October Learning

October was a whirlwind. There was so much learning to do, and it was all a lot of fun. Here is a quick summary of some of the activities we did.

Pumpkin Unit
I used a combination of ideas form different units (Pumpkin Patch Palooza-Deanna Jump & Pumpkin Unit-Nicole Ricca) and ideas I found on Pinterest. My kiddos really had a lot of fun and their interactive notebooks--stapled together paper--really helped to cement the information into their schema.

 Some books we read. Big Pumpkin was their absolute favorite-Mine too!

As part of the reading, we planted our own seeds. They were so convinced that they would not sprout, if we didn't first put them in soil.

 

 Tada! As soon as we observed the root, students transferred them to a cup with soil in it. We are now making observations for growth of our baby seed. This might take a couple weeks.

These are some charts we did. 

Some Student Notebook Pages

       

Students had the opportunity to use their five senses once the pumpkins were cut open. They wrote about their learning in their journal.

   

After we carved out the pumpkin to see the insides, I placed it in a small container to have them observe the rotting process. They were able to see how little by little the pumpkin gets moldy, mushy, smelly, black, watery, gooey...and they will never forget the word "Decomposition"!

Halloween Activities
 We did a pumpkin glyph. It was very interesting to find out that many of my students had never carved a pumpkin.

We read, acted out, and retold the story of There was an Old lady Who Swallowed a Bat.

 

I was really able to see who could retell the story by having them do a picture retell in their reader's notebook. They first labeled on their own (great assessment on phonetic spelling) and then matched the word cards provided. 

My kiddos got to do their own old lady and practice retelling with the picture cards. Click here or the picture above for your FREE templates.

One of our tasks during writing workshop was reading and responding to the book My First Ghost.

 

  It is a very cute story about what friendship truly is. What discussed the qualities of a good friend. They created their own ghost friend and then wrote a creative piece about the things they like to do with their ghost friend. I was so impressed. I got a variety of settings and activities....lots and lots of details. The progress I have seen from the beginning of the year is truly impressive. I know it is due to writer's workshop, great literature, and practice, practice, practice.

My favorite activity was their pumpkin project. They decorated a pumpkin as the character from their favorite book, and then wrote an opinion piece about why that was their favorite character.  They were just too cute! One of the pumpkins eyes even lighted up. Here are a few of my kiddos.

   

    

 Like I said before, it was a busy month. 

"Boogie" Juice

Halloween was a day to top it all off. We celebrated by brewing some "boogie" juice. We gathered all of the ingredients and a s a class decided on what to name our items:

• orange soda= mutant pumpkin vomit
• orange sherbet= brain swirl
• pineapple juice= moon juice
• plastic skulls= victims
• scooper= monster claw
• condensed sweet milk (I find this too sweet, so I decided not to add it)

Before you make the concoction, have some Halloween music playing in the background. It definitely adds to the atmosphere. First, place a whole can of pineapple juice in a large bowl. Second, add 1/4 of the orange soda. Third, add four or five very large scoops of the ice cream. Finally, for the grand finale, add the skulls. Swirl everything around and see it get foamy. The kids LOVED it and the aroma of the mixture is delicious. I gave every kiddo a cup with a small scoop of ice cream filled with the mixture of the bowl. They each got a skull with both a spoon and a straw.  All you kept hearing was, "This is the best!" Of course this makes me feel like I made their day!

Other years, I call this concoction the witches' brew. I place all the items in a cauldron, add gummy worms (or any other gruesome gummy I can find), and serve it in colored cups. There are many variations online, but I find this one works the best.

These are great activities that allow for writing to be engaging and meaningful. They will be adding this recipe to their 5th grade Holiday Recipes. By the end off the year, I hope to bind their recipes together like a cookbook so that they have recipes they can do again and as a nice keepsake of 5th grade.

What is your favorite Halloween activity to do with the kiddos?

Caramel Apples

Tomorrow is Halloween! Yippee! Like I have said before, I love the holidays for all the fun activities you can do. Today we made caramel apples. They were absolutely delicious.

