CSI in 5th Grade

Oh no! What happened at HES? We need our 5th graders to investigate!

Before the crime scene is in place: We review the scientific method, but I'd like to mention I don't agree with having student memorize the "steps". Since it's required for our state test, we accomplish it by singing this song a few times, they get it, then we move on to more meaningful things (like actually using it). Here is the super catchy song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA86dYxrg4Q and students love rapping it. We glue theses lyrics in our notebooks, highlight/annotate the steps. 

Day 1, Crime Scene Observations 

Students make observations at crime scene

We start really dramatically talking about the crime that has happened. The actual story is below, but I like to elaborate and make it super corny, but students really get into it. 

Here's the story: The eccentric widow of the late archeologist Bartholomew Gotrox, Mrs. Dixie Gotrox, has just returned from a trip to Africa. She has returned to her home to her cat, Agnes, lounging on the front stoop with the door wide open! Mrs. Gotrox rushed directly to her bedroom to find it in a shambles. Her jewels are scattered about the room. The mounted tiger fish her husband brought back from an excursion on the Nile is crushed. Worst of all, the royal shell necklace Bartholomew discovered in a Hawaiian volcano is missing! Mrs. Gotrox is devastated. She is calling upon you, forensic experts to find the necklace.
(Note: We plan to change this next year to be more specific to our school/classrooms). 

As forensic experts, we begin by making observations of the crime scene and the suspect board. Students can record notes in notebooks, take photos, etc. This later leads to some great discussions on good observations and the difference between an observation vs. inference. Each of the following days'  tests are meant to eliminate suspects one at a time (or 2, depending on if you use the data from previous labs). 

Student notebook: Observations of Crime scene

Day 2, Fingerprint Analysis

Taking our fingerprints

Student Notebook

Using the FBI website for kids, we talk about evidence and fingerprints. Students research types/examples and become experts on fingerprints. We begin by taking our fingerprints on the FBI card (they love filling this out...we put it on card stock and fill it out with pretend information. You can find the card at http://www.fbi.gov/fun-games/kids/kids-about about 5 slides in) and classifying our prints and our partners prints. We then use magnifying glasses to classify suspect fingerprints and the print found at the crime scene.

Analyzing fingerprints

Day 3, Chromatography/ Ransom Note Analysis

Testing the ransom note

Begin by showing the CSI clip found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEXO6TxaJTI.  Using chart markers, sharpie markers, and washable markers, we perform ink analysis test controls to compare to the ransom note left at the crime scene. Students determine what the ransom note was written in and what suspects were carrying the writing utensils.

Day 4, Mystery Substance Analysis

Testing pH of mystery substance

Begin with the brain pop video on pH for a quick review on pH/acids/bases and how to use litmus paper. Students get samples of each liquid that the suspects were carrying and determine pH for controls. Students then test the mystery substance and compare to the pH of the controls, to make a conclusion on what the mystery substance most likely is (we discuss how we can't say without a doubt since several substances can have the same pH).

Day 5, Arrest Warrants
Students analyze the data and draw a conclusion of who they believe the criminal is. They must write an arrest warrant summarizing all the evidence they have against the criminal.




Day 6, Officer Visit

Our district has a resource office assigned to us from the police department that we invite in to discuss actual crime scenes, the role of evidence, the process, etc. This is a great opportunity to highlight all the scientific careers out there related to CSI! They had some great questions for Office Wehr! Next year, I may have him come in and announce (very dramatically) that they have arrested the suspect based on students' arrest warrants.

Police officer visit

A teammate of mine did this one year, following a plan that was originally adapted from a web quest from http://www.marshallschools.com/teachers/aldredgel/mystery/. Check it out for more ideas.

Back to School Activities

Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.  ~Albert Einstein

Since school has started, I have progressively gotten more scatter-brained and cannot wait until next week when the kids (hopefully) have all the routines down and we can get into the full swing of things! With that forewarning, this post will be a hodgepodge of some of my favorite back to school activities we do.

1. Million Words or Less

I can't claim credit for this one, but it's an idea I have stolen from my teammates and it has been one of the most amazing things to help me get to know students and their families. Basically, parents are to write a letter to me (in a million words or less) telling me all about their student. No other  guidelines are given. These letters have made me both literally laugh out loud and cry, but it reminds me how much life has thrown at some of my kids (because they have already become "my kids" at this point) and gives me an insight into their personal lives/families. I always enjoy reading these letters and save them to reference throughout the year.

2. Observation skill practice

Beginning of the year science time is probably one of my favorite times of the year! Since I'm a science nerd, I get really excited about getting students excited about one of my passions! To practice observation skills, students work with partners to observe earthworms. First we discuss some safety (for the worms, not the students) and simply let students make observation in their science notebooks including a scientific illustration. In case you haven't done this before, if you shine a flashlight under the worm you can see all of it's organs. Kids LOVE this and think it's the coolest thing ever! After, we use several pages from the "Worms eat our Garbage" book (can be found at http://infohouse.p2ric.org/ref/44/43058.pdf) to discuss worm parts and we read the story about the "Worm that Came to Dinner". The next day, we do a round robin table sharing activity that leads to a perfect discussion on observation skills, making good observations, and observation vs. inference. Following this, we (the teachers) set up our crime scene for our science processes unit and pull observations vs. inferences again when we observe the crime scene. (Look next week for a post on the CSI unit, we start on Tuesday!)

