Olympic Resources for 4th and 5th Grade

The Olympics are a great chance to talk to your students about different types of sports and the host countries. I love the Olympics for many different reasons. Countries send their best athletes to compete in many different types of sports. The host country is put in a spotlight and we can learn something new about a place we might not of known abut. There are also amazing stories of people over coming incredible odds. The Olympics is a great event that we can all learn from and enjoy. 

I put together a list of resources from online that can be used in upper elementary classes when teaching or simply discussing the Olympics. 

       Time For Kids - This site give you Olympic Coverage, Athlete Features, and other  Olympic information.

       Official Olympic Site - This is your one stop shop for everything in news. 

       The Science of the Olympics - NBC has put together short videos that explain the  science behind different Olympic sports and other elements of the games. The videos include definitions for science words that are used. Gotta  love that!!

      Olympic Math Puzzles and Games - There are different types of puzzles and games on this site that are Olympic themed.

      Book List 1 - The Educators' Spin On It has compiled a list of books fiction and non-fiction about the Olympics. This list includes book for students at all levels.

      Book List 2 - This list focuses on 4th and 5th grade books.

      Olympic Project - Guilford Hills Elementary has resources for students projects that focus on different sports.

      Ancient Olympics - Mr Donn has many different resources for the Greek Olympics. This is focused on summer games but does explain how the games started.

      

Below are a list of sites with facts about Russia that you can use with your students to learn more about the host country. 

     National Geographic                                        Kids from Russia

     Fun Russia Facts for Kids                               A Kids Life in Russia 

Main Idea & Details for 5th Graders

As we worked on main idea and details I used short passages from different books. My fifth graders were given passages based on their level. I pulled passages from Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Tuck Everlasting, The Phantom Tollbooth, Stewart Little, and Ella Enchanted. The students read the passage, and created a graphic organizer of the main idea and supporting details. Using the graphic organizer they wrote a paragraph including the main idea and supporting details and drew a picture that showed this. The picture was the hardest part, the students could only draw was they wrote about. The picture had to illustrate the main idea and details only. Below are a few of the paragraphs and pictures my students created. The passage is at the top, with the picture the student drew and the paragraph below.

Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory - passage was about the unusual elevator.

Ella Enchanted - passage describes the cure put on Ella.

Stewart Little - passage describe what Stewart looks like.

 The passages used from Tuck Everlasting and The Phantom Tollbooth were more abstract. I used these with my higher students.

Tuck Everlasting - passage describes the month of August.

The Phantom Tollbooth - passage describes the main character.

Job Change!

I just completed my 7th year as a classroom teacher and have loved every moment. My husband and I have been working for several years towards the goal of me being home with my daughter. This year it is finally happening! I am excited to see how this new job goes and what I can do with my daughter. Not being in the classroom come August will be a BIG adjustment but one I am excited to make.

Of course I am going to blog, blogging is just too much fun to give up :)

My new blog is Encourage. Play. Learn.

Sarah

Civil War Activites and Resources

At the end of the school year we completed my favorite unit of the year, the Civil War. I wanted to post each activity we did but decided to create one big post with everything in it. So, here it is everything we did as we learned about the Civil War. 

**Disclaimer - I did not create the projects below, only modified them for my students.

Underground Railroad and Secret Quilt Messages

In a previous post I shared the book we read and the site we used
to discuss how quilts were used in the Underground Railroad.

Underground Railroad Quilts

Union and Confederate Soldier Comparison

Original Idea

Soldier Comparison Project

Civil War Battle Project

Original Idea

 Battle Project

Puzzles:

Final Review Puzzle

Civil War Crossword Puzzle 

Lapbook Project

Directions

Notes:

Notes #1 

Notes #2 

Notes #3 

Notes #4

Quizzes:

Quiz #1

Quiz #2

Quiz #3

Quiz #4

Final Quiz

Helpful Websites:

Civil War Trust

Civil War for Kids

Key West Labor Day Hurricane

This year my students read the book, Blown Away by Joan Hiatt Harlow. This is a wonderful book that tells the story of the 1935 hurricane that hit on Labor Day 1935. The students and myself enjoyed this book, it is a page turner.

After reading the book my students were given two articles about the hurricane. One article was eye witness accounts of the hurricane and the other was factual information about the hurricane. The students used this information to completed a literature writing assignment which included several questions and the front page from a newspaper published the week after the hurricane hit.

For the newspaper students included:

• title and date
• illustration and caption
• eye witness account
• cover story (factual information about hurricane)
• how to help victims or how to prepare for hurricane

I love how the newspapers turned out!