March Madness with Inventions!

Paring writing with our social studies, students are looking at the most important inventions since the American Revolutionary war. What was the one invention that has improved our lives and would be unimaginable to live without? This was the question to start our unit on persuasive writing.

Students sifted through a variety of resources to determine what they believed to be the most important invention. After listing their top three choices, students that voted alike were put into a "research group".  We ended up with seven groups. Students worked collaboratively to research their invention.

It has been a joy watching students read information, take notes, develop a claim, and provide support for their claim to persuade others.
Students then used this information to create a one minute video. We voted on our seven videos to identify our top two groups. Morse Code and Refrigeration are going on to the top 10.  Students will then compete with other videos from the other fifth grade classes. The top ten will go to the top five and then to the winner. We are excited to get the voting under way!

 

Lady Liberty

Students have been studying immigration that occurred between 1880-1920's. We have discovered that many European immigrants passed through Ellis Island. 

As people entered the U.S., they had a six-minute medical exam.  Trachoma was a prevalent eye disease that kept many people from being admitted to the U.S.

Students learned about the stairs of separation. There were three lines of stairs that separated people by admission or denial into the U.S. 

Students learned that there was another place of great immigration, Angel Island in California. Most of the immigrants that entered were Chinese.

Riddle Me This!

Students investigate a person or event in history and use the found information to write a riddle in first person.

Here are some examples of the riddles:

Here is the collection.  Students learned how to create a QR code that they linked to either an article or video about their historical person or event. The code was paired with their photograph.

Statue of Liberty

In Social Studies, we have been reading many excellent pieces of literature on the Statue of Liberty. Students have been transitioning to the 1900's and the Third major wave of Immigration. Specifically, the Immigration wave through Ellis and Angel Island.

Pairing some work we have been doing with poetry, notably with the power of "line breaks". Students wrote a short statement on what kind of a symbol the Statue of Liberty is for so many people. 

Combining some artwork with text, see a few pieces below.