5th graders observing worms (TY Sarah for taking pics!)

3. Book Blind Date

Basically what it sounds like: blind dates with books. Set out a bunch of books, give students 1-3 minutes with each book and rotate when the music plays. Students keep a list of books they are interested in reading in their reader's notebook. This is great when discussing good fit books for daily 3 and gives them some ideas for next reads. I plan to do this several times thought the year and have students select the books to use.

4. Small Group Rules/Challenges

In science practically everything we do is in a small group, so we spend some time teaching expectations at the beginning of the year. Each expectation has an action that goes with it. After we initially introduce the expectations, students participate in this team challenge that I saw somewhere online years ago. Each group has a rubber band with a string attached to it for each student. They must work together to build a pyramid from the stack of cups. This leads to great discussions on participation and collaboration because it's nearly impossible to build without every person doing their part and working together.

Small Group Challenge

5.  Instant Fun

Piggybacking off the small group theme, I also love the "instant fun" activities that basically just cause chaos in the room, but the kids have a great time laughing together (which does wonders for class building)! It's a simple following directions list of things like everyone in 5th grade shout King Kong, anyone wearing red squawk like a chicken, anyone who has argued with a sibling bang your desk and say I deny it, if you ate breakfast hop around the table 3 times, etc. It's hilarious, takes 5 minutes, and the kids love it! 

Instant Fun: If you've ridden a bike, pretend to around the table 5 times

6. Writer's Workshop read alouds and quickwrites

If you don't do writer's workshop, you should. Our district has a wonderful coach, Kathy Brooker (http://www.linkedin.com/pub/kathy-brooker/75/b00/a12), that helped us get going and I can't believe I didn't teach writing this way before! During the beginning of year, we work on setting up our notebooks and getting lots of ideas for writing. For each idea activity, we have a picture book to read and discuss because, yes, 5th graders still love hearing stories (as do people of all ages). We also build in our routines and other mini lessons (such as spelling strategies, different types of writing, where writers get ideas, skipping lines, etc). This one deserves a post on its own, but it is one of mine and my students favorite parts of the beginning of the year.



We are implementing Leader in Me this year as well and I can tell that will become one of my favorite parts of back to school. What about you? What are your favorite back to school ideas?!? I'm excited for a great year!

Classroom tour

I know I've taken some time off blogging, but I was super busy with all my travels and getting ready for back to school! Eventually, I'll share all the fantastic things we did at MEMTA because it's worthy of its own post when I find the effort to do so! 

Last night was back to school night in our district. It's a fantastic time for families to come visit with us and our district provides hot dogs and several activities for everyone. Our fabulous 5th grade team decided to create a photo booth for our students and are super excited to add the photos to our Instagram. With an exhausted brain that can't produce profound thoughts, I figured I'd share some photos of my classroom. Students left supplies on their desks that night  so it looks a little messy, but by today we have it mostly organized. Without further ado...welcome to Team Ewing's Room!

Fabulous door signs from http://entirelyelementary.blogspot.com/2012/08/beginning-of-year-theme-be-yourself.html?m=1

Leader in Me Tree and Info/Supply center

Science Supply Area (Cart/Hover board)

Reading Nooks--Adding more poof balls tomorrow, will retake photo!

Teacher area/Small group area

HP Quote above writing/Tech areas

Library/Genius Hour board (TY to http://corkboardconnections.blogspot.com/2013/12/bring-some-passion-into-your-classroom.html for the printouts) / CAFE board

Front of the classroom

Reading Nook

Reading Nook #2 & my photo area

Me and my fabulous mentor, even though she said it's been too many years and I can no longer call her that. First day of school and we accidentally matched because we're awesome like that. 

Hope you enjoyed the tour of my classroom! I feel like I practically live there sometimes so it might as well be comfy and pretty. Best of luck for back to school and the upcoming year!! 

Planbook Connect: Electronic Lesson Planning

J.R.R. Tolkien — 'It's the job that's never started as takes longest to finish.'

That quote should apply to cleaning my house, but I refuse! Between all the travel adventures, binge reading, HBOgo, and lake time, I have began thinking about school (I know, I know, it's only the beginning of July, I can't help it). So between FIFA soccer games, I figured I'd tell you about a wonderful tool that has helped my lesson planning immensely: Planbook Connect.

Side note: Our district bought our team and several other teachers Macbook pro airs this past school year. I'm not sure now how I ever taught without it before! It just makes everything easier and quicker, which time saving for a teacher, is a HUGE deal. I use this software with my Mac, but they do have a windows version available. 

