One week before the end....of third quarter!

It is so hard to believe that we are almost at the end of third quarter.  It has been a great quarter.  One of may favorite to teach for both 5th and 6th grade.
Here's an update of what we have done, and what is left.


6th Grade Literature:
In 6th grade literature this quarter we read historical fiction as well as biographies.  We read some great stories from our anthology book including on about the City of Pompeii.

Then we moved on to Number the Stars, a classic historical fiction novel about the Holocaust from Lois Lowery.  It is an amazing book and we had great discussions.  We are finishing work on on our final projects for the book.
The book and vocabulary test will be next week Tuesday and Wednesday.  We will present projects as well.  As part of each projects, students produced a 30 second Animoto video based on their research.  Look for those to be linked on the blog.

Right now, we are also watching the news reports that go along with 3rd quarter book report.  They are well done and truly show some talent and effort!

5th Grade Language Arts:
5th grade this quarter investigated Fantasy books and stories.  We began with a unit on Chris Van Allsburg picture books and then moved into The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis.  Even though some students had read this book, it was a wonderful class read.  Again, we had great discussions about this book, and we really enjoyed the comparisons we made with the Bible.
The final test and movie are end of this week.  Next week we will begin the project that goes with this book.  We will be creating a Narnia Class Newspaper.

We have also been listening to presentations of book reports.  As we finish those they will be hanging in the hallway.

In the hallway also look for our class versions of the picture book Tuesday.  Each student wrote one page of this fun book of pictures.  It was a great way to use our imaginations and practice using adjectives.

5th Grade Social Studies:
We are marching through history.  Chapter 11 was spent investigating the Loyalist side and the Patriot side of the debate for Independence.
Just this week we held a live debate, where the students took on the roles of historical characters, reporters, and public relation agents.
They debated the question of Independence and both sides had good arguments.  The debates were recorded and may be published to disc.  Stay tuned for details.