Rebecca Menser's blog

5th grade is having a great time with the culmination of their Patriots Vs. Loyalists Panel Debate to go along with our unit "To Declare Independence or Not"!  We prepared for this by learning about 3 famous Loyalists and 3 famous Patriots in America from about 1770 - 1775 and studying their viewpoints on whether or not the American colonies should declare independence.

5th grade took a "walking tour" of Colonial Williamsburg this week!  They visited different stations set up around the classroom such as the College of William and Mary, The Raleigh Tavern, The Slave Quarters, and Bruton Parish Church.  At each station, they found out about and recorded the importance of each location.  Then they completed an activity to go along with the place, such as copying a sentence with ink and a quill, learning a call and answer song written by enslaved Africans, Approving or rejecting government bills, and playing "The Royal and Most Pleasant Game of

5th grade had a very exciting workshop with the Bug Chicks!  This company makes educational videos and use insects and spiders as a vehicle to address common fears that young people struggle with such as self-esteem, educational potential, and prejudice.

The students learned all out different insects and where they are from.  They met some very interesting bugs such as a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach, a Chilean Rose Tarantula, and one of the biggest species of Scorpion in the world.  They even got to play with some hermit crabs.  The 5th graders' favorite part was

The 5th grade students just signed up for the MONSTERS 2010 Project!! Classes from all over the world, including Russia, Uganda, Lebanon, Australia, and Canada, are participating. Here is a description of this awesome global project taken from the website: (http://www.smithclass.org/proj/Monsters/index.htm#description-table)

"Elementary classes from the United States and around the world collaborate in this standards based project. After choosing a Monster part, each class writes a description of that part. After all descriptions have been sent in, each class builds a single MONSTER using everyone's descriptions from the table below. Students discover that designing and building a monster together is a very big job. It is a major lesson in working together and learning to compromise in a group decision process. For example, the kid responsible for the head has to plan with the kids doing the eyes, nose, neck, mouth, ears and hair. So kids must collaborate to construct their class MONSTER. The result is satisfying proof that a community of kids can accomplish anything!!"

The 5th Grade Language Arts and Social Studies students were very busy this week researching the different artifacts found in Native American Cultural Regions. Some of the most interesting artifacts they found were Totem Poles. The students are now creating their own lifesized Totem Poles with stories to go along with them!

In writing, the students used what they learned about the writing trait "word choice" to write a "mystery" description of an African Animal. They incorporated the different literary devices they learned from the novel

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