Planbook is basically an electronic lesson plan book on crack. I just started using it in March with the free trial and finally I asked my technology director if I could try it. It's pretty pricey, but I have decided totally worth it! You can create 15 lessons for free in the trial version. Here is a screen shot of my planbook for the week of March 31-April 4.

I have organized mine very similar to my old paper lesson planbook created in excel (I stole the idea from my mentor). As you can see, I broke it into subjects which worked for me. Science/SS is a combined time and sometimes we do one or the other. Genius 1/2 Hour is a time period where some students leave for RTI and this is what we do with the kids who stay in my room. (This is a time for students to research things they want. I'm still learning more about how to implement this and do it better. It was an experiment this year and I have found wonderful websites on passion projects/genius hour that I'll post about another time. So far though, I LOVE this time and really it doesn't require planning, but more so deadlines so I may tweak this section for next year). Writer's Workshop, ELA mini lesson, and ELA small groups are all during our afternoon ELA block. We begin with writer's workshop for 45 minutes, an ELA mini lesson, then Daily 3 rounds during which I do small group guided reading instruction. I teach 2 sections of science/SS and do not teach math.

Back to Planbook---
If you notice that the right side has more information about the lesson. I have clicked on the "My Life as a Drip" Science lesson. I can add more info for me and add homework (this syncs to the online system so students can access documents/info at home as well,  but I haven't tried it with students yet). My favorite part is I can also attach all the documents associated with the lesson including teacher info and student pages (in this case, the graphic organizer) to print out for easy copies. This helps keep me sooo much more organized, no searching for online files or forgetting what website/video clip I shared with students. This software also allows you to 'bump' lesson to the next day if you didn't get to it or the whole day (great for snow days-No more erasing!!) and you can build in custom days (like our SOAR days that happens every 6th day).

Here is another view when I clicked on the lesson:

You can add this lesson to the lesson library (which allows me to reuse it next year, saving all the information) and even attach standards addressed in the lesson. As you can see, I added this to the Water cycle unit. This software allows you to print/email multiple reports, one of which is a unit plan that includes all the lessons you have added. You can even print weekly/monthly plans if needed for administrators. Here are some examples of the week above.

Weekly Report (notice you can print or email a PDF file)

Unit Report (notice you can customize how much information you want to include depending on your intended recipient)

You can also print a report by standard, but I haven't entered all my standards or connected them to each lesson in the app yet. Oh, I forgot, they also have an iPad app that will do all this as well! 

There are numerous other options with this software that I can't wait to explore more! I have began planning for next year and this has made it so much easier! We are working on if my team and I can share lesson plan books since we plan everything together. It also has the option to sync with your iCal which will be helpful with our shared common assessment calendar. Using the online system at http://www.planbookconnect.com, you can view your plans from anywhere (even if you leave your computer at school). 

I hope this makes your life easier too! Please let me know if you have used something similar, know any other features, or need help! Happy summer planning! 

Summer Projects: Start a blog!

St Augustine — 'The world is a book, and those who don't travel only read one page.'

Traveling is the best part about summer vacation! Adventures this summer include: 

*Playa Del Carmen, Mexico (Girl's Trip)

*San Antonio, TX (Family Trip---aka I drove 13+ hours in a car with my 3 nieces/nephew under 10 years old, basically as exciting as it sounds)

*Cayman Islands (Vacation)

*New York City, New York (my sister recently moved here, but it worked out timing wise because I was selected to attend the Mickelson ExxonMobil Teachers Academy that my friends at Space Camp told me about. If you haven't  heard of it check it out---I'll let you know all the fabulous things we do there.)

*San Diego, CA (for COMIC CON!! I'm so beyond excited that we actually got tickets, even if it's only for Wednesday and Sunday #nerdfest). 

Point of this is during all my travels, I always learn things to take back to my classroom to share with students and I need somewhere to store all my thoughts/ideas. And I decided hey it's summer and why not start this blog thing I've been considering for a while? Plus, I need somewhere to link my tweets to (I can't get anything done in 144 characters) and then maybe I can pin my own ideas to share with fellow teachers.

First thing you need to know if you are going to read my blog is that my brain works faster than my fingers and mouth, so I try my best to not make typos and proofread, but as I would tell my students: It's informal writing! :) 

Also, as my teammates would say about me, I don't mean to interrupt, I just randomly remember things and get really excited (hints why I like to use a bunch of parenthetic notations). My brain just jumps all over the place sometimes!  

Speaking of my team, here is a fabulous picture of us at School Day at the K. They are amazing and any other synonym you could use to describe them. We work wonderfully together and I am so beyond blessed to work with people who have amazing ideas, are willing to try new ideas, and care so deeply for the lives of students (not to mention are fellow book nerds). I'm beyond sad that we are going to 4 sections next year and Danielle is moving to 4th grade. She's my other newbie that stays till way too late at night working on stuff and is the most down to earth person ever. I'm hoping it won't last long and she'll be teaching with us again!