SPRING BREAK!!!

     We made it to Spring Break!  This year is really flying by so quickly.  We can't believe that it is time for the last quarter of this school year.  (The weather outside has made it really hard to believe!)  This last quarter of school will go very quickly and have a lot going on.    This last quarter we will have the LEAD program, our trip to Notre Dame, another round of ISTEP, our end of year celebrations, and much much more!  We hope to end this year strong!
     We have been working this week on giving presentations on what makes different people "champions" or what makes them "great".  The students all gave oral presentations on their chosen people.  Some used an iMovie, some used Keynotes and some just used their Venn Diagrams to aide in their presentations.   The students have done a great job and it has been neat to see what they find out and what characteristics they determined makes someone a champion.  We have also been able to see the students defend their choices on why they picked the people they did.  It is amazing how students at this age are learning to do things that we did not learn until high school.  They are really getting the point that we can all be "champions" and we can all be "great".
     We had the opportunity on Thursday to Skype with some Bethel Women's Basketball players.  These five young ladies talked to us about being athletes and students.  They answered all of our questions and were very nice.  Their coach was very excited to have this opportunity with our students.  We hope this is the start of a great relationship between our team and his team! 
     We have been finishing things up this week in all of our classes.  Be sure to ask your learner what they did their individual learning path on.  We have seen some very interesting posters, Keynotes, iMovies and speeches on a lot of different topics.  Also, ask your child to share their story they wrote on a geometry topic using Story Jumper.  They had a lot of fun doing this and their stories turned out very well. 
    When we get back we will be going into phase two of our "Champion" project and the students will be working on researching different colleges.  We have paired each college in the NCAA tournament with one of the most commonly checked out book form our library and as the teams progress throughout the tournament the books will as well.  We hope that this inspires the students to read some different books as well as talk about the books they have read.   We will also be having a college fair at the end of this unit and we will invite other classes to visit our displays. 

     We hope that your family has a wonderful Spring Break!  We look forward to ending our year with a lot fun activities. 

 Our two spell bowl participants.  Great job!

 The fifth grade spell bowl.

 Skype with Bethel Athletes

Spring Fever!

    This has been another crazy week.  Spring we think is trying to hit.  The kids are a definitely ready for nice weather and so are we!  Our new project is on it's first stage and the students are working on finding out what makes someone a "champion" or makes someone "great".  It has been neat to see who they have chosen as their "champions".  We have had some chose their parents, business people, teachers not just athletes or famous people.  They will be giving short speeches before spring break about their chosen champions to satisfy the individual oral presentation part of our report card.  Once they have finished this first part they will get to chose the college they will be learning about for our college fair after spring break. 
     This week we had the opportunity to meet with other PBL facilitators from across Northern Indiana at Plymouth High School.  We were able to share ideas and get new ideas for our PBL learning teams.  We had two of our students participate in a panel discussion.  There were three Riverside and three Lincoln students who answered questions from facilitators.  Our two did a fabulous job articulating what they know and like about PBL. 

   

     We have had a few of our students post on the school's 180 Days of Learning Blog in the past few weeks and those links have been shared.  This week another of our students posted about Twitter.  It is neat to see our students branching out and learning from all sorts of people.  Here is the link to the latest post.  If you have not seen the other student posts just scroll through.  There are a lot of great posts about things going on in our schools!

http://pcsc180daysoflearning.wordpress.com/2013/03/11/5th-grade-student-joins-twitter-chat/


     We have started something different in math this week.  We have been having short classes on and off during the year due to PBL and this week students started coming to math twice.  Once in their "class" and once in a small group.  Some groups have been coming twice for a long time for either interventions or for the Digits group.  The rest of the class has been coming to their class and then when needed.  We have been trying to be flexible with our schedule and are trying this out.  Students come to their small group during PBL work time for about 30 mins.  They are doing stations and one is working with Mrs. Dennie on problems.  We have been discussing how to read the problems and find out what we need to do to solve them.  Most of the problems have many ways to find the solution and we have been discussing these together.  This has been working out very nicely and we are seeing more confidence in their math skills each day.   
    In science this week the students have been working on the human body and did a fun experiment where they taped up their fingers and had to try and go about their day without being able to bend certain joints.  Ask your child about this.  They had a good time and had some "ah ha" moments. 
    In language arts students have been working on their individual learning path.  They filled out goal sheets and started to learn about a wide variety of items.  They have really enjoyed this and are working hard. 
    In math this week we have been working on writing our own geometry stories using Story Jumper a really cool online program.  Ask your child to show you their online book. 
     One week until AR goals need to be met!   Some are working very hard at this.  Please encourage them to get this done.  Also, encourage them to read over spring break to get a jump start on the next goal!  The last nine weeks goes very quickly!
     Have a great weekend. 

ISTEP Week

    What a crazy week.  With ISTEP this week and a snow day on Wednesday, it has been a very different week.  We are very proud of the students and how hard they have worked on the ISTEP test.  This first round requires a lot of writing and they have done a very nice job.  Due to the day off on Wednesday we have one more day of testing on Monday. 
     We kicked off our latest PBL project yesterday with an entry event that involved watching some clips and having a great discussion about what makes a champion and what makes someone "great".  These kids are on the ball and have had some great ideas.  They really drew the conclusions we were wanting them to and it did not take much on our end.  We are excited to see where this project takes up.  Hopefully, your students will have things to share with you about this project.  This project will have some different parts to it.  Before spring break students will give short presentations on two people they feel is a champion or is great/ 
     This week in our classes we have been working on coordinates in math, in language arts we have been finishing up our verb tense work and talking about our goal/learning plan for the last nine weeks.  In social studies/science we have begun looking at the human body and the skeleton system.  We have also been discussing the southern colonies. 
      With two weeks left before spring break students need to make sure they have their AR goal.  Some are very close and some have a long way to go.  We hope to get a lot done these next two weeks.  Don't forget to change your clocks Sunday morning. 
    Have a great weekend!

WOW, it is already March 1st!!

     I feel like I have been saying this all year but I can't believe it is already March.  This year is flying by so quickly.  This is such a great group of kids who, for the most part, have been so good about being flexible as we all learn about PBL together.  We have not been working on a project this week and the kids are asking when our next project will be and when it will start.  We love the enthusiasm they have for these projects.  It helps us so much to plan new projects when the kids are excited.  The excitement is contagious. 
     We are very excited that a lot of the students with us this year have decided to continue to learn in a PBL environment next year.  We have all three become big believers in this type of learning.  Not only are the kids learning the standards but they are learning so much more.  This team is a family, we might now always like or agree with each other but we can work together to figure things out.  The kids really have taken on this belief and they are really learning how to work things out. 
    This week we have gone back to a more traditional schedule and in math we have been reviewing things we have learned this year as well as learning about symmetry.  The students were able to make their own symmetrical creations using pattern blocks and they had a fun time. 
    In social studies we have been working on learning about the colonies.  We have also continued to work on states and capitals.  We will be getting back into science for the next few weeks.
     In language arts we have been working on verb tenses in our writing.  Students have been able to work on a bundle in My Big Campus.  This has allowed them to review things they are unclear on.  We also took a writing prompt this week. 
     Next week is the first round of ISTEP so please encourage your student to get good rest, eat a good breakfast and do their best.  They are prepared they just have to have confidence in themselves, take their time and do their best.
     Here are some photos of some of our wonderful works of symmetry!