The students were asked to bring in their favorite kind of apple washed in a baggie I provided. I brought a crock-pot from home and placed the caramel to melt on low. The room smelled unbelievably scrumptious. When it was time, we all gathered around the crock-pot. I dipped the apple in the caramel one at a time. They then rolled their apples in crushed peanuts (make sure no one has any allergies to peanuts). The echoes of "yum-yum" made me very happy. I knew they were having a grand old time. I also found out that a couple of my students had never tried caramel apples before.

This is the reason I still believe in "fun" activities. I take so much for granted, and so many of my students do not have these experiences. So if it means I have to give up my lunch to provide them with these memories, let it be.

Tomorrow we will be making "boogie juice". I know my students are eager to experience that. I know, I know, sugar overload...but lots of fun! 

Frankenstein Pudding

Some of my fondest childhood memories were the cookery activities I would do with my family and at school during the holiday season. There is so much content that needs to be covered in the day, so much more being pushed in (mind you the school-day is not getting longer), and little to no time for activities that are plain fun.

My students usually come up to the room for lunch time. With Halloween just a few days away, we decided that we would make our Frankenstein Pudding faces during lunch. We used vanilla instant pudding, 1 package of Oreo cookies, and green food coloring.

Very EASY Steps:

1. make the vanilla instant pudding in a large bowl
2. add food coloring
3. have students crush 2 Oreo cookies (without the filling) in a baggie
4. students draw a face on their cups using a Sharpie
5. fill up their cups with pudding
6. finally they add their hair (Oreos)

 Sorry about the half eaten face, I forgot to take a picture before they began to chow down.

 The faces were so cute. The "hair" on top was too funny. They really got a kick out of that.

As you can see from the photos, they had lots of fun. Many times I tend to forget that being in 5th grade doesn't mean they no longer care for silly activities. They are young children with very high expectations on them. This activity was their "massage". We are now trying to figure out an easy, yet delicious, cookery activity for November. Any ideas?

Monster Slime

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays--it's spooky, it's exciting, and you there is so much candy! This year more than ever, I am being very conscientious about doing as much science as possible, and Halloween is a perfect month for science galore! We are definitely going to cover all the state standards through our Foss curriculum, BUT I also believe in science for fun, motivation, and for the inquiry it brings to young minds. My kiddos love science, and so do I.

Today we made monster slime.  I came across this idea while looking for slime. Kim, over at all things simple, has step by step directions on how to do it. It is sooooo easy and inexpensive. I bought the food coloring, bowls, and glitter at The Dollar Tree. The borax I got at my local market for about $6.00, and there is plenty left over to repeat it more than once.

By constantly doing experiments, my students are becoming very comfortable with the 7-Step Process to scientific investigations.  We talked about the reactants and the products. We discussed how we went from mostly liquid materials to a solid. One group did not get the consistency they desired and we inquired into the possible reasons why. They repeated the steps, were happy with their results, and wrote about it in their conclusions. The class even offered suggestions on what other ingredients we could add to the slime--scent, texture, degree of sliminess. We have therefore decided to do it again for November with a little twist. We'll keep you posted.

 

A Walk Down Spooky Ave

This month's writing project was all about haunted houses. It was a big hit! We have been working hard on the elements of persuasive writing and how it is all around us (they are beginning to dissect toy commercials and their intended audience-THEM!). Their project consisted of two parts: 1) build a haunted house using any materials they wished, but it could not be a prepackaged house. 2) Write a persuasive essay. Their goal was to find a roommate. They had to convince someone to come and rent a room from them.

 They wrote all kinds of super funny stuff. One student said they had a mummy living with them that would do all their chores for them including the laundry. Another student had a vampire for a chef that knows how to cook the most scrumptious hamburgers. Yet another student said that they had a "brainiac" bat that would do all their homework for them. I know they truly enjoyed this project, because even though it was not due until this week, they had been begging me to let them bring their projects. Yippee!-Mission accomplished-motivating them & writing with a purpose in mind. 

If you would like a copy of the forms, parent letters, graphic organizers, etc. (for FREE), simply click on the picture below. You may modify to fit your students' needs, but please do not sell it as your own.

Here are some pictures of what my kiddos did this year--totally awesome!