Grade 5 Revolutionary War Letter

Here is a project idea that integrates technology and transfers a student’s keyboarding skills (learned last year) into the writing of a friendly letter. Students would compose a letter to a friend or relative as a colonist describing why they would support the Patriots, the Loyalists, or the Neutralists using the Friendly Letter Generator as an online tool.
This letter would be written after your students have studied and understand what the each group stood for with the British (Patriots, Loyalists, Neutralists) and be fairly knowledgeable in the events that led up to the Revolutionary War. What a great way to assess higher-order thinking - (defend and support a position, make judgments in regards to strengths and weaknesses of the position, construct a quality letter, evaluate viewpoints, etc.).
If you would like any assistance with a project like this, or would like for me to post this website on the Mrs. Tush website (in student’s corner), just let me know.
Attached is a sample Revolutionary War letter, using the Friendly Letter Generator.

Grade 5 Digital Storytelling – Honoring the memories of someone special

Digital Storytelling – Honoring the memories of someone special
Students will write a personal narrative about honoring the memories of someone special to them.  What did this individual do to leave/have an impact on your life?  They will use the writing process of prewriting, writing, revising, editing and publishing to create the narrative story.  While writing, students will apply the 6-traits of writing to create their project: ideas/content, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency & conventions.  The final product of digital storytelling will be published through Photo Story 3.  
I think that original art work would really make this great - and with each image the students could use voice-over to narrate the story. 

Grade 6 Ancient Greece Visual Ranking Project

For this project, you will use the Intel - Visual Ranking Tool (free!) http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/education/k12/thinking-tools/visual-ranking.html
Student Prompt:
Which contributions of Ancient Greece are most important in today's world? Discuss and evaluate each contribution with your partner/s and rank from the most important to the least important. Add comments to each listed item that defend, explain and support your choices. 

The ranking list could look like this:
architecture: columns, theaters, temples
art: sculptures, pottery
drama: theaters and actors
Greek alphabet
Greek mythology, epics and fables
Idea about citizenship
Limited, direct democracy
Philosophy: Socrates, Plato and Aristotle
Science and Technology: astronomy, mathematics, physics
Sports: the Olympics and marathons
Written History: Herodotus and Thucydides

Grade 5 Explorer Trading Card Technology Project

Explorer Trading Cards ….. using bighugelabs.com

1.      Log in to Novell (only if you plan to screenshot the finished project, put it on a Word doc and then type an informative essay under the screenshot)
2.      Go to Google Chrome - our school website – student corner – Mrs. Tush – and under Grade 5 (in the middle section), locate Explorer Trading Cards
3.      Click on Explorer Trading Cards
4.      Make a new tab (ctrl + t)
5.      Type in the name of your explorer and locate images of him/her
6.      Right click to save image as… save picture as… and save it to the desktop or to your H drive (desktop is the quickest)
Big Huge Labs
7.      Return to the bighugelabs tab .  Directions:
a)      Scroll down and open “Trading Card”
b)      Click – choose file
c)      Navigate to where you saved your image – then select it and click open
d)      For the title – type your explorers name
e)      For the sub-title, type in the sponsoring country
f)       In the description, type: (only about 7 lines of text will fit)
--- year of birth and death
--- 1 major accomplishment
--- 3 interesting facts
--- by: your name
8.      Choose a style
9.      Choose a few icons that represent your explorer (just click on a circle and then choose an icon – IT MUST HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH YOUR EXPLORER) ---- then repeat for other icons
10.  Crop – leave it on “center”
11.  Click Create
(If your image cuts off part of the head, click Edit. Locate a new image. Click upload and locate your new image).

When you are finished creating the trading card:
12.  Click Download
13.  Locate the downloaded image. Select it and then click open.
14.  Click Print
15.  Click Next
16.   Your image should be the defaulted selection (has a check mark)
17.  Click Next
18.   Choose a printer
19.  Click Next
20.  Choose whatever size your teachers asks you to choose (5 X 7 or 4 to a page)
21.  Click Next
22.  Click Finish


Scribble Maps

The idea is to create a map of places that students like to go (for fun) and map out a route from their house to those places. Then they create labels on the map with business names, followed with cardinal direction labels and an informative essay about where they enjoy going and why.
Just click "create map" - http://www.scribblemaps.com/

Email Santa and have Santa email you Back

I have a fun site called emailsanta.com. Students write letters to Santa online, using a partially filled template, and then Santa writes back to them within a minute. The letters can be printed when the letter is finished (and there is no saving). 

Grade 5 Science/Language Arts Tech Integration Idea - "5 Senses"

A cross-curricular Science/Language arts activity called the sensory poem. Your students may choose their themes, but they must involve all the senses. Holidays, seasons, and other broad concepts make nice topics. List the five senses -- sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch -- for the students. Tell them that they must address one sense in each line of the poem. The first line should include a color, and the last may include touch or emotion. You may allow students to put the other lines in any order they choose. This could be done on Google docs, and then shared with the teacher.
Here is an example:
Spring
[Color] Spring is green with bright yellow buds,
[Sight] New shoots emerge from the dark brown earth,
[Smell] The scent of rain mixes with blossoms in the air,
[Hearing] Birds chirp with newfound vibrato in the trees,
[Taste] Succulent strawberries ripen in the sun,
[Emotion] All is fresh, warm, and beautiful in the world.

12 Days to Fitness Challenge - (1 minutes) student fitness activites

Here is a fun link for a 12 Days of Fitness Challenge.  It has very short little holiday themed activities you could have your kids just stand and do for a minute in class. 
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