social studies mentor text

Today I am linking up with Collaboration Cuties to share a Social Studies mentor text.  

Mayflower 1620 is a book that highlights what life was really like for the Pilgrims.  It is written in collaboration with researchers from Plimoth Plantation and National Geographic.  

The kids love to read this book because it shows both the Pilgrims' and Native Americans' sides to the story. We stop at certain points and debate from each group's point of view.  They learn how the different cultures interpreted the other's actions according to their own beliefs and the tension it created.  The book also has recipes of dishes that were served at the first Thanksgiving.  Some are similar to what we eat today while some are very different!

In addition to reading this book, we watch "The Mayflower Voyagers (This is America Charlie Brown)," which is entertaining but also pretty historically accurate!

Can't wait to see what everyone else uses for mentor texts and get some great ideas!

the i'm-sick-of-giving-quizzes 13 colonies quiz

I really didn't want to give a boring old memorize-the-13-colonies-there's-a-quiz-Friday quiz, but I did want to quiz them on the colonies.  So instead I posed the following scenario:

Imagine you are a mapmaker.  You were just hired by the King of England to create a map of the 13 colonies.  You have the correct shape of each colony and some rough reference maps to guide you.  Your job is to put the colonies together to make the first official map of the 13 colonies of the New World.

The kids worked very hard on this project.  And physically putting each colony in place was way more beneficial than trying to memorize their location.

Here is a finished map.  After they glued the colonies together, they labeled each colony and then color coded it by region.

Way more fun than a boring old quiz, right?

five for friday

I am excited to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for this Five for Friday linky party!  As this is my first Five for Friday, I didn't take a whole lot of classroom pics.  Note to self for next time.

                             



This week was a crazy one.  I was one sick puppy all week and the kids were jumping out of their skin with excitement for April vacation to begin.  But thankfully, we all made it through in one piece.



1. We continued our reading groups this week.  This is the second full week and so the kids are really getting   into them.  Below are the books we are reading:

                                           


                                   

In addition to reading their assignment, they all have to fill out a "Think Book" which helps them brainstorm topics to discuss when we meet.  One requirement is for them to record any new words they come across.  We discuss the strategies they used to discover the meaning or if they still don't know, we figure it out together as a group.  In particular, this set of books contain many words that are specific to the culture, location, or time period where the book takes place.  The kids are having fun pointing out these new words to their classmates.



2. We finished up our dividing fractions unit this week.  Since this was the last operation we studied on fractions, the kids had the chance to put them all together.  They worked in partners to solve word problems that included all operations on fractions.  To help them remember the steps, they used a top down web they created.

                                           





3. In Social Studies, we finished learning about how the 13 colonies were formed (I'll blog more about this later).  Instead of making them memorize the colonies, the kids learned where each one is located by piecing together their own maps.

4. A small group of teachers and I are training for the Tough Mudder in June.  We met a couple times after school this week to run together in addition to training individually.  It's so nice to have workout buddies!!

                                              

5. The third book in The Infernal Devices series came out last month, and I finally had the chance to begin it this week.  It's a young adult fantasy series and the second from this author.  I always like reading books that I know my students will be interested in because it makes my book talks much less contrived.  So I'll be excited when I finish this one and can add it to our classroom library. 

                                       

I hope everyone in the New England area has a wonderful April vacation!!

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.