Jumping Into We Are Champions

I cannot believe this year is quickly coming to an end. It was bittersweet watching Lex’s final video lesson. After watching his video, students began reflecting on all his lessons and their experiences from this past year.

Lex’s Challenge

Lex challenged us to pick our three favorite lessons and write why they were important to us. We also had to write about how we will use these lessons in the future. Here are my students’ responses to Lex’s challenge.

Classroom Champions Summaries

Each student used a blank SmartAmp workspace to reflect and summarize each lesson from their entire year. Here are a couple of my favorite presentations. (Only pictures because it would not let me link them directly.)

 

                                             Nataly                                                Akira

Classroom Champions Day

We excitedly participated in this year’s Classroom Champions Day. We completed our end of year surveys, played CC Kahoot, and completed an Ask, Listen, Learn lesson. Most importantly, we wore our shirts all day!

 

                                     ALL Inforgraphics                             CC EOY Survey

CC Kahoot Champs

We Are Champions

My students helped me make our final bulletin board. We have had a long jump theme going all year. I gave each student a track shoe to color. They were instructed to select colors and designs based on how Classroom Champions has made them feel. I then used the shoes to spell out “WE ARE CHAMPIONS”.

Students were excited to conclude the month by receiving their Classroom Champions certificates from Lex.

 

 

Thank you Lex and Classroom Champions for an incredible year! We have certainly grown and made lifelong friends. We will always #DreamBig!

Standards

ELA: W.5.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly. W.5.8 Recall relevant information from experiences or gather relevant information from print and digital sources. SL.5.5 Include multimedia components (e.g., graphics, sound) and visual displays in presentations when appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or themes.

Jumping Into Healthy Living

We have had a jam packed month with Spring Break, testing, and Leadership Days, but we managed to learn about healthy living. As a Leader in Me school, we also focused on Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw (balance feels best). In Lex’s video, he talks about the importance of exercising, eating right, and saying “NO” to underage drinking and “YES” to a healthy lifestyle. We are ready to make him proud!

Lex’s Challenge

Lex challenged us to plan a healthy recipe, cook the recipe, and eat the meal with our families. After reading my students’ recipes and meals, I became hungry. They have given me good ideas for some upcoming meals at my house. Listen as students share their healthy meals. Your mouths might start to water.

ALL Brain Challenges

We have been actively using Ask, Listen, Learn’s resources on the effects of alcohol on the brain. This has been informative for my students because they are truly understanding the importance of their brain and the reasons why they MUST say NO. They enjoyed performing metaphor skits on alcohol’s effects on the brain. My favorite was a flock of birds ramming into a tree instead of landing on the branches. They were all creative and silly. We also wrote sentences using 12 words about our favorite Classroom Champions topic. I then took a couple words out and had them read the sentence. Immediately, their responses were “This does not make any since”. As soon as I told them their cerebellum had been affected, the light bulbs went off. The lessons have been great conversation starters and are allowing my students to have confident conversations.

 

5th Grade Olympics

Some of my students had the privilege of participating in the 5th grade Olympics with other 5th graders in our county. Nataly, Lakiah, Tamiya, Jose, Max, and Parrish represented our class with fellow 5th graders from our school in different track and field events. They had a lot of fun and showcased healthy living at its best.

Parrish: 1st- 200m; 1st- 800m mixed relay

Nataly: 3rd- 100m

Tamiya: 2nd- 100m; 3rd- Long Jump; 3rd- Standing Long Jump

Standards

Science 5.L.1.2 Compare the major systems of the human body (digestive, respiratory, circulatory, muscular, skeletal, and cardiovascular) in terms of their functions necessary for life.

ELA W.5.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly. W.5.7 Conduct short research projects that use several sources to build knowledge through investigation of different aspects of a topic.

Health 5.ATOD.1 Understand health risks associated with use of alcohol. 5.ATOD.2 Understand why people use alcohol. 5.ATOD.3 Apply risk reduction behaviors to protect self and others from alcohol use. 5.NPA.1 Apply tools (MyPlate) to plan healthy nutrition and fitness. 5.NPA.2 Understand the importance of consuming a variety of nutrient dense foods and beverages in moderation

Healthy Living

We had a great time talking about underage drinking and the effects of alcohol and the brain. They had many great responses and were challenged to create a 300-500 word essay about the consequences of underage drinking.

