No one questioned the 5th grade teacher asking for crime tape.  The community must have known that we were up to fun things again in 5th grade.  Something awful occurred prior to students arrival Wednesday morning  because when students came in there was evidence of a crime.  What on earth  happened?  The lunch tray and the spilled milk might have given it away.  

The purpose-- well we have been studying the point of view a story is told in. Today students were given the change to retell the store using only the clues given.  They had to use the evidence and create a scene that used first, second, and third point of view.  Students worked in teams to collaborate a story.  They were allowed to write the story, type it,  or video it.  The students seemed to really get into creating their own point of view's using our murder mystery.

We might be dancing a little today, and singing to the tune of the Black Eyed Peas.  Today we celebrate a new day! It's the beginning of our 2nd 9 weeks.  We all have A's!  We all have the choice to decide how successful we are. We all have clean slates.  Students reflected on things they did well, and things they can continue to work on.  We handed out new AR goals, and downloaded our new games.   Here's to the incredible quarter ahead.

This year 5th and 6th grade students are competing with each other in the first annual reading race.  Each class will be given one point for the completion of a reading Genre, as listed in their grade’s Book Challenge.Points will be tracked on our poster located by the library, as well as individual student accomplishments.  The grade with the most points will win.  In the event of a tie, the winner will then be determined by the number of students who completed the entire Book Challenge.  

The last month of school the points will be counted and the grade with the most points will receive a free lunch.  Lunch will include pizza, pop, and ice cream sundaes. in order for a student to relish in the victory, they must have earned a minimum of two points for their grade.  The losing class will have the honor of serving the winners at their victory meal.  

The entrance to the library displays our point board.  Students have taken selfies and each time they complete a genre their picture goes on the wall next to the genre badge.  5th grade prints in blue and 6th grade students are printed in yellow! From our picture you can see why I am pretty proud of my kids!
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May the odds be forever in their favor!  

This week students have been learning all about FAN BOYS.  We might also call them coordinating conjunctions.  We wanted a fun way for the class to practice quickly identifying them.  We cut up pieces of paper-- eight per sheet of paper.  Each student wrote down two coordinating conjunctions on their sheet and then filled the other six spaces with nouns and verbs.    We piled them together to make up a deck of cards and partnered up.  Students had a blast playing slap jack with them, all while learning to quickly identify FAN BOYS.

It was a week right out of an action filled, thriller movie!  Students spent a few weeks practicing their story telling skill by creating their own super hero story. They brainstormed.  They had to learn things such as the protagonist and antagonist.  They then had to develop a story using a plot summary.  I sused pieces from Nicole Shelby's Super Hero Unit fround at TpT's They wrote there stories and then they used an app from Marvel Comic to design their invented super heroes. Our halls have been the buzz for weeks as other kids read their stories and fall in love with new superheroes.

Our class has been practicing our research skills on the internet. We have been reading non-fiction texts to learn more about people who have contributed in some way to world peace.  Students have been working since 9/11 on a person of choice to research. They have worked alongside a partner to answer the following 3 questions:  who they are, where they were from, and what they did.  Each group then used Animoto to present the information to their peers. They spent time in class watching each others and voting on the best video and the best person.  Below are the class favorites!

This week we were introduced to helping verbs, linking verbs and action verbs.  We needed practice seeing them and reciting them. Students got to play with AutoRap to recall their verbs and recite them.  They had fun adding the beats and sharing each others.