Korean History Timelines

The girls had fun trying out two new tools on the internet. One let them collaborate and share their ideas in document, and the other allowed them to create online timelines.

We are reading the Single Shard, and in order to understand the story better, we learned about Korean history, and about the events leading up to the separation of the two Koreas.

The girls researched and chose 5 events from Korean History, and then had to find an accompanying picture for each event. They worked together on Titanpad to share their events. Then, they went to Timetoast and created an interactive timeline. We quickly found limits - it was challenging to show BC and it insisted on having a specific date, so we had to be creative! When they shared their timelines with the class, they saw their spelling and capitalization errors. Ahh...the need to proofread was reinforced!
Enjoy perusing and learning a bit about Korean History! Click on any dot on the timeline and a larger view of that date, event, and description will pop-up.

Olivia & Meredith's Timeline

Margaux & Helen's Timeline

Julia & Wynter's Timeline

Caroline & Stuart's Timeline

Emily & Erika's Timeline

Autumn & Sydney's Timeline

Stick it To Me!

The girls reviewed their vocabulary today with a fun game. They exchanged vocabulary words written on sticky notes. Then, stuck one to their forehead without looking at it. They had to move around the room asking for clues about the definition so they could guess their word. They had so much fun! Then they wroked in partners to create a short quiz, and exchanged them with their classmates. They had to grade the quiz as well. Nearly everyone received a 100%! Guess they are ready for the quiz tomorrow, which will be online.

Fruit Tasting

Today in book club, we discussed and tasted different fruits for our essay. Each chapter is named after a fruit or vegetable as the main character's life patterns the planting and harvesting. Different fruits and vegetables hold various meanings for the character, and students will be writing an essay comparing a happy time in their life to a positive connotation fruit/vegetable, and a sad/angry time to a negative fruit/vegetable. Today, we tasted different chapter titles - Figs, Papayas, Avocado, Canteloupes, and Grapes.


Today in book club, we discussed and tasted different fruits for our essay. Each chapter is named after a fruit or vegetable as the main character's life patterns the planting and harvesting. Different fruits and vegetables hold various meanings for the character, and students will be writing an essay comparing a happy time in their life to a positive connotation fruit/vegetable, and a sad/angry time to a negative fruit/vegetable. Today, we tasted different chapter titles - Figs, Papayas, Avocado, Canteloupes, and Grapes.

Stick It To My Head - Learning Vocab

Ms. Cheston's book club is reading Esperanza Rising. It takes place following the Mexican Revolution, and is about a young wealthy Mexican girl who has to flee Mexico after her father is killed by bandits. Her mother, a few friends, and she journey to California to work on a farm. She learns to look at life through a different set of lenses, since her life in the California is very different than living on her Mexican ranch.

As a review of vocabulary for the first few chapters, we wrote words on sticky notes, and put them on our foreheads. We had to move around the room and talk to at least 5 different people. They had to describe the word and/or give a definition so the person with the sticky note on their forehead could guess the word. The students had a lot of fun helping each other learn the vocabulary!

Guest Poet - Mrs. Gillin

     Today, we had a guest 'poet' or instructor - Mrs. Gillin (Ms. Merrick's mother) came to visit and teach about poetry.  Mrs. Gillin, who teaches Children's Literature at Washington College, was absolutely amazing.  Not only did she teach all 62 fifth graders at once, but she kept them engaged and on task for an HOUR AND TWENTY MINUTES.  It was inspiring!  The students ate chocolate pudding with gummy worms and 'frog cookies' to awaken their senses and wrote several poems.  They explored different vocabulary and poetic devices, as well.  They ended with a Calvert poem - a funny one about their teacher, and cereal poem. Ask your daughters to explain what cereal they are most like!

Characterization - What is it Exactly?

The girls in Ms. Cheston's class will discuss what characterization is and analyze the characters in their picture books they have been using for their book report. After learning the three elements of characterization, they will complete a character map of the main character from their book, using the online tool below. This will be in preparation to writing a short story about a personal demon that they could possibly find in the Mountains of Ignorance from The Phantom Tollbooth.

Character Map

Wall Wisher - A Place to Jigsaw

Ms. Cheston's class used Wallwisher for another lesson on word origins. The girls researched where some words came from - why they are called what they are called, as a follow up activity to Milo in The Phantom Tollbooth visiting Dictionopolis and learning about words. Students were able to see what their other classmates learned as they went through their research by refreshing the wall periodically. If you'd like to see the complete walls, click below! While it looks 'busy' to us, they loved it!

Ms. Cheston's Word Origins Wall

A Royal Banquet

The girls had their Royal Alliteration Banquet today!  We are reading The Phantom Tollbooth and Milo attends the Royal Banquet with King Azaz in Dictionopolis, where people literally eat their words!  Our girls brought in an alliteration snack, and wrote a speech about whether they thought numbers or letters were more important, or if they were equally important.  The girls were in character, and thanked their gracious queens, Queen Merrick and Queen Cheston for hosting the banquet! 

Cultural Scavenger Hunt

Students will begin to learn about culture by going on a 'scavenger hunt to find customs from various countries.  This is the movie that your teacher may ask you to preview this movie as homework. 

Websites for class:
        CULTURAL CUSTOMS

        WALLWISHER