classroom court case

The other day I was cleaning my desk (a rare occurrence) and I found a letter from a couple of my students. Now, to understand the letter, I first need to give you a bit of background:

1. We have a classroom economy in my class where kids apply for classroom jobs and then are paid weekly in classroom money.  They can buy homework passes, lunch parties with me, and raffle tickets for prizes.  They can also be fined for calling out, losing worksheets, whining, etc.  
2. Some of my kids have created book companies and are selling their published work to each other for classroom money.
3. LW Books is owned by two boys.
4. NNE Books is owned by three girls.

Okay, back to the letter.

Dear Mrs. Eddy,

We feel we have the right to sue LW Books.  Emily willingly bought one of our "How to Survive School" books.  LW Books writers came up to us and told us that they told Emily to write a bad review on "How to Survive School."  We feel we have the right to sue LW Books for this. We would also like you to know that we have hired Connor as our lawyer.

Sincerely,

NNE Books

Well, at first I told NNE Books that they didn't have a right to sue because Emily has the freedom to write whatever she wants.  But then I thought about it a little.  LW Books hired Emily to write the review and because of this, other kids aren't buying books from NNE.  Well I am no legal expert, and so I emailed my sister (who is a lawyer).  Turns out that NNE Books does have a case!  So I decided that we would wrap up the year by pulling together many of the writing skills we have learned and put together a mock trial.  My sister has volunteered to help each side with preparing their case, and then she plans to come in and oversee the trial.  Ahhhh!  This is going to be great.  I simply cannot wait!

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5th graders debate

This week in Social Studies, my co-teacher, Mrs. G, and I gathered our classes together and traveled back in time to the Tower of London in 1607. Our task was to decide on the best candidate to lead the colony of Jamestown in the New World.
We began by gathering for the entrance of King James into our court. In case you can't tell, that's "God Save the Queen" playing in the background.

Then the teachers took turns announcing the directions in our best attempt at a British accent. Unfortunately for you (and fortunately for me), I don't have video of this since I was participating. But let's just say it's a good thing our superintendent (who is British) wasn't there to witness this part!
Then the kids got to work evaluating each candidate according to the following criteria: bravery, experience in the new world, leadership experience, and connections in court.

After each group narrowed down their choice, they planned how best to persuade the king to pick their candidate. Then each group presented their argument in front of the king. Below is my favorite video of one of our students. Make sure to listen for his British accent...pretty good!!

After each group presented their choice, we opened it up for individuals to openly debate the candidates. We did this in a Quaker Meeting format which allowed for a calm, organized debate where everyone had a chance to speak their mind. You can see this in action below.

We had such a great time with this lesson: the kids learned a lot and were so well-behaved. It was fun to listen to everyone's attempts at speaking in a British accent! Some of them were awesome at it while others (like me!) you could not help but laugh at.