Performing the Declaration of Independence

For the last two months of school our students have spent a great deal of time studying the events that lead up to the Revolutionary War.  

We played a game, created  by Mission US, called "For Crown, or Colony?"  Throughout this game our students had to take the role of the main character Nathaniel Wheeler, who is a teenage boy moving from his families farm outside of Boston, MA to Boston to become a printer's apprentice.  Throughout the six levels of the game students make choices which determine if they will become a patriot, a loyalist, or a neutralist.  

During the playing of this game our students kept a paper journal in which they had to respond to daily prompts.  We used this journal to practice 1st person and historical fiction writing.  By far, we received some of our best writing products all year with this project.

Once we finished our Nathaniel Wheeler journals we used our textbook for a couple more discussions on events between the Boston Tea Party and the Second Continental Congress.  At this meeting of delegates, the men declared that they must "Hope for Peace" but "Plan for War."  They also began having Thomas Jefferson draft the Declaration of Independence.  

We watched a video featuring several well known actors and actresses recite the entire Declaration of Independence: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYyttEu_NLU.  In this retelling, Morgan Freeman told our students that the declaration was origianlly written in a way that was meant to be performed.  Our students had asked for a play here and there throughout the year....now they wanted their chance with only 2.5 weeks of school left.  

They received their parts last week Monday (May 13).  We did set creation and recording this past Tuesday and Wednesday.  Immediately following the recording our school LMS took individual and groups of students to create the final product.  Keep in mind, this was all put together in less than two weeks by 25 passionate fifth graders.  We proudly present to you, our rendition of the Declaration of Independence:



On a final note, today our students reflected on what they learned this past month or two about the Declaration of Independence in their Google Drive.  Their prompt was "What does the Declaration of Independence mean to me?"  In what our students wrote, it seems clear they now have a much better, more real life, understanding of the importance of the Declaration of Independence and our upcoming summer holiday, July 4.

P.B.I.S. Field Day 2013

This afternoon the entire student body got to take part in a field day to recognize all of their hard work this entire school year.  It was very hot!  That said, we still had a lot of fun and enjoyed a great afternoon outdoors.  Check out our video to see what we all got to do:

Fun with Probability Plinko - The Probability is Right!

The end of the year can be tricky when trying to maintain attention and excitement for everyday school activities.  Today, in math we tackled probability.  We were able to use the SMARTboard to display a six-sided dice and talk about the odds of landing on a particular number.  We also played with a 10-quadrant spinner and, again, chatted about the odds of landing on a particular space.  We should have captured that on video, because there was some genuine excitement for determining the odds of choosing the right number or space.  We ended today with a game that we came upon today: Probability Plinko - The Price is Right!  As you can see in our video...WE HAD FUN practicing probability.  Hoping for 9 more fun filled days of school...single digits...can you believe it!?

Motion and Design: Wind Powered Cars Challenge

Today in science our students had the task of creating wind powered cars, which was perfect since we had a nice wind blowing (from time to time).  They had about 20 minutes to design and test their vehicles.  We had a couple races afterward for the fun of it.  Luckily, one of our students used an iPad during the building, testing, and racing to capture some photos and videos.  Afterward she created the following movie using iMovie.  Check out our fun, in the sun (and wind), science lesson:

Displaying Student Work with Picasa Web Albums

This week we had multiple assignments where in the end students published their final works on Picasa Web Albums.  Those assignments were both a representative flag of the Second Continental Congress' belief that the colonists had better "Hope for Peace, Plan for War."  In our research of this saying, we learned that few examples exist which depict this slogan.  So, our students made their own flags, which can be seen in the following web album:

Hope for Peace, Plan for War Flags

Along with each flag students had to write a descriptive paragraph about their flag which stated why they chose a particular symbol and used certain colors.  

This week our students also created color poems.  Their color poems had to be about one specific color, and spoke about what that color reminded them of, what it smelled like, tasted like, sounded like, and more. Once students completed their color poem they entered them into Tagxedo, which is a word cloud generated.  This generator is unique in the fact that it creates clouds that can be formed into specific shapes.  Students had fun with the clouds, but the goal was to see if their color was the word that appeared to be the largest on the cloud.  As you can see in the following album, most of our students colors will jump out at you...the clouds are pretty artistic as well:

Color Poem Word Clouds

Enjoy!

Final "How To's" Using iMovie App

On Monday our students were given the task of creating a "How To" video describing how to make our simple car for science.  The video had to include images, text, videos, voice overs, and music.  The deadline was today.  That said, students had just under 1 hour per day to go from nothing to a finished product.  

Drum roll....

Group 1


Group 2


Group 3


Group 4


Group 5

Group 6


Group 7

PBIS Raffle Tickets and Prizes

Towards the end of the month all of the students at Glenbrook Elementary will have the opportunity to entry raffle drawings for TONS of really great prizes (some of which are visible below). 

Throughout the entire school year, as a part of our school's PBIS initiative, students have earned Knightly Notes for good behavior and academics.  Each month our students have been able to cash in their notes for in class rewards.  For every 100 notes turned in, we have earned 1 Glenbrook Ball.  When the ball bin reaches the blue line (you can see in the background of the picture below), with the help of ALL Glenbrook students, we have an all school celebration.

Today, students could turn in Knightly Notes for raffle tickets.  

After a lot of counting, we accumulated a total of 2,245 tickets turned in today!  That is our classes record.  As a class, we earned 22 Glenbrook Balls for the entire school.  Our students are very proud of their hard work!  Some students in particular turned in TONS of tickets.  Our highest two turned in 540 and 610 tickets, good for the amounts below:

Congratulations to ALL of our students for displaying their hard work today!  They have earned what they received.  Hopefully there will be plenty more Knightly Notes to come, considering we had 2,245 turned in today!

How To's with iMovie

Today we began the final portion of our "How To" writing projects.  Students will be creating an iMovie using an iPad which both tells and shows how to create a simple car they regularly use in their Motion and Design science unit.

This morning we began with one of our students, on the spot and with no preparation  teaching her classmates (and MOSTLY her teachers) "HOW TO" use iMovie.  After she taught how to use the trailer portion of iMovie, as a class we decided that the project portion might work better.  On a side note, more times than not, this on the spot teaching by peers offers SO MANY additional benefits to the classroom.  Why don't we do this more!?  Check out our teacher in training below:

Then, with very little instruction, we sent our groups off to work, using our set of seven iPads.  In just 25 minutes students created quick plans of action and began working.  Even better, after LEAP they were begging to keep working.  This time of year, there is no point in slamming on the breaks when a school writing/technology project has momentum!  Check out what this looks like for most of our students (the Chromebooks were used to look at original written directions on a Google Doc):

SMARTboard 3D Manipulatives

Check out how we are using SMART Notebook's (SMARTboard) 3-D manipulatives.

The shapes were downloaded from SMART Exchange (one slide at a time).  I pasted each slide into a new presentation.  Students then were able to manipulate the object using the SMART cube.

Definitely a fun way to engage students in prisms, pyramids, cones, and cylinders!