5th grade

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5th grade
By Andrea Berninger

To start out the year I do an "All About Me" unit. Here are a few activities I do with my kids. The first day of school students get a piece of construction paper. Their first name goes in the middle, on each corner is
an adjective to describe them and above their name is a synonym(example sisiter, student, daughter, athlete). The students are asked to decorate their names. I provide buttons, elbow macaroni, beads, glitter, ribbon, anything in my closet! I also ask them to make out index cards and list 3 truths and one untruth (I don't like the word lie) about themselves. I model this by writing 4

sentences on the board which gets their curiosity going. I try to think of the most bizarre exciting things I've done and list one untruth. The kids get to figure out which are true. I read the index cards for the next one to two weeks during down time or transition time. The kids get to figure out who the student is and which are the truths. They Love It and it is a fun way to get to know one another. We also look up our names on name origin websites. Students create name certificates stating what their name means and where it originated from. I also ask them to interview their parents about the selection of their names. Interview questions might include; does anyone one else in my family have my name, why did you choose this name, does my name have any special meaning to you? Students also create family trees. My first of bulletin board is "We are Family" I take a picture of each child and their parent at our open house before school begins and with one hour photo shops, their picture is on the board the first day of school. There are also some great web sites on family crests. I have students create a crest using a motto, accomplishments, goal, and their initials. The web sites explain what each color and symbol means on a crest. You create a web quest or create questions to answer based on the site for a reading and social studies grade. I read Chyrsantemum aloud to them. I know it's a first grade book, but they really do love it and it's comforting that first week of school (trust me!!!). As a read aloud I read The Biggest Klutz in 5th Grade by Bill Wallace. It is funny and it gets kids excited about reading. We also do name formula poems like cinquains, diamantes, or acrostic poems. Any writing book will have examples for you. I hope you have a great year, 5th graders are so much fun to work with.