Brain Breaks!!!

Throughout this year I have used different brain breaks in class each week. I didn't realize how much 5th graders would love them! During this preparation time for standardized testing my students have definitely needed the break. I found them very important in helping them focus. Tomorrow is the start of our testing and I am so proud of all their hard work in getting ready.



http://teachtrainlove.com/20-brain-break-clips-fight-the-fidgeting/

At this age I let them decide if they want to get up and dance or sit in their desk and watch. Normally, after about a minute they start moving to the beat and  jump in once they realize how much fun everyone else is having!

World War II biographies Activity

My love for history hopefully is causing my students to find it more and more enjoyable. The kids need hands on learning as much as possible when it comes to history... otherwise they forget it! 

World War II is a unique time period in United States' history. Knowledge of this time period is essential for understanding the complexity of the Cold War. My class was able to examine artifacts from this era courtesy of  the Upcountry Museum. In addition, Students were able to learn more about WWII key figures by completing a biography research foldable. The class had guided questions to use on their foldables. I was very proud of the hard work that went into researching and analyzing information to present on their foldables. 

My favorite quote came from one student who was not happy with me that he was given "some guy" named Benito Mussolini to research. By the end of  the class the student said, " I really found out a lot about Mussolini today and he was crazy!" (with a smile)

World War II

My undergraduate degree is in History and my favorite subject to study has always been WWII. I have looked forward to this unit all year and have so many different activities planned integrating all three subject areas (Writing, Reading, and Social Studies). We started the unit with a KWL and I was surprised (happily) that my students knew a few things about WWII:) However, there is so much more for them to learn! We are daily watching History Channel videos(2-4 minutes) geared towards that day's objective. They absolutely love these attention grabbers! Today we learned about different major battles. As a group activity I divided the students into groups (based on their learning ability and behavior) and had them to research specific questions with articles I provided them. They absolutely loved it! After they completed the group activity it was presentation time and they did a very good job.  As an individual assessment the students had to reflect about which battle was most interesting to them and why in 5-6 sentences. I look forward to tomorrow when they are doing individual research on different leaders.