They were also challenged to create a healthy meal with their family. Many students had amazing chicken recipes and smoothies.  They had many great choices as meals and were excited to share their mentor's message of his favorite fruits!

The main meal that was shared amongst most students was a type of black bean, chicken, and avacado (some students left out the avacado) enchilada. This sounded delicious and many students tend to make it with their families. So, not only was it a great way to eat and stay healthy, but it created a space to have some shared family time.

Jumping Into Leadership

I thought leadership month was going to be easy for us because we are a Leader In Me school and leadership is around us everyday. Well, I was quickly reminded, that we need the helpful tips from Lex to truly be successful. Most of my students have mastered what true leadership means, while others are still making strides to prove they are true leaders themselves. We began the month by watching Lex’s video. He shared qualities of a leader and inspired us to be leaders.

Lex’s Challenge

This month, Lex challenged us to think of a leader in our life and write three characteristics about that person. Students wrote about their parents, grandparents, teachers, and even Lex. Watch our video to find out more about the leaders impacting our lives.

Leadership Essays

Each week I focus on a different writing prompt and I try and mix up the genres. One week this month I selected leadership biographies. Students selected a leader in history and researched their leadership qualities. They wrote their essays focusing on at least three characteristics that made the person a leader. Their essays are on display outside our classroom on our monthly Classroom Champions bulletin board. Students wrote about Muhammad Ali, Rosa Parks, Malala, Neil Armstrong, Martin Luther King, Jr., George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and a few others.

Leader of the Week

Each week in our classroom we vote for a “Leader of the Week”. This month I had students write the reasons for their nominations. Once the winner was selected, I shared how they were a leader throughout the week and the characteristics that their classmates deemed leadership worthy.

Nataly (March 3)

Nataly is a leader because she gets her work done, listens, and follows directions. She is respectful, quiet, kind, helpful, organized, and responsible.

Sarahi (March 10)

Sarahi is a leader because she is quiet, helpful, respectful, organized, funny, kind, and responsible. She completes her work and follows directions.

Max (March 17)

Max is a leader because he is nice, fun, helpful, and quiet. He completes all his work, listens, and follows directions.

Courtney (March 24)

Courtney is a leader because she is nice and funny. She gets all her work done.

The Leader In Me

Our school is a Leader In Me school. We live out the 7 Habits every day. Part of our school’s mission statement says, “To Lead”. Each morning students say the Bullock pledge, “We are Leaders on TRACK…”. When you walk through the doors of our school, you breathe leadership. It is painted on our walls, hanging from our ceilings, and resonating in our classrooms. Listen as my students share a brief summary of the 7 Habits.

As a part of The Leader In Me, our school hosts a Leadership Day each Spring. This year’s Leadership Day will be the first week in April. Students will be able to showcase how they are leaders at our school. Our classroom will be sharing Classroom Champions with two sets of visitor groups. Students also applied, interviewed, and were selected for various leadership roles throughout the big day outside the classroom. Here are our leaders.

Nataly (Master of Ceremonies)

Racheal (Speaker)

 

Sarahi and David (Conductors- Tour Guides)

 

Courtney and Akira (Greeters)

 

Monse and Kamai (Leadership Dancers)

Lakiah (Invitation Designer)

Thank you Lex for reminding us to be the best leaders we can be every day!

Standards

ELA RI.5.9 Integrate information from several texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably. W.5.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly. W.5.7 Conduct short research projects that use several sources to build knowledge through investigation of different aspects of a topic.

Friendship

We had a lot of fun talking about friendship this month. As always, the students enjoyed watching Lex's video and hearing his ideas about friendship. They had a lot of fun taking on his challenge and making new friends on the playground. To prepare for the challenge, we had a conversation about what kinds of questions they could ask the person they wanted to meet. They had so many good ideas! When they reported back about what it was like to introduce themselves to someone they didn't know, it turned out that they used a lot of the questions we had brainstormed together. Some favorites were: what is your favorite color? and what is your favorite thing to play? We also talked a lot about what it means to be a good friend and times when they had shown that they were a good friend. This is such a caring and friendly class and they really embraced this month's theme. The pictures are of the students practicing meeting someone new and asking them questions.

