see in the following pictures, all citizens of Boston were represented. 

     

        Of course, there had to be refreshments.  All of our colonists drank tea and eat short bread cookies.

 Gentlemen from Boston gathered to discuss the events that took place in Boston. Here are two gentlemen dressed as Native Americans.  Could they possibly be on their way to Boston Harbor?

         A large group of colonists, ladies and gentlemen, gathered under the Liberty Tree after the skype.

The Sons of Liberty were very excited that day, planning to dump the tea into Boston Harbor.  Huzzah!

    Do you have your students wear costumes on a special day?

   Do you have any skype field trips with your class or school?

       Today I am linking up with the Five for Friday weekly linky party with Doodle Buds Teaching.

                       www.doodlebugsteaching.blogspot.com                      

Send me a comment if you have a spare minute. I love to read your comments.

Beti

Miracles of Jesus Books

                By teaching Religion I can incorporate writing skills that are so very important in 5th grade.  One chapter in our Religion book concerns the miracles of Jesus.  We spend a day reading many miracle stories from the Bible.  
            To involve my students in really knowing these stories I have them write a miracle story in the words that a younger student would understand.  
The story is broken up into six parts or simple sentences. Vocabulary is changed to text readable for 1st and second grade students.  The great thing is that the 1st and 2nd graders are learning these same stories in their Religion classes at this time of year. 
             Illustrations are drawn and the text is typed into a word document. 
The text for each page is typed  so it can be cut and glued to the correct page. 
Laminating and binding is done to complete each book.

Calming of the Sea

 The Paralytic Man

 
          The best part of this project  for my students is to take their book to a Kindergarten, first, or second grade class and read their story. My 5th graders become traveling story tellers. They are very eager to share their work and knowledge to younger children.  
       Finally, the books are given to the first grade classes to keep in their classroom libraries. These stories become well read and loved by the younger students.  As the years go by, these students remember reading these books and are eager to write a story of their own in 5th grade.
       I love this project is cross curricular and can be used on so many levels.

Please leave a comment if you have a spare minute in your busy day. I really enjoy reading your comments.

Have a marvelous Monday and a blessed day!