Who were the Olmecs?

We are doing a short study on the Olmec people who built one of the earliest civilizations in the Americas. They lived along Mexico's east coast as early as 1500 B.C. They are often referred to as the "mother civilization" of the Americas, because so many other groups learned from their culture. They built temples on the tops of thier flat-topped pyramids. The people lived in villages and built huge stone carved faces, some as large as 20 tons, looked out over these villages.

Here is an article on the National Geographic for kids website that shows the discovery of 3000 year old Olmec writing. Can you figure out what it says?



"An ancient culture is getting new attention. Featured in the new National Treasure 2 movie, who were the so-called Olmec Indians of ancient Mexico? A very mysterious and advanced civilization, many believe that the Mayan calendar is really Olmec in origin. From pyramids to written language to sophisticated social structure and even ball games, the Olmecs were the mother culture of the Americas."

Post NECAP Interviews

This week the class has been working hard on the NECAP tests. I am very proud of how much effort each student gave on these tests. The students I watched were using strategies, working slowly and carefully, and doing their best jobs at all times. Let's just say that the marathon testing sessions are over and it was good to see how seriously the fifth graders took this test. The class was very happy to be done with the NECAPs and just as thrilled that they get to do it again next year!

Some students were feeling a little bit dizzy when done.

No really, it was fun!!!

Read for the Record Day 2010

Today is Read for the Record Day and in classrooms across the country teachers are reading Ezra Jack Keats’ The Snowy Day.  You can view the book online. It's an old classic.



You can have it read in you in sign language



I think the best way you reaquaint fifth graders with the story is to view the story in a live-claymation video.
Maybe this will inspire some imaginations.

What a good looking class!

Here are our pictures from the first day of school. I wonder how much we will grow and change throughout the year? This video was made from a program called animoto. You can make 30 second videos like this for free on their website. Teachers can get a free educator's license here that lets you make an unlimited amount of animoto videos and the length is not restricted to 30 seconds. I will update this video with a few more photos once those students return their permission slips.

The Red Wheelbarrow

Today I introduced the class to one of my favorite poems, "The Red Wheelbarrow" by William Carlos Williams. I made this animoto video to help make the poem come alive.



The class will be writing their own poems based on "The Red Wheelbarrow" and use Animoto to showcase their work. We will be doing it a little bit different than in previous years, but you can find some of my student's work and more information about "The Red Wheelbarrow" here and here.

NECAP Test Week: The 4-Square Method

This week is the NECAP test week for fifth grade students at New Searles Elementary School. Maybe this year (or even last year) you heard of a writing strategy that we call 4-square. We use it to organize and plan answers in our Scott-Foresman reading series as well as in other subjects. It is a simple strategy to use. I think it is a key strategy for writing better answers on the NECAP tests as well as a simple and proven way to improve test scores. You can read my post to parents last year "Think in Fours for Higher Test Scores" explaining the method here.

Inca Projects

A handout is going home today about choosing an Inca project to complete for a Social Studies unit. There are descriptions of the projects as well as items needed to complete the project in the handout. Please make your top three choices. For inspiration, here is a video showing the projects that my class made last year.