Jumping Into Friendship

Before we watched Lex’s video on Friendship, I asked “What qualities do you look for in your friends?”. Here are some of the key words students spoke out to the class…trust, nice, respect, funny, believe, loyal, role model, and honest. Friendship is an important topic in our classroom. We have had several students move in and out of our classroom this year. We have also had several arguments arise among groups of friends that we have had to work through. I hope Lex’s message on friendship will stick with my students and they can be the best friends they can be.

Lex’s Challenge

This month Lex challenged us to make a new friend and learn three things about them. Talk about having to use perseverance as well. My students were hesitant to step outside their comfort zones and take on this challenge. I had to encourage them throughout the month to tackle this challenge. Some students took on the challenge within our classroom, while others made new friends in other 5th grade classrooms. A few students made new friends outside of school. I enjoyed learning about their new friends throughout the month. I hope to see more friendships blossoming in my classroom as the year continues.

Friendship Conversations

My students were able to just sit and talk to their friends in the classroom for 10 minutes. They rarely have moments to just talk to their friends so I gave it to them one Friday before lunch. That same day I had my students sit with random lunch friends. We sit in the booths in the cafeteria and they always sit with the same people. (I did learn that my girls switch their booth seats every day so they can take turns eating with each other.) I randomly assigned each student a booth. No one sat with the friends they normally eat with on a given day. There was some push back and complaining, but they quickly turned it around. They survived one lunch out of 185 eating with someone other than their normal friends.

 

 

 

 

Get to Know Our Classmates

You can see the obvious clusters of friends in my classroom when it comes to lunch, partner activities, and recess. My hope was this activity would allow my students to find something new about their classmates who they do not normally hang around. Who knows? Maybe the clusters will begin to shift. Each student was tasked with asking three classmates (not their current friends) a “Get to Know You” question. Some students only asked three new people, while others went beyond and asked as many students as they could in the time allotted. I had one student ask a different question to all 24 of her classmates. That took perseverance! Afterwards, each student had to pick one student and share what they learned about them. They learned a lot about their classmates from this simple activity. We learned about favorite sports, colors, shoes, movies, music, numbers, activities, etc.

 

Friends in Our Future Careers

Our annual 3-5 Career Fair was held at school as we try and prepare our students for the future. Each student went into the Career Fair with questions and friends in tow. Some students walked around to the different booths with their friends because they have similar interests. Others walked around with their friends simply because they were comfortable with that person. Some students branched out and walked around on their own and met new 5th grade friends with similar career interests. After the Career Fair we came back to the classroom and shared our favorite and most interesting options.

 

Devin with Mrs. Stone's dad.

Friendships with 2nd Graders

Each month our school has a day long Read-a-Thon. For 30 minutes, we go to two 2nd grade classrooms and read with our reading buddies. Most times the 2nd graders have books that they want the “big” kids to read with them. Sometimes we bring our “big” kid 5th grade books to read to them. The 2nd grade teachers and I are always in awe of how quiet and engaged both ages of students are while reading. The last Friday of Friendship month was our February Read-a-Thon. Before going to read with our buddies, we each wrote letters about the importance of reading for our 2nd grade friends. Students included tips and strategies for the 2nd graders to become successful readers. Each 2nd grade student also received a handmade bookmark saying “Leaders are Readers”.

Friendship Stories

I pose a new writing prompt for my students to focus on each week. Once again, perseverance was in play. At our school, we are trying to have our 5th graders write a story that is five paragraphs in length. This is an extremely daunting task for most. One week this month, students were to write a story about friendship. Some wrote about themselves with their current friends, while others wrote about made up characters. After writing their stories, they had a friend help edit their work. Their friendship stories are posted on our Classroom Champions bulletin board outside our classroom.

I will say we have had a successful friendship month. Students are still trying to step outside their comfort zones and make new friends. I hope they continue to make new friends, especially since they will be going to different middle schools next year.

Standards

ELA W.5.3 Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences. W.5.4 Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1-3 above.) W.5.5 With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach. (Editing for conventions should demonstrate command of Language standards 1-3 up to and including grade 5 here.) W.5.6 With some guidance and support from adults, use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others; demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a minimum of two pages in a single sitting. SL.5.1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 5 topics and texts, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.

Health 5.ICR.1.4 Summarize how to solve problems and resolve conflict without avoidance or violence.