1st Day of Fabulous Fifth Grade!!

We had a VERY successful first day of school today!  It was great to meet my new students!  I cannot wait to start working and having FUN tomorrow!  I put together a video of the Fabulous 5th Grade team to introduce ourselves to the kids!  ENJOY!

Moving on!

Well...it is official.  School is out for summer.  I am so proud of my 6th graders!  I know that they will go on to accomplish great things if they maintain their focus and work hard!  Many of you already know that Coach Wilkins and I will not be returning to Ed Willkie next year.  Coach Wilkins has been given an amazing opportunity and the move to Tolar is the best for our family!  I will never forget my Ed Willkie family but I am looking forward to this new chapter in our lives!  I will miss all of my students and co-workers!  Hope you all have a wonderful summer! 

Shoe Box Project

We have recently been learning about the regions of the United States.  The groups were assigned a region and they had to create a shoe box that displayed their region.  They were not allowed to put any letters, words, or phrases in their box.  They did a GREAT job!  Today we walked around the room and took a quiz using the region boxes.  Students had to look at each box and then write down the correct region.  It was FUN!  Check out some of the projects below and see if you can figure it out! 

THE USA!!

This six weeks we will be focusing on the United States!  We will have a quiz this Friday.  Students will need to label a blank United States map with abbreviations and full state names.  I have attached a link to a website that may help them! 

http://www.maps.com/games/jigsaw.aspx

http://www.yourchildlearns.com/mappuzzle/us-puzzle.html

Students I encourage to study and practice!   Good LUCK!

Globalization

This is the video we watched in class yesterday.  Remember the word globalization is misspelled! 

EXTRA CREDIT:   Yesterday we looked at the tags of our shoes to see where they were made!  Look at some of the labels around your house and post what you found below!

Economic Development

Last week, Mrs. Salas (our student teacher), began discussing economic development.  Students began working through a lesson to evaluate the economic development in Latin America.  This week the students will work in their group to developed a wall matrix about their assigned country.  I will post pictures of the wall matrixes at the end of the week.  We will also have a MAJOR test on Friday.  Mrs. Salas will develop a jeopardy game for students to study Thursday night.  It will be posted to my website. 

STUDENTS...we have been talking about economics for the past couple of weeks.  In Mrs. Ford's class you are researching a country and writing a paper about the country's economic system.  If you have Mrs. Ward you will begin this assignment this week.  I will award EXTRA CREDIT to those individuals who write a short post about their country.  I want to know the country's name and basic information about the country's economic situation. 

EcOnOmIcS!

This six weeks is all about economics!  Last Monday, when we began discussing economics we asked the students what they thought it meant.  Many students said money and a few said TROUBLE! 

The students will be learning about each type of economic system.  This week they will be watching a short clip from SHARK TANK and then developing a product with their table mates to present the the "Sharks" (the other students).  This will give them the experience of a free enterprise system! 

I have embedded the clip below!  I hope to see you all at open house!

Governments

This six weeks we have been covering all things GOVERNMENT!  The students have been gaining knowledge through readings and activities.  Students will be learning about the decision making process next week!  Hopefully this will help them learn not only how governments make decisions but how they can make decisions as well.  :)

Government Pictowords

Last week we read about the RISE OF DEMOCRACY.  The students were then given a pictoword assignment.  They had to create a pictoword (drawing and a word combined) for oligarchy, democracy, monarchy, and tyranny.  The picture needed to represent the definition of the word and be intertwined with the word.  Here are some great examples of some of the students work!  (Sorry some of the pictures are blurry).  REMEMBER THESE ARE DUE TOMORROW!!

GOVERNMENT!!!

The past two weeks we have been learning about the different types of governments!  We will have a test over the governments on Friday, January 26th!  Students need to study their foldable and the reading.  They need to know what each government is about and the advantages and disadvantages.  Students created a government foldable and participated in an activity in which they walked around the room and identified various governments of the world.  Here are a few examples of what we learned the past two weeks!

Monarchy

Dictatorship

Presidential Democracy

Single-Party State

Theocracy

Semester Exam schedule

We will begin taking semester exams tomorrow the schedule is listed below.  I will begin grading passports tomorrow as well.  Please make sure you study for your exam AND bring back your passport.  I have posted a Jeopardy review game on my website for reveiw purposes as well.  GOOD LUCK!!!

       WEDNESDAY                                                    THURSDAY

1^st   8:40-10:00     EXAM                                   3^rd  8:40-10:00     EXAM

2^nd  10:05-11:25   EXAM                                   4^th 10:05-11:25   EXAM

LUNCH   11:30-12:00                                         LUNCH 11:30-12:00  

3^rd 12:05-12:45   CLASS                                    5^th 12:05-12:45   CLASS

4^th 12:50-1:35     CLASS                                    6^th 12:50-1:35     CLASS

5^th 1:40-3:00       EXAM                                     7^th 1:40-2:40       CLASS

6^th 3:05-3:45       CLASS                                    8^TH 2:45-3:45       CLASS

                                                     FRIDAY

                                        6^TH 8:40-10:00     EXAM

                                        8^TH 10:05-11:25   EXAM

                                        7^TH 11:30-12:45   SACK LUNCHES IN ADVISORY  

WELCOME BACK and HaPpY NeW YeAr!!!

Welcome back everyone!  I hope you all had a wonderful winter break!  I know I did!  We will be jumping right in today and begin preparing for your semester exams!  I know that many of you need a refresher of all of the knowledge and information you have learned so far this year.  We will be taking semester exams January 11th - 13th.  I will post the exam schedule as soon as I get it.  I am so glad to have you all back and I am ready to get going!