Relationships - Working Together (3rd - 5th grade)

One of our 5th grade Houghton Mifflin reading themes is called "Person to Person" where we read texts about people working together, interacting, and helping each other. I got this simple activity out of the Houghton Mifflin teacher's guide, intended to use as you the theme, but I saw a lot of opportunity for other applications of it, even at a primary level. Students fold a piece of paper in half and trace a cutout of a person, leaving one of the arms uncut on the folded side (this will link the 2 person cutouts together as a chain). See the photos for a clear explanation.

The idea is to have the students think of a relationship between 2 people, such as a coach/athlete or friend/friend working together. On the head of the cutout, they write the 2 roles (i.e. "coach" on one, "athlete" on the other). On the belly of each person, they can bullet some ideas of how each person benefits from the working relationship. So on the "coach" belly, a student could write "learns to teach; feels proud; helps the community" and on the "athlete" belly, a student could write "learns new skills; gains confidence; experiences success" or something along those lines.

The same type of cutout could be used for an activity where students analyze and explain the relationship between 2 characters in a novel. At a primary level, the teacher could provide a stencil for students to trace the person cutout. The students could label each one as a different community worker, and they could list ways that those 2 might work together in a community.

Cell Functions Project (5th grade)

A colleague of mine who teaches 5th grade science just completed a unit in which the students investigate plant cells and animal cells. She assigned a really cool project for which the students were asked to create a model of both a plant cell and an animal cell. They also were required to label the parts of each and provide a description of the functions. Some of the kids took a somewhat simple approach by drafting a colorful sketch of each on a large piece of posterboard, then labeling and explaining the functions. Creativity was encouraged, however, and some of the students generated awesome 3-D representations using jello, pound cakes, styrofoam, etc. Check out the photos of 2 different students' projects!

Sandwich Book Report - Teacher Resources (4th - 5th grade)

Here are several helpful items to use when assigning the book report.

Sandwich Book Report (4th - 5th grade)

When you get tired of the same old book report templates and ideas for your students in an intermediate grade level, give this one a try! After reading a novel, students will display detailed information about their book in the format of a sandwich. The options for creativity are endless! Each "piece" of the sandwich contains one important element of the student's book report. For example, the top bread slide contains the title of the book, author's name, and student's name. The lettuce piece is a summary of the book. On the tomato slice, the student identifies the main character of the book, tells several character traits, and provides details from the text to support each trait. On the mayonnaise, the student provides a detailed description of the main setting(s). The student describes the climax of the book in a paragraph on the cheese slice. On the meat slice, the student gives information about the author. Finally, on the bottom bread slice, the student provides a colored sketch of his/her favorite scene from the book with a caption explaining the scene.