S.O.L.E. in the 5th graders

I decided to explore the idea of S.O.L.E. (Self Organized Learning Environments) with my 5th graders this year.  I have incorporated it into  my 6th grade Media time for two years now but thought "Why not start it earlier" so that when 5th graders ventured into 6th grade they will have more experience with the process.  For those of you not familiar with S.O.L.E. the way it works is follows:

1.)  I present the students with a "non-googleable" question.  One that they may have a strong opinion on but that they can't find a definite Yes or No answer to on Google.  I share the question with them I will do in such a way that pulls them into the question and makes them want to explore it more.

2.)  They will then form their groups.  My only expectations are

• No more than 4 in a group
• You can't work alone
• You must listen to everyone's ideas
• You must WORK HARD
• If someone asks to join your group and you don't have 4 people you must let them join
• Finally,  you MUST support your opinion with RESEARCH

3.)  The structure of the S.O.L.E. lessons are as such:

• 5 minutes- Intro. the question
• 20 minutes- Get into groups and conduct the research and create the desired project that you will use to show your research (many choose Google Slides, some do posters, some just talk) this process is organic so I don't want to give too much direction on what they have to create
• 10 minutes- Sharing/Presenting (each group gets no more than 3 minutes to share their research)  
• REMEMBER I DO NOT TELL THEM HOW THEY HAVE TO SHARE...I ONLY TELL THEM THEY HAVE TO SHARE (many will use Google Drive but some will create posters)

The goal of S.O.L.E is to have the complete in one 50 minute class session

S.O.L.E. #1 :  Should we have year round schooling?

Here is some of their work:

CAMP KERN!!! Our fab 5th graders use the video making skills to capture LIFELONG MEMORIES

In our district our 5th graders go to Camp Kern every May. They stay there for 3 days with teachers and camp leaders. It is always a highlight of their Summit Elementary time. They made videos to capture these moments. Enjoy!

 Da Moose and Raccoons

Lots of Singing (Andrew K.)

Screencast by Emma M. group

Dylan W. The Banana Song

Dream Team

Ollie's Group

Katie D. Group

Kiley C. Group

Maggie C. Group

Children's Book Week...May 4-8...our CELEBRATION in First Grade

National Children's Book Week (May 4-8) is always an exciting time for librarians across the country.  This year I decided to celebrate it by passing out the Children's Book Week "Draw" bookmark to grades K-3 at Summit.  My first graders also listened to me read one of my favorite children's books called The Giving Tree by the amazing Shel Silverstein.  Each student then located one of their favorite books in the library, snapped a photo, and added a speech bubble about why it was one of their favorite books.  We posted these in the hall for our Summit Success Night, where all parents could see them.  Here were some of their photos.

                            

                                 

                             

                             

                              

                              

                                                             

Wonderful Visit with Whatever After series author SARAH MLYNOWSKI

Our second and third graders had a wonderful visit today with the great author of the Whatever After series...Mrs. Sarah Mlynowski.  She is such a delightful person and the kids were so engaged with her presentation.  We so appreciated Scholastic choosing Summit Elementary as one of the schools she would visit in Cincinnati. 

Here were some of the Questions asked..

1.)  What made you want to write fairy tales?

2.)  Which character are you must like?

3.)  What is your favorite part of being an author?

4.)  Why did I choose the fairy tale genre?

5.)  Are there any other characters based on your life?

6.)  How many times do you revise?

7.)  How long does it take you to write a book?

Some of the things we took away from our visit:

• You must be motivated to be an author because you have to work on your own...you are your own boss
• You can write where you want...bed, couch, desk
• You can write with your friends
• You get to travel around and speak to kids
• She speaks four different languages
• There will be at least 10 books in the Whatever After series
    
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
    
  
  
  

Biographies with first graders

I LOVE teaching 1st graders because they are so excited to learn new things.  I introduced them to BIOGRAPHIES recently.  We started our unit by reading On A Beam of Light:  A Story of Albert Einstein and talked about what difference he made in our world.  Over the past two weeks we have begun each class with a read aloud and then we break out into our partner groups and get to work on PebbleGo.
  

More books we read outloud:

                                         

The process:

Examples of their research:

              

Students created drawings of their person on ArtPad.com and we printed these.  They also shared them with me electronically.

Mrs. Werking's Class Shares their Biographies

Mrs. Beiting's Class Shares their Biographies

Miss. Huntington's Class Shares their Biographies

Miss. Brown's Class Shares their Biographies

March Madness has Arrived!!! Who will prevail as our SBY?

VOTERS HAVE SPOKEN!  We now have our SBY (Summit Book of the Year).  The WINNER with 53.1% of the votes is...drum roll please....

The results broken down below.

Summary

Pick your top book for our March Madness Bracket. Which book will prevail?

Wonder	26	53.1%
Diary of a Wimpy Kid	24	49%

WE NOW HAVE OUR FINAL TWO!  Which book will prevail as our SBY (Summit Book of the Year)?

Pick your top 2 books for our March Madness Bracket. Which books will prevail?

Wonder	76	49.4%
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone	57	37%
Diary of a Wimpy Kid	76	49.4%
Because of Winn Dixie	71	46.1%

We have our FINAL FOUR!  We will now narrow it down to the FINAL TWO!!!

 

Smile	35	34.3%
The One and Only Ivan	40	39.2%
Wonder	49	48%
Lightning Thief	42	41.2%
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone	47	46.1%
Diary of a Wimpy Kid	54	52.9%
I Survived the Great Chicago Fire of 1871	34	33.3%
Because of Winn Dixie	52	51%

The NCAA tournment doesn't have anything over on us....we are inviting all 4-6 graders to vote for our SBY (Summit Book of the Year).  We started with the top 16 books from these grades and had students cast their vote on a Google Form to narrow it down to their top 8.  We will continue narrowing it down to we get to the champion...

Here are our TOP 8 (not in any order):

Smile	33	48.5%
The One and Only Ivan	30	44.1%
Wonder	30	44.1%
Lightning Thief	31	45.6%
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone	32	47.1%
Diary of a Wimpy Kid	40	58.8%
I Survived the Great Chicago Fire of 1871	30	44.1%
Because of Winn Dixie	52	76.5%