Wow! We've been so busy over the past few weeks that they have just flown by. Now that we have some time to stop and reflect, here's what's been happening in 5/6th Humanities at OES.
Workshop Time:
During the first half of our class, we're still working hard on building our Geography and Roots & Affixes skills. Every day, we spend 20 minutes working on one or the other using our Independent Workshop Playlist Website, and on Fridays we take badge tests to check in and see how much progress we're making. Although each of us moves on at a different pace, we're all heading in the right direction and earning badges. It's awesome to be able to celebrate our learning whenever someone earns a new badge!
During our guided workshop time, we've been working on narrative writing. We spent several weeks planning our stories (see the planning doc below) and then writing them. Along the way, we shared with each other and supported each other's work. Though we didn't have time to completely finish and polish our stories, we had fun developing them and there were a lot of great conversations about the challenges of being an author!
During our guided workshop time, we've been working on narrative writing. We spent several weeks planning our stories (see the planning doc below) and then writing them. Along the way, we shared with each other and supported each other's work. Though we didn't have time to completely finish and polish our stories, we had fun developing them and there were a lot of great conversations about the challenges of being an author!
Project Time:
During project time, we have been working hard on developing a project that would allow us to support needs that exist in our community. A few students attended a workshop called Cultivating Pathways to Sustainability and spent the day talking about the UN Global Goals for Sustainability. They thought carefully about each of the goals and how they might relate to Orleans and the surrounding area. In the end, they decided that the two goals that need to be addressed the most in our community are #1 No Poverty and #2 Zero Hunger.
When they returned from Cultivating Pathways, the students shared the learning and discussions with the rest of the class. Everyone agreed that those two goals were critical in Orleans, so we moved on to the project brainstorming stage. In small groups, 5/6th graders came up with lots of great project ideas, but in the end we knew we would have to limit ourselves a little bit, so we chose three projects to pursue. They were:
When they returned from Cultivating Pathways, the students shared the learning and discussions with the rest of the class. Everyone agreed that those two goals were critical in Orleans, so we moved on to the project brainstorming stage. In small groups, 5/6th graders came up with lots of great project ideas, but in the end we knew we would have to limit ourselves a little bit, so we chose three projects to pursue. They were:
- creating a school store with homemade items that could be sold and provide money for donations to local organizations
- holding a community dinner to provide a hot, nutritious meal to people in the community who are experiencing food insecurity
- creating a collection of care packages with household items, hygiene products, and warm clothing
Our first step in our project groups was to think about our needs in order to make the project happen. We worked together to fill out a project planning table that included information like which materials would be needed for the project, how we planned to learn the process of doing the project (recipes for cooking or tutorials on how to make items for the store), and who will be helped by this project. The results of those discussions are below.
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We knew that we couldn't make any of these projects happen without funding, but we weren't sure how much funding we would need. So, our next step was to research how much the materials from our brainstorm document would cost us. We filled out a spreadsheet that included the items, their prices, and how many units we would get in a package. This was great practice for comparing unit prices and determining which options would get us the most materials for the least amount of money.
After all this work, we realized that planning three projects was a little bit overwhelming, and making those projects happen would be even harder. Mr. C and Miss G attended a conference in Nashville and brought back some of their learning to share. The biggest takeaway was that its often helpful to start with one project and allow everyone to have the experience of working together on it. We voted as a group and decided to change our goal. Instead of doing all three projects, we would join forces and focus on one. In the end, after some compelling arguments from various students, the majority of us chose to go with the community dinner project.
Since we now had many more people working on the project, we started by going back to the beginning and brainstorming what should be included in this dinner. In the interest of starting with a more simple dinner, we decided that soup and sides was a manageable goal. We broke into small groups and filled out a hyper doc (below) that shared our thinking about which types of soup, sides, advertising, sharing, and decorating we should do. Each small group presented their brainstorm to the rest of the group and had the chance to hear feedback and answer questions.
Since we now had many more people working on the project, we started by going back to the beginning and brainstorming what should be included in this dinner. In the interest of starting with a more simple dinner, we decided that soup and sides was a manageable goal. We broke into small groups and filled out a hyper doc (below) that shared our thinking about which types of soup, sides, advertising, sharing, and decorating we should do. Each small group presented their brainstorm to the rest of the group and had the chance to hear feedback and answer questions.
We compiled all the ideas into a menu of options (below) so that we could see all the different choices we had before moving forward. Students voted for their favorite options, and we made our final decision about what our menu will be when we have the dinner.
This has been a long and challenging process, but it has been very valuable too. It is exciting to see the project finally coming together, but it is also very rewarding to look back and see all the tough situations that we were able to overcome together. It has taken a lot of perseverance to get this far!
Our next steps include partnering with some experts to learn more about how to plan the logistics of a public event, reaching out to local businesses for support and donations, and then designing out advertisements, finding recipes for our menu items, and preparing our informational flyers that will help the people attending our dinner better understand the UN Global Goals and why they are so important to support.
We look forward to sharing the results with you!!!
Our next steps include partnering with some experts to learn more about how to plan the logistics of a public event, reaching out to local businesses for support and donations, and then designing out advertisements, finding recipes for our menu items, and preparing our informational flyers that will help the people attending our dinner better understand the UN Global Goals and why they are so important to support.
We look forward to sharing the results